Butterfly Pavilion

We try to make it to the Butterfly Pavilion at least once during the winter time.  We went with our friends Lisa and Paxton right after the holidays.  It was nice to find a fun indoor activity with the cold weather and snow. I kinda feel like I'm in Costa Rica while I'm there and it reminds me of being on a vacation:)

Tulsa Christmas

Unfortunately, I didn't get too many photos in Tulsa for Christmas. We decided last minute to drive from Illinois to Tulsa to round out the holidays.  It was a pretty full couple of weeks. We were all pretty tired by the time we made it to Tulsa.  We immediately celebrated Christmas with Mike's family since they all wanted to head to the lake for New Years. I really wanted a low key New Years in Tulsa but we went to the lake.  Emmett loved spending time with his cousins. We relaxed the next few days after the holiday which was wonderful! Mike and I even went on a walk around the lake and had some extra hands on deck helping with Nora. 

Cousin Christmas Photos

Kate, Joe, and I decided to have photos done of the grandkids for my parent's Christmas gift this year! I absolutely love them and can't even pick out a favorite! We originally wanted to have the whole family in photos at our house but the weather wasn't supposed to be very nice.  We ended up just having photos done of the kiddos instead which worked out perfectly. 

Nora is 9 months old

Our baby girl is 9 months old!!! This year is going by so fast!  I can't believe all the milestones this little one is hitting each month. I started reflecting back to last year and it sure is a very different time for us right now compared to a year ago. Nora is crawling, pulling up, walking slowly along furniture, and attempting to keep up with the big kids:) She brings so much joy to our family and completes it!  We love you sweetheart

Illinois Christmas

A bitter sweet Christmas this year!  It was the last year we were in my childhood home for the holidays.  We had an absolutely wonderful time with all of my family and celebrating the birth of our Lord:).  It was a busy week filled with lots of fun and activities.  We put out cookies for Santa, played outside, rode the 4 wheeler, went to Christmas Eve service, read the Night Before Christmas with Opa, celebrated Christmas Day with my entire Prindiville family, and caught up on some R & R!  There was not one thing I would have changed about the whole holiday.  I loved every minute of it!

Barley loves being in the middle of all the action;)

The boys patiently waiting to open gifts

We bundled everyone up to bun off some energy outside

Aunt Kate loves her niece

The pups were so well behaved

Last family pic in front of the fireplace.  We have been taking pics here since preschool!

Emmett loves his Opa

Reading Night Before Christmas for the 1st time

I have always loved being in front of this Christmas tree since I was a kiddo

Christmas morning photo

Opa was helping Nora open up gifts

Combine time

Nora with Great Grandma

Grandma and her girls

The cousins getting ready for another round of gift opening

The best idea I have ever seen!  Chocolate covered wine! Oh my word!

December 2016

Well the first part of December ended up being pretty crazy.  Mike and I were supposed to go to Aruba but the stomach bug went through our entire household. Ugh!  My parents came out here to babysit the kids and ended up catching it too.  I wanted to do a lot of fun Christmas activities but we had to cancel plans until everyone was healthy. I made it to the Christmas Lights at the Botanical Gardens with the kiddos and we took them to the Bass Pro Shop Winter Wonderland so we did a few fun activities.  We still had a Christmas Cookie party at the house too so not everything was ruined. 

Nora turned 7 months old and started crawling by the end of the month!

No tears?! A rare photo on Santa's lap with no crying;)

Beautiful lights at the Gardens

Christmas Photos

I put up all our decorations before Thanksgiving!  I'm crazy! I knew we would be traveling over the holiday and it would just be too hectic if I waited.  We were supposed to go to Aruba right after Thanksgiving but sick kiddos caused us to cancel:( So I was really ahead of the game this year! My friend Amy came to do our photos and I just loved them! The kids did a pretty good job.  It's hard getting two kids to look at the camera and smile at the same time.  We usually have Barley in the photos too but there was no way we could add him into the craziness! I love having photos done every year before the holidays and it is so fun to see the kiddos grow up through the photos:)