Holiday Season 2017

Holiday Season 2017

I always say holiday time is my favorite, but as I've gotten older that has changed a lot. Don't get me wrong, seeing my babies open their presents and reading them stories about baby Jesus makes Christmas so much better than it ever was. I get so much more joy seeing them happy than myself. This past year was a tough one, but I still look at the good  times we had and those make up for it! This past year, fall time was my favorite. I loved the weather, the calmness of life, and the overall, season! Then holidays start hitting, Halloween came and was good besides our little Axel being sick. I dreaded Thanksgiving and Christmas this year and I never do. I seriously called myself a "scrooge" this year. When you have kids, it shouldn't matter how you're feeling at the moment because what really matters is the memories you have of fighting through the hard times to make them "good times" for your littles and they'll never know how hard that time was for you. We did our normal traditions: Turkey hands on my Thanksgiving table runner, Christmas cards, Buddy (our elf on the shelf) staying with us, tree decorating, letters to Santa, seeing Santa, gingerbread house, reindeer food, cookies for Santa, Christmas books & songs, and the Christmas morning "tornado" of our living room. We had many bumps in the road such as Axel falling head first on concrete while in line to see Santa which ended in a trip to the ER to make sure he checked out alright, 2-3 weeks straight of sickness in our house, cramming family photos (taken with our tripod, which is tricky with two kids) in last minute for cards between those sicknesses, deciding mid-December (after trees are already up!) to move to a new house, the chaos of packing around the holidays, and to finish our New Years Eve and New Year Day with packing/moving/unpacking! 

Through it all I managed to get back into the holiday spirit for Christmas and I really enjoyed the day with my little family. 

Christmas is about so much more than STRESS! Don't let the negatives get you down, its not worth it! I'm not going to get into any "New Year Resolutions" in this blog (that one is coming!), but I'm done being that "Scrooge", because I want those same care-free, happy memories that our boys will have. Be thankful for every New Year you have because it's another one you get to spend with your loved ones. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, & Happy New Year! 

Fall Traditions: 

Family Pictures:

Tree Decorating: 

Axel's Tree:

Roman's Tree:

Buddy's Shenanigans:

Buddy & Rudolph!

Buddy brought our new advent calendar!
 Roman absolutely loved this! 

Buddy hiding because the boys were bad the day before! 

Buddy didn't understand that those are the boys PET fish!

Buddy's famous pancakes! 

Buddy's famous pancakes with a little too much chocolate!

Seeing Santa:

Roman loved seeing Santa! He sat on his lap like a big boy and even snuck in an extra hug before we left! Axel wasn't a fan.. 

Random Bits:

Late night games while watching 'Friends' with the Hubby. 

My birthday dinner!

Axel after our ER trip. Everything checked out good! 

The boys are always "playing" the piano. 

The day after his fall and he is once again a daredevil! 

Axel has the same thoughts as me
on this weather we're having!

The little things make my days. Like little hands
grabbing for the chocolate chips and the smeared
maple syrup on the table that is going to be a pain to
clean off not only the table, but them once they're done.
It's still the cutest!

They can't wait for Christmas!

Christmas Morning: