Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas, from my sweet family to yours! We hope you have a very special week with the ones you love the most. We pray that you end this year happier, healthier and more blessed than you started and that next year is even better than this one.

 

This year we decided to do a tri fold card. It's a little different than what we've ever done in the past, but I loved how they turned out. Surprisingly we've gotten more compliments on these cards than any other before. We ordered from shutterfly again (we do every year) and I am still very much in love with these than the day that I ordered them. Probably more so. We had a hard time filling all of the spots for pictures and I didn't even fill in all the spots for words (most of them, but not all)! 

Happy Holidays!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

Back in September shortly after Dominick's birthday party I mentioned to some of my friends how I thought it would be so fun to have an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. They all agreed. I asked Ryan and he said he wasn't really feeling the idea of hosting since we just had the birthday party. He was right, it's a lot of work to host a lot of people and with us nothing is ever a small party. Normally it's the more the merrier so he just simply said not this year. Luckily I have a friend who loves hosting a good party and she offered to have it at their house. She loves being a hostess and always has the perfect guest list.

December 14th was the day of the party and I was looking forward to wearing my ugly sweater. My sweater and Ryan's vest were both from Walmat ($19 EACH) and then I jazzed mine up a little bit. I want to mention that mine was a second place winner and I was super pumped about it. It was the perfect night with our good friends and we had a great time.

we changed him into elf pajamas to be more silly. He had on a Santa shirt to be festive when he arrived. :)

Have a good weekend, y'all!

Meeting Santa

Last year I was not really all that worried about Dominick meeting the jolly white bearded man (aka Santa). He was a very social baby, would go to nearly anyone and was almost always happy. When we took him I was actually not that happy because I didn't have him in the outfit I wanted, but there was no line so off to meet Santa we went. He did great.

This year I was a little nervous for. Dominick is still very social and quite happy, but he won't go to just anyone and he also has a little mind of his own. We had been holding off and holding off, but I told Ryan we really needed to get there so Dominick tell Santa what he wants before it's just too late. I had to run errands last night so off to town we went (which probably hasn't happened on a week night in over a year). Dominick was looking quite adorbs in his sweater and button down (which we changed into after dinner) and he had a nap in the car; he had a full belly, a cat nap behind him and was all smiles. The line wasn't too long so we waited the 30 minutes to see Santa and walked away with no tears and two good pictures.

Ryan took this with his phone and then got yelled at. HA

Linking up with Ashley and Amy

A Random Post

I have so much to update this little space with so I guess I will just do a post of all sorts of random things. Here we go.

+I have a couple posts from October still, Dominick's 15 month post (from December 3rd) that I still need to add pictures to and a couple from November which will most likely be added to this and deleted from my drafts.

+Ryan graduated from ALS on the 12th of December. It was a great event and one that we are both glad to have behind us. I didn't end up taking any pictures at the graduation (not ONE) and we didn't even get a picture of us. It's very rare for Ryan to be in service dress and for me to actually dress up so I am kicking myself now, but let me just say we do clean up nicely.

excuse the messy bathroom (and that's Ryan's ugly vest)

+Our Thanksgiving weekend was one of our favorites. It was very, very busy. I made 20 lbs of potatoes, dressing and a salad dish for our Thanksgiving at a friends house. We always feel super blessed to have wonderful friends that we can spend the holidays with.

20lbs of potatoes pealed and ready to be boiled.

+After Thanksgiving dinner we got home around 8 and my friend and I decided to brave the crowds and went shopping. We were home before 3 and got nearly everything that we wanted. That's a WIN in my book. To be honest, Ryan and I did the majority of our shopping online this year and it worked out in our favor.

+I also have to give a little shout out to R. He always does Black Friday shopping (never early), but this year he said he was going to take Dominick with him. They were going to go have a little guys day and have a "special" lunch (McDonalds) and go shopping. I'm so proud of him for not only braving the crazy shoppers, but also taking Dominick with him. It's no easy task taking a one year old shopping so I am just so proud. I know they had a great time. Dominick came back full of smiles and Ryan said he did AWESOME.

