Christmas day 2011

What a beautiful Christmas day we had!!

I think my favorite part about Christmas this year was that it landed on a Sunday.

I can't think of a better day to go to church then on Jesus' birthday.

Tristan and I started our day off at our apartment, just the two of us.

I debated whether or not we should stay at my parents house, but I decided I wanted to wake up in our home and start some of our own traditions. I am so glad we did, it was perfect. Tristan is so sweet and waited patiently in bed until I said it was okay to get up. He ran into the living room and went straight to his bball hoop from Santa!

Santa brought Tristan lots of toy cars, Cars underwear, Cars bandaids and Cars fruit snacks in his stocking!

So excited to open up his Cars 1 and 2 dvds!

Elefun, one of my favorites!

He said "too many cars, mommy!" which means "a lot of cars" :)

We opened presents, played and enjoyed some sweet quality time together. He was SO excited to get toy cars, the movie Cars, Cars pjs...anything that had to do with a car, he loved. After opening all of his presents he gave me a hug and said "thank you, mommy!!"

I let Tristan watch one of his new movies while I got ready then we headed off to Mimi and Poppy's house for breakfast and more presents. On our way over we sang "happy birthday" to Jesus one more time! :)
He looked SO handsome!!

Mimi had everything set up so beautifully!

Time to open up more presents!

He is definitely a pro at opening presents and needed no help from us doing so!

Seriously, it can't get cuter than this!! :)

My mom made a delicious breakfast, had all the gifts sorted into different piles for each person and they were of course perfectly wrapped (she has a gift wrapping obsession!)

Mom got me Jesus Calling, a devotional for each day of the year. I had been wanting this and I am so glad I got it!

My little sis got me some amazing Marc Jacobs perfume...love!!

Mom found mine and Tristan's  family motto on this beautiful canvas.

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15

Ashley was SO excited to get her new keurig coffee maker!

Once we all opened presents and posed for a few pics, we headed off to church!

The service was beautiful, Tony Evans came as a guest and sang two beautiful songs. We ended

 the service with a candle lighting (brave to do in a brand new building!!). It was breathtaking to see thousands of candles lit with the lights turned down singing Christmas songs to our Lord on his birthday.

I am SO thankful for the precious gift of my savior that came in the form of a baby over 2,000 years ago... my life would look so different without it. I am thankful that Christmas is so much more than Santa and presents, its eternal life for those who know the truth.

After church we came home ate another delicious homecooked meal made by Mimi followed by way too many desserts. No wonder I've gained 10lbs in the past couple months, I needed it though and if I keep going to Mimi's house I'll easily gain the last 10 that I need! :)

What an amazing day we had. I can't believe 2011 has come and almost gone. It was a year of ups and downs but the faithfulness of the Lord kept us going and we're ready to ring in 2012!!!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve I started a new family tradition that I am excited to carry on for many, many years.

Tristan and I threw a birthday party for Jesus!

We had our family over and had so much fun.

I bought a birthday cake, made sausage balls and mom brought chicken salad sandwiches.

We topped off all the delicious food with hot chocolate from the crock pot!

We all sang "happy birthday" to Jesus and let Tristan blow out the candle...

He loved it!

After we ate Tristan and I gave everyone their Christmas presents from us.

All the gifts were sentimental-from the heart gifts...I think they went over well. :)

I ordered aunt Mel, aunt Natalie and Poppy key chains with Tristan's picture on it.

I ordered aunt Ashley a mouse pad with Tristan's pic on it for her to take to work.

She had asked for one of these a while ago and was very happy to get it.

And for Mimi...a framed pic from Tristan's 3 year photo shoot.

Can you tell this family loves Tristan?! Ha!

Of course little man had to open something too...

So I let him open his new Cars pjs, he loved them and wore them to bed.

Once we finished dinner, cake and presents we headed down to my apartment club house to play ping pong (which I beat everyone in the family at...ha!), pool and basketball.

We had so much fun celebrating Jesus' birthday and spending time with family.

This has been such an amazing holiday season and I am thankful for all of the sweet blessings the Lord has showered upon us over the past few months.

 I am very excited to welcome in 2012 and see what God has in store for us!!

I'll do a post later this week on our Christmas day celebrations.

Merry Christmas!

The final count down!

I can't believe this week came and went SO fast!

We had such a fun time doing something special each day/night.

I absolutely love this time of year and I love it even more as Tristan grows older.

Tuesday, Tristan and I started our day off early with aunt Ashley. We went with her to Best Buy to purchase a new lap top. Tristan was such a good little shopper so we rewarded him with some Chick fil A after!

