Monday, April 16, 2018

Cutting Down Our Christmas Tree

We’ve been in our rental house for 2 Christmases now, which means our tree and all of our decorations are packed up deep in a storage unit somewhere. I think?

Anyway, there is a local Christmas tree farm really close to our house. We cut one down last year and decided to do the same again this year. Jase especially LOVED it & loves being his daddy’s big helper!!

Beau is happy anywhere as long as he’s with us and being held.

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And Kade…needed a nap.

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Jonathan is a super manly man…& it was pretty hot watching him in his element. Beard + flannel + sawing down a tree. Ha!!

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Really though, it has been a pretty special family outing the last two years, and I think we might keep this tradition alive even after we get settled in our house and actually find all of our stuff.

It was the most beautiful day, & we were grateful for the sunshine and the family fun.

Christmas 2017

We had the BEST Christmas this year!!

We chopped down our own tree again, which the boys absolutely LOVED this year!

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We also decorated way more this year (using Dawn’s decorations from the basement- the lady who owns the house we’re living in) & Jase was was into helping with that this year.

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We had cookies with Santa in the neighborhood, visited Santa at Bass Pro, had a cookie decorating play date, went to a few Christmas parties & holiday vendor events, went to Christmas parades in our town, the Christmas tree lighting, our church’s Christmas play, & spent lots of time talking about and reading the Christmas story.

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One of the highlights was definitely seeing Chelsi & getting to meet PRECIOUS Mr. Henri!!!

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We hadn’t done ANY shopping as of December 22nd. (Is that causing any of you type A people to break out in hives? Ha!) My mom came over to watch the boys for us the day before Christmas Eve and we knocked out all of our shopping in about 5 hours. Fist bumped. Tag teamed wrapping everything that night. (We don’t buy each other anything unless we have something really special in mind.)

We spent Christmas Eve at Jonathan’s dad’s house. It was extra special this year with 4 littles!! Jade always does a great job preparing everything, getting a meal together, and they always have lots of presents for all the babies. Papa spoils the boys too. We really really miss Donna around Christmas. She went above and beyond to make it extra special for everyone and I cried this year thinking about it. I just know how much she would love seeing the boys and baby Kayton.

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Jonathan really likes for the boys to have a lot to open on Christmas morning, whereas I would really prefer to stick to a need, a read, a wear, and a want…but we did get a few little things from Five Below so they’d have more to open. He really wants Christmas to be magical for them like it was for us when we were little…and I do get that. I’m still unsure of where I stand when it comes to the whole Santa & elves thing, so I just tried not to talk to much about it or make a huge deal out of anything.

They were SO excited Christmas morning!! They each had their own little pile to open. I mostly bought books, puzzles, and games we could all play together. (We did have some scooters & Big Wheels for them, but they were content with what they got so we ended up taking them back.) I don’t buy much for the babies at all when they’re little. They don’t really get it or care much, and they’re not going to remember anyway. I figure we’ll spend more as they’re older, so for now, mostly books & one toy.

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Yes, I actually put flashlights in their stockings! Hahha!! They LOVED it, so #winning

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And we surprised Daddio with a new ipad. Our old one is so slow that it barely works.

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After opening presents and spending some time together, we headed to Grammy & Granddaddy’s for breakfast, gift swap, and games. Christmas morning is always so much fun at G + G’s. The white elephant game and minute to win it games always means lots of laughs!

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That evening we headed to Jonathan’s family Christmas. We ate a delicious meal and exchanged gifts from the names we drew at Thanksgiving. I ordered some super cute hats from a Groupon, and they didn’t end up coming in till February! So, I ended up getting something else for the names I drew. #oops

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Such a wonderful Christmas this year!! So full of sweet memories. Love my boys!! And most importantly, thankful for WHY we are celebrating. (P.S. If you haven’t seen The Star, I highly recommend it. It was so cute, and I literally had to hold back tears…in a cartoon…thinking about the gift of our Savior.)