Better Late than Never...November Recap!

OH my dear goodness. I can hardly take it one more day without recapping November because I'm about to have straight holiday amnesia. Did the holidays happen? It's over? Did 2016 just happen? Holy heck.

I'm pretty sure 98% of you don't care that I didn't do a November review.  But since this blog is as much for my memories as anything, I must! (The other 2% is the grandparents who just love to look at pictures of my child.)

After a BUSY October, we were more than excited to pack our bags the first weekend of November and take a mini-road trip to Canton, TX.

CLEARLY, he's excited.

I wish this would've been his disposition the day of departure. Instead, here is a collage of the EMOTIONS that ensued as I packed the car.

How is it that I STILL have to go to the grocery store on vacation???....Actually, we stayed in a cabin and cooked a good bit, so we had to do a Brookshires run. 

We finally made it to our cabin in the country! Words of advice: we VERY often use VRBO for accommodations! You should check it out if you have a vacation coming up!

During our vacation, we hit up the famous First Monday Trade Days and a darling little "country amusement park" called Yesterland Farm. 

Ready for the pig races!

I actually reviewed our trip to Canton in my December post for the Collin County Mom's Blog! You can read all about it here. The most humorous part was when I tried to black out the windows with trash bags so G could nap without going all the way back to our cabin. REAL. Real funny.

It was so nice to relax and just be with my boys. There was not even a TV in the cabin, so J kicked my butt  played Phase 10 with me each night, so it was super fun quality time. We caught some nice sunrises (BECAUSE PARENTS DON'T SLEEP LATE EVEN ON VACATION) and even did a little fishin'.

The next weekend our Auntie Amy came to visit and we actually went back to Canton to hit up the Paul Michael Store and Yesterland Farm again!

Amy is the FUN CRAZY Aunt. Greyson already knows he can pretty much get her to do anything. 

YES I have mud on my shirt and YES this was the best of like seven tries.

The Rubber Duck Races were definitely G's favorite. We had a blast, ya'll really should check out Yesterland Farm....it's a great day trip and fun for the whole fam!

The next day, we let J have a little daddy/son time and headed out for some brunch at my fav place Hash House A Go Go.  

Then we made our way to the Lakewood Home Festival where we got to tour six GORGEOUS homes! Oh my goodness. I loved it and it made me want to come home and take everything off the walls and re-arrange! Ha!  They did such a great job of mixing styles of homes on the tour. There was Contemporary, Traditional, Mid-Century, Dutch-Revival (don't ask me what that means but it was divine.) I would DEFINITELY encourage you to do this! We had so much fun and it is the PERFECT girly thing to do! So fun having her in town!

Yes, that is the real color of her eyes, and yes, don't they look like a cool drink of mountain water?

Also in November, the littlest Wells got a hair cut....

And attended a birthday party.......

And had "lunch with friends".....

Apparently, the boys had some important matters to discuss.

For Thanksgiving, we stayed home this year. Jeremie needed to stay on top of some work stuff, and we knew we'd be going to MS for Christmas. (A 9 hour car ride is not something you do with a toddler every few weeks.) But in true fashion, we cooked the WHOLE Thanksgiving meal and had a blast. 

It WASN'T a blast when I went looking for my bag of pecans from Costco and realized that they were GONE. My beloved had eaten a FIVE POUND bag in about 3 weeks. #pecansmuch?
Fortunately, I found a very random bag that I didn't even recognize in the pantry. I have no idea when or where it was from, but we lived, and the pie was great.

#givemeallthecasseroles

I almost didn't include myself in this picture because I didn't have time to get all pretty before dinner.  (Due to above four casseroles and pie.) But this was our first Thanksgiving dinner as a family of three in our home, so I set the self-timer and did it for memory's sake. And I'm glad I did. These are the days y'all.

I did a little Black Friday shopping and had the biggest score at my favorite children's consignment shop, Once Upon a Child. From 8am-10am, the WHOLE store was 50% off! I did a great winter coat haul! 

I was ALL IN the Christmas spirit the second the clock stroke midnight on Thanksgiving! So that weekend, we headed up to McKinney for their annual Home for the Holidays event. I've always wanted to go, but we it's usually the weekend of Thanksgiving, so we aren't here. It was SO FUN and festive!

A train ride is ALWAYS a win in Greyson's book!

The next day we got our {REAL} tree and put all the decorations up! It was nice to be home so I could decorate ASAP and enjoy! 