I had to go to work afterwards but since Tristan stays with Mimi on Tues and Thurs he got to leave with aunt Ashley. He was SO excited to ride in her car. It's the little things in life. :)

After work I met the fam over at my parents house, we ate Chili's to go then headed off to look at lights.

Before we went Tristan had to put on a show for us all, trying on aunt Ashley's shoes... Ha!

Oh, he knows we think he is THE cutest thing ever!!

We went to Diamond Lock and saw some gorgeous homes decorated beautifully!

When we pulled into the neighborhood Poppy said "Tristan aren't all the lights cool?!" There was no answer.

Mimi replied "Just let him look, you know he likes to stare." Ha!! (so true).

So we didn't think anything of it, kept driving and about 5 minutes later...

We all realized he was passed out. He never even made it into the neighborhood awake.

 Poor guy!

My 2 favorite homes were the one that had their lights programmed to a radio station and they blinked on and off to the tune of the songs...then this one, with a life size Santa asleep in a bed in the yard!

Wednesday, we went to dinner at Mimi and Poppy's house. Mimi rented The Help (best movie ever!!) for us girls to watch and Poppy and Tristan had some male bonding time.

We also enjoyed warm cookies with ice cream on top.

As Tristan would say, "it was delicious!"

Thursday, Tristan had speech therapy in the morning. The speech pathologist said she could already see huge improvements (so could I). I am so thankful that I was able to get Tristan into such an amazing center, we love Ms. Sarah! After therapy we went shopping to get supplies for the birthday party we're throwing for Jesus. Tristan tried so hard to get me to buy a Cars birthday cake for the Lord.

I decided to go with a more traditional theme though. :) We ended the night...you guessed it at Mimi and Poppy's house for dinner (I loved all the home cooking I got this week!) and catching the finale of the X factor. Love that show!!

Tristan and I came home and I let him stay up wayyy past his bed time and drink hot chocolate and watch a show with his momma. He is such a cuddle bug and loves being right next to me. I cherish our moments alone together and can't wait to see what they look like in 5, 10, 15 years from now. 

This morning we went with aunt Mel to see Alvin and the Chipmunks 3!

Tristan loved it. I analyzed it a little too much, apparently. I kept whispering to Melody comments like

 "Why would someone be friends with a chipmunk...? Chipmunks don't sing...wouldn't you be freaked out if a chipmunk landed on your shoulder while you were dancing?!" etc. Melody finally reminded me "this is a KID'S movie!!" We both laughed and enjoyed the show, it really was cute. Sometimes I just have to put the future psychologist in me aside and not be so analytical. Ha!

After the movie we had to go to the arcade. I should mention that Mel treated Tristan and I to this little date, she is such a good auntie and loves little man so much, all of his aunties do!

This next picture cracks me up. Here I am trying to reason with my 3 year old to take just one more picture!! :)

It worked...kinda.

I LOVE this picture. It explains their bond perfectly. Each of my sisters have a very individual and special bond with Tristan. Can you tell that he and Mel have a goofy/fun/loving bond?!

He sure does love to give kisses and I love receiving them from him!!

Riding in Santa's sleigh! 

Tonight we joined Faith and her sweet family for dinner and cookie decorating!

I have known this family since I was a little 8 year old girl and they are literally like my second family.

I am so glad we got to spend some quality time with them this holiday season.

Brooke was so sweet and took on the cookie making/decorating, thanks Brookie!

I love this picture for mean reasons: Faith suddenly has clothes on ( I love playing dress up with her!!), Tristan looks furious and Colby looks like the happiest boy on earth! :)

My sweet Faith Alexa

There's my happy boy!

Tristan licking off the icing...I scrubbed his teeth when we got home. He has a dentist appointment next week and I am praying that with all the cookies, cupcakes and sweets this boy has eaten the past month he has no cavities. Ha!

Tristan did not want to leave (not shocking). I went to go get him and I found these two love birds in the rocking chair together, sharing goldfish, watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

I love their little friendship and how much they enjoy each other.

It is almost Christmas Eve, I can't believe it!!

Gifts are all wrapped, Jesus' birthday party is all planned and ready to be celebrated and I have one excited little boy asking me every 30 minutes if it is Christmas.

I leave you with this awesome reminder of what Christmas is ALL about...

Did you know that the chopping down of the Christmas tree represents the death of Christ and putting it back up again represents the resurrection of Christ? Did you know that the wreaths we hang are never ending circles, that represent eternity? Candy canes were made to look like shepherd hooks and the colors red, Jesus' blood, white, purity. The gifts, represents the 3 gifts the wise men brought for Jesus. So when you are running around trying to get the "perfect gift", stop yourself, take a deep breath and remember we have been given the perfect gift. Jesus Christ was given to us to remove all of our sins.

Merry Christmas Eve eve!!