New Years Eve

Last year we brought in the new year over at Dana's house with the Mama Tribe + our husbands. This year wasn't any different other than location. Sara & I hired a babysitter for our kiddos & they had their own NYE party over at Sara's house...

Shane & I hosted the NYE festivities & it was so much fun! As usual, I made way too much food & everyone brought an appetizer & their choice of beverages to drink.

 

We started the fun around 730pm & after filling our tummies the cocktails started flowing & by 830pm things started to get crazy & fun!

 

There were shots...



 

Selfies with Dana...

 Old school drinking games like Flip Cup...

 

And Beer Pong...

 

And even a photo booth...

While we were all having so much fun the time was flying by! I just so happened to look up at the clock & it was 1145pm. Some how 3+ hours had escaped us & it was getting to be time to welcome in the new year. We turned on the TV to watch the countdown & when it was midnight we all celebrated, kissed/hugged our spouses & brought in the new year with a toast!

As I looked around the room at all these amazing people in my life, I couldn't imagine spending the new year with anybody else.....especially with this guy!

Hope you all have had a fun & safe new years eve as well & we wish you all nothing but good health & many blessings in the new year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Christmas 2017

 Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!

 

 

My most favorite holiday has finally arrived & I couldn't be more excited! And to top it all off my Mom is here with us for the holiday weekend & will be spending Christmas with us! She gets to participate in all our holiday traditions & see how we do Christmas around here :)

Sadly I was on call most of the holiday weekend & ended up working quite a bit but I didn't let that put a damper on my spirit! Besides, I looked at it in a positive way - I was making money to help pay off Christmas gifts!!

During one of the evenings after getting called in, my co-worker Kenzie & I stopped by The Magic Tree on our way home for a selfie pic. She had never been by to see the tree before so I was excited to show her what it was all about!

I love stopping at this tree every year. It is so pretty & so magical. I had wanted to take Mason there this year but sadly we never made it. Hoping next year we can put it on our holiday "to do" list!

Sunday was Christmas Eve & we spent the day doing our annual traditions of making sugar cookies for Santa....and having fun with Snapchat :)

 



We spent the rest of the day hanging out watching movies & anxiously awaiting Santa's arrival. Before Mase went to bed we had to take the annual picture in front of the tree with his cookies for Santa, sprinkle the reindeer food outside for all Santa's reindeer incase they needed a snack & hang the magic key on the front door so Santa could get in.

After Mase & Daddy fell asleep, my Mom & I brought all the gifts up from the basement & organized them under the tree. I would have to say that Mase was a pretty good boy this year!

The next morning there was one pretty excited little boy after he saw all the gifts under the tree! Luckily my kid likes to sleep in just like his Mama so no one was up before 7am....except my hubby of course who is the early riser in the family.

We all gathered in the living room & let Mason hand out the gifts. He had so much fun opening his gifts & handing us our presents as well.

 

And we can't forget our furries - Winston & Fiona. Santa even left presents for them...

After all the gifts were opened, the boys spent the rest of the morning putting toys together & playing while my mom & I made breakfast. Then for lunch we headed over to Shane's mom's place where they had a nice Christmas brunch & we spent a couple of hours visiting with her, Shane's aunt & his cousins.

Later that evening we all put jammies on, jumped into the car & drove around the area looking at Christmas lights. There were some awesome light displays but these two were my favorite....

 

The 1st picture is of Deanna Rose Farmstead - one of our favorite places to go in the summer time & the 2nd pic is of a neighborhood that is entirely lit up with lights. The pictures don't do a very good job describing how amazing it was - you will just have to believe me when I say it was super cool!

 

As we were oohing & aahing at the light displays I noticed it had gotten quiet in the back seat. I looked back there to see if Mase was ok & needless to say, this is what Mason thought of the lights....

Sound asleep. He totally missed out on all the best light displays. Oh well, there is always next year!

So with that said, another Christmas is in the books! We had a wonderful time celebrating the holiday & enjoyed having my mom here with us! Next year I am hoping we can get back to South Dakota the weekend of Christmas & then head back to our house Christmas Eve so we can enjoy our own annual traditions once again.

I hope you all had a wonderful time spent with your own families & wish you many blessings in the upcoming new year!





