New Year's Eve

It's the end of 2016 & as I look back & reflect on the year that is closing I can honestly say it has been a fantastic year!

My Mama Tribe & I ended up hiring a babysitter for the evening & all gathered with our husbands at Dana's house for a New Years Eve bash. Everyone brought an appetizer to snack on & there were LOTS of cocktails being made at the kitchen island. I may or may not be a Moscow Mule-maker extraordinaire :)

These girls right there = my Mama Tribe. 

I have spent 2016 with these ladies sending 1000's of text messages, pool time all summer with our littles, too many play-dates & movie-dates to count, talks during the littles swim lessons, impromptu gatherings at Sonic for ice cream & fun at the park, Mama's Night Out every couple of months, so many laughs, tears, hugs & love shared between us three. I honestly don't know what I would do without these two in my life & am SO looking forward to sharing another year with them. They "get" me. They "get" my crazy life & we all "get" each other.

Another one who "gets" me & my crazy is this guy.

 

He knows just how important those girls are in my life & never once says anything or hesitates when I tell him I am meeting up with the Mama's. We have had a pretty awesome year together & I love living life day to day & doing this parenting-gig with this guy. My rock. Mason's superhero. Best husband & dad ever & excited to see what 2017 brings us.

 

The night went on & there was lots of good food, fun dance music, lots of cocktails & so much fun had by all. After a couple of hours went by the pictures & selfies had begun....

 

 

And while all the adults were "adulting" & having so much fun ringing in the new year our babysitter sent us this picture of our little's having their own NYE party :)





We stayed through midnight & left shortly after as it was getting late & we still needed to pay the babysitter & drive home. It was a super fun evening spent with amazing friends & am looking so forward to another adventurous year with our friends, family & especially this guy.....

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR :)

Cell Phone Dump

Last cell phone pics of the year....

 

My sons favorite past-time....Snapchat

 

 

Sweet Winston - zzzzzzzz

 

Coloring contest between my son (on the left) & his best friend (on the right). The boys are exactly one week apart in age. Clearly coloring in the lines isn't his specialty.

 

Jingle our elf making an appearance in new PJ's & a coloring book for Mason. Looks like someone has been good this week :)

My absolute favorite holiday baked goods - Peanut Butter Balls

 

Winston doing yoga poses :) The upward dog perhaps??

 

A little something from my husband! Looks like someone was a good girl for Christmas :)

A Spider-Man snuggie for Christmas from our dear friend Maggie & her daughter Katie

 

Walked out of work & thought they were filming a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock movie Birds! Was terrified by the site of all these birds flying around by my car!

 Afternoon snuggles with Winnie

They secretly love each other

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you & your family!

Well it looks like Santa made it to our house last night :)

We all ended up sleeping in this morning which I am very thankful for as we had a rough start to our night. I had put Mason to bed around 9pm & all day he had been complaining that his tummy didn't feel good. Since he was eating & drinking fine throughout the day I didn't think anything of it.

I had laid down with him for 5 minutes as I always do & that's when he sat straight up, looked at me, put his hand over his mouth & said the words every parent hates to hear...."I fink I am going to frow up".

And just as fast as he said it the projectile vomit came flying out of his mouth. I knew what was coming before the words even left his mouth so I had snatched him up to get him to the bathroom but it was too late. He proceeded to throw up in my face, down my chest, all over his face & chest.

I ran into Shane around the corner & he just stood there in awe looking at the both of us dripping in vomit not quite sure what to say or do. Disgusting. My sweet son had just thrown up everywhere & you know what he said? "Mama I'm sorry I frowed up all over you." Ugh that kid has a heart of gold. Then he was upset he throwed up all over his Christmas jammies. I assured him it was ok & that we would get new ones on & it would be ok so we both got undressed, jumped into the shower, got new PJ's on & crawled back into bed. He didn't have a fever or anything so I guess he truly did just have an upset tummy.

Once I got him to sleep this Mama poured a glass of wine & was up way too late wrapping all the presents, getting them situated under the tree & enjoying the peace & quiet.

Mason had woken up around 8am feeling just fine & was SO excited to see what Santa had left him under the tree!

We spent the next hour opening up all the gifts & he was SUPER pleased with all that he had gotten form both Santa & Mom & Dad.