Morning quiet time is extra nice with a Christmas tree glowing. ; ) 

And that week kicked off our celebration of 582 Christmas events. We headed to The Shops at Willow Bend to see the snow globe and G was SUPER into the Polar Bear exhibit. 

Santa Claus was in attendance but I didn't want to push my luck. So we did a little shopping. 

                               

And that was November! Whew! It seems like a year ago! December's up next, and I can't wait to catch you up on all the jolly, jingle, and Christmas cheer we squeezed in!

Friday Favorites

Linking up with a couple of my favs today, Narci and Erika for Friday Favorites! Grab the graphic below and join in! 

1) We've really been enjoying our new Christmas presents around here........it was HILARIOUS when we took Greyson's tractor to the park the first time. He got off to play on the jungle gym, and all the little boys were circling around it looking at it like "Who's hot new ride is this"? It's something innate in boys. Wish I had a picture. 

2) Greyson and I have taken a couple trips to the Hobby Lobby this week in order to fulfill one of my New Year's Goals of hanging pictures on the walls. He specifically asked me to "Take Picture" as he sat on this bench and said "CHEESE!". 

I like the little bench, but Mama doesn't bring home zebra print, buddy.

This was one of my favorite finds! I love how "Southern" some of Hobby Lobby's stuff is right now!

3) I was looking through my bag of notebooks this week and started to notice a theme.......think I'm into this color pattern???!!! All these notebooks were purchased at different places and times! Hilarious!

4) You know you are WINNING when your child places his sippy on a coaster. #perfectgentleman

5) I really was feeling productive yesterday in regards to my goal of hanging pictures. I painted this window frame my brother gave me and was in the LAST STEP of placing the pictures on the glass, and this happened. Ya'll, I'm not gonna lie. I about lost my religion. I was so ticked. 

I called the Mister, because someone MUST SHARE IN MY MISERY and here's how our convo went: 

J: Hey babe

Me: You won't believe what just happened 

J: (Worried)...WHAT? 

Me: I was in the final stages of hanging my pictures and the glass fell and broke. I'm sick.

J: I'm sorry babe. 

Me: I know you think it's stupid and not important.

J: I didn't say that. 

Me: I'M JUST SO TIRED OF NOT BEING ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING! I COULD RIG IT UP AND TAPE THEM TO THE FRONT GLASS BUT THEN THE TAPE WOULD SHOW AND I DON'T WANT THE TAPE TO SHOW BECAUSE I'M TIRED OF HAVING TRASHY STUFF. (Because clearly, our lovely home is totally trashy.) 

J: You could probably get a piece of glass cut for cheap. 

Me: I DON'T WANT TO GET A PIECE OF GLASS CUT! THAT'S JUST ANOTHER THING TO ADD TO MY TO DO LIST!!!! 

J: I don't know what you want me to do. I can't fix it right now. 

Me: Inaudible mutterings of complaining

J: Katie. I gotta get to work. 

Bless him that he even had to listen to that. But seriously, am I not the only one who gets kinda derailed when little stuff like this happens? It seems like in the REALLY BIG things, I'm all like "Jesus take the wheel!".....But the little moments are where my ugly really comes out. The impatient-ness, the complaining, the ungratefulness. I really thought about Jesus and how He was a carpenter and it made me laugh. Cuz you KNOW He had some projects where he got to the last step and realized he measured wrong, or the whole thing just fell apart right before completion. You know He was frustrated. And then it made me think about this verse: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin." (Hebrews 4:15). Praise the Lord ya'll. This makes me breathe a huge sigh of relief. 

6) Of course the glass breaking woke my little cherub up. But to recover we just shared an ice cream cone. He does seem a little reluctant in this picture, but he knew his mama needed a bite. ; ) 

Hope everyone has a HAPPY FRIDAY and a great weekend!

I Wish Every Day Could Like....New Year's Day {2017 Edition}

Hello there and HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday.

This is the second edition of "I Wish Every Day Could Be Like New Year's Day".......I think I have to slightly disagree with Bon Jovi wishing every day was like Christmas. Because let's face it ya'll. We set some pretty high expectations to make ONE DAY SUPER SPECIAL. And between gifting failures, sleep deprivation, toddler tantrums, and squeezing in three family celebrations, the days is crazy busy and MAY OR MAY NOT result in a little spousal "festive discussion" on the way from one parent's house to another. Not saying it happened, just sayin'. ; )

So after the gifts are returned and the dust is settled, it's nice to return back to normal life. After taking Christmas yesterday and sweeping away the last of 102,358 tree needles, I'm feeling motivated and "goals oriented". Ya'll....I LOVE putting the decorations up...but I love taking them down. Having everything cleared out definitely gives me that fresh New Year feel.

