6 Christmas's

I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone. All the anticipation leading up to Christmas is probably the best part since it just passes too quickly. It's amazing to think back to last Christmas and Stella was BARELY crawling around. Now, she's running, literally, and able to open all her gifts. It's just so precious to see my sweet baby becoming such a little, sweet girl. She's talking SO good now and even telling me she's gone poo poo (TMI I know, but I'm just really proud, ha). Well, back to Christmas. We celebrated 6 Christmases this year.

1. Sunday, December 16th - we celebrated with my parents and my sister and brother in law. We went to Urban Crust to celebrate my birthday a week early. They were all going to Georgia this year during Christmas and this is one of the first Christmas's I've missed in Georgia in 28 years! Growing up, Santa always came to our house early and we always spent the Christmas holiday in Georgia with my mom and dad's families. I absolutely treasure those times, but now with a little one of our own and the difficulty of traveling that long distance, we decided not to join this year and stay home. So, we exchanged gifts with my family after my birthday lunch and hung around their house being lazy the rest of the day!

2. Saturday, December 22nd - we celebrated with Blake's dad and step mom, Greg and Lori; Blake's sister and brother in law, Ryan and Micah (and their little bun in the oven, GRACE!!); and Blake's step brother and sister in law, Will and Dana, and their little boy Deegan. Lori fixed some wonderful food that we snacked on throughout the evening. We exchanged gifts and Santa came by to pass out a couple gifts to Stella and Deegan. Stella was NOT having it. She wanted to be polite, so through her tears she'd wave and say hi to Santa, but if he'd come close she would tell him "No, no Santa!" It made us all laugh! We spent the rest of the evening outside by the fire watching Stella and Deegan take turns sliding down the slide.

3. Sunday, December 23rd - we spent the first half of the day celebrating my 28th birthday and letting Stella play with the gifts she got from Greg and Lori! Blake made me an AWESOME lunch with steak, pork chops, duck, mushrooms, and asparagus. Plus, he'd bought me some cheesecake and chocolate covered strawberries (my favorite!). Then, we went to Blake's grandparents house, Mamaw and Papaw's, to celebrate Christmas with Mamaw's side of the family. Stella loves playing with Carson and Allie (Blake's cousin, Heather's, kids) so she had fun running around with them. Then, we went to the Fatted Calf in downtown Rockwall with Ryan and Micah and met Blake's mom and stepdad, Steve and Sheli to celebrate mine and Sheli's birthdays! (Isn't that cool that I share the same birthday as Blake's mom - pretty special day for Blake if I do say so myself ;)). That night I started not to feel well, so I decided I would go into the doctor first thing Monday morning, just in case I needed to be on medicine.

4. Monday, December 24th - I woke up feeling AWFUL. I had body aches and chills, but somehow managed to drive myself to the doctor. I didn't have strep or the flu (which have both been going around), but I did have some throat thing, so he gave me a Z-Pack and I was on my way. I spent the rest of the day resting and laying around and then we headed to Blake's mom's house that afternoon. Sheli and Steve had quite the spread of awesome food, so again, we munched on that most of the afternoon and evening. Sheli's mom, Mimi, and Aunt Paula, Charissa, and Sam (Uncle Tyler was at home sick, too) all came over to celebrate as well as Ryan and Micah! Stella got a tricycle and an amazing table and chairs that Steve built for her play room! Steve and Sheli had also built a doll house for Stella and Grace that will stay at their house - I know Stella is going to have so much fun playing with that! We laid around visiting and being lazy until about 8pm and then headed home to get our little one to sleep so Santa could come (plus Santa had to finish putting together her little kitchen - which was a BEAST)!

5. and 6. Tuesday, December 25th - we woke up around 7:30 and let Stella play with her new kitchen that Santa had brought and her other little toys. I could tell she just wasn't feeling right and she pretty much stayed fussy the entire day :( Both of Blake's parents came by to see Stella and to see what Santa brought her and then we headed to Mamaw and Papaw's again for the annual prime rib dinner that Papaw cooks. They moved dinner time up to early afternoon because of the impending weather, and sure enough as we were heading over there it started to snow! And it kept snowing - it was so cool to have a white Christmas, since I can't ever remember having one before!! We didn't stay long because Blake was started to feel pretty awful himself. So, we went back home so he and Stella could rest and not spread any more germs.

It turns out both Blake and Stella had strep throat :( So, all 3 of us are on antibiotics! We still had a wonderful Christmas remembering that our celebration is for Jesus's birth!

Duck Hunters

Last week, we took our annual duck and goose hunting trip with our friends, Ryan and Melissa. Blake's family has a deer lease in Northwestern Oklahoma (just a few miles from the Kansas border) and not only are the deer plentiful, but the ducks and geese number in the thousands!

{my reading material - my definition of camping :)}

We packed up and headed out last Thursday morning and I had talked Blake into taking a different route that was going to go right through Tishomingo, OK....which just happened to be where Miranda Lambert opened her new store, The Pink Pistol! So, Melissa and I got to have a little shopping excursion on our way to the deer lease!

{all packed up}

{The Pink Pistol - Tishomingo, OK}

{Blake and Blake}

I decided not to hunt in the mornings with the group. I wanted to sleep in and enjoy no work and no kiddo! We stayed in a trailer, but it was cozy. The trailer had just been moved the week before, so luckily the electricity and water were turned on, but not the propane. So, cooking was a little tricky! We scouted that first night we were there and could not believe all the geese flying around. Their honking was so loud and I was getting excited for the hunt!

{All those dots are geese!}

{Our home for the weekend}

{comfy - cozy}

The boys set up the duck and goose decoys and we hunkered down! We saw THOUSANDS of geese flying around, but only a few came to the pond where we were at. The hunting itself wasn't as good as it has been in the past, but it was still fun. It's just frustrating to see that many flying around but none coming in close enough to get a shot at.

{Blake, Blaze, and Ryan}

{The country is just beautiful up there}

{Camo couple}

{Melissa and I in our camo get-up}

{boys and their decoys}

{Can you see me???}

{Yes....I resorted to taking selfie's while I was bored out of mind waiting for those flying birds!}

{We look like killin' machines}

{There was absolutely NO shortage of turkeys - they were EVERYWHERE}

{This was what I did during our second day hunt}

Sadly, on Tuesday, we got this picture of the trailer on fire. There had been a propane leak and somehow the trailer had caught on fire. I'm SO thankful we weren't there when this happened and that the carbon monoxide didn't affect us. So scary!