missmas tree

again, no surprise that our passionate little munchkin LOVES 'missmas' trees! she seriously lights up and flails her arms around and gets so excited when she sees one! she loves to look at ours a million times a day and i have lots of unbreakable ornaments within her reach to put on and off the tree. here are a couple different attempts to get a picture of her by the tree...

my mother-in-law made this dress for mark's sister anne marie when she was little... so sweet that now reesie can wear it.

my parents came in town for my birthday. my mom made this delicious cake (its on the front of southern living this month- i mean really delicious!!!!!!!) and 27 candles is a lot people.

they watched the reeser while my dear hubby took me out on a fancy date to this incredible steakhouse here called CCs. (no not the pizza place, haha) we had a WONDERFUL time being pampered by our waiter and even the chef. so fun! thanks for making it a very fun birthday! 

so, on my birthday reese sang the birthday song to me and helped me open my presents... now every time we talk about Christmas and how it's Jesus' birthday she says 'mommy birthday' and sings the song and then brings me a present from under the tree and waits for us to open it... haha. she's adorable. and there is one present in particular that she always pulls out and says jesus birthday. I'm not sure what is special about that one, but i guess its for Jesus :) I love that even though she doesn't totally understand it yet, she is able to associate Jesus and His birthday with Christmas. such a special season. and a special gift to have such an adorable little mind that is totally like a sponge and soaking everything up. Lord please let me be teaching her more about YOU in our everyday lives than about buying presents and running errands. its just crazy to me that everything she knows she is learning from what she sees me doing! yikes. thats scary. I pray I am teaching her what is really important... its scary being a mom. thank goodness for grace from my Jesus.

with that said... i'm off to santa's workshop (our garage) where my good man is building a little surprise for our munchkin. yes, its 10pm. yes, he has to be up at 4am tomorrow. yes, he's using a table saw and a nail gun and he's still in his scrubs. yes, he's been up and working at the hospital since 5am this morning. but that won't stop him from building an adorable surprise for his precious daughter. so sweet. cannot wait to share it with you after Christmas!! I might be more obsessed with it than anyone! 

snowday

a few weeks ago we had our first snow day. i bundled up my little snow bunny and we "played" in the snow for a total of about 10 minutes and then it was just too cold. but it was fun while it lasted. and this little bug just looked so cute and snuggly in her little snow gear. 

she loves her boots and being all snuggly in her coat.... the other day she wanted to just play in the house in her snow gear. so funny! I'm sure she was sweating but she didn't want to take it off. haha

here is our new snowman friend that i made from a pumpkin. my aunt has always done this every year and I copied her this year. he's guarding our front door now. it was so easy too, i just spray painted the pumpkin white. then bought a styrofoam ball at hobby lobby and glued on some little felt balls for a mouth, pipe cleaner for a nose and buttons for the eyes and found some fabric for a scarf and a cheap hat at target. and there you have it. :) reesie boo loves him!

thanksgiving

We were so incredibly blessed at Thanksgiving to have Mark's parents and siblings travel allllll the way to our house in Columbia so we could all be together. We were even more excited when we found out Mark got the day off! yippee. I was HORRIBLE at taking pictures because a. I was cooking and that was insane. but somehow, by the grace of God and because I started five days in advance, all the food was cooked in time for the meal and it actually didn't taste too bad either. and b. we were very busy playing Just Dance on the wii. hilarious. and c. we were just having so much fun there wasn't time to take pictures. oh and d. i probably gained 15 lbs. from cooking/eating so much so i didn't really want to be photographed anyway.

here's the delicious turkey my good man and my father in law fried up for us! yum. southern cooking in missouri!

sweet sisters in law! (anne marie made she and grace matching turkey shirts so they could match with reese and silly me didn't get a very good picture of them all together... it was so cute though!)

the feast.... i think everything was made from scratch, used a crazy amount of butter, was either a recipe passed down from my mom or grandma or the pioneer woman, of course. the whole day i kept envisioning myself cooking in a kitchen in some super awesome old, front porched, double oven, big island to serve on, house in tennessee instead of in our funny, tiny kitchen duplex.... but we still had a blast with everyone and who cares where we are as long as we're together (cheesy but true.)

and the makeshift two tables put together... that actually turned out pretty great. I made a table cloth to fit and I also recovered our old card table and chairs so it didn't look so 70s ish. It turned out to be so easy! maybe I'll post how i didn't it one of these days when i find more time...

cute!

reeser was obsessed with the parade! (shocker) she loved the dancing and the balloons :) 

auntie anne made her this adorable christmas outfit too. we've worn it so much!! it even has bells :)

We really didn't want the visit to come to an end because we had so much fun together but we can't wait to see everyone again!! thanks for traveling all the way up here to visit. we love you mason family!!!!!

the next weekend mark, reese and i traveled to dallas for mark to be in one of his best friends' weddings. again, i didn't ever take a single picture except for these on my phone. it was a quick, crazy weekend - as always when we're in dallas- but we had fun with family and friends.

Tennessee Vaca Part Two

We spent the second part of our week in Tennessee with my bestie bestie (kamp friend/roommate from college/maid of honors in each others weddings and now we have kids!!) Her sweet family was living in a mountain house in Chatanooga for a few months this fall so Mark was THRILLED to get a few days of mountain man world. Lindsay, Elliott, Avery (2) and Lucas (5 mo) were the greatest hosts! We had a total blast with them, as usual. They've lived in the DR for the past three years as missionaries so we've only gotten to see them about once a year since our wedding :( so sad. but we cherish our time together. The first year we met in Santa Fe, the next year we went to the DR, last year they came to Amarillo and this year we went to TN (and they also just drove through Columbia last weekend just for a few days) because.... they now live in DENVER!! yippee. we're at least in the same country!! :) and a days drive away (and an easy/sorta cheap flight!) so blessed by them. and really, i was praying the other day and just praising God that Elliott and Mark are truly great friends too!! Not because they sorta have to be but really because they are incredibly similar in about a billion ways. God is so good!!! I see TONS of family vacations with them in our future. i mean, reeser and aves are already besties! its too cute. Here are about a thousand pictures.... and i hear reese waking up so i probably won't ever get around to putting captions on them but i'm sure you'll figure it out :)