Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year all in one!

I feel like I've really missed documenting some major family milestones on this ol' blog here.  Our old computer got a virus or something and would not let me log onto Google...but my sweet hubby got me a new laptop for Christmas (!) so now I can play some catch-up with what's been happening in our family the last couple of months.  Here are a few little snippets of what's happened since I last posted, and I'll go into more detail (with photos) later.

-Mid November Eli had his first ever hair cut!  Oh how I hated cutting off those baby curls, so I just trimmed up his hair a bit so he could at least see where he was going when he trots around.

-We celebrated Aaron's b-day the day before Thanksgiving...I even made him his own personal sized blueberry pie amidst the other baking I did for Thanksgiving day.

-We enjoyed a beautiful day on Thanksgiving, and ate our little hearts out and loved all the time we got to spend with various members of our ever growing family.

-Early December we visited Corpus Christi to watch Arden perform in the Nutcracker Ballet.  It was beautiful, as always, and Aaron and I were thrilled that the boys actually sat through the whole ballet...that is huge!

-All throughout December the boys and I had fun decorating their own little Christmas tree.  We made homemade ornaments, strung up popcorn, cut out snowflakes and had a great time making our old-fashioned Christmas tree.  And boy oh boy did those little ornaments get rearranged day after day.  It was fun having a tree (in addition to our family room tree) that the boys could do whatever they wanted to with.  Pretty great stuff!  All the jingle bell ornaments we made got played with multiple times daily, the popcorn strands got munched on, haha, and the tree became a nesting place for many a Nerf gun bullet...which we found later when taking out the tree!

-At the beginning of December the boys and I made a "Christmas Wish List" of fun, family activities we wanted to do.  We wrote down about 20 things...like driving at night to look at Christmas lights, making a gingerbread house, doing an Angel Tree project, have a family game night, etc...it was one of my most favorite things about the holidays.  I loved getting to do each item with my boys, and they had fun going down the list and wondering what the next fun project would be.

-We spent a joyous Christmas week with sweet family, including some precious out-of-town guests that stayed with us.  It was a beautiful time, and I will treasure the memories we made for years to come.

-Year 2013 began at my folks' at their annual New Year's Eve party.  Again we enjoyed time with family and friends.

And so there you go!  Pics to follow in the next days and weeks as time allows!  We're getting back into the swing of things here post holidays, and school will be starting up in a couple days.  I love the fun and freedom of the holiday season...but I also crave a little order and organization, so I am super excited about getting back to our "normal" routine!  ;-)

Blessings and Happy New Year!
*Grace*