A Christmas Journey

My BIL and SIL’s church does a Christmas Journey each year for 3 nights.  It’s a huge production to say the least.  As someone who worked at a church for many years I can’t imagine the job that someone has to coordinate hundreds of volunteers who rotate every 30 minutes along with animals, hayrides, etc.  This is the first time we’ve been able to go and I am so glad we did.  Grandma, Maggie, Landree, Hudson and I headed to McKinney to eat a yummy dinner at Pei Wei before heading to the church, but not before stopping to buy a new pair of pants for Hudson since his diaper leaked and I didn’t pack anything extra.  We were shocked at the line when we got there.  I think we waited about an hour or more, but they were passing out hot chocolate {which Landree loved} and it wasn’t too cold and we all took turns holding Hudson. 
When we got on the hay less hayride they gave us a blanket to cover up and we were on our way to Bethlehem.  Uncle B was a Roman solider and Gigi and the kids were people in Bethlehem.  Soldiers would come up to our wagon and ask if we were from Bethlehem, and then a  lady (I think a gypsie-is that ok to say?) came up to the wagon to ask or sell us something and a soldier came up and said, “Leave these fine people alone!  Leave these fine people alone!”  Funny side story-Landree was saying that in the car one day and it took me a few minutes to remember and understand what she was saying.  The Christmas Journey began when the angel appeared to Mary, through Jesus ministry on Earth, His death, and Resurrection. 

This isn’t the best picture of any of us, but I thought it was funny that when I bent down to get beside Landree she bent down too. 
     

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to our wonderful Momma’s!  I know we are so blessed to have such wonderful relationships with them. 

I couldn’t ask for a better Momma or Mia for my kiddos.  My mom and I are so much alike in so many ways-I’ve learned everything I know from the best :)   I love you so much and I feel so blessed that you are my mom and my best friend!

 

 

And I’m so thankful for my mother in law, Angie.  Thank you for being such a wonderful mother to Jeff.  Because of you he is such a wonderful husband and father.  We love you!  

 

Mia is actually at our house today!  I can’t remember the last time I got to spend Mother’s Day with her and it was so nice!  We went to church this morning, picked up lunch to eat at home, took naps, and then ate a yummy dinner that I made yesterday, twiced baked potatoes, salad, and broccoli salad, then we went to Coldstone for ice cream.  It was a wonderful day! 

I want to share more about our Mother’s Day cards and little gift we got for our Momma’s, but I’m a totally slacker that hates the post office and I haven’t gotten Grandma’s in the mail yet so I won’t spoil it for her. 

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you too!

Fun with Family!

Landree is really into who is our family these days.  She’ll say Grandma is my family, Mia, Popee and Zoe (their dog) are my family, Maggie is my family, Aunt Megan is my family, etc.  And she’s been so excited that ‘our family’ Grandma and Maggie were coming to visit.  They got here on Wednesday evening and we’ve had so much fun hanging out the past few days.  We actually headed to the beach on Thursday morning and stayed at a fabulous beach house that belongs to a family in our church until yesterday.  I had lofty goals to get beautiful beach pictures of the kids, but we were having too much fun playing in the sand, napping (Hudson at least), and hanging out.  Plus I know that Stacey will be taking our beach pictures next month so I wasn’t really feeling too much pressure.  

On Thursday evening we decided to walk around and check out all that the area had to offer.  The place we were staying had places for campers to set up and tons of beach houses along with 2 playgrounds, a pool, kids splash park, grocery store, eating places, an ice cream shop, skateboard park, mini golf, laundry mat, and more.  It was such a neat place we’d love to try and go again.  We took little beach walk and stopped for ice cream.

This was Hudson’s first time to see the ocean!  Looks less than impressed, huh?

 

Landree on the other hand has been to the beach several times, but seemed to really enjoy it the most this trip!

She kept laughing and saying the sand tickled her toes and she stopped to pick up every shell she passed!

Then she proceeded to lay down and make a sand angel. 

Enjoying our ice cream:

 

Grandma picked up a new pair or shades for Hudson, which he thought were…tasty :)  

It was a little too cold to actually swim in the ocean, but this girl had the best time building sand castles with her Aunt Maggie, Grandma, and Daddy in the sand.  Everyone headed down to the beach on Friday morning while Hudson and I stayed behind at the beach house while he napped.  I made us a hot dog lunch to eat on the beach when Hudson woke up and then we all played a little longer before heading to the pool.  Grandma, Hudson and I mainly hung out in the shade while Landree, Daddy and Maggie swam in the freezing pool and then soaked up the sun (with lots of SPF for my very pale girl). 

  

We had a lot of fun cooking at the house and just hanging out.  Saturday morning was a little gloomy out.   We were going to try and go play at the playground, but when it ended up sprinkling so we just drove around on the golf cart before heading home. 

Today Jeff preached at church and we headed to lunch, Lowe’s (to get a new grill) and the grocery store.  I made the Pioneer Woman’s pizza crust and tonight we made tomato pesto pizza and this caramelized onion and prosciutto pizza.  Oh. My. Word!  It was yum!  Try it soon!  You’ll be so glad you did! 

Grandma and Maggie will be here until Tuesday morning so we have a little bit more time to spend with them. :)  I still have Easter pictures to post!  I hope to catch up soon!

The Best Grandparents ever!

We really are blessed, we know that our kids have the best grandparents ever (and we have the best parents)! Not only do they love them to pieces and call and leave sad messages everyday about how no one ever calls them or posts to the blog, POPEE, but they always think about us on holidays and send us a special treat. Grandma sent us a special box for Valentine’s day including pink pancakes, a GIANT puppy pillow, Pinkalicious sticker book, princess thermos, and not one, or two, but THREE marshmallow suckers for Landree. Hudson Landree enjoyed Hudson’s new Clifford pillow, silkie, and blanket that Grandma made him too.

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And then just a week later Mia sent us a box packed full of new clothes for the kids. Seriously, our kids would be naked (or at least not look near as cute without Mia’s shopping habit!)

Grandparents-we love you to pieces! Thank you for spoiling our kids (and us) like crazy! We can’t wait to see y’all soon!

Sleigh Bells Ring…Do you hear crying?

Tonight, after the Gray’s extended family Christmas gathering, Jeff’s mom, sisters, and our little family headed into Greenville to look at the Christmas lights on Park street by carriage. Most everyone had a really great time :) Hudson was getting hungry and he cried until he fell asleep. Luckily, the other family in the carriage with us had a 2 month old little girl and they were used to a crying baby. He did great until he got hungry.

Landree jumped right up into this Santa’s lap and just started chatting it up with him. I think he offered to hold her because she was cold. The piece of candy he gave her didn’t hurt either. I’m not sure what all they talked about, but was sure giggling when she talked to him. Maybe she’s excited that Mia he is going to be getting her drums after all.

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And my baby man before he got upset. Isn’t this little hat cute? Grandma got it for him at Children’s Place-it even has matching socks.

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This will definitely be on the list for future traditions. It’s in town, fun, benefits a good cause, and hot chocolate and cookies were only fifty cents each!