2nd Annual "Mama Tribe" X-mas Party

Last year the Mama Tribe started a fun little tradition with our littles - a Christmas party complete with food, activities & a gift exchange. Tonight I hosted our 2nd annual Christmas party! Everyone came over after school/work & we started off with a pizza party for the kiddos & a taco bar with chips/salsa for the Mama's. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas was playing on the TV & the kiddos watched the movie while they ate.

 

After supper the kids wanted to open their presents - of course! The Mama's had decided to keep costs down & all do a PJ exchange so the kids drew names & each one got super fun pajama's - which they all changed into afterwards!

The kids ran off to play after they opened their gifts so the Mama's ended up opening their gifts while we had a few minutes of peace & quiet! I got some super soft socks, an awesome ornament with our name on it & a beautiful necklace with Mason's name & birthstone. Those Mama's are so thoughtful!

 

After our gift opening the Mama's grabbed some food & a cocktail while the littles played games....

Made Christmas ornaments....

Decorated sugar cookies with icing & sprinkles....

 

The Mama's had so much fun watching our kiddos hang out together & seeing them all excited for this fun event. It is one tradition of ours that is quickly becoming one of my favorites with these two families!

Christmas Traditions

Anyone who knows me knows that I love the holidays & all that comes with it. While I was growing up Christmas time was always a fun, memorable, celebrated time with my family & there were always traditions that took place every year for as long as I can remember.

Christmas Eve was always celebrated at my grandparents house. We would first all go to church for the Christmas Eve service & then head back to my grandparents house to eat a late supper. Later on, as all our families grew, the location moved to my Aunt & Uncles home but the order of events, festivities & food all remained the same.

After the supper dishes were cleaned up grandma set out the candy, cookies, sweet treats & grandpa brought up the cocktails for the adults from the basement. We all indulged in all the yummy sweets & would then gather in the living room around the tree. My Aunt was always the one to hand out the presents to each person & everyone would watch to see what was given.

The very last gift of the evening to be opened was always my grandpa's gift to my grandma. I always loved seeing what he had given her because it was always a beautiful piece of jewelry to add to her collection.

After all the presents were opened my grandpa would then hand out $20 bills to each grandchild - as long as we kissed him on the cheek. This tradition still takes place & I am 45 years old :) Being at my grandparents house on Xmas Eve is one of many favorite memories that I have of my grandmother.

Then on Christmas morning my siblings would wake up super early & do all they could to wake me up & get me out of bed. I would always be the very last one to make it downstairs to see what Santa had brought us. I have never been a morning person - even on Christmas morning.

After opening our presents we would run & grab our stockings to see what fun things were left inside of them. Another tradition that holds true when we are all together for Christmas.

Year after year this was how we celebrated Christmas. So when I had my own child I could not wait to start our own traditions with my little family! Mason was almost 3 years old when he started to "get" what Christmas was all about so the last 2 years have been super fun! This past Christmas was by far the most fun yet!

Here are some of our Christmas traditions that we have started & continue to do around the holidays.....

1) Our Elf on the Shelf appears the day after Thanksgiving. Mason LOVES when Jingle shows up & we look forward to seeing what kind of shenanigans & fun things he is going to do until Christmas.

2) Decorate for the holidays! The weekend after Thanksgiving we put up all our Christmas decorations. Including Mason's very own Christmas tree. As a kid I remember special ornaments I had received growing up & ones I had made. The year my mom told me she threw away those ornaments without asking me I was devastated. I would have loved to of had them to show Mason Mommy's ornaments when I was his age - sorry Mom, I am still bitter about it :( I was not going to let that happen to my child so we bought Mason his own tree for his room & I let him pick out 10 ornaments at Hobby Lobby to go on it. The past couple of years Jingle has brought him a few ornaments, he has gotten some from me & has found some in his stocking on Christmas morning so we are always adding to it.

My plan is when he has moved out of the house & has his own home I will give him all of the ornaments he collected as a kid for his own tree or his own child's tree. Hopefully they will mean as much to him as they did to me.

