Santa

A couple of weeks ago I posted something (and did just a little venting) about Santa on my facebook and I think I left some people a little confused about what I think. So since I have a place where I can talk about these things, I just decided to go into a little explanation!

In our house we don't do Santa with our kids and never have. We've told them from the beginning that he isn't real and the men they see dressed up as Santa are men in costumes very much like the men in Mickey Mouse costumes at Disney World. We have also explained to them very seriously that many other kids do believe in Santa and they are NOT to tell them that he isn't real. Since the older kids are in school we've had a little harder time keeping them from telling other kids but we still give it our best shot.

However, not everyone else is as courteous about this issue when it comes to my children. On several different occasions I have had people tell my kids that he is real and I was wrong, and one went so far as to tell them flat out that I was lying to them. This is where my frustration came from when I posted on facebook. When you ask a child what Santa is bringing them for Christmas and they respond with "He's not real. Mommy and daddy buy our presents." no one should ever tell that child that their parents are lying to them and Santa is real!

Now I completely understand that many other people do the whole Santa thing at Christmas and it's a really big deal in their house. And you know what? I don't care! It does not bother me or matter to me at all. One of my closest friends does Santa with her children and it honestly doesn't bother me even a tiny little bit. It is a choice she makes for her family just like it was a choice we made for ours.

There are so many things in this world to spend your time focusing on and I just don't think that Santa Clause should be one of them. Each family should be able to decide for themselves what they want to do with their children without feeling judged by others. Come on, life is too hard without adding extra stress about Santa! Let's leave that decision to each individual family without making them feel ridiculous one way or the other. And I will add, if you come across a child who doesn't believe in Santa, please don't tell them their mommy is lying to them!

I believe that as Christians we celebrate Christmas as Jesus' birthday (I know there's a lot of history there but this is why we celebrate it today). That's the basic bottom line for believers. If some of you want to throw Santa in there and have a "Santa gift" under your tree as well, it should matter to no one but you and your family. This is a time of year to celebrate the gift of Jesus and yet so many people get so busy judging each other for either doing or not doing Santa and I think it's just ridiculous!

Let's just put all of that aside this year and focus on the reason that we as Christians celebrate this season, and let's leave all the rest of it to each individual family to decide what else they want to bring into the holiday.

When the angels came to the shepherds to tell them about the birth of Jesus, one thing they said was "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men". That should be our focus this season, not whether or not other families do things the same way you do. Let's turn our eyes to Jesus and focus on the gift He gave, and do everything you can to keep peace with those around you this season.

Tiny Prints Christmas Cards

I'm not a big fan of blogs promoting things but sometimes a girls just gotta do what a girls gotta do! I won 50 cards from Tiny Prints if I blog about it, and to me that's a really good deal. So here goes.

I love Christmas cards! With my husband being a photographer it kinda seems like sending them out is a must. But i'm not great at the whole "Year in a letter" thing that goes in a lot of cards. With that being case, I like cards that you can put several pictures on (of my kids of course!). Now here's where you guys, my awesome readers, come in. Tiny Prints has a TON of different cards to choose from and i've spent the last 2 days narrowing it down. I've finally gotten it down to my 5 favorites but I just can't decide past that! So you guys get to help me decide which card our family will be sending out for Christmas. Leave a comment below telling me which one your favorite is and the one with the most votes will win. Here you go...

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

Option 5

Now that you've all helped me decide what card our family will be getting, take a few minuets and look at all the cards Tiny Prints has to offer. They even have matching address labels you can get!

Thank You!

Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God ~ Philippians 1:3

Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I have so much to be thankful for in my life and will be spending the rest of this week enjoying time with my family and friends. But I wanted to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of my readers. Thank you for joining me on this blogging journey. Thank you for following along and for all the wonderful comments. Thank you for your input and your interest in my posts over the last several months. You all are the reason I write! That verse really does say it all...Every time I think of one of you, I thank God. I hope each and every one of you have a wonderful and blessed holiday! Love you all. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Are You Too Busy?

