Christmas 2017

As we finish out 2017 I have been looking back at all the Christmases from the past few years and I decided that I definitely needed to blog again! It's such a good way to see the passage of time. So I'm skipping most of 2017 and starting at Christmas. We went to Nana and Papa's house 3 days before Christmas to spend the night all together.

The cousins are growing up!
Kiersi - 11 years old
Kayden - 10 years old
Mallory - 6 years old
Eva - 6  years old
Jensen - 2 years old

Opening his first present. It was a Peppa Pig book and a Mater from Car Duplo set.

I guess my love of coffee has been discovered! 

A camper for her Lori dolls. 

A new drill...so he can hang things up for me around the house, of course! 

Nana and Papa with the grandkids

 Waking up Christmas morning. Santa left Eva and Jensen a letter!

 Finding Santa's presents under the tree!

 Lots of Peppa and Cars

 Seeing what Santa left for the first time

 Totally out of order - but this one is from Christmas Eve with my family. Everyone came out to Bara and then went out to BJ's Brewhouse after.

 She bought us gifts this year from the school store. Ryan got a mug that says, "Captain of our Crew" with a shark on it. I got a beautiful heart necklace that is also a "mood" necklace. Probably my favorite piece of jewelry ever.

 Opening their big presents from us. Eva got a Lori convertible and Jensen got a Zurg from Toy Story.

 I got a huge mug from Ryan.

 Christmas afternoon all of my family came over and we played Family Feud.

 One of my favorites.

A few extra characters visited the nativity scene.

Preparing My Heart for Kindergarten.

August 1st. It feels like the final countdown until the end of summer. The summer will be leading to a big change and a new season - Eva starting kindergarten! How is this possible? I feel like each year I've been slowly counting down how much time I have left with her. I very much remember pushing her stroller by the pond in Trophy Club on the first day of school when she was almost 2 years old and telling myself, "It's okay, I still have 4 more years before she goes to kindergarten." And now it's almost here.

On the one hand, I'm really sad. I know it's not like she won't need me anymore, but her preschool, little kid years will be done. On the other hand, I know she will love school. She is so social and will love being around kids all day. She will love recess and PE and music and art. I'm so excited for her to learn to read more, and she will really enjoy science. She does great with a structured routine so I think she will be really successful in a school environment. Sure, she will probably get in trouble for talking too much, and she will come home exhausted, but for the most part she will do so great and she is so ready.

Maybe I'm just not ready? My prayer is that I will be able to hold back the tears until I make it to the car on that first morning. I want her to see my excitement. I'm also praying that I would look to this new season with hope and expectation, that it will be a good change for our family.

Oh and also, we are sending Jensen to preschool. Just one morning a week, but it's still a change for our little man. I never thought I'd be sending my two year old to school yet. Totally not against it for other people, it's just different than we had expected. When Eva was two years old it was the right thing for our family to keep her home. But since I'm working part time we decided that it would be a good thing for him to go. We were up at the preschool today (it's the same one where Eva has gone the past two years) and he was looking in the two year old classroom and loved it. I know he will have so much fun learning and playing, and it will give me some time to get work done without him tagging along. It's just different, and it makes me realize that we are really done with the baby years.

I know seasons are good. Each season has challenges but also blessings. If we always stayed the same we would grow too weary. Can you imagine having to stay in the up all night newborn stage forever? Yikes. God in his wisdom prepares each season of our life to be just as long as it needs to be. Maybe I'll love the kindergarten season? I hope so.

Twas the month BEFORE Christmas

I decided to go back and blog about some of the pre-Christmas activities I got to do with the kids. Today is a dreary, cold January day and I am missing the sparkle of Christmas. I may have even lit a pine scented candle and played a bit of Christmas music. Maybe. Here's to hoping that looking at my photos will cheer up me and any other mama that is now back in the routine.

 We were invited over to one of Eva's friends house to make cookies and we also got to paint aprons. Such a cute idea!