3) Visit Santa - Every year since Mason was 11 months old we have taken him to Bass Pro to see Santa. They always have an amazing setup there & it is so much fun for the kiddos. We love comparing every years picture with the past years & seeing how much Mason has changed! It is going to be a sad day when he no longer wants to do this :(

4) Crown Center/Union Station - for the past 2 years we have taken a day to head downtown to Crown Center & Union Station to see it all decorated for Christmas. We eat lunch at Fritz's & then spend the rest of the day walking around & taking in all the things these two places has to offer! I just love being there at Christmas time & it will definitely give you all the feels for the holiday spirit!

5)  Make Sugar Cookies - on Christmas Eve day Mase & I make sugar cookies for Santa's arrival that night. Mason loves to bake with his Mama - especially sugar cookies. As he gets older my patience & OCD go into overdrive but I am learning to "let go" of some of it & just let him enjoy putting way too much icing on the cookies with sprinkles 1/4" thick - LOL :)

6) Christmas Eve box - Mason is allowed to open one special present on Christmas Eve. This present consists of a new pair of Christmas PJ's, a Christmas book & a Christmas movie along with snacks. He puts his new PJ's on, we play the movie, eat the snacks & then right before bed we set out Santa's cookies, say goodbye to Jingle (he heads back to the North Pole when Santa visits), hang the magic key on the front door (so Santa can get into the house), spread reindeer food on the lawn & then crawl into bed & read his new book.

Once he & Daddy fall asleep "Mrs. Claus" opens the wine, turns on the Christmas music, brings all the presents up from the basement & situates them perfectly under the tree. My absolute favorite 2 hours of the year!!!

7) Christmas morning is similar to how it was when I grew up. I am still the last to get out of bed, we open gifts & then Mason gets his stocking to see what else Santa brought him. Then I make a yummy breakfast while Shane assembles Mason's new toys :)

8) Sadly, on New Years Day the tree comes down & the decorations get packed away until next year. It always makes Mason sad to have to put everything away & I understand why. Christmas is becoming his favorite time of year also just like it was for me when I was his age & still is. I love doing all these traditions with him as a family & hope that they are memories he treasures & makes with his own family when he is older.

May you all enjoy the traditions you do with your families this time of year & may you treasure the memories! I am quickly finding out that time is flying by & as much as I don't want to admit it, Mase won't "believe" in Santa forever :(

2017 Year in Review: Feb - June

February - June 2017

 

Hello? Anyone out there still read this blog of mine? (other than my Mother LOL) I have been a HUGE slacker when it comes to keeping up with my blog. Work, life, being a Mama & wife have gotten in the way of a lot of things I love to do...blogging being one of them. After the last 3 posts that I recently shared I realized something. I really miss keeping up with this scrapbook of our life & sharing it with you all....whoever that may be.

 

I am making an early New Years resolution & that is to do a better job at keeping this blog up to date. Not only for me so that I can capture the happenings of our life but so that my Mother will stop bugging me about updating it :) Even if there is only 1 person reading this, I will continue to have a personal record of our families lives & the things we did while Mase was growing up.

 

So with that said, let me do a somewhat quick & shortened version of an update for you on the past year....if that is even possible?! I might have to do this in 6 month sections.

February - we took Mason to his very first Monster Truck show & then 2 weeks later an Arena Cross show. I don't know who was more excited...Mase or his Daddy!? We enjoyed both evenings very much & will be back for sure!

We welcomed a new English Bulldog puppy to the family named Fiona!

We now have 3 bulldogs (1 senior & 2 puppies) & yes we are crazy! Winston would not leave Millie alone & she was stressing out so bad about it that she was losing her hair & starting to get grumpy. 

With Millie being elderly & already training a puppy we thought why not train 2 puppies at the same time & be done. So that is what we did. Fiona has been the easiest bulldog puppy to train out of all of them & has such a gentle & sweet personality about her! We are SO happy we decided to bring her into our family & Millie is SO much happier now that she is being left alone! 

March was a bit of a slow month as far as events or activities. The one fun thing that happened though was my sister & her kiddos all came to KC for their spring break! We had tons of fun at Crown Center/Union Station, Sea Life Aquarium, jumping at Urban Air, swimming at the Community Center & just hanging out! Mason loved having his cousins here & keeps asking when they are coming back :)

April brought us warmer days, the start-up of spring soccer, Easter egg hunt @ Louisburg Cider Mill, celebrating Easter, time spent on the new patio furniture & lots of bike riding!

