christmas celebrating {personal}

We've had a wonderful Christmas holiday filled with lots of family and fun! The boys and I spent the month doing some fun things leading up to Christmas, like decorating the house, putting up the tree, going to look at awesome Christmas lights, reading Christmas books, making our Happy Birthday Jesus cake, more baking, and their favorite thing: painting!!! We painted little Christmas figurines, and we made special ornaments for all of their grandparents and great-grandparents this year!...

I FINALLY got my Christmas cards mailed out after they were stranded in the snow for about 5 days! We loved our card this year & were so happy with it, thanks to Tiffany at Lexi Jayne's...

Tiffany also did my parents' Christmas card, and I love it, too...so I'm showing y'all...

We spent Christmas Eve eating Daddy's yummy chili and attending our church. Mimi & Pop Pop got to join us for the festivities!!...

I LOVE flashback pictures, so I'm going to include some on here of Christmases past...I could look at older pictures of my boys for hours!! I HATE that they get big so fast!!!...

We used to call them the triplets, because one of my best girlfriends had her little boy just a few days after me. My mom bought them matching Christmas outfits!...

Last year...

and this year...

Don't all