red white and blue

thank you to the members of my family and to all the americans who have put their lives and sacrificed their lives for our freedoms.  to that we are forever grateful.

we headed to the square in downtown mckinney to watch the annual 4th of july parade. we got there 30 mins early and got a great seat. kids were well behaved the whole time and graham had a great time looking at all the classic cars driving by. i think he also enjoyed seeing all the horses painted up so patriotic!

hannah even got into the spirit!

a day late

daycare was a day late with their father's day gift....but OMG...how cute is this!

we can't stop looking at it.  

and girl...you are quickly working your way into the depths of your daddy's heart!!!

happy mothers day

we're getting there with unpacking things.  but we took a moment to enjoy my first mother's day as a mother of two!  and with this face looking at you all the time, how can you not stop and just kiss her all over!

i'm so lucky to have both hannah and graham in my life.  i really can't imagine not having them around.  sure there are some difficult days, but they're all worth it when out of the blue i get a hug from graham, an 'i love you' from graham, or just smiles and funny faces from this little miss.

love all of you!

easter pops

in preparation of the easter bunny coming to grana and grandpa's house, we heard that if you planted jelly beans the night before easter that they would grow into lollipops overnight.  we didn't believe what we had heard, so we decided to test it out ourselves.

low and behold.....lollipops!  ;)

the easter bunny also brought a pretty rockin bubble gun!

it's christmas!

WOAH, santa ate all the cookies and the reindeer at all the celery!

and santa must have a memory like an elephant.  everything in graham's stocking was.....BATMAN!

someone brought in the loot!  spiderman, batman, ironman, hulk, monsters, and....a view finder!!!  those were some of the hot items this morning as we were unwrapping.  

and then an attempt at some family photos!

we had such a great time. and again, i realized that i didn't snap a photo while grammie and bruce were at our house.  i think we were too busy stuffing our face with sticky buns and hotdog pie!  

merry christmas!

christmas eve

we traditionally have lasagna for dinner on christmas eve, but um yeah, kind of ran out of time.  so we had spaghetti instead.  close enough right!  once we finished up eating dinner, it was time to decorate cookies for santa!

wow...so we figured out that the sprinkles come out REALLY fast!  :)  after that disaster we stuck to frosting in a can and getting the reindeer's celery and peanut butter made.  on christmas eve, wink's elf magic can be lifted and graham was able to hold him, give him a hug and a kiss.  he was SO EXCITED!  all he's wanted to do since thanksgiving was to touch wink! 

so we got our plate of cookies and celery ready.  put out a glass of milk.  and sat wink next to everything so santa would know where to go for a quick snack.  we hung our santa key on the front door so he would be able to get into the house and bring presents, and then headed up to bed.  looks like wink had one last trick up his sleeve!!  a little elf boobie trap!

and a special....

...merry christmas eve from the sanners!!!

santa

after a previous failed attempt to seeing santa....the line was RIDICULOUSLY long the first time we went...and seeing as i had today off, i picked up graham early from school to go see santa.  phew, and i'm glad we got there when we did.  we were the second to last people in line before they cut it off for santa's hour long break!  it took us an hour, but it was well worth the wait.

graham was getting a little antsy towards the end, but when it was our turn to go see santa he got right up in santa's lap.  got our picture taken, and then graham and santa had a little side discussion.  it was too cute!  he was so happy afterwards.  the magic of christmas is alive and well and i'm LOVING it!

so what did he ask santa for christmas you ask?

batman!!!

give thanks

grammie was oh so gracious and hosted thanksgiving at her house this year.  and what a fun time we all had!

we did a little exploring outside with mojo.

attempted some KEY-YUTE finger painted cards with grammie (we only got one done before graham became uninterested).

played a little piano and guitar.

caught up with the fam: grammie, bruce, kim, sam, justina and garrett.

