Christmas Extravaganza

This Christmas was the Ohio Christmas year. We left Tuesday afternoon and headed to Ohio. We were on our way to Cincinnati to visit my dad's side of the family, but due to icey roads and horrible weather, we decided to make that loop at the end of the trip instead of the beginning.

So all we did on Tuesday was drive. Tyler did great though. He's a good little traveler, bless his heart! :)

Wednesday was filled basically with laying around and resting. Grandma (David's mom) took care of Tyler most of the day so we basically didn't do a whole lot! Wednesday night we headed down to grandma's house to visit and have dinner. David, Tyler, and I ate and then headed to some friends house to see them since they were leaving right after Christmas to go to Florida. It was so fun to see everyone and show Tyler off. He is such a trooper and put on a good show most of the time. :)

So we headed back to the house around 10 and then left again to go to the midnight service at Mike's church. This has become a tradition when we are in Ohio. The first time was 2 years ago and we were in FL last year, so it was neat to go back and do it again. They actually wanted the family (kids, I guess) to sing. So David and Sarah got up and sang a song (the one they did for the Christmas party a month ago). They hadn't even practiced and it honestly sounded great and then at the end we had a little laugh cause some how they got on the wrong key and improvised the last verse. To us that knew what was going on, died laughing. I'm not sure if it was that funny or if we were just delierious since it was midnight, but it was pretty funny!

After that we went home and all went to bed. Christmas morning we got up and helped get lunch ready. Mike's family came over for lunch. We had an awesome meal which we were all hurting by the end of it! And then we just sat around and visited till about 8, when Brad and Bekah got back to the house then we did Christmas with them. We got lots of great things and the biggest was the camera we got from mom and Mike. It was a great gift that everyone will get pleasure from! :) Of course, Tyler got spoiled with precious clothes, and lots of fun toys! Won't be much longer and they'll be throughout the house! After we cleaned up I feel asleep on the couch around 10:30 and everyone else just pittled around and did their thing.

Friday morning we got up and got ready to head to Grandma's. It was decided this year that the festivies would start at 10a.m. and no one could leave till 10p.m. I'm pretty sure it was David's idea and everyone was a bit spectical at first, but it turned out to be a great day and we all had so much fun together. The young adults made breakfast/brunch at 10:30, we had a old family pictures slideshow (from Grandpa) at 1:00, Lisa had fun games throughout the day for all the kids to play (10 counting Tyler). Then we had snacks around 2:00. The women started dinner and the guys played bingo. Then around 4:00 we all got all the stockings out and filled with everyones presents, then we all piled in the family room and sang old church songs. It was such a great memory. Then we took family pictures, and it was a bit of an ordeal, but they got done and we will definitely be thankful for them! Then around 5:30/6:00 we went to the basement for present time. We got lots of great gifts it's amazing what you can get/make for $5 or less! Then we cleaned up all the paper and set the tables for dinner. We had Prime Rib and ham and all the fixins'. Let me tell you the prime rib was amazing! Mike and Blythe are awesome meat cookers!! After that it was about 9:00 and we all sat around and looked through old pictures of all the kids that Sarah had organized for everyone. It was so neat to see all of the 5 sisters growing up. Finally around 10:15 we loaded the van and headed home. I don't think Tyler every hit the floor the whole day. He did so good, but boy was he tired! He went to bed right when we got home and didn't wake up till around 7 and then went right back to sleep.

Then around 8 we got all our stuff together and headed to Cincinnati. We got there around lunch. Had lunch and then visited the rest of the afternoon. I think Papa, Tyler, and I snuck in a nap somewhere in there. Jack got there around dinner. We had Skyline for dinner. It was so good. Cincinnati classic and then visited for a while. Then we had a Rook game while aunt Gail played with Tyler. It was lots of fun! I'm so glad we got to visit. I hate we live so far from them. Then Sunday morning we got up to a great breakfast Pape made and then headed home. We didn't get home till around 7 because of all the traffic. But the weather was nice, so that was good. I went to bed because I was exhausted and my precious hubby (the one who drove the whole way home) stayed up till about 1:00 cleaning and unpacking. What a wonderful husband I have! So needless to say when the alarm went off this morning I was a bit groggy, but life must go on. We had a wonderful Christmas and are so very blessed!! We love you all and are so thankful for our family and friends!!