The holidays are finally approaching! This is absolutely my favorite time of the year, I look forward to Christmas from about the middle of July so i'm thrilled that it's almost here. But this is without a doubt the busiest time of the year for our family because along with Christmas and Thanksgiving, all 5 of our birthdays are crammed in from November to March. Needless to say, I am often running frantic during these months!

I'm sure there are many woman that are equally as busy during this time of the year so I wanted to talk to you girls for a bit about a few ways to make things a little less stressful during the holidays. So i've come up with a couple of challenges for us girls (and i'm even going to sneak one in for you guys too!).

#1. Remember that you can not do it all!
It is absolutely impossible to try to do everything for each member of your family during this time of the year, or any time of the year for that matter. You are one woman and simply can not to the job of 2, 3 or 5 different people! Which leads to number 2...

#2. Delegate!
I am the worst about doing this! I have such a specific way of doing things and the perfect idea of how something should be done or cleaned and I know that my 2, 4 and 6 year old children simply can not do it that way so I don't even have them try. This is where I need to relinquish control and teach them how to do things. And most importantly, I need to give up my idea of perfection. It really doesn't matter if the wash rags are folded exactly the same, as long as they are in the closet when we need them.

#3. Spread things out!
This time of year there are always 100 things that need doing or functions that we feel we have to go to. In our family we have 5 different family gatherings at Christmas, all of which we could try to cram into 2 days if we wanted to make ourselves go crazy. Instead we spread some of them out a little and you know what? It's still just as much of a family Christmas get-together even if it happens the first part of January! It really is ok. Christmas is about celebrating Christ, not about pleasing every member of your family by seeing them at a specific time on a specific day.

#4. Just say "NO"!
It really is ok to say no to things. It's extremely hard for me to do that so i'm talking to myself just as much on this one. But if you try to stretch yourself too thin and be everything for everyone then no matter what you do it will be difficult to be anything for anyone.

#5. Ask for help!
If you're like me and your to-do list is a mile long, figure out what on there can be done by others and get your whole family to pitch in. If my house is a mess and it needs to be cleaned in a certain amount of time, I could run around like a crazy person and try to do it all myself. I'd probably only get about half of it done and just end up frustrated. Or, I could get my husband and kids involved in the project, get it done in half the time and avoid getting frustrated in the first place.

#6. Bonus for you guys...HELP!
Ok guys, here is the biggest secret to making things run smoother in your home during the holidays. Help your wife! I know it can be so easy to let her do everything because chances are, she's very much like me and has a certain way of doing things. But even if that is the case, get in there, figure out how to do it and do it. (Girls refer back to #2 on this one!) I promise guys, you will help her out so much, fill up her love bank and help her finish early which will leave more time for the two of you to spend together all in one easy step. You really can elevate a huge amount of stress for your wife which will in turn elevate a huge amount of stress from your home.

So there you go, there are my 6 easy steps to a stress free holiday season! Just kidding, they're really not easy to put into practice nor will they make your holidays completely stress free. But they sure can help to elevate a lot of the stress you may face over the next 2 months...or just from life in general!

Holidays...and all that comes with it

Well it's almost Christmas and the little girl in me has been jumping up and down for weeks! I LOVE Christmas! There's just so much to love about it, the tree, the music, the yummy goodies you have an excuse to bake and yes, even the shopping is enjoyable (for the most part). Colby is not a fan of all the Christmas hoopla though so it does make for an interesting time. He absolutely hates Christmas music and can't stand the crowds in every store from the day after Thanksgiving until January. But he loves me lots and lots so he grits is teeth and bares through all of it. :o)

But as much as I love Christmas and Thanksgiving and all the holiday festivities there is always a touch of sadness to it. It's something I don't really talk about all that often but today it's pretty heavy on my mind so i'll allow myself to go there, only for a little while mind you and then it's back to all the joy of the season!

