Oh December!

I've always loved the month of December but being a momma during the month of December is oh so sweet. Starting new traditions with Emma and also exposing her to things I've cherished over the years as well. Checking things off left and right from our To Do List. Here is our list again: (full disclosure...lots of pictures on this post so it's kinda long)

Make Santa Cookies and Reindeer Food plates:

So they aren't perfect but they are pretty cute! Pinterest is so disceiving. I don't know how people get perfect hand and foot prints. Anyway here they are!

 (all her little foot prints. The plate wasn't totally flat so the middle of her foot wouldn't lay flat)

Order Christmas Cards: Done. Once we get them in and I've mailed them I will upload a picture. We ordered them from Minted with some photos we got taken over the Thanksgiving break at the beach. 

Tree Shopping

We bought our tree on Friday night from Home Depot. We got a 7-8ft tree and we put it in a new place this year (in our dining room) and I LOVE the new spot! It was in the now playroom the past two years. 

Tree Decorating:

After Emma went to bed on Friday night we decorated the tree. Since Friday we have had our tree fall twice (ahhhh). So now it is tied to the wall. Yes you read that correctly. No more falling trees. We have only had one major casualty of ornaments and one that can be fixed. Not bad for falling twice. It fell Friday night and then today I went to plug it in and it toppled right onto the dining room table. NOT good! But it looks so pretty :)

Visit Santa:

Today was GREAT! Making memories with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew during this time in our lives is such a joy. Nana gifted us their outfits so we had to do the matching thing for the pictures and it turned out SO cute! We made an appointment at the Lenox Santa for Collier and Emma. We started with Emma (because Collier freaked at the Santa yesterday at the zoo so we knew he probably would react that way again) and she did fine by herself but NO SMILES. Then comes Collier and boy just watch the progression. You can't help but laugh. #poorbabies #babytorture

 (look at them looking at each other. So sweet)

(that tear in her eye...oh my!)

 After Santa we figured we should just see what the wait at the Pink Pig was and there wasn't a wait really so we did that too! Collier loved it and Emma was amazed. After the Pink Pig we went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. Great little Sunday with the cousins! 

That was just about our whole weekend! Saturday I spent the day at home cleaning and getting caught up on house stuff with being away the past two weekends while Tommy golfed with some buddies. Saturday night we had the Stelling's annual Friendzmas white elephant party. We had a great time and appreciated a night out (Thanks mom and dad!). 

We had a wonderful weekend filled with family, friends and holiday cheer. Couldn't have asked for anything better. Lots more to come this month! 

December 1st- To Do List for the month

How is it already DECEMBER! I can't believe 2016 is coming to a rapid close. December could possibly be my FAVORITE month of the year. I love all the Holiday events, decorations, time spent with family and church services. Oh the Christmas worship music!

Anyway, I wanted to make myself a December To-Do list to keep me on track for the memories/traditions I want to set for the years to come with Emma. 

Here is my list!

I will blog pictures of these things once we do them. Yay for the Holiday season! I am trying like my friend Jessica to get better about blogging more. Thanks for the inspiration Jessica! I don't know that I'll make it every workday with a post but I'm going to try and be better about not just doing when major events are occurring. I love being able to go back and revisit things we have done in the past!

Thanksgiving Break 2016

This past week we had the week off for Thanksgiving break. On Friday after work TOmmy, Emma, Cooper and I drove up to my parents house in Litchfield. This year we were going to be going back and forth between Litchfield and Isle of Palms where Tommy's family (Blackwell side of the family) would be staying. Since we spent last Thanksgiving with Tommy's family as well we wanted to be able to see my "extended" family this year even if it wasn't for Thanksgiving dinner so we traveled between the two.

We got in late Friday night to my parents house and spent time there until Sunday lunchtime. Everyone in my family was at my parents by late Saturday night. Claire, mom, dad, and nana got in Friday as well. The Willis got in mid day Saturday and James got in Saturday night. We went out to dinner at Marshview landing Saturday which was great! We tried to go over Labor Day but the wait was too long. It's your typical seafood basket type of restaurant. We had a great time!