Last year I blogged about my "2016 Goals", so I thought it'd be fun to look at them again and see how I did!

Here were my "BIG Goals" for 2016: 

• Complete daily bible study lesson-I did good at this! I've been getting up before Greyson to do this and it changes my entire day!
• More prayer/quiet time-Still needs improvement, but again, consist morning quiet time helped with this!
• FINISH reading the entire Bible (um, I started this one year mission in 2012!) -This totally did NOT happen.
• Volunteer more - I wasn't very specific on this one! ha! But we'll say that this did increase in various ways. 
•  Blog more-This stayed about the same I'm guessing. No more, no less.
• Work out at least twice a week - I DID go to the gym more, and LOVED it. It was sporadic though because I had about 57 sinus infections this year. I can't wait for classes to start back up and get in there! 
• Pray for Greyson more-Of course I did, but not in the way I intended.
• PLAY with Greyson more (Like intentional play time, not just keep him distracted)-Lawd have mercy, we PLAY. But he has also gotten more imaginative, and plays on his own a lot with his trucks and such. 
• Pray for my hubby more- Again, yes, but not in the way I intended.
•  Pray WITH my hubby more- Not really-We discuss scripture/what we are studying and how we are growing, but not intentionally praying together. 
• Go on more dates with hubby- We have actually done a decent job at this! We have added some babysitters to the docket so this has been achievable! 

And just for fun, here were my "additional" smaller goals" for 2016...you know...the ones that you KNOW won't happen, but you tell yourself: "I'll do better at this!" 

• More intentional 1:1 time with friends-I do see my friends a lot, but I'm discovering that actual 1:1 time is a tall order. Between kids, scheduling, and family time, this usually looks like a chicken biscuit while the kids terrorize Chick-fil-a.
• Keep a cleaner car- Well, I did get a new car that was already clean, so does that count? I did incorporate a 5 gallon bucket as a trash can in my car and it's life changing. It does seem to be straighter but dear goodness, it needs a good vacuuming. 
• Clear my photo stream so I can UPDATE MY PHONE!-Ha! I just got a new phone with MORE STORAGE! PHOTO HOARDERS UNITE!
• Stay updated on printing said pictures on my phone (because, one day I’m gonna start scrapbooking again, right?)-NAH
• Clean out closet & dresser-YES! I tried for the 12th time to take a bunch of stuff to the consignment shop and make some $$$ like everybody talks about, but most of my stuff got REJECTED. I do not understand this and yes, it hurts my pride. Never again.
• Keep house clean (but not TOO clean, because that would mean I’m not having intentional play time with Greyson)-Eeeehhhh.....It's livable. 
• Clean out office space (to do more blogging in…..duh...)- Well, I'm blogging right now IN THE OFFICE SPACE, so I'll call that a WIN!
• Go to bed earlier- NOPE. Is any parent actually successful at this???

Well, that was fun. I pretty mediocre after that list. 

UN-met Goals aside, 2016 WAS one of my favorite years ever, which I'll recap in another post! (I've still gotta catch up on November!) We did so many fun things and Greyson just changed and grew so much this year; it's been amazing to watch! 

SO........here we go for 2017. I've got the New Year's vibes and have some goals in mind. Definitely not as many though. ; ) 

2017 Goals: 

• Continued morning quiet/prayer/Bible Study time
• Blog more! I love doing this. It is my outlet. I just need to make time for it. And now that I'm writing for the Collin County Moms Blog, carving out time for this is necessary. 
• Declutter/organize: Our house is not the biggest in the world, but I think by organizing and simplifying, it could be more "livable". 
• Hang pictures on the walls! I have lots of pictures and lots of blank walls! 
• Eat healthier/get back in the gym. DUH.
• Be a good friend. I've got old friends, new friends, some close, some far. 
• Continued date nights with my main squeeze. Even if this is here at home. We had the BEST time playing cards at night on our Fall Vacation! (The cabin didn't have a TV, but it ended up being just fine). ; ) The point is to just be intentional. 

I'm gonna call it a day with that. Of course, there's other things that I hope to accomplish but these are the ones I wanna focus on and hopefully everything else will be frosting. ; )  I hope you have a HAPPY NEW YEAR and would love to hear some of your goals! 

