Christmas Eve

Aside from Christmas morning, Christmas Eve is my favorite day!!! I grew up opening my gifts Christmas Eve night, then Santa came Christmas morning, I kept that tradition going with my kiddos. I feel like if it is all on Christmas Day it is just too overwhelming. My parents come over each year as well as our closest friends Norm and Rachal {aka Nuncle Norm & Miss Red/Fred}...boy oh boy is it a good time!!! This year thanks to Miss Red we had a gingerbread house contest. I will consider this our practice run because it was a bit chaotic and took me a while to make the frosting, so not everyone got to make a house. Next year we already have it planned out better complete with judges and prizes!

We ate, opened gifts, decorated gingerbread houses, sprinkled reindeer food in the front yard, set out cookies for Santa, tucked the kids in bed, then zzzzzzzzzz. Woke up nice and early to see what the jolly man brought and he spoiled them rotten ;)

Miss Red LOVED her lighted flamingo ;)

Papa is a gift!

Nuncle Norn shoved all of his sunflower seeds, sno-balls, and Oreos in his belly!

The boys wished Papa a safe night at work and wanted reports back if he had to taser someone LOL

Just put the clues together and found out we are going to Disney World!

It's getting real!

Hubs loved his autographed Willie Nelson guitar! I LOVE surprising him :)

Reindeer fed...check.

Santa's loot.....

more loot....

and more.

Love those expressions!

Cochran Christmas

Christmas at Mama B's {Bumble Bee as Porter calls her ;)} is always a great time, we look forward to it every year! It is such a laid back visit with family, not sure who has more fun....the kids or adults. I feel so blessed to have all of these people in our lives!

Mama B's tradition of reading a Christmas story to all of the grandkids

Hulk Smash!

It wouldn't be a complete night without brotherly competition!

The fam!

Our fam!

Holiday Parties

Brandon and I had soooo much fun helping at both boys holiday parties this year. I think the "theme" for both parties was "see how many silly pictures we can take"....I have tons of silly pics of the kids and adults. We left school early after the parties to start our Christmas break. I love when I get to have all 3 boys at home with me :)

Randomness

Christmas break is over, the kids are back in school, it is a New Year and things are as chaotic as usual! My to-do list is growing like crazy.

I am seriously trying to get all of my pics downloaded from the holidays and blog by next weekend. I would do it over the weekend, but we have a busy and fun one planned! I am beyond devastated though, because we have had a Nikon Coolpix that we used for random occasions when taking my big camera wasn't feasible. Well there were 500 pics on that camera....all the way back to our Santa Fe ski trip last Feb and I am 99% sure that the camera accidentally got thrown away in the Christmas trash :/ I seriously get nauseated thinking about it. That is the camera that has all of our New York City pics on it too. Major. Pouting. Brandon is still hopeful that we will find it some where...I am not as optimistic because I have searched and searched. Oh well. Hmph.

I am having to go on the anti-candida diet again that I went on 2 years ago....grrrr.....it is harder this time. But I need to, I can feel big differences in my body and health. Just have to be super disciplined....better get with the program.

One REALLY exciting tidbit is that we found our DREAM home and have plans to build it. Problem is we don't know where to build it. That is a big problem HA! We have always wanted land (at least 5 acres)......but we really LOVE our neighborhood and location. Trying to find land in our area is next to impossible. But not entirely impossible, we just have to be really patient. {I am not good at being patient haha...character flaw} We aren't in a hurry though, it is just really exciting because we love the floor plan. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love our house right now, it is perfect for us.....but the house we found on a few acres is our dream. Squeal. I couldn't fall asleep last night because my mind was spinning thinking about the dream home, decorating, and what our Christmas tree will look like in the living room. HA! Our eyes are on a few pieces of property, so we shall see. Time will tell...until then I will be patient. ;)

Half of my first year in Junior League is over and it has been fun! I still have a lot of requirements to finish through May, but I am looking forward to quite a few things. I will blog soon about some of the experiences. The few that I have had so far really open my eyes to the things that I will have the chance to do with the Junior League and I cannot wait!

Well I could go on, but I must sleep. The alarm for school will be here much too soon and I still have stuff to do.

Thanksgiving Feast - K & G

I think I was so caught up having fun that I barely took any pics of Kadon and Garner's Thanksgiving feasts at school.....I know I tried to get pics of Garner, but he would not be still long enough, they were all too blurry. We had fun though and it was a crazy busy day. Each kid had their feast at lunch time, the book fair was going on and 3rd grade had their campaign speeches. Kadon was running for city council in his class and made it! Woot woot!!! We are so proud of him. He worked so hard writing and memorizing his speech, it was 1 1/2 pages long and he had it memorized in 2 days. He rocked the speech in front of the his class and all of the parents....even I would have been a nervous wreck, but he did amazing! His slogan was "Don't be lousy, vote for Krause"....he is just like his daddy ;)

B & Kiki....future daughter in law ;) they already get along so well!

Porter was very excited to see Clifford at the book fair!

Vote for Krause!

Thanksgiving Feast - Porter

Porter's school had a Thanksgiving feast and small program....Brandon and I both went and had so much fun being with our little turkey! Gobble Gobble!

P with his teacher Ms. Cynthia...she rocks!