Then we headed to Isle of Palms on Sunday at lunchtime (during nap time). We had family photos with a photographer booked for Sunday afternoon on the beach and at sunset in the marsh area. Marsha is a wonderful cook and spoiled us rotten with her fabulous food the whole week in Charleston. Monday I went to the outlets with Aunt Ginny and Ashley (Tommy's family from Houston) while Tommy stayed home with Emma and got some work done. Tuesday the boys golfed and the ladies went out to brunch. Emma was not in the greatest of moods that morning (after waking up at 5am SCREAMING) and took a 2.5 hour nap (momma took a nap too. I was tired from that early wake up call as well) and come to find out she had a TOOTH. Now all her fussiness and lack of eating/sleeping finally made sense. Boy teething hits like a brick wall and our sweet happy baby was not so happy (and also wouldn't go to anyone but mom. Again one tired momma). Wednesday we just relaxed in the morning.

We stayed in Charleston til Wednesday at lunchtime when we headed back to Litchfield. Everyone we go to the beach with was in town by Wednesday and my parents hosted a taco bar dinner (Balfours, Abernathy's, Stribos', my family, and Mark Phillip). We were spread all throughout the house to eat. It was great to see everyone! Many of them hadn't met Emma yet so I was glad we could bring her back for everyone to meet. After dinner, Neal Abernathy got a bonfire going on the beach. I hadn't seen Whitney and Andrew since Ben's wedding last October!

Thanksgiving morning we all take a nice long walk on the beach with the dogs then go back to my parents house for pumpkin pancakes and bacon for breakfast. (The Trader Joe's pumpkin pancakes are the BEST) We relaxed the rest of the morning at my parents before we set out again at naptime to head back to Charleston for Thanksgiving Dinner.

We had quite the feast for Thanksgiving. My favorite is always the dressing! We put the two tables together so we could all be sitting at the same table for dinner. Emma wasn't exactly in the best mood so I scarfed my food down and walked around with her while everyone finished eating. The boys fried up two turkeys that Uncle Floyd had brought from Houston. They were yummy! We all were pretty tired after such a big meal that we started fading pretty fast!

Friday morning Floyd, Tommy, Emma, the two dogs, and myself went for a nice long walk on the beach. Emma was out of sorts so I was glad I was going to get her two naps in her bed that day. The whole family minus myself, Emma and Floyd went out for lunch at Shem Creek. I didn't want to mess with naptime so I stayed back and started the Gilmore Girls new Netflix Original series (LOVE). At 2pm, Marsha/Courtney/Floyd's cousin Lynn and her whole family came over to the house. They too were getting family photos done on the beach and gathered at our house to visit for a bit before they went to the beach. We stayed and said our hellos and once they left for pictures we hit the road back to my parents for the weekend.

Friday night my parents and Nana stayed back at the house with the babies sleeping so that Bonnie, Brett, Tommy and I could go out to dinner (Thank you!). We went to Quigley's which is a pub like restaurant that my mom recommended. We had a few drinks and just hung out. Was nice to have a more relaxed meal without any upset babies. We came home and played bananagrams with my parents, nana, and Mark before hitting the hay.

Saturday we started the day with a nice long walk on the beach followed by shopping at the Hammock shops (the boys were watching football) and then the Stribos' made chili for everyone to eat during halftime of the UGA game. More football was watched and time spent soaking up the last little bit of beach time before the week was over. Saturday night we had a leftover night to try and clean out the fridge followed by another bonfire with everyone by the beach. Our crowd had dwindled a bit as James, Claire, Ben, Emily, and Tyler all left before we got back on Friday. Mark left Saturday morning.

We had a great week spent with both our families. I always look forward to the week of Thanksgiving at the beach. It's my favorite place to unwind and enjoy quality family time. It always goes by way too quickly. Even with a teething baby and early wake ups I couldn't have asked for a better week. Counting down the days until Christmas break where I get to get two weeks with Emma. Family is so important and we took advantage of every minute we had with each of our families this week. Oh how I love the holiday season!

Now BRING ON CHRISTMAS!