Baby Shower

My sweet friends hosted a baby shower for me last week. It was so much fun getting such girly gifts!  Ruby has lots of pink, ruffles, bows, and tutus now!!! Thank you, friends for a perfect shower!

Shelley made the tutu for Ruby! 

(36 weeks in this pic)

The hostesses: Wendi, Lindsey, & Erin

so much pink!

such special friends...love you girls!

and one with my mom!

New Years with Papa John & Nana

Papa John & Nana came to visit for New Years weekend. The boys had so much fun playing with them and getting totally spoiled!

Jackson & Papa John spent a lot of time in the backyard together.

 We celebrated Nana's birthday

 Papa John & Nana took the boys to Toys R Us, Target, & Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday. They had such a fun time together and came home with super fun new toys!

 They also gave the boys Balance Bikes. Have you ever heard of these? So cool!

 We had Davis Christmas Saturday night.

 Ben needed a cookie break.

 The boys love to help everyone open their presents.

 Jackson got a shark helmet!!! This is his scary shark face.

 Nana loves birds. The boys painted her a plate that says "Nana's nest is best." Their handprints are the nest and they each made a fingerprint bird.

Thanks for coming to visit Papa John & Nana!

Christmas Day

Christmas was so much fun this year! Waking up Christmas morning with a 2 year old and 4 year old is so exciting! They loved all their presents from Santa.

We went to Pops & GranMartha's house for a special Christmas lunch and to open presents.

Our lunch was AMAZING.

Such a special Christmas this year!!!

Name

Our baby girl is doing great! I am 36 weeks along now. Can't believe we will be having a baby THIS month! We are having so much fun preparing for her arrival. She has a name!!!

Ruby Elizabeth 

Jackson is disappointed. He really wants her name to be Church, so Church can go to church. 

Christmas Card

I didn't do Christmas cards this year...maybe I'll do a Valentines Card...don't get your hopes up though!
Anyways, here's my parents' Christmas card.

We send you all our love this Christmas season too!!!

Christmas Eve

After such a fun morning at the young Norman's, there was still more fun to have!

We had a beautiful Christmas Eve service at church. (Well, that's what I hear. It's a (very) long story, but the kids and I got there about 45 min late to a 1 hour service. The few min we were there Jackson had tears running down his cheeks from the candle wax burning his hand. It was one of those "why did we even try" experiences. Oh well.)

After church, we hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our house. We have a tradition of eating soup on Christmas Eve...mostly b/c it's something that can be cooked ahead of time and will be ready after church. So, I made Paula Deen's taco soup and Giada's sweet potato soup. For the kids, I made candy cane pb & j sandwiches and rudolph cookies. Pops brought some yummy cheese for an appetizer. I made a tres leche cake for dessert. It was so fun to make everything so festive...hot soup, fire in the fireplace, Christmas music.

Fam Pic of Ryan, Kaki, & James @ church

rudolph cookies & candy cane sandwiches (use a cookie cutter to make the candy cane shape and wrap fruit rollup strips around the bread- thank you Southern Living!)

The kids table. I wrapped Christmas wrapping paper over their cowboy table. Ghetto-fabulous? Maybe. Festive & Fun? Absolutely!

The deliciousness that is Tres Leches Cake. I will do a  post on how to make it soon.

After dinner, the fam opened their gifts from us.

James loved his Sesame Street paper!

Cute brothers watching their cousin

We gave GranMartha the new Barefoot Contessa cookbook.
(We like to give her cookbooks, b/c she tries all her new recipes on us!)

All 3 boys made a special present for their grandparents.

They loved it!

We let our kids open some gifts too.

Sittin by the fire, enjoying a snack

Jackson & Ben gave James some new puzzles. (It's the teacher in me.)

and an Elmo shirt! James has a serious passion for Elmo.

After presents, it was off to bed! Santa & Mrs. Clause had some work to do! 

You can read Kathryn's post on Christmas Eve here.

Christmas Eve Brunch

The young Norman's hosted Christmas Eve Brunch. Kathryn made an absolutely delicious meal, and it was so fun to be in their festive home! Check out her blog post.

pretty table setting

yum!!!

checking out Ryan & Kaki's sweet new wireless headphones! (such nerds)

James made me some hot chocolate! Really, he did!

cousins

Such a fun way to start the Christmas weekend!!!