Our December (Leading up to Christmas)

We had a wonderful and busy December, but it went by way too fast! Since I'm so behind on blogging, I thought I'd just do one long post all about our December leading up to Christmas Day, just so I have something to look back on. So here goes...

The first Saturday in December happened to be December 1st. That day we went and picked out our Christmas Tree at the same little tree lot we got it from last year. It's called Home Grown Trees. We got a Frasier Fir this year (same as last year) and it was a really great tree!

That same day was "Christmas in Crestwood." Crestwood is the suburb that we live in and they have a meet and greet with Santa at City Hall, a parade and then fireworks to end the celebration! Last year we went to see the fireworks and we were pleasantly surprised with how great they were, so we went again this year with our neighbors and made a whole evening of it. After the fireworks were over we went to dinner, and also drove to a nearby street that does a very elaborate Christmas Lights display. They call it Candy Cane Lane and it's pretty famous in St. Louis. You drive down the street and look at all the lights. It's pretty amazing! We ended the night with frozen custard at Ted Drewes which is also a famous St. Louis landmark and just right around the corner from Candy Cane Lane! It was such a fun start to the Christmas Season.

The next day was Sunday, December 2nd and we decided to take the kids to see Santa at Six Flags. My nephew Landon came along with us too, which was really fun for our kids! We really took advantage of our season passes during the Christmas season and spent a lot of our weekends at Six Flags. It's a great time to see all the lights, meet Santa, drink hot chocolate, write a letter to Santa and meet Mrs. Claus as well. Plus the lines are all pretty short for the rides, which is awesome!

December 3rd, Jackson had his first field trip in 1st Grade! It was to the Science Center and I was glad I got to go along with him. It was a lot of fun.

December 5th was Lindbergh Night at the Missouri Botanical Garden's "Garden Glow!" We had never been there for the Garden Glow, so we decided to go and check it out. It was really pretty seeing all the lights, eating smores and drinking hot chocolate with friends from Jackson's school. It was a great night!

Later that same week, we got the last of the Christmas decorations up and I took a few pictures around the house.

The next weekend, Jackson had his first basketball game of the season!

That same day, Jackson had been invited to a friends' house for a cookie decorating party! He and I went and had a great time!!

That same evening was our 3rd annual neighborhood Christmas Party at our neighbor's house across the street! It's always such a fun time. I didn't take many pictures, just a few of the kids playing pass the trash!

Tuesday night Avery had dance class and I got this cute picture of her in front of the Mickey and Minnie Mouse tree at her studio! She posed like this all by herself! Ha. Such a little diva.

That next weekend we had my sister's kids spend the night with us. We had them all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday, so we went to Jackson's basketball game that morning and then took the older 2 with us to Six Flags and the younger 2 stayed back with my parents. My sister's family have season passes too so it was an inexpensive and fun way to get us all out of the house!

That Sunday night at around midnight, Jackson woke up with a terrible stomach virus. Then an hour later Avery woke up with the same virus. They were both up all night long throwing up. It was awful. I was up so often that I ended up making a pallet in the hallway between their bedrooms and just laying there until one of them needed me. They ran fevers the next day and we all tried our best to get some rest. Neither one of them got their full appetites back for quite a few days, but I did get this one picture of Avery the next day when she was starting to feel better and ate a few bites of some pancakes. I felt so bad for both of them.

Later that week, I had my mom take a picture of Avery and I under the "wistltoe" because I wanted to post about the fact that Avery calls it that and of course, I needed a picture to go along with it. I love when kids say words in a different, funny way! Too cute!

The next day was Jackson's Christmas Party at school. It was great to be able to go again this year and help out in his class. Such a fun time!

The next day was Friday and Avery's school Christmas party was that morning! She looked so cute for her party that I took a quick picture of her in front of our tree before leaving for the party!

Friday night Jake had plans for a poker night with friends and I had gotten tickets to take the kids to see the new Mary Poppins Returns. Unfortunately, I came down with the stomach virus that the kids had gotten earlier that week, so I ended up staying in bed all evening instead.

The next day we had my sister and her family over and my parents for our Christmas get-to-gether with my side of the family. I was still not feeling great, but I felt a lot better than I did the night before so we just went ahead and got together. We opened presents and then had our traditional breakfast for dinner. Avery was so excited to open several LOL dolls! Just what she was wanting.

 

 

By Sunday I was feeling mostly back to normal. We went to church that morning and then met Jake's side of the family at the St. Charles Christmas parade. This has become a family tradition for the last several years. After the parade we stopped by a park and took a few updated family pictures since my nephew (who is away at school in New York) was back in town for Christmas. Then we went to my Brother-in-Law and Sister-in-Law's house for dinner and presents!!

We spent Monday (Christmas Eve) at home for most of the day. Then that evening we went over to my Aunt and Uncles house for a little extended family Christmas celebration. We had dinner and dessert and the kids decorated cookies for Santa (and a few for themselves too.) We also opened a few presents as well.

 

 

 

My Mom and Dad get the grandkids matching Christmas pj's every year for Christmas so we had them all wear their new pj's on Christmas Eve so we could get a picture of them all together. They all looked so cute!!

Then we left my aunt and uncle's house to go to the Christmas Eve service at church that night. It's one of my favorite Christmas traditions. After church we headed home to get the kids in bed and prepare for Santa's arrival!!