Mason opened this present from Santa first & was SO excited to see what was in the box! Our whole reason for visiting Santa earlier this week was so that he could ask him to bring him this specific dinosaur toy:



 Santa also brought him the most sought-after toy of the season: a Hatchimal



The bullies enjoyed "helping" open the gifts too & even had a couple of gifts from Santa under the tree just for them:



 

It is tradition at my parents house that after all the gifts are opened we then all grab our stockings & see what is left in them. So that is what we do at our house also. Just when you think all the gifts are done being opened there is one last little suprise left...

Even though we weren't able to spend Christmas with my family in South Dakota, I would have to say we had a pretty amazing weekend making memories together.

Hoping you all had a wonderful holiday spent with those you love as well!

Merry Christmas!



 

 

Christmas Weekend

The Christmas weekend was supposed to be spent in South Dakota with my family but sadly we made a last minute decision not to go. Shane was supposed to be home Thursday night from his work trip & we were to leave Friday morning but they ended up sending him to LA so he wasn't going to get back until late Friday evening. I didn't want for him to spend the Christmas holiday without us so we opted to stay home & spend the weekend together with our little family of three.

Shane ended up getting home late Friday evening & he urged us to go to SD without him but I was not going to have my husband spend Christmas alone...especially without his son. So we made plans for a fun weekend & enjoyed the time together.

Saturday was Christmas Eve so we got up, had a lazy morning & then got ready to head downtown. First stop was Q39 for lunch - YUM:

Then we made our way down to Crown Center. All the years I have lived here I have never been down to Crown Center or Union Station over the holidays so I was looking really forward to checking it all out & seeing it decorated for Christmas.

We had SO much fun walking around looking at everything & got so many great pics! There was a huge train display at Union Station that Mason loved:

 

He also got to ride on a cute little train that took him around Santa's Workshop:

We had SO much fun checking it all out & taking it all in making memories. I'm so glad we chose to spend the day here & will definitely be doing a day like this again next Christmas!

On our way home this little guy fell asleep, took a good nap & once we got home it was time to make cookies for Santa.

 

We ended up making sugar cookies for Santa which is Mason's all-time favorite cookie to make. He loves helping roll out the dough, cut the cookies out & his favorite thing....ice & decorate the cookies with sprinkles. I just love baking with this little guy!

After our cookies were baked & decorated it was time to take a bath & get ready for bed so Santa could make his stop at our house. Mase put on his Christmas jammies & set out his cookies & milk for Santa...

Once this little cutie went to bed, Shane helped me get all his gifts up from the basement & set them around the tree. Shortly after, Shane had gone to bed & the house was super quiet. I poured a glass of wine, turned on the Christmas music & just sat staring at our tree. I couldn't wait for the next morning when Mason saw all his presents that Santa brought & open them up!

 

Christmas Party @ the Taylor's

I have an amazing group of Mama friends who I refer to as my Mama Tribe. We each have kiddos who are similar in age who have been the best of friends for over 2 years now. I have been wanting to throw a Christmas Party for the Mama's & the littles for a couple years now & this year I finally made it happen.

Everyone came over to our house where they enjoyed lots of appetizers, desserts & cocktails for the Mama's. While the Mama's hung out visiting, I kept all the kiddos busy by making some popcorn & having them watch the Elf on the Shelf & a couple of other classic Christmas cartoons.

Then after movie-time was over they moved over to the kitchen table where I had set up stuff to decorate sugar cookies & gingerbread boys/girls with icing & sprinkles.

They had SO much fun decorating their cookies! After they were done we set the cookies aside so the icing could dry & then at the end of the evening I packaged them up in baggies for each little to take home & eat!

Mason had way more fun dumping & mixing the sprinkles than actually decorating the cookies:

After all the  mess was cleaned up from decorating cookies, we all moved to the living room where the littles & the Mama's exchanged presents. The kids had SO much fun opening up their gifts to each other!

 

After the kids opened their gifts & headed back downstairs to play it was time for the Mama's to open our gifts to each other. I was having a hard time trying to figure out what to get these two very special friends & racked my brain for weeks. I wanted to give them something meaningful & two ideas actually had come to mind.

My friend Sara had sent me this picture a couple of months ago wanting to know if we could get together for a craft night & make this:

(photo credit) 

We had good intentions on getting together for craft night but for whatever reason, we could never coordinate a time during the month of Dec. So I decided I would surprise them both & make them each one for their Christmas presents as well as make one for myself. I think it turned out pretty darn good :)

I also ordered all three of us matching arrow necklaces. The arrow has been kind of our motto since we all met several years ago & have actually talked about getting matching tattoos of an arrow with our kids name incorporated into it. I just love what it represents -

Being a Mama we are all on this journey of motherhood together that can some days drag you way down. You may feel like you aren't ever going to get out of the rut but by some miracle you do (usually by the help of your Mama friends) & you continue on the journey....always moving forward.

