Happy Holidays

 Kicking off the Christmas season with Grandma's annual Cookie Bake! My great grandma Meldrum started this tradition with my mom, aunts and uncles. When we were little my Grandma Nelson started it with us. She still does it every year even though the family has gotten outrageously huge and most of her grandchildren now how little ones of their own! She made over 450 sugar cookies this year for us to decorate! What an awesome grandma we have! 

 Yummo!!

 Grandma and her little helper aunt Joni!

 Mae's dance class did a little Christmas Dance for all the parents.

 Our gingerbread house! Lou Lou the elf sure likes it, it reminds her of home I guess!

These are our stockings. This year when I pulled the Christmas stuff out Mae was really concerned that we only had 3 stockings. Since I was a bit of an idiot and cut the tags out several years ago I couldn't order another to match. So I made some! I think they turned out pretty cute! Probably should have taken picture that you could actually see them, but oh well!

 Still have lots of fun things to look forward to! Christmas is the best with little ones! The girls are both so excited and mesmerized by all the decorations and festivities!

 Isn't that face adorable? I sure love it! Halloween this year was a blast! We carved pumpkins, well I actually glittered pumpkins which was much more fun! And much more cute! But Mae had a blast gutting the pumpkin and directing her dad on how to carve it.

 Mae first told me that she wanted to be a princess, then it was Captain America. We finally settled on Hermione Jean Granger from Harry Potter. So I decided we'd make Lydi be a little owl!

 My cute little tiger nephew Braxton!

 I went as Luna Lovegood, and we made Cody be Mr. Potter himself!

8 years

 8 years ago I thought I was all grown up. But I was just a kid. Luckily even though I made some questionable decisions at the time (don't tell my mom I admitted that), marrying this man was not one of them! He is the most patient, kind and loving person I have ever known. He likes to think of himself as a tough guy but he is so sweet and thoughtful. I could have never made it through everything without him leading the way!

I still feel too young to be celebrating my 8th wedding anniversary, but here it is! I'm so proud of how far we've come! I'm thinking we might even made it to a 75th anniversary! Think we can make it to 92?

My baby is all Grown Up!

 I can't believe that my little girl is 5! 

Where has the time gone? 

Mae got to celebrate for almost an entire week! We started off by having her little friend party, we decided to do an outdoor movie! We rented a giant movie screen, had a popcorn machine, and of course cake!! Again hats off to my sister in law Kylee, she is amazing! We watched Lady and the Tramp, had cake, opened presents and ran around the backyard. It was so much fun!

 The morning of her birthday arrived! She woke up to a room full of balloons and a tent waiting for her in her room! She has been asking for probably a year for a tent, and when I couldn't find one I liked much, I decided to make one! Luckily she loves it! Then we had birthday cake pancakes, which I forgot to get a picture of, but you can find the recipe here. They were delicious! 

Then it was off to dance!

After Dance she said she wanted to have a picnic in the park, so we had a nice relaxing afternoon in the sunshine! 

We came home to another surprise! A Bike! We also had a hard time finding a bike we loved, so my handy husband striped an old bike down and redid it! Its one of a kind and fit all of her requirement: Pink, with a basket for her pups! We're still working on riding it, she has her mothers coordination skills, but she absolutely loves going out on it! Cody is just having to be a good sport and run along with her!

Then it was time for cake! What a loved little girl she is! Kylee and Spencer made her a 2nd cake!

Anyone familiar with Plants versus Zombies? Its a game for the ipod, Mae is obsessed! All those little plants and zombies are handmade and edible! Seriously they are amazing. I keep telling her she should go into business.

  

Like always Mae was spoiled rotten by all the people that love her! I sometimes worry that we are spoiling her to much, but at the same time I'm so happy that she knows how many people love her! I'd say she had a pretty good day!

Birthday Celebrated

Poor little Lydia was sick as could be on her first little birthday, she was absolutely miserable! So the only thing she really got to enjoy on her birthday was a few minutes of playing with balloons and a sucker!

We pushed her party back a few days so she would be able to enjoy it! We did an ice cream sundae bar and cupcakes. She got her own little cake, and she didn't know what to think of that! She took one danty little lick and that is able all she ate! I stuck her hand in it trying to get her to dig and and she just shook her hand to get the cake off! We had so much fun celebrating with all of our family! And we are so beyond happy to celebrate a year with this sweet little baby we couldn't live without!

Just Stay This Little

 Look at this little chubby baby! I can't believe a year ago today we were preparing to meet this little cutie! I didn't think I could ever love another kid as much as I love Mae. But boy did she make her way into my heart! She is such a calm and good natured girl. She has a smile that shines as bright as anything I've ever seen! She is so sweet and loving. I can't believe how fast a year can go by. I can't imagine our lives without this little love bug, I don't know how we survived without her!