Eva's handprint Santa apron. With her own artistic touches :)

 Thankful for mom friends!

 We took the kids to see the trains at Northpark for the first time. So many cool little details to look at and Jensen did great even though he couldn't touch very much.

Christmas tree waffles. I did not plan special activities for each day, but I did have a few ideas in my pocket.

Growing Givers at church. Loved showing my children the joy of giving to those in need as they learned about God's greatest gift.

 Reindeer cuteness.

My mom and I went a holiday date of brunch and a Christmas show musical.

First dance recital! She got to do a ballet and tap number. It was precious. She decided to do gymnastics this semester instead of dance, and it broke my heart a tiny bit. 

 Baking 6 dozen cookies to deliver to neighbors!

 Pajama day at preschool.

Our traditional cookie day with Mamy. We usually make and bake...this year we just decorated because, you know....toddlers.

Sprinkles and icing all the way down to his diaper and legs!

 Including the final cookie pic just in case Southern Living wants to feature it :)

Pretend snow in the kitchen. We mixed it up using baking soda and conditioner.

 It was messy but worth it.

Playing with the felt tree I made for Eva when she was a toddler. I like having special Christmas toys that only appear during the holidays.

Enjoying our precious memories.

Christmas 2016

Hope all my friends had a wonderful Christmas and are relaxing and enjoying New Year's Day. Here is what our Christmas held...

The week before we met up at my sister in-law's beautiful new home for a gathering with all our extended Bradley family. I love that Mamaw (Ryan's grandmother) is in our big photo, and I have already framed this in our home.

Ryan's aunts and Mamaw.

All of the extended cousins drew names for a pajama exchange. Eva and Mallory happened to get almost matching Elsa footie pajamas. I think Eva wore these for like 3 days after until I had to peel them off of her to wash them.

Cousin pajama party!

More pajamas! But this time it was at Nana and Papa's. On the night before Christmas Eve we followed tradition by all staying the night together. Jensen also followed the Christmas tradition of making sure that I get no sleep this night. Sorry family, one day we won't have screaming, sleepless children anymore...until then....just make sure we have plenty of coffee!

Sister doing her thing with Mallory again. This time both in Santa jammies. I'm pretty sure that every year these girls have somewhat coordinating Christmas pjs.

Eva got a unicorn pillow pet that she loves and has slept with every night now.

Buddy got a manly construction digger.

 Move over Barney Fife, there is a new deputy in town.

She also got a mermaid tail blanket, and the combination with her unicorn pillow has proved WONDERFUL for her sleeping well. I'm not being sarcastic, she really does sleep better almost swaddled in that mermaid tail. She snuggles down into it and then we put the sheet and comforter on top. Thanks, Amanda and Melody!

With my Christmas love. Point us to the mistletoe :)

Siblings that still like each other. #parentinggoals

Jensen with his great grandmother.

Guess who found the Christmas pickle and won $10! Only took me like a minute, too!

 Christmas Eve night our church held our annual service at Westlake Academy.

All dressed in the Christmas best. Can they please stay little?

Christmas morning Eva ran into our room at 5am! I was thankfully able to convince her to go back to sleep until 7am. After that they were off to see what Santa brought.

Our of order but too complicated to rearrange...we enjoyed a warmer Christmas Day by playing outside.

Wearing his new shade and flexing his muscles.

Santa brought Jensen a T-Ball set.

Santa brought Eva a soccer goal. We will be playing outside as much as possible.

Defying gender stereotypes. Eva likes all of Jensen's cool cars and diggers. Jensen likes to push around Eva's baby doll stroller.

Probably one of our coolest new toys. Jensen already had the Vtech GoGo Wheels Firestation and this year he got the Police Station plus some new cars to go with it so now we can make a giant track and they all sing and talk. Pretty entertaining.

New dress up clothes.

My parents came over in the afternoon and joined us for Christmas dinner.

We got each other new shirts...that we picked out together....true love.

And with that we will roll on into 2017!