So I thought matching arrow necklaces would be perfect for all of us:

(photo credit)

The girls absolutely loved their gifts & I loved what they gave me as well.
We all enjoyed exchanging gifts with the littles AND with the Mama's & will definitely make this an annual tradition for many years to come!

 

Santa Visit

The beginning of December has been surprisingly pretty quiet. Life with a new puppy has been keeping us busy & staying home on top of me taking a call weekend & all that life at home brings.

It is now a week away from Christmas & we have yet to go make our annual visit to see Santa Claus. How can this have happened? Usually I am on top of my holiday game but the days in this month have seemed to escape me.

Mase has been asking me for a couple of weeks now when we were going to see Santa because he wants to tell him what he wants for Christmas. Pretty sure if he doesn't get to tell Santa what he wants he is still going to get the presents but little does he know :) Figured I better make it happen so me & my Mommy friend Dana decided to take the kiddos after work this evening to go see the jolly ol' man. After seeing Santa with Mase 4 years in a row Shane decided to sit this one out this year. Bah humbug!

Like we have done the past 3 years, we went to the Bass Pro where they have the best Santa & an amazing Winter Wonderland. We got inside & headed over to the station where you get your Santa visit pass. It was a Monday night & sadly we had an hour & 1/2 wait. Looks like we weren't the only parents who were scrambling to get our "wish lists" in to Santa before Christmas?!

Since we had some time to kill we decided to feed the littles at the restaurant inside of Bass Pro. We all got through an uneventful dinner with 5 kiddos & then decided to look around Bass Pro, check out the equipment & fun booths for the kiddos until it was time to get in line for Santa.

 

We stood in line for about 15 minutes & the littles were really well behaved. They were too busy checking out Santa & all his surroundings to be distracted by being bored waiting in line.

(last minute "add-on" to Mason's wish list for Santa LOL)

 

I was unsure if Mason would sit in Santa's lap this year & he actually asked me in a panic if he would have too since he saw other kiddos in his lap. I assured him that he could stand next to Santa instead if he wanted & he was pretty content with my answer.

Wish list given to Santa & candy cane earned :)

 

Annual photo with Santa

After we saw Santa it was after 8pm & the kiddos were getting cranky so we headed home. Even though it was a "school night" I am so glad we got out & were able to check this annual holiday event off our list! Now Santa knows what to bring Mason on Christmas Eve - thank goodness!!

Paw Patrol LIVE!

Mason LOVES Paw Patrol. The first thing he wants to do when he wakes up is watch the cartoon & again before bed. He is obsessed with the little dog Chase on there so when I saw Paw Patrol LIVE was going to be going on tour I knew I had to get tickets.

I had asked my Mama Tribe if they wanted to all take the littles to it together & they all said yes. So we all agreed to take the day off of work & make a fun day of it. I had purchased the tickets back in June & at the time it seemed like 5 months was a long time to wait but the day suddenly came & here we are!

Sadly my one Mommy friend was unable to go due to a work conflict so Dana & I ended up taking her little girl with us. We didn't tell the kids what we were doing so when Mason's little besties showed up at the house at 8am this morning he was so confused. He thought he was getting ready for school but little did he know we were going to Paw Patrol LIVE!!

The day before I had made personalized t-shirts for them with their favorite pup on the front & a big paw on the back! I ordered the decals off of Etsy & bought the t-shirts at Walmart. They turned out SO cute & the kids LOVED them!

Cheeeeese :)

We piled the kiddos in the car & told them where we were going! They really didn't understand what was going on other than they were all taking a fun car-ride together somewhere!

When we got there the place was crazy! There were kids everywhere & the energy level of our little ones was off the charts! We finally got to our seats & once we got settled in my Mommy friend Dana went to go get the kids some snacks. They each got a lemonade in a souvenir water bottle & a bag of popcorn with a souvenir fire hat.

You would not believe how much those two items cost!!! The lemonade was $15 & the popcorn was $20. She spent over $100 on lemonade & popcorn - CRAZY!!!! The kids loved their snacks during the show so I guess it was worth it but geez!

The show ended up being super cute & the kids watched the entire thing without making a peep.

 

 

At the end they had a dance party & the kids got up & were dancing all over the place with the characters! So fun & super cute to see them having so much fun!

Before we left we got a cute pic of all of us & then made the road-trip back home! It was a super fun day & the kids had a blast!