Fun with friends!

My high school friend, Mina, came "home" to visit for Christmas from Virginia. I was so excited to get the invite from my another high school friend, Sarah,  to go to Painting with a Twist with her and some other friends! We had such a fun time! I paint ALL the time but I never paint in front of people or in a setting like this, so, I was a little bit nervous! It was a great time, though! Lots of laughs!

Sarah got to hula hoop to try and win a game! So funny!!
Sorry I had to post these, Sarah! Couldn't resist!

It was a little hard for me because I'm so OCD and couldn't get it exactly like I would
if I were making it at home. But I tried, had fun, and that's all that matters!

I added a little bit of red to mine to match my living room but then
Laney ended up LOVING the canvas so she stole it and it's in the girls room :)

Afterwards, we all headed to Taziki's to eat dinner (for some reason I didn't take one single picture at the restaurant!!). We sat and talked for hours! We figured since it was a Saturday that the restaurant would be closing late so we really paid no attention to the time.. Well....they closed at 9:00 p.m!! We noticed this fact at about 9:30! OOPS!

A look back at...December

December was a fun, busy month! I think we had something planned every weekend and lots to do during the week, as well. We had most of our Christmas shopping done on the weekend after Thanksgiving, so thankfully we didn't have a lot of Christmas shopping to add to the crazy mix! Here is a look back at our December.

Laney had lots of physical therapy appointments in the month of December:

One day, Cade helped Daddy rake leaves and found a big stick in the yard. He decided to plant it and make a tree! Sweet boy!!

Every year, my mom has Laney pick a "cardinal" off of the cardinal tree at school. It's kind of like the Angel Tree that the Salvation Army does. Anyways, this year, since Sadie started school, she got to be a part of our annual shopping trip for the cardinal tree! First, we ate at Jason's Deli! Yummy! Then we went shopping and went back to Nana and Pepaw's house to wrap the gifts. So special! Thanks, Nana!

 

One day, it was such a NICE, December day. My husband was able to wear this- shorts and a t-shirt.

 

 

The next day.... It looked like this! No lie!

 

 

Oh, Arkansas weather! We had fun though! We played in the snow, sled and made snow ice cream and hot cocoa! It was so cold! We didn't play long! The kids missed 5 days of school. They're having to make up the snow days, too. Boo! Hiss! I'm still bitter that they lose one day of Christmas vacation and have to go back on a Friday! Waaa!

 

 

 

 

Since it was so cold, we spent lots of time indoors, playing and watching movies!

 

 

I did a lot of painting:

 

 

 

 

 

And Brandon did a lot of wrapping and rearranging gifts under the tree! His absolute favorite thing to do for Christmas!!

 

We had a slumber party with Alli! On a school night!

 

Every year, we play the Jingle Bell Rock game with a local radio station. I won't talk much about it because it just makes me angry! haha! But we always have a lot of fun. We are also usually the first ones to the general area that the rock is located and somehow, every year, we don't find it!! :( We usually make friends and spend lots of family time together though. So it's worth it! This year, the biggest blessing was driving down this little country road and seeing an old lady carrying firewood from way out in her yard to her front porch. We stopped and helped her carry wood. She was worried about an upcoming ice storm. I think it blessed us, WAY more than it blessed her. She was a sweetie!

 

 

 

 

We did a little bit of shopping, too! Love these three!!

 

 

 

 

 

All Aboard!

This year, our family started doing something new! We bought tickets for the Christmas Train in Springdale. It's a short train ride from Springdale to Johnson. We had planned to ride the Polar Express in Branson but we procrastinated too long and they were out of tickets. :(

They were supposed to have all kinds of games and Santa was supposed to be there, etc. But since snowpocalypse happened....most of the activities were cancelled! Boo! We still had fun riding the train, though and Santa showed up to say hi to the kids. We all ate together before the ride and had hot cocoa, afterwards. Then we all headed home, quickly, before it got dark because the roads were going to freeze back!