+I ordered our stockings this year from Pottery Barn. I had a hell of a time, but their customer service made up for it and I have them all. I kind of love them. I got the natural fair isle collection. They're super cute. I need to get Dominick's monogrammed since PBK messed up and his doesn't have one. Do you know anyone who would monogram a stocking?

Dominick's is the train, mine is the gray and red and Ryan's is the red and cream

+We decorated our tree on Thanksgiving weekend. I actually did all my decorating on Saturday morning. I also bought Dominick this little tree from Target. I still have to get it a tree skirt, but it's cute and he enjoys looking at it. I want to get him a different one, but this one gets the job done until I can find exactly what I want.

Someone else is also a big fan of the Christmas tree!

+We are going back to Michigan this month and we are getting very, very excited. I think we are both wishing we would have waited a little bit until after Christmas to come instead of when we are, but we've already got our tickets and are looking forward to the winter wonderland that is awaiting us.

+I think my mom made this tree for my Grandma a LONG time ago. I always loved it and when my Grandma passed I asked for this Christmas tree. It's one of my favorite decorations.

+When I had Dominick my cousins gave us this sweatshirt for Dominick and it finally fits him. It was my cousins daughters. Pentwater is a family tradition of ours and we go there every summer around the 4th of July so I love that he can now wear it. He sure loves being outdoors.

+I was trying to get a picture of him in one of his Christmas pajamas one night. I sat him in this chair and he was not having it. Most times when I try to get his picture they turn out all sorts of crazy. He's a wild one, I tell ya.

It looks like it should be a good picture, but he moved into this position just as I took the picture.

+We had an ugly Christmas Sweater holiday party at work. I was the only one who dressed up, but I'm happy I did and I loved my sweater.

you'll see this sweater in another post to come.

+The 13th we had to go to Bakersfield for dog food and to pick up Ryan's gun safe (his Christmas present from my parents and I). We only go every 3-4 months and we were almost out of dog food so it was time. When we go we always stop at Chick Fil A and Dominick was very happy about it.

+I love morning snuggles with Dominick. He rarely sits on my lap or snuggles too often, but in the mornings after he's just woke up or at night before he's going to bed he will sit in my lap and cuddle. It's my favorite.

+I bought these pj's from Crazy 8 last year, but I think they still had them this year. They're similar to his Santa ones from last year. They're super adorable and some of my absolute favorites. We spent most of our Sunday in pajamas, but after his cupcake at lunch he had to be changed. He's a cupcake fan.

I'm not sure what those white lines are?

 

+Dominick is an adventure seeker to say the least. He loves making me all sorts of nervous and Ryan normally encourages it. One night I was talking to my mom and Ryan was playing with him and he said, "Al, Al, hurry, look!" So I did and this is what I saw. When he got on top he would stand up and "jump" to Ryan. He's constantly doing things that scare me. He's definitely all boy!

So there we have it. I think I'm finally caught up a little bit. I have a few more posts to come, but I hope all of you are enjoying the holiday season. It's going by so quickly.

Family Pictures

Back in November when we went to San Diego we had scheduled a session with a photographer for our Christmas photos. We are obviously from Michigan and we love the mitten so I thought it would be fun to have some casual photos taken in our mitten shirts as well as our other outfits. I think they turned out fabulous and love them. Here's a (LOT) few of our favorites.

Mug Swap

A while back I signed up to a mug swap and I thought it would be so fun during this time of year. Who doesn't like to receive a pretty little something in the mail? I was paired with Jen from The Adventures of Our Army Life. She's super sweet and I am so glad I got to "meet" someone new.

I had taken Dominick to the park and as we were walking home I saw the delivery man walking from my door so I was super excited to see what had arrived for us. Sure enough it was my mug!!!

pretty little mug

Thank you so much Jen! I LOVE my mug!