Christmas Tree Chopping

Again, I am still playing catch-up with the blog, so... the weekend after Thanksgiving, we went to go chop down our Christmas tree!  The closest tree farm was about 45 min away so we decided to leave Caroline at home with a sitter for some additional ease and so that we wouldn't have to mess with her naps and having her out in the cold, etc.  It was really fun just being out and about with the big kids and George and I kept commenting on how easy life would be with just two.  (We love you VERY much Caroline and wouldn't trade you for anything and we know that life will get easy again in a few years when you are a bit older!)

Anyway.... it was a beautiful, chilly day that made it perfect tree chopping weather.  George and Ainsley chopped down a tree several years ago at this same place when Bailey was just a baby, so it was fun to get to be back as a(n) (almost a full) family.  Plus, we always did this as a family when I was growing up, so it felt special to make similar memories as a mommy with my kids.  We took the truck which was also fun and nostalgic.  Both kids were excited and being sweet in the car but I snapped this cute picture of how Ainsley was sitting.... her hands folded and her legs crossed.  My little mini lady.

Once we got to the tree farm, we all loaded up on a hayride that took us out to where we actually cut down the trees.  Here is our family selfie.  It was windy and sunny.

We walked around for quite a while looking for the perfect tree.... And then we found it!  It was giant and beautiful!  I think it was at least 10 feet tall as you can see from the picture below.  George was nervous that it wasn't going to fit in the front room with 8 foot ceilings but the kids and I convinced him that it was the perfect tree and he caved in.  

George and the kids doing the chopping...

Ainsley and Bailey were so cute following George and the tree and were chanting  and cheering something about finding the perfect tree nonstop.  Notice their little arms up and cheering in the picture below.

After that they shook and bailed our tree and we loaded it in the truck.  The tree farm had a bunch of other fun things to do like seeing farm animals, a playground, a giant hay mountain to climb and jump off, and a corn maze so we all played around and explored for a while before getting back in the car to head home.  It was really such a fun day topped off with ice cream shakes on the way home.  I'll admit that this made me laugh because growing up getting our tree would be so cold that we would slurp up hot chocolate afterwards to get warm.  But not in Texas... even though it was chilly, it wasn't too cold for ice cream shakes!  Ha!

To continue the holiday spirit, we all went to the coffee shop by our house to see their Christmas light show for the first time that season.  It was past her bedtime but Caroline got to join us and she was absolutely enamored with the lights, as were the older two.  It was sweet to see and I love this tradition each year.

And just in case there was any concern that the 10 ft tree wouldn't fit into our 8 ft room.... here is the proof that we got it to work.... our beautiful family tree on Christmas Eve.

Thanksgiving 2014

This post is embarrassingly belated but I just can't seem to keep up and wanted to be sure to include it anyway.  So.... for Thanksgiving this year we went to Dallas to celebrate with George's dad's side of the family.  It was really a sweet time and I am thankful to get to spend time with them all since we don't get to see as often as we would like.  With all the details of getting the meal together, we failed to get a proper group shot, but above is a few of us the day after Thanksgiving.  We are missing George's Aunt Linda and Uncle Kevin and a few of their kids who were able to come and George's Uncle Randy.

We all gathered in Dallas, which is only 3 hours from us but we didn't plan our trip as well as we could have and our spoiled kids aren't used to long car trips... all this combined made for a very long and painful 5 hour journey there on Wednesday.  One of the kids was crying (they conveniently rotated so that it was never quiet) for the first several hours, Bailey had to slip on a diaper and take an emergency pee break because we were stuck in back-to-back traffic, George and I got into an argument that left Ainsley praying in the back seat, and we debated about just turning around and going home several times.... it wasn't pretty!  But then around hour 4 this happened...

It was amazing!  All the kids somehow fell asleep at the same time for a glorious 45 minutes of peace and quiet.  I didn't think this was possible and I was so thankful.  Below are cute pictures of the kids having a 'picnic' in the hotel for dinner once we finally made it to Dallas.

 

Then we got to see Papa and Yaya and it all got better from there!!