and most importantly.....ATE!  :)

and oh my...for dessert we had three, yes three, different kinds of pies.  so of course i had to try all of them!  they were all delicious, along with dinner of course.

i'm so thankful to have this special time with our family.

this is halloween

a little nightmare before christmas for you!

and then some spooky silly fun!  somebody was beyond THRILLED to be sully for halloween this year!!

the remaining members of the bad boys club ended up going trick-or-treating together.  they had a great time!  graham was a little hesitant at first, but i think when he realized what happened when they knocked on a door....he was VERY into it!  we were also very good about saying thank you to everyone.  the three boys were quite the hit with everyone too.

and yes...even mommy dressed up this year....a baby mummy tummy!

mother's day

what a lovely mothers day!

i slept in until 730 or so (late for me!), had coffee and breakfast made for me right as i came downstairs, did a little shopping for MYSELF and cuddled with my favorite dude all day!

daddy and the dude were pretty crafty too!  i got some custom dinosaur artwork as a present from the dude.  now i just have to get a frame for it.  and thanks to daddy, i am now a proud owner of a 1 terra byte external hard drive!  YEAH!!!  it's so compact, i love it.  long gone are the days of lugging my huge external drive around to transfer pictures and music.  thanks hun!

such a relaxing and care free day.  just want i wanted.

love my dudes...so much!

egg-cellent!!

hippity hop!  

the easter bunny managed to hop on by while the dude was sleeping.

our basket was full of chocolate and 'TOY STORY!' (ie...mr. potato head)  it was the first thing he saw and he actually bypassed all the chocolate for me to open mr. potato head for him.  i had to physically show him there was chocolate in his basket and then he was interested.

since it was pretty cold and kind of rainy, the easter bunny decided to have an indoor easter egg hunt.  graham had a fun time looking for eggs, and once he found one he would promptly open it up and eat what was inside.  sugar high!!!!

we enjoyed the rest of our afternoon relaxing at home and watching a movie (or two....again...it was rainy and cold!).  chocolate and snuggle time are two of my favorite things!

new years eve

happy almost new year!!!!

had a great night with great friends, great food and cute pooches!

graham discovered the drums too!  he seems to be a natural too.  

what are we in for?!

christmas is finally here!

wink is such a trickster!!!
the dude LOVED this one!




after breaking through wink's trap, the dude ventured downstairs to see all the goodies santa had left for him.  surprise surprise...guess what he went to first!!

as if the presents weren't a dead giveaway, it looks like santa also filled up our stockings and had a little midnight snack with rudolph!

santa must have known what i used to get as a kid....a toothbrush!  and then some other fun things!

this year opening presents was much more entertaining.  although instead of ripping the paper wildly, the dude took little tears and then threw the paper on the floor.  it was like a paper shredder exploded on our carpet!  he definitely enjoyed himself though.

later in the afternoon grammie, bruce, sam, justina and david come over to have some christmas ribs with us!  everyone showed off their new toys and did a little relaxing too. we also started a new tradition this year....the peppermint pig!

such a nice christmas.  it definitely seemed too short, but don't they always!  

i can't believe the holidays are over.  no snow this christmas, but we were definitely showered with love!

second families

tonight we spent our christmas eve eve with our second families!!

everyone brought something to eat.  and there were plenty of drinks to go around.

the kids played together.  and then opened some gifts together!

bethany got to spend time with her FIRST boyfriend.  ;)  

and graham played his first game of foosball with mr. cormac!  btw...i think the dude sees cormac as his idol.  it's too darn cute!

merry christmas murray's and mauer's!!!!

love all of you!

getting ready

it won't be too much longer that santa will be visiting our house!  guess wink is getting ready for his arrival!

brusha brusha brusha

with all the sweets this holiday...don't forget to brush your teeth!

down on the farm

yee-haw!

peekaboo

telegram

can't put a price on that expression!

snowball fight

buzz meet wink.  wink meet buzz.

may the snowball fight commence!