As a little girl Thanksgiving and Christmas were always pretty predictable. Our family, like most families, had traditions for both holidays. We always spent Thanksgiving at my Meme and Papa's house (my dad's parents in case you're wondering. :o) ) and had all the wonderful food that went with it. My Meme would make stuffing from a recipe that belongs to my great grandmother so you know it's good stuff and I would have my very own pan of it because I don't care for eggs. I would also have my own special pie every year. See I also don't like nuts but I loved pecan pie, I would just scrape the pecans off and eat all the yumminess under them. So my Meme started making me a pecan-less pecan pie! Sounds silly but it's oh so good! I was also teased mercilessly over beets each year. One year I thought they were cranberries and was sorely mistaken and my family never let me forget it! :o)

For Christmas, we always went to Hammon Oklahoma to see my great grandma. We would spend a few days there and it was always wonderful. My great grandma can cook better than anyone in this world and every one of her recipes consists of "a pinch of this" and "a dab of that" as most good recipes do. Her chocolate sheet cake is legendary in our family and she makes the best sausage gravy i've ever had! Every year she had tons of goodies made by the time we got there and most years they were all gone by the time we left. We always opened presents on Christmas Eve with all the Aunts, Uncles and cousins gathered around. After all the presents were opened we would do what every family does...wad up all the paper and have a wrapping paper fight of course! Doesn't your family do that? You should really try it sometime. It's simply awesome! My parents would always bring our stockings with us for Christmas morning so we'd have something to open when we first woke up since we weren't at home. Then most years we'd head home that afternoon and spend the evening doing our family Christmas together.

Both holidays have changed quite a bit since then. You see, my parents got divorced when I was 15 and since then both Thanksgiving and Christmas have never been the same. My last time I was in my great grandmothers house was the Christmas I was 13 because our family was quite a mess the next Christmas. I had no idea it would be the last Christmas i'd spend there. I wish I had known though, there's so much I would go back and do if i'd known. I would have walked all around her house more so I could remember every inch of it better. I would have stood in her kitchen longer watching her bake for her family and hanging on to all the wonderful laughter of all the family gathered around. I would say I would have eaten more of those yummy treats she made but i'm not sure I could have. :o) It's so hard to believe it's been 11 years since i've been to her house and had that "normal" Christmas.

And Thanksgiving changed quite a bit as well. I have actually not seen my dad on Thanksgiving since I was 14. My mother does still make me my own stuffing and pecan-less pecan pie every year so that part is the same. We do still have my great grandmother's stuffing every year and will probably always have that, just one of those recipe's that will be passed down. But to this day it's weird and very very hard not having my dad around on Thanksgiving. Hard to believe it's been 10 years since I spent that day with him. It's hard knowing he spends that day with another family and has made new traditions for both Thanksgiving and Christmas and sometimes that 14 year old girl that's still inside of me wishes I could go back to those days.

But just like my dad has built new traditions for these holidays, so have I. I guess that's just a part of life. You have to learn how to deal with the hard stuff and not let it ruin all the wonderful things. As hard as it is not spending Christmas at my great grandmothers house I still absolutely love Christmas. I love seeing my children's faces Christmas morning as they rush into the living room to start our morning.

I think that's why it's so important to remember why we celebrate these days. You see, Thanksgiving is not about the turkey and the stuffing. Although those are both wonderful and it would be very strange to have Thanksgiving without them, it's really about being thankful for everything we've been blessed with over the past year. It's about spending time with family laughing and building memories so that when things do change, you can still hold onto just a little bit of holidays past.

As for Christmas, we all know it's about celebrating Jesus' birthday. But it's so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the day without stopping to focus on Him. So as much as I love the old traditions, and as much as I miss waking up at my great grandmother's house on Christmas morning, I can still celebrate the day and completely enjoy every minuet of it. The holidays aren't here just for our traditions and all the food that comes with the days, although there's nothing wrong with either of those things. They are here to celebrate Jesus, to remind us of everything He's done for us. We get so caught up in what gifts we're going to buy and what all we're getting and we forget that the very first Christmas wasn't about getting at all. Jesus gave up heaven and all it's glory to come to this earth for us and that's what this day is all about.

