Festival of lights

Sixteen months ago, we moved to Charleston.  Those of you who know me well, know I was asking everyone and their dog what we should be doing.  Any and every single person told us about the amazing light display about 30 minutes from our house.  We didn't make it there last year, but knew we "had" to make it this year.

Wow, is all I have to say!  

There were shops, marshmallow roasting pits, and fun activities for the kids.

The perfect family outing.

We made it a group activity with our Thanksgiving friends.

I had to post this pic because I thought it was so awesome!!  Noah's ark has one window, and one door, just like it says in the Bible :)  It's not very often you see that.

We tried so hard to get these stinkers to hug and get a picture.

Think we annoyed them?

This describes their relationship, perfectly.

The most incredible sand castle

HOLLA'!!!  A decent picture of all of us!

Jen, Jake, Noah, and Corley

These people have made being away from home so easy.

Oh, I can't wait until next year!!

Salt Dough Ornaments

If you remember, I decided last year to start a fun little tradition of making salt dough ornaments with the girls.  If you don't, you can see last years here.

This year, we had to do it a little different than last.  I was invited to an ornament exchange for church, and I decided there was nothing better than a salt dough.

Oh, and by the way, I decided to make these less than 24 hours before the party, surprise, surprise!!

If you would like to start this tradition with your family, you can find the recipe here.

TA DA!!  The finished product.  I just love how they turned out.

Decorating the tree

After letting our tree set for a couple of days, it was time to decorate.

We of course listened to John Denver Christmas, a tradition I wanted to carry on from my childhood.

I can honestly say, this is one of my very favorite things to do all year.  

It brings back so many memories from when I was little.

Please don't judge the non-Christmas pajamas.  I major slacked this year!

I absolutely love everything about our tree, and its decorations.  Everything has a meaning, is homemade, or was a gift.  Best kind of tree there is.

Lebanon Christmas Tree Farm

For years, I have wanted to find a cute little Christmas tree farm, where we could pick out a tree.  Well, living in the middle of dry west Texas, I've been out of luck.  Luckily, we live in a place now that has that option.  I did some "major" research and found the cutest little family owned farm.  When we arrived they told us about our many options and we were off on the hunt for the perfect tree.

The grandfather took the girls on a little train ride.  

3 smiles, 1 picture.  Put it in the books!

I love this man and his girls!

We found the most beautiful tree and looked like crazy people getting it home!!

I am so beyond excited to have found this little jewel of a place, and can't wait to go back next year!

Meet Maria

I have always been that person that refused to do Elf on the Shelf.  When asked if we did it, I always would say I didn't want my children to have to have an object to "make them behave".  Well, I took the plunge this year.  Rather than use it as a behavior thing, I wanted it to just be something fun.  Not gonna lie, I def. played that card a few times.  Good intentions!!

We had a breakfast to welcome our sweet elf.  My sweet, middle child, MP named our elf.  Maria, is her name.  Don't ask, I have no idea.  In the beginning, when someone would ask her name, my sweet AK would respond, "Her name is Maria, she is hispanic."  HAHA!!  Isn't that hilarious?  Over the holidays the girls watched The Sound of Music and decided Maria is actually from Austria.  

I attempted to make the breakfast a little bit healthy, thank you Pinterest.

and, thank you again!!

 Maria played many a trick and of course I didn't capture every moment.  Here are a few things we found our sweet Austrian elf doing.

This silly elf even found us in TX.

Sweetest note AK wrote Maria.

Truth be told

There are no words to describe how horrible of a blogger I have been.  Truth be told, I have been even worse at taking pictures.  There for a while I didn't blog because I had no pictures to show you, and lets be real, that's what "most" of you are here for.  So, take this as a formal apology for my slacking.  

Well, let's get caught up.  Life is crazy as usual, busy, and it's about to get even more so.  Believe it or not, today is what I am considering my New Year's, so get ready for goals, resolutions, blah, blah, blah.

I am so sad I didn't take more pictures of our Thanksgiving because it was one for the books.  Thank goodness it was busy, because otherwise I would have been a weeping mess thinking about my family all being together without us.

We started the morning at the annual Thanksgiving football game put on by TRH.  Let's just say, I have much more respect from my work peeps.  My husband is a balla!!!

We decided instead of spending the day by ourselves we would have a feast with our military family. 

Jen and Jake hosted this year, and our friends Tony and A.J. also joined in.  We had more food than you can imagine, and it was all so delicious.  I gave this framed print to Jen as a TY for being our gracious host.  On a day we remember the things we are thankful for, our military family is absolutely at the top of the list.

Can you believe how old this girl looks?  I am so proud.

Well, like I said, I have been horrible at taking pictures.  That is all I have from Thanksgiving :(

Hopefully, it will get better.

See ya soon!