Showing posts with label Link Ups. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Link Ups. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Christmas Pajama Party Link-Up

I'm linking up with Darci, Ashley, Jenny, Julie and Natasha for their Christmas Pajama Party Link-Up.


We happened to take our Christmas Card pictures this year in our pajamas, so before taking those, I got one of just Jackson in his Christmas Jammies! I wish I would have gotten a full body shot, but with a 2 year old, you have to take what you can get. ;-)



I'm hoping to get our Christmas Cards out today or tomorrow, so I'll have a post on that coming soon. :-)

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Christmas Traditions Link-Up

I'm so excited to be hosting this fun link up with my sweet friend Holly. I sure hope you'll all join in on the fun! 


Jake and I have several Christmas traditions that we've started since being married. One being that we get our Christmas Tree from Sullivan's Tree Farm every year. The first Christmas after we got married, I knew I wanted to get a real tree. Both Jake and I always had an artificial tree growing up, but thought it would be fun to try a real tree. We've really enjoyed having a real tree, even though its a lot more work.

The first year we wanted to go all out and go cut the tree down and everything. So we went out to a farm that we found online about an hour away. When we got there, they only had little small trees that weren't even ready to be cut down in my opinion. So needless to say we didn't get a tree there, but we decided to go right down the road from us to a cute little family owned lot and pick out a tree. We loved the tree we got there and the super nice family that runs it, so we've gone back every year since then. It's so convenient too. We get a Noble Fir every year that smells wonderful and looks beautiful. Its probably my favorite tradition that we have. We plan to go this Saturday and get this years tree. I can't wait!

A second Christmas Tradition is that we've taken a family picture in front of our tree every year. I always use the picture to make an ornament to hang on the tree. I thought it would be cool to have an ornament on our tree from every year to see how our family has grown. Below are our 6 years worth of pictures so far.

A third family tradition, and this goes back to our childhood, is to go to the Christmas Eve Service at our church. Its always late at night, normally at 10 p.m. and its always candle-lit and so beautiful. Usually the kids come in their pajamas and it just really gets us ready for the coming of Jesus and helps you remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.

A fourth tradition that we started with Jackson last year, was the "Santa Gift" on Christmas morning. Jake passed this tradition on from his childhood. His mom always got he and his brothers several (wrapped) gifts from her and then the biggest gift was always from Santa Claus. It was never wrapped, just left under the tree Christmas Eve and was there waiting for them when they woke up Christmas morning. We started this with Jackson last year and it was so cute to see him get excited when he went into the living room Christmas morning. 

Another tradition Jake and I have is we always watch Christmas Vacation together. It's probably our favorite Christmas movie. It's so hilarious!!

And finally, our last tradition is that we always spend a day close to Christmas with each side of our family and we have fun traditions with both! With my family, we always fix a big breakfast, even if we're not getting together until lunch or dinner time. We have bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, sausage and hash browns! Yum! It's a fun tradition we started several years ago and it just stuck! 
(I don't have a picture of our big breakfast, so here's a picture of my parents' tree with all the presents under it last year.)

With Jake's family, we started playing a fun Survivor game with all the adults. Jake's mom started it a few years back and we've played it every year since. It involves immunity challenges and lots of fun little gifts to open!!
(My MIL putting the immunity necklace tie around my neck last year after I won a challenge!! I was pretty proud that I actually won a challenge!)

Now it's your turn!
What are some of your favorite Christmas Traditions?? I can't wait to read about them!! Just tell us about them on your blog, add our Link-Up button and then link up below! It's that easy!


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Halloween Pajama Party Link Up

I'm linking up with Darci and Meredith today for their Halloween Pajama Party Link Up!! 

I love dressing Jackson up in cute Halloween jammies. So this link up was right up my alley.

Here he was last year in his Halloween jammies.

And here he is this year! It's amazing how big he has gotten in just one years time.


Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Running From the Law: July Photo Challenge

One of my favorite bloggers and fellow St. Louisan, Sara, has a photo contest going on this week with the theme: Water. She shared a great post a couple weeks ago about getting your camera off of auto and shooting in manual mode. I've been playing around with manual this summer and have loved the results! You should definitely check out her post here.

I haven't had a chance the last couple of days to take a "contest worthy" photo of Jackson in the water, so I thought I'd use one of my favorites from earlier in the month.

You may remember this photo from an earlier post. We were at our church picnic and he absolutely loved going down the giant slip n slide!

(f/4, 50mm, 1/800, ISO 200) (Edited using PicMonkey and PSE Free Action "Sunny Days" by Paint the Moon)


Friday, June 28, 2013

Five on Friday!


Once again, I'm linking up with the fine ladies above for 5 on Friday!

1.) I shared this photo earlier in the week, but I just love it so much that I'm going to share again! :-)


2.) For those of you who are photography enthusiasts like I am, I read this post yesterday and I am excited to try out these settings for shooting fireworks this 4th of July!!


3.) I just adore this patio found here on Meg's Blog. I would love to have a patio like this someday! It looks so fun and festive. So cute!!


4.) For those of you with little ones still in diapers, here is a coupon for $1.50 off Huggies Little Swimmers. Just click on the picture below. :-)


5.) Say a few prayers for our family this weekend as we have the memorial service for my husband's father, who passed away earlier this month. We leave tonight for Kansas City, and we'll have the memorial service there tomorrow morning.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Vacation Dreaming Link-Up

Today, Holly and I are hosting a "Vacation Dreaming" link-up! We hope you'll all join us and share your favorite vacation destination, your favorite vacation memory, where you are planning your summer vacation this year, or what your dream vacation would be.


 
 
In Aug. we are taking our first family vacation with Jackson, to Gulf Shores, AL. I can't wait! (Only 6 more weeks away, but who's counting?) I absolutely love to travel, and I've been on several great trips, but I would have to say my favorite was our honeymoon in Maui, HI. 
 
Last year we went to Mackinac Island for our 5 year anniversary (you can read all about that trip here.) and it was a toss up between that and Hawaii. Hawaii was just such a once in a lifetime trip that it beat out Mackinac Island by a smidge.
 
We had such an amazing time in Hawaii. It was our first trip together as a married couple, which made it even that much more exciting! We left on the Sunday after our wedding and came home the following Friday night.
 
After landing in Maui, we picked up our Mustang convertible rental car, and headed across the island to our hotel.
 
We stayed at the Royal Lahaina Resort in Kaanapali, Maui.
 
We had a partial ocean view from our room that was amazing. There's nothing like falling asleep to the sound of the ocean.

 
The hotel had a very nice pool and beach.
 
 
We tried to see as much as we could while we were in Maui.
We drove the long and winding Road to Hana which was probably my favorite part of the trip. There were breathtaking waterfalls, beautiful rainforests, black sand beaches and gorgeous flowers.




These next two pictures are from the Seven Sacred Pools, just past Hana. A definite must see if ever in Maui!

 
We took a ferry over to the island of Lanai so Jake could golf there. It was a beautiful golf course right on the ocean.

 
We took a helicopter tour of Maui.


 
We went snorkeling. (The sea turtles were my favorite.)
 
We also went to a fabulous Luau!

 
We did some shopping and site seeing.

 
We had yummy drinks on our balcony.
 
And we watched many beautiful sunsets.
 

 
It was so sad to leave...
 
But, hopefully we'll get to go back someday.
 
So now its your turn. I can't wait to read all about your favorite vacation!! I hope to get some great ideas for next years summer vacation.