 

They gifted the two big kids with giant Frozen stuffed toys.  Elsa for Ainsley and Olaf for Bailey.  They adored them and was such a big help for each of them to have a new prized possession for the rest of the trip.  Bailey still sleeps with his giant Olaf in a choke hold like this most nights.  It's precious!

An extra special treat about this Thanksgiving was that George's sister Ellen was able to come.  Ainsley adored her right from the start and it was so fun to start get to know her a little better.

Below is a picture of Great-Grandma Nancy with the kiddos.  It is always a highlight to spend time with this sweet lady, who graciously opens her home from early in the morning to the late hours of the night for the craziness of the holiday... not to mention Bailey accidentally peeing in her bed.  Arg!

Another fun thing about this visit was George's Aunt Linda showing us this beautiful old family photo album.  This album will eventually go to George and then Bailey.  I feel so thankful for marrying into a family that cherishes and celebrates its history.

Inside it contains a picture of George Bailey Peyton I, the man that ultimately George and Bailey are named after.

This is George Bailey Peyton II, who went by Bailey, as a baby at 6 months.  Such a treasure to have these pictures.

Then there is our Bailey boy who was so proud of his cereal creation one morning of our trip!  The difference between now and then!  Ha!

On the way home, we planned much better and left at night when there was much less traffic and there were way more smiles from everyone!  

A VERY thankful Thanksgiving!

Caroline's Winter Onederland

"Our little snowflake has grown so fast,

It's hard to believe a year has passed."

The first week of December I had a little first birthday celebration for Caroline.  I had it on a weekday morning and she was napping most of the time, so truth be told, it was more of a mommy brunch party.  But with everyone's multiple kids and busy schedules, it felt like the perfect way to celebrate her.  It was a winter onederland theme with fun snowflake decor.  Snow flakes all around and 'snow' on the tables...

Baby girl's first year in a picture collage... When I was printing out pictures for this, I got so sentimental and sad about how fast it feels like she grew up.  It feels like I have such few pictures of her when she was a teeny tiny baby... part of that was because I don't have all those images on my computer, but the other probably larger reason is because she just wasn't teeny tiny for long.  And although precious, it was such a busy time with the holidays last year and the other two needing attention, and the lack of sleep, and it just all goes so fast!  I can't believe our precious sweet Caroline is already one.  She is so fun right now too that I just don't want her to grow any more!

Her birthday hat and bib...

Our yummy birthday brunch... We had a donut tower, mini quiches, muffins, croissants, scones, yogurt parfaits with granola, cupcakes, decorative jars of marshmallows and yogurt covered pretzels and of course mimosas.  I planned WAY too much food but most of it got eaten and it was really fun to treat some of my closest friends to brunch.  I planned the party on a morning when Ainsley and Bailey had school and Ainsley had such a hard time understanding that there was only going to be adults there and only a few tiny babies.  She kept commenting on how the food didn't really look like baby food and was concerned that all of Caroline's baby friends weren't going to like it.  Haha!

When Caroline woke up from her nap she was surprised to see a house full of big people.  She was very serious and calm about the whole thing.  She wasn't ever upset by all the unfamiliar faces but she wasn't her normal smiley self either.  She would just give a sly, almost smile every now and then.

And true to form, she was shy.  When I wasn't holding her, she was right by my side, even hiding in or behind my legs.  The older two never did this and I find her timidness so endearing. 

After a few minutes of letting her adjust to everything, it was time to sing happy birthday and let her smash her cake.  Again, she was just very calm and took everything in while we sang happy birthday to her.  I didn't light her candle because I promised Ainsley and Bailey that they could be there when she blew out her candle for the first time.

She has had small bites of cake and icing before at both mine and George's birthdays and I know that she likes it... but this morning, she wasn't really into it.  All she did was play around in the icing a bit but I don't think any of the cake made it to her mouth.  She was just too busy quietly watching everyone else.

I love her to pieces!  I think she looks so beautiful in these pictures!

The whole time she was being unusually calm and content and even let her hat fall right off her head without breaking her pose!  Ha!

Ok - fun is over and tired of mommy taking so many pictures!  Happy first birthday beautiful sweet Caroline!!  We love you!