And my little sister and Brad got engaged!!! I guess it was Christmas Eve Eve. I was totally surprised. I love them both so much and we're excited to have another boy in the mix! I think they are thinking Summer 2010, but who knows.

Christmas with the Keens..

David's dad, Steve, and Step-mom, Jenni, came over Saturday to have Christmas with us. David made breakfast for everyone and then we did gifts. They got David an awesome tool chest and so he got right on organizing all his tools. ;)

They also got us these cool glass square things with our college of choice painted on them. They have lights inside, and are really cute. I didn't get a picture of them, but will try to post one later. Jenni's always so creative and got me a mixing set filled with all the things you need to mix.. bowl, spatula, food mixes. It was such a cute idea and things I'll definitely use.

Tyler of course got lots of cute things as well. He got about 4 or 5 dancing/singing animals. It was hiliarious. David set them all infront of him and had them all going at once, talk about a little over stimulation! ;) But he loved them, of course!

Then they took us to Texas Land and Cattle for lunch it was so good and we had a great time visiting. Then we went to the mall, to do a little shopping, although since it was the last Saturday before Chirstmas, the mall was absolutely packed, so we didn't get too much accomplished, but it was fun being together. They had to leave that night because we had the young married progressive dinner. But we sure did have a good time while they were here!!

Santa Clause is coming...

Tyler went to see Santa for the first time because he had tons of things to tell him this year. ;) We actually got there right in time because Santa had been on break so we were like the 2nd group in line. So we only ended up waiting like 15 minutes for him to finish break. Tyler woke up as we were in line, so he was alert and happy. We didn't get a smile because there were way too many things going on, but I think we got some cute ones regardless. :) David wouldn't let me put Ty's santa hat on because he thought you wouldn't really be able to see him, I guess I agree. He would have just blended in even more. :) I felt bad for not buying the pictures, but when they allow you to take your own, what do they expect? So we'll leave a few extra cookies out this year since we didn't buy any. Sounds good to me!

Christmas..Christmas..Christmas..

It's that time of year and man have we been busy, so I will start and try to recap the past couple of weeks, since it's been that long since I've blogged (SORRY!)

The first week of December I had to go to Raleigh for a conference for work. It was Wednesday-Friday, so I was super sad about leaving my boys!! But I had to so I did. Wednesday night actually went by so quick cause I worked on my Christmas cards, so I did actually a whole lot better than I thought I would. Thursday night, David came and brought Tyler to Raleigh. So it was fun having them there and letting them meet all the guys I work with, because that night we had a social/charity event that was really fun. Let me just say, the night before I left we realize that the heater went out... David stayed up till 3 am working on it only to find out that it was the whole unit and probably needed to be replaced. So I left David for the week, with no heat, a 2 1/2 month old, and in the middle of finals, with NO sleep.. I felt horrible, but there was nothing I could have done. But I must say, David is an amazing husband and daddy!!! We love you and thank you for taking care of us!! God is so good and I knew this time would be no different, but we had a elder from church randomly come over and he "fixed" it for now. He said it should work for now until we can save the $5,000 for a new one! What a blessing because David and I were beginning to freak out about how we were going to come up with the money for a new one on the spot. Also the same day, David got an anonymous message saying the parts for his car (that had been broken) were payed for and being shipped to our house. I'm telling you, that day made me cry and made me realize how wonderfully blessed we truly are!!

Okay, sorry I just had to post that!

Now on to that weekend. We had the church Christmas/Variety show party. It was fun as always, great food and fun fellowship. David along with Brian and 2 guys from the youth group put a band together (this year and last) and perform songs. They are awesome, I must say. But this year was a special treat because Sarah, his little sister also sang with them. It really did sound so good, I only wished I had videoed it, but it was hard enough getting "santa" out of the house. Yes, Tyler was decked out in his Santa attire from Nana. It was so stinkin cute! He definitely was the life of the party.