So this year I challenge you, and I challenge myself, to be extra mindful of why we celebrate Christmas. Find a new way to thank Jesus for what all He did and all He gave up. If that's a new tradition with your kids that's awesome. I heard of an idea of a Jesus stocking. For the whole month of December you write down everything you do for Jesus and put it in the stocking. Then as a family you read what everyone's done for Jesus that month before you start on each others gifts. So whatever you do, take some extra time and effort to put the focus back on Him. After all, Jesus is the reson for the season. It's such an old saying but something worth remembering. Merry Christmas everyone!

2009...our year in pictures

Well since this is the last day of the year many people are reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the year ahead. So I suppose i'll join in. :o)

2009 was a very special year for us, we welcomed our beautiful Logyn to our family in January.


Watched Lexi grow from toddler,



To little girl.




Saw Konner mature even more from little boy,



to just boy.




Colby and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary,




And got to go on our first vacation.




All in all we had a great year and I can't wait to see what next year brings! So from our family to yours...Happy New Year!!




May 2010 be the best year ever!!!

Another post so soon?

I can't believe i'm getting the chance to post again so soon! It's not going to be another month and a half before i'm back! :o) I don't really have much to chat about so this may be a bit scatter-brained but since I have the chance I thought i'd take it...

I can't believe Christmas is a week from tomorrow!!! It's crazy how fast it snuck up on me this year. We still have so much to do though and i'm trying to not get overwhelmed with all of it. We're making pretty much all the gifts for everyone other than the kids and I still have quite a bit to do on all that, plus we haven't even started shopping for the kids yet! Yes, we will be some of those crazy people out next week trying to get everything at the last minute! But thankfully we don't go crazy on gifts for them, they each get 3 gifts and their stocking. For the 3 gifts they get something they want, something they need and something to read. And for their stocking they get things like fruit snacks, socks and underwear-old family joke in my house-and then a few little toys. So I don't think we'll have a real hard time getting everything taken care of...at least I hope not!

It's so funny to me how big Christmas gets once you're married, when I was growing up I wanted Christmas to last for a week at least but it always seemed to end so fast. Now it really does last for days and days since we have to go to each of our families for get-togethers. I think we have at least 5 functions we have to go to, we'll go to my mom's house, my dad's, Colby's parents and his family in Borger and then my friend Chelsea's house at some point so the kids can see their "Gigi"-she's an official yet unofficial grandmother to them. So now it really does last more than 1 day! :o)

The kids are loving the Christmas tree though and so far Logyn has really left it alone which totally surprised me. I just knew she'd mess with it constantly but she hasn't even noticed it really. We get a real tree now which is a new thing for me but it's one thing about Christmas that Colby really loves so i'm all for it! He's a bit of a scrooge about Christmas, he's better than when we first got together but he still has his moments. He wants to get the cartoon "Grinch" for the kids to watch, I swear, that's his theme song throughout the holidays. haha! But like I said, he's improving. :o)

Um lets see...can I think of anything else to talk about? See i'm actually trying to put off house work, that's the real reason behind me sitting here talking to myself! haha! But nope, I can't think of anything. Guess i'll have to actually get to it then... :o)

It's almost Christmas!!!

I can't believe christmas is in 2 weeks!!!! That's just crazy to me and honestly it almost doesn't feel like christmas since we haven't had any snow yet, although i'm hopping that changes in the next 24 hours like the weather guys are saying. We put up our tree last week and that was so much fun! The kids had a total blast hanging all the decorations on it and we actually got a real tree this year so that was fun going and picking out our tree and tying it to the top of my car.

This last Saturday we had our women's christmas tea and that was fun as always. That's always been one of my favorite chirstmas things at our church...every year the ladies do an amazing job decorating the tables. I think i'm gonna try to host a table again next year, I did one last year but just wasn't up to it this year. But as always I left there with ideas for several different tables so I guess we'll see if I actually do one next year.

We're also having our Glo service at church in 2 weeks...it's our electric christmas service which is just AWESOME!!!! I think we'll be at all 4 services this year too, of course i'll be working one of them but other than that we're planning on going to all of them. Last year was the first year we had the Glo service and it was so cool but this year is going to be 10 times better because the sanctuary is finished and the media guys are awesome!! I'm super excited about it if you can't tell! :o)

The kids are getting excited about christmas too, at least Konner is, Lexi really doesn't know what all's going on she just knows it's fun. haha! Of course Konner keeps reminding us that baby Logan is coming after christmas so that's fun. Colby is actually going out of town the first of Jan so i'll be single mom-ing it for a few days which i'm a little worried about. But he's given me strict orders to sit on the couch and do absolutely nothing the whole time he's gone so that I don't go into labor early. :o) I really don't think that'll be an issue but I do plan on taking it easy just to be on the safe side.