So that's a wrap of our December leading up to Christmas Day. I'll share all about Christmas Day in a separate post.

Christmas Pictures 2018

For the last several years I've done a little Christmas mini session with my kiddos and this year may be my favorite yet. I decided to just do some pajama pictures on our bed and it turned out so cute!! Jackson and Max neither one wanted to really cooperate, but they humored me and went along with it. The cookies and milk idea helped persuade Jackson, and Avery was all on board even before I mentioned the cookies and milk. I just love these three so much!!

Pajamas and Pillow Fights!



Merry Christmas!!!

Our 2018 Christmas Card

I decided to use some pictures from our recent Disneyland Trip for our Christmas Card this year and I just love the way it turned out. :-) All of our cards have gone out and have been delivered so I thought now would be a good time to share it here. I used snapfish.com this year for our cards and I was very pleased with the cards. They were on a nice cardstock and I was able to get 60% off when I ordered them back in November, which was a great deal since I ordered 80 cards this year!!!

Front of Christmas Card

Back of Christmas Card



 



Our November

In an attempt to play catch-up I thought I'd share a long post of our November, so here goes...

November was a fun month for us. We started off the first weekend with Jackson going to a Nerf War night that Friday night with his cousins Landon and Mason and while they were at that, Jake, Avery and I went to dinner with my sister and her husband and their 2 youngest kiddos. The boys had a great time at the Nerf War night!

That same weekend on Saturday, Jackson's school's Dad's Club sponsored a Casino Night to raise money for the school and Jake and I went to that. It was our second year to go and it was so much fun. Jake is part of the Dad's Club so he helped set everything up and tear everything down and then we went to another couple's house for an after party! It was such a fun night out.

Then that Sunday was the Harvest Fest at church. I didn't get any pictures as it had to be inside due to the weather being rainy.

I was super busy in November with photo sessions ad editing was something I was doing a lot of all month long!

The next weekend we went with our neighbors to Hermann, MO for a little day trip. We brought the kids along and they had fun too. We had lunch and went to a couple different wineries. It's always a great time with our neighbors! This was the only picture I got the whole day... the kids watching a train go by. Ha.

That Monday Avery had her bestie over after school and they had lunch and played. :-)

It snowed this same day. Nothing major but enough to get everyone excited. As I was waiting for Jackson's bus to bring him home from school, I snapped a quick picture of our neighbor's pretty rose bush covered with snow.

Thursday, the 15th, it snowed enough for Jackson to have his first ever snow day! I think we got around 6-7 inches. Jake came home early and took the kids sledding. I had to work and luckily the roads weren't too terribly bad!

The following Saturday was Thanksgiving with Jake's side of the family. I baked an apple pie and some mini pumpkin pies and I also made a sweet potato casserole and a cheese-ball! It was a great time at Jake's Aunt and Uncle's house.



Jackson got his Fall pictures back the week of Thanksgiving. They turned out really cute!

I was off work the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so the kids and I met my sister and her kiddos at her house to meet their new puppy Millie. She's an adorable Chocolate Lab and we also brought my nephew Emerson's birthday present over since we had to miss his 3rd birthday party the Saturday before. We went and had lunch at Chick-Fil-A and let the kids play for long time before heading back home to prepare for Thanksgiving the next day.

Thanksgiving day we met my sister and her family along with my parents at a park earlier in the day to get a few updated family pictures.

Then we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house for Thanksgiving Dinner. I also made all the same things, an Apple Pie, Mini Pumpkin Pies, a Sweet Potato Casserole and a Cheese Ball. All the food was amazing as usual! We had a great time. I only got one picture that day of my Dad with his two granddaughters relaxing on his lap. :-) (FYI Avery was hot in her dress and wanted it off and I unfortunately didn't bring her a change of clothes, so tights and a tank top is what she wore most of the afternoon. Ha)

The day after Thanksgiving was Jake's birthday, so we took the kids to see Wreck It Ralph 2 that morning and then took them to spend the night at Grandma's house.

After dropping them off, Jake and I went out to several different local restaurants and breweries and just tried different drinks and ate great food. It was a great night. Here's a list of places we went in case you're ever in the St. Louis area: Heavy Riff Brewing Company, Civil Life Brewery, Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, Gramophone and 4 Hands Brewing Company.

That Saturday, we went and got the kids from Grandma's and then put up our Christmas lights outside and got out our Christmas decorations for inside out. All but the Christmas Tree that is. Then I had a photo session that afternoon with some friends of ours and afterwards we met them for dinner at Mellow Mushroom. That evening the kids and I snuggled up and watched a Christmas movie to start off the Christmas season right!

That Sunday we went to church and then went to Six Flags for the first weekend of Holiday in the Park. We didn't get to stay long because it started storming less than 2 hours after us being there, but we had fun while it lasted.

Monday, many of our "black Friday" packages arrived on the doorstep that we had ordered on Thanksgiving! It's always fun when the Christmas presents begin to arrive on  your doorstep!

Tuesday evening Avery had dance class, just as she always does, but I had to snap a picture of her because they've been using the bar now and learning their demi plié's and grand plié's. It's so cute!

That Friday evening (the last day of November) there was a ladies craft night at church that I wanted to go to, so Jake and his mom took Jackson and Avery to Six Flags for the evening. They had a great time at Holiday in the Park, as always!

And that's a wrap for our November!!