Tis The Season: Easy Holiday Party Ideas

Happy December everyone! We are all wound up with Christmas cheer over here, especially now that the temperature has finally dropped below 80 degrees!  (Once it hits 60, I turn the gas fireplace on, regardless.)

We kicked off December with a bang....we had three Christmas parties and a parade on the calendar last week.  And even though I feel like I'm running on the backup Mama battery pack, we had a great time and made some memories.

I love to throw ANY party, but a Christmas party really just fills my heart. I used to do an Ugly Sweater Party, but OH MY STARS, those are almost as common as Santa Claus himself now. (I'just regret throwing out all those puff paint sweaters I made in the 90's because I'd be making a fortune right now.)

Last year I did a "Mama's Only" Pajama Party and we had a blast. Everyone seemed to really appreciate coming in their stretchy pants, so I decided to keep the theme this year. Last year, we did a "Sock Swap", so everyone bought a cute pair of socks. This year's theme was "My Favorite Things", so we all brought a gift (within a $15 limit) that was a "favorite" of ours. This was super fun because there were so many different items. There was swapping, switching and stealing over candles, lotion, cookbooks, tumblers, coffee, and bath bombs. We had a blast! You could go a million directions with this: scarf swap, book swap, jewelry swap, cosmetic swap, etc.....

Since we were already in our pajamas I decided to go with the theme and do "breakfast for dinner". I found some ideas on Pinterest about a Waffle Bar, and went with it. It was truly the EASIEST menu, because I really didn't have to cook anything!  I bought a bunch of toppings and mixed up some waffle batter and poured it in Dixie cups! Everyone was on their own to make their waffle!

I got the idea from Pinterest to line the counter with brown postal paper.  (Which I got at the Dollar Tree!) This was the BEST idea, because it caught the mess of all the batter and toppings! 

I borrowed a waffle iron from a friend so I had two stations. I'm sure the batter amount would change based on the waffle maker, but for a traditional round one, I found that 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of batter worked well. The 5 ounce Dixie cups were a perfect size!

And you can go crazy with whatever toppings you like. This could really be endless. For spreads, I settled on whipped peanut butter, strawberry jam, hazelnut spread, and flavored cream cheeses. For toppings, there was fruit, chocolate chips, whipped cream, pecans, cheese, and bacon. (TIP: Cook the bacon in the oven! Easiest thing ever! Cover a pan with foil and bake at 375 for 15 minutes on each side. I had seen this on Pioneer Woman but didn't expect it to really work for me. But it did and I'll never fry bacon again!) I didn't take a picture of the syrups, but I served honey, caramel sauce, regular syrup and powered sugar. 

The waffle bar was SO FUN and easy....this would be a great Christmas Eve or Christmas morning tradition too!

Ok....so on to Christmas Party #2! My friend Ashley took a fancier approach than my PJ Party, and hosted a Christmas Tea. And GEEZ LOUISE, she knocked it out of the park! Just look at how beautiful her table setting was!

She had this catered by a tearoom in Plano called Into My Garden. (They have an onsite tearoom, or they'll bring everything to you.) Everything was ABSOLUTELY delicious! We all laughed because at first, the sandwiches, breads, and scones doesn't look like much food, be we were stuffed by the time we were done. Ashley is a tea lover, so she had several different flavors and knew how to do it right!

This was such a fun girly party! Plus, having it at her house was small and intimate, where we could chat. (Because restaurants just get louder as you get older, right?) If having it catered isn't on your radar, this party idea could easily be recreated with a few breads, sandwiches, and some tiered serving dishes! (I'm sure Pinterest has ALL SORTS of ideas for you...)

Here's our attempt at a group picture using my self timer.........

Finally, we attended a Pancake Breakfast that my friend Jorie hosted for the boys. (This is our forced attempt at making this an annual tradition.) We arrived at her house at 9:30 a.m. (in our pajamas of course) and she fed us reindeer pancakes and we watched Christmas movies; The Grinch for the boys, then Fred Claus for the mamas. It was super cute and would be an great idea for any size group of kiddos!

Just look at that Rudolph pancake perfection!

I know the holidays are filled with endless obligations and commitments, but I love the memories that come along with it. There have been years when the parties just couldn't happen (like the year I had vertigo or the time we lived in a hotel for Christmas), and I'm CERTAIN this will be the case in future years. So the years that they DO happen make me super thankful!

I hope you're rockin' around the Christmas tree this season, and I'd love to hear any party ideas of yours!