 

 

The Easter bunny was super good to Mase this year & he had so much fun finding all the eggs inside & outside!

May was a super busy month for us. Mason finished up soccer & the same week we started T-Ball. We had SO much fun watching him play with the rest of his little friends & cheering the kiddos on in the bleachers. Shane was a pitcher all through high school & college so we are both hoping he takes after his Daddy :)



Our anniversary is May 22nd so this month I celebrated 13 wonderful years with this guy....

Strawberry picking is an annual May event for us so we made our way out to Gieringers Family Orchard in Edgerton, KS. We picked 11 lbs of strawberries again this year & had so much fun. After we got home, we washed all the strawberries & Mase & I proceeded to make 18 jars of strawberry jam, muffins & froze 3 lbs to use throughout the winter. YUM :)

Mase & I made the trip home to SD to see my family - especially my Grandmother who is not doing well. I was able to spend some time one on one with her while home & it was a wonderful visit but also bittersweet since we don't know how much time we have left with her.

We made the trip to my Grandparents farm & while there my Grandpa showed Mason all his tractors, educated him on what each one was used for & even let him turn one on & pretend to drive it :) Mase was in heaven!!

Mase was able to spend some time with his cousins Joslyn & Lane & had so much fun. I just wish we lived closer so we could visit Grandma & Grandpa Farm more often :(

Mason has been battling severe allergies & has been miserable for the past few months so we went & saw an allergist & had allergy testing done. He was such a trooper as they stuck 48 needles in his little back & had to lay still on his tummy for 20 minutes.

Turns out he is highly allergic to trees, grasses, weeds & dogs :( Spring time will be the worst when the trees & grasses/weeds start blooming. No wonder he has been so miserable :( The Dr also said we didn't need to get rid of our pets but instead gave us some tips on what we could do to keep the dander down in our home. He put him on Singulair every night & Nasocort every day to help him feel better. Poor Bubba...

He has also gotten several ear infections these past few months & had enlarged adenoids at his last appointment so our pediatrician suggested we reinsert tubes & remove his adenoids. He handled that surgery like a trooper also & was feeling so much better after a few days.

Memorial Day weekend we took the RV & went to Table Rock Lake for a weekend & then went to Lebanon, MO for a few days & did some trout fishing. It was our first camping trip of the season & oh how we missed it.

While we were at Table Rock, on the morning of May 30th I received a heartbreaking phone call from our dog sitter. Through her tears she told me that she had just woke up & found Millie had passed away peacefully in her sleep. I was immediately heartbroken & so very upset that we weren't there with Millie when she passed. I also felt horrible for our dog sitter Anna who found her & had to make that difficult phone call to us :(

We ended up packing up our campsite & originally had plans to head to Lebanon, MO that day so we left Table Rock earlier than planned, made our way to Lebanon, dropped our RV at the campsite & then headed back home to say goodbye Millie.

We got home & spent some time saying goodbye to her & then we took her to our vet so that she could be cremated. To this day I have a lot of guilt that we weren't there in her last days. I feel like I never really got to say goodbye to her or have closure with her death. We had lost Bubba 10 months before & my heart was still healing from his loss & then our sweet Millie left us. It was devastating. And having to deal with all Mason's questions that I didn't know how to answer....it was just too much bear.

After much back & forth conversation, we decided to continue on with our camping trip in Lebanon. We both felt it would be a good distraction for all of us & Mason would have been super disappointed had we cut it short & he was already upset about Millie. So we made the 2 hour drive back to the RV & spent the next couple of days trying to put a smile on our face & make happy memories together...even though we were all sad :( 

After a couple days away we made it back home & reality set in. Millie's absence was felt by all of us & it was a tough couple of weeks but slowly our hearts were beginning to heal. The puppies have been a good distraction & have helped fill the hole in our hearts. It gives me peace to know that she is finally reunited with Bubba & I'm sure they are chasing each other around & licking each others ears up there near the Rainbow Bridge.

June - officially the start of summertime!! We spent this month not as busy as the last which was a nice break. Lots of weekends at the pool with my Mama Tribe & kiddos, weekly T-Ball games, Mason battled a bout of strep throat & we went camping at one of our favorite campsites Melvern Lake.

Sick lil' Bubba :(

 

Whew - 1/2 way done!!! Year in Review to be continued.......