I'm really excited that it's getting so close to my due date, I can't wait to find out if this little one is a boy or girl! I can't believe I was the one who wanted to wait and not find out!! haha! It's been fun to a point but I don't think i'd want to do it again that's for sure. I'm also getting more nervous the closer we get to the due date because i'm planning on going all natural-which I think i've mentioned before. But I do remember how much it hurt before I got the epidural so i'm just a bit nervous. Either way i'm really getting excited and can't wait to finally meet this little one.

I have one more doctor's apt next week and then I go to seeing him every week which just makes it even more real! But thankfully everything is looking good still, both of us seem to be doing great and i'm thrilled with my weight gain!!!! I've managed to keep it very minimal this time, i've only gained 7 lbs so far which is awesome since I lost 10 lbs the first trimester. That's so much different than what I gained with Konner but I did close to the same with Lexi so either way i'm thrilled. I won't have a ton of weight to lose after the baby's born...i'm still hoping to lose some but at least I won't have much extra baby weight to lose.

Anyways now i'm kinda rambling and I need to go get everything cleaned up-again-and ready for dinner...

It's Thanksgiving!!!

Gosh I love this time of year and this year I have so much to be thankful for!One of the main things of course is our new baby...only 8 more weeks till I get to meet this little one. Gosh I can't wait! Then some other things are Colby's amazing job, my 2 wonderful kids, mine and Colby's marriage, our church family, our's and the kids health...the list could just go on and on. I've always loved Thanksgiving...when I was I think 13 my grama started making me my own stuffing-since i'm such a picky eater :o)-and my mom has continued the tradition even though i'm grown. It's a small thing but every year makes me feel super special...i'm spoiled I know!! haha!

This thanksgiving is going to be so much fun though because my Uncle John and his family is coming to town for a few days! He is the favorite person in my family so when he comes to town the world kinda stops and we all hang out and eat non-stop till he leaves! :o) He is the one the got us all playing poker a few years ago and so every time he comes to town we end up staying up till all hours of the night playing poker, but i'm hoping this year we'll be able to play Apples to Apples too! The kids are even excited about him coming, the whole family kinda hypes it up! haha!

Last night Lexi found one of my 3-D sono pics of the baby and was instantly attached to it, it was the cutest thing! She finally for the first time said "Logan" and she was kissing the picture and talking to it and kept showing it to both Colby and I and making sure we saw "Baby Logan". This poor baby will probably forever be called "Baby Logan"! haha! It was just so cute because up until now she hasn't really cared about the baby it's all been Konner, she's just kinda been oblivious, so it was really neat. Colby even got a video of it in his phone...we're such dorks!! Konner's still just as excited as ever about the baby and keeps asking to make sure that the baby will be here after Christmas! He's so excited!

I still can't believe I only have 8 weeks left! I'm honestly a bit nervous about having 3 kids running around here...although Logan won't be running for a while-thank goodness! I'm so excited though and can't believe it's almost time. I talked with our children's director today and am going to finish out December in the nursery and then take a few months off so i'm excited about that. I'm also a bit nervous because Colby is going to a photography conference 2 weeks before my due date! He'll only be gone fore about 3 days but since it's so close to my due date i'm going to be taking it very easy while he's gone. I so don't want him to be gone when I have the baby, i'm planning on doing this one all natural so he and I have been going over all the different relaxation stuff and getting all ready for it. I'm sure I can still do it if he's gone but I really don't want to have to!

Well I did finally get copies of our family pics that we got done a few weeks ago so i'll put up the main ones we got. They turned out sooo great! I love that Colby is a photographer, we are able to get family pics done every year plus we can go take pics of the kids whenever we want. They grow so stinkin fast! I couldn't believe how grown up Konner looks in these pics, I mean I know he's almost 4 but he's still supposed to look like a baby right?!? haha! Anyways here's the pics...

