CHRISTMAS 2015

My sweet family Christmas Sunday. My Grandma (GG) bought that cute little Christmas sweater for Jackson when he was a baby and I love that Benny could wear it also. Ivy's beautiful dress is a hand-me-down from her cousin Baylee... I've been holding on to it for a couple years and it finally fits!

This picture is pretty irresistible. 

Our tradition is Christmas Eve dinner at my mom's house. She made us the most wonderful and delicious dinner and desserts. It was a really fun night opening gifts and being together. 

Our traditional Christmas Eve picture in front of the Christmas tree in Christmas jammies. 

The outtakes.

SANTA CAME!!

Family Selfie in bed before we checked out our Santa loot.

The aftermath

The festivities later that morning at the Munns house. 

Christmas Programs and Bass Pro

Our super singing star Ivy the night of her preschool program!

 Our favorite 1st grader singing his heart out also!

 My little babers after Jackson's program

 Our annual Christmas trip to Bass Pro. The kids love it. We skipped the 2 hour Santa line. 

Church Christmas Party and Visit with Santa!

We enjoyed going to our church's Christmas party. We are so lucky Santa was there because we didn't get another chance to see him this year! Jackson whispered to me while we were waiting our turn, "Mom, I don't think that's the real Santa." I said, "Oh yeah, buddy? How come?" and he replied, "Because I think it's Bill Folsom." Not getting that past this one. We both agreed the real Santa would never actually be able to come to our church's Christmas party. It's all good. 

A little bit of cookie decorating. 

And the sweetest little angel from the angel choir. 

Cousins Favorites Party

Daniel's Aunt Becky holds an Annual Cousins Favorites Party every year. It is so fun! I missed it last year because I had just had Benny. This year was a lot of fun visiting and catching up, eating great food and doing a gift exchange. 

Benny's Birthday Post

I've been keeping you on the edge of your seat for awhile now, I know. Here we are, almost 1 month after Benny's birthday, Christmas and the New Year past us. But oh well. Such is my life. I am also now 2 years of blog books behind. Someday...

Back to Benny Boo! I stayed up the night before his birthday making this cute little cardboard 1 out of pictures from his first year. I posted this on instagam and a friend commented how funny it was that he (unless he is asleep) is literally smiling in every single picture. It is so true of our sweet little baby... he is one happy guy!! I love that about him! 

 Here is the traditional first thing in the morning birthday hat picture. I would have taken it right when he woke up in his crib but it was 6:30 that morning (he is my early riser.... sigh) and it was still dark. So I waited and took it later in my bed when everyone else was finally awake.  And of course the kids wanted one with him but it's blurry because he was moving!!

 I stuck his birthday hat on him later in the day and I don't think he knew it was there because he kept it on while he crawled around the house and destroyed my pantry. (a daily occurrence) 

 I usually try and make the kids a fancy cake. I'm going to blame it on a lack of a theme for the party but really I just ran out of time, and ideas. So I did the next best thing... had Ivy and Jackson decorate it for me! They picked some tiny toys and decorated Boo's cake. I think it's my favorite so far!

He didn't eat any of his cake, but he did end up destroying it completely. And then threw it on the floor. Good thing Sandy saved the day!

 This is what the kid wanted. Ice cream. Homemade ice cream. He cried when the bowl was empty and so had about 3 bowls worth before we had to call it quits. Grandpa should be proud!

 His sissy and cousins helped with the presents!

And a final picture of the 2 birthday boys together! We have decided that Jordan and Benny will take a birthday picture every year with Benny on J's lap. Can't wait to see that picture in 20 years! 

We'll make sure Benny has clothes on for that one!

Enjoying our Warm Winter

We spend a lot of time outside. Like, a lot. It's so nice out, why not? Biking is the current favorite. The kids could bike all afternoon and all night. I've recently let them bike together down our street to the cul-de-sac and back and they just love it. Ivy bikes down to the bus stop to get Jackson every day. We were also able to enjoy a nice day at Wild Florida on Jackson's first grade field trip. It was Benny's first airboat ride. And probably his last for awhile (He didn't really like it). And sidewalk chalk is always a big hit (much to Daniel's dismay) 

Staycation

It is blasted hot here! Consistently in the 80's through the month of November. December has been a bit cooler but not much. I guess we'll keep on enjoying the pool and the beach!

Birthday Boy!

This Buster just had his big day. More about it to come...

Thanksgiving Festivities!

So much to be thankful for! We enjoyed a really nice Thanksgiving season. Our star performers are below... Jackson looking very handsome during his class performance and Ivy, the cutest singing turkey girl there is!

Our Thanksgiving break was so enjoyable. The kids and I spent a couple days having some fun and a couple days prepping the house for our Christmas decorations. We did some cooking, a lot of eating and plenty of decorating. It was relaxing, fun and productive. 

Our Thanksgiving day was low key, just 4 of our families around to share it with. It was nice being on the smaller and quieter side.