Christmas in Ruidoso

Is there anything about Christmas that isn't just so.much.fun? (It's clearly been 8 months since then and I've forgotten all of the work and stress and late nights and exhaustion). This Christmas was a lot of fun. I think I say it every year, but this stage was just the best. Everything was so magical for them. Even Harper got pretty excited about the details. We baked cookies, did the stupid Elf on the Shelf, helped Eli and Landon shop for gifts for everyone and loved watching them get more excited about giving than getting.

We went skiing in Ruidoso, NM with all of Dustin's family for Christmas. It was Eli and Landon's first time to go skiing and they did pretty well. Harper stayed with Nemo and Papa while we were on the slopes. There wasn't a whole lot of snow, so they only had a few slopes open, but it wasn't terribly crowded and it was the perfect opportunity to just take it easy and help the boys.

We went on a horse drawn carriage ride on Christmas Eve. It was a lot of fun and about half way through, snow just started pouring from the sky. We had a white Christmas and it was beautiful and exciting...for the first five minutes...and then it was just wet and cold.  It was much more enjoyable from the comfort of our warm cabin.

Eli and Landon got new bikes this year and Harper got a pink kitchen :)

Thanksgiving 2012

So, it's been quite a while. I haven't made blogging a priority because at the end of the day, when everyone is finally asleep, I just can't give one more ounce of energy to anything other than drinking a Dr. Pepper and watching whatever sitcom is my current guilty pleasure. I know I'm not the only one that feels that way, right? From their very waking moment to the moment they fall asleep with me held prisoner in the bedroom, I promise to you that there are not three consecutive minutes where my attention is not needed by one to four people (not to mention the dog). So I'm laid up on the couch today, sick and watching a constant stream of Jake and the Neverland Pirates and I thought, "what better time could there be to dust off the old blog?"

So I'm going to do a couple of catch up posts, mostly consisting of pictures because let's be honest, this was a long time ago and I can't even remember what I had for breakfast this morning, so the chance of me remembering noteworthy details of our lives nine months ago is slim. Which is one reason I'm back. There is this nagging voice inside of me, telling me that I Will regret it if I don't continue to record the important and unimportant happenings of this little family. And I know it's true.

So, we'll pick up where we left off: Thanksgiving of last year. We spent this holiday in McKinney with my family and had suuuuch a good time. It seems like it had been such a long time since we had all been together for Thanksgiving, which made it that much sweeter. We did everything that makes Thanksgiving so great: ate amazing food, played lots of cards and dominoes, did a puzzle, shopped at midnight on Black Friday, watched Football, went to the movies, and gave many thanks for the incredible blessings we enjoy.

My greatest blessings

Cousins

The whole crew

It was also Katelyn's 16th birthday, so she (of course) got the traditional red velvet cake with roses on top.