Then last week started out good, same ol same ol. Tyler turned 3 months on Thursday!! I can't believe how time flys. He seriously is starting to look more and more like a little boy and it makes me sad. I mean thankful that he's growing, but man he's not so little anymore. Also, on Thursday I woke up with a TERRIBLE case of mastitis again, YES ROUND FIVE!!! This time was so much worse. I was miserable and couldn't hardly pull myself off the couch. Thankfully Sarah was there to keep Tyler because David was working on a paper due at 5 that day and he had stayed up literally all night at church working on it. I did get some antibiotics, but I decided that day, I made it to 12 weeks, and I couldn't do this any longer, so now Tyler is officially a formula fed baby!! I struggled with this for a while because I really wanted to do it as long as I could, but my body told me 12 weeks is all you can do, and I now feel pretty good about it. I know he got what he "needed" and it will be better for all of us. Let me tell you, I feel like a new woman. I didn't realize how much it was sucking the life out of me because now I'm more energized than ever, and feel so much more like myself, so I know I can be a better mom. So yay! We did it with the help of cabbage leaves!!! I'm convinced! :)

So on to this past weekend. We had the youth group party on Friday night. Man I wish I had taken pics, but I didn't. We had a great pot luck and then filled stockings full of goodies for all the people over 60 in our church. So we made 60 stockings (30 singles and 30 couples). We mixed up spiced tea, dipped chocolate pretzels, had candy canes, cookies, and other little things to fill each stocking. It was really neat and a great idea by David, he is always so thoughtful. Then after that everyone went on a city treasure hunt. David made this awesome hunt with clues from places that Winston is known for. It was so cool and everyone seemed to have a great time. So after it was all said and done we headed to the house around 10:30.

The next morning I went to Vicki's around 10:00 to make peanut butter balls. We always make these in my family and it's too much work to do alone, so we teamed up. We had a really good time and the boys worked on David's car to get it up and running. They made great progress, but didn't quite finish it, yet. Finally we finished all the fun around 6:30. We were suppose to go to the CYP Christmas party, but I just couldn' t make it. I was in my sweats and really just needed to chill and rest from the weekend. So we went to the Trinhs and chilled there since we hadn't been able to hang out with them for a while.

Sunday up for church then piddled around the house, while Tyler took a 3 hour nap (which he did the day before too) then back to church at 4 for the Women's Ministry Fair, David took all the 2nd-5th graders caroling, and then the teens/scouts had a devo and then we wrapped presents for a family they are sponsoring for Christmas. It was a great day, but boy by the end, Tyler was exhausted and so were we!!

Can't wait to see with this week holds... I'm sure lots of fun! :) Here are a few pictures I just randomly took. I had to share them! :) Tyler loves Christmas already!!

Family, Food, and Fun...

This week was Thanksgiving and what a wonderful week it was. I had to work, so my family came to me. I so wish Daddy could have been there, but it just didn't work out. My grandmother came home with us from Auburn on Sunday. And Mom, Mandy, Brittany, Austin, and Madi came down on Tuesday night. I had to work Wednesday, so they stayed with Ty and tried to rest up from their crazy trip. Wednesday night we just hung out at the house (since we had church on Tuesday night, this week). We played games and just enjoyed watching the kids. Thursday morning we got up and started the Thanksgiving traditions, with the Macy's Day parade. We actually only watched the beginning when they have all the performances and stuff.

Mom and GG went out and bought us a really nice card table for Christmas. I was really excited because I never have enough seating when people come over so we just end up sitting on the couch. So I was excited to use my stuff and actually "set" the table.

We all kind of contributed to the food, because we all had things that we wanted to make. David and Austin fried the turkey. I made sweet potato casserole and mashed potatoes (with Mandy's help), Brittany made the stuffing, GG made the rolls and gravy, and Mom made the pumpkin crisp (with Mandy's help too). It made for a wonderful feast, I must say! We didn't eat till around 3 or so and we were all starving!

Austin just loves David and was his shadow the entire week, but David loved it and it really made him look forward to the times ahead with Tyler!

So after we ate, we cleaned up and played a few more games, and that's what the rest of the evening consisted of. Of course we always had a warm fire burning thanks to the guys! :)

So Friday we decided to get out and face the crowds. GG stayed home with Tyler, Thanks GG!!

It wasn't too bad, of course there were people everywhere, but that's too be expected! We had a good day, long, but good! When we got home we decided to take some cousin pictures, and actually they turned out pretty good, despite the fact that no one had a nap! :)Then that night we went out to eat to celebrate Brittany's birthday! She's 22 today... Happy Birthday BB!!! We love you!

Sadly, Saturday morning they had to head back to Florida! We are so blessed and thankful they got to come visit, just wish they didn't live so far away!

Thank you for a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We love and miss you!!

Here are a few pictures that we took along the way. :)

Now on to Christmas!! The Tree goes up tonight.. Look for those pics soon! :)