I'm so bad about this...

It's been almost 2 weeks since I posted last, i've got to get better about blogging! I think about it every few days but just don't make myself sit down and do it! :o)

Things are going good around here and i'm starting to get really exited about the holidays and the baby coming. I can't believe it's already time to start thinking about this stuff!! Lexi's birthday is in less than 2 weeks, and I absolutely cannot believe she's going to be 2. It does not seem like 2 years ago that she was born...it feels more like last week! haha! Colby and I are having fun getting everything ready for the party, he of course made the invitations and they turned out awesome. We've ordered the cake and now all that's left is shopping! We are going to try to take it easy on the gifts this year though since Christmas is so soon, plus we're going to get her something special when the baby gets here so there's plenty to look forward to. But having the party at Mr Gattis has made this the easiest party we've done yet!! I really have very little to do which is wonderful plus the room will be big enough that the people who don't like each other won't have to deal with each other!! :o) Works out great!!

Konner is getting to excited about baby Logan coming! Every few days he asks me if baby Logan is here yet, it's so cute. I finally told him that baby Logan won't be here till after Christmas so now he just reminds Colby and I all the time that baby Logan will be here after Christmas!! I just know the day after Christmas he's going to come is our room first thing in the morning and ask where baby Logan is!! haha! He still thinks we're having a girl...actually he told me that my baby Logan is a boy and his baby Logan is a girl! I'm not really sure how well that's going to work but that's what he figured out the other day. I love that he's excited about the baby coming, he's older this time so he'll have more fun than he did with Lexi. Lexi is actually doing ok with the whole baby idea too, she's become obsessed with her dolls though so that's fun. She's always carrying one of her dolls around and showing us her "bebe". :o) She's so cute!

I just can't believe I only have 12 weeks left till my due date! It does not feel like i've been pregnant for that long and now it's almost over. It's kinda sad because we've decided that this'll be our last baby so i'm trying to enjoy everything as much as I can. I am to the point now where I can feel more than just flutterings, I can actually make out arms and feet! It's such a cool feeling! I've really done a pretty good job so far of watching my weight with this one too. At the first of my pregnancy I lost about 12 lbs and so far i'm still have 2 lbs to go before I hit pre-pregnancy weight so i'm really excited about that! It's much different than the 60 lbs I gained with Konner!! I was a walking cow with him!! haha! I'm hoping I don't gain very much in this last trimester although I know i'll gain some, but I really want to keep it around 10 lbs or so. I've been drinking tons and tons of water so I know that's playing a huge part in it, i'm actually not retaining water this time!! Yeah!

But before the baby comes we still have Thanksgiving and Christmas first and of course i'm excited about both of those! I think those 2 holidays are my favorites out of the whole year! I love all the food at Thanksgiving and getting to sit around with the family and do nothing but eat! haha! That'll go great with my whole only gaining 10 more lbs huh?!? haha! I'm also really excited because this year for the first time since Colby and I got together we aren't going to be fighting with any family about when we're going to who's house!! We already have it figured out and everyone's ok with it!!! I think i'm still a little in shock that's it's all done already. haha! Colby's family will be out of town on Thanksgiving so we can spend the day with my family and to ourselves and as for Christmas we'll spend Christmas eve evening with Colby's family and Christmas day with my family! That doesn't sound like all that big of a deal but it's huge for us to have that figured out and not have anyone upset about any of it! I'm thrilled!!!

So even though we still have 12 weeks before the baby comes I know that is going to fly by! We have so much going on in the next 2 months and before I know it it'll be time for the baby to come. I can't believe i'm going to be a mother of 3! That just seems so weird! haha! I'm so excited but also very nervous...lets just say i've been spending alot of time praying for peace and patience! Of course when you pray for patience you're put in situations that require you to practice patience! So I guess with 2 toddlers and a newborn around here i'll have plenty of opportunities to practice patience!

Well since both the kids are sleeping I think i'm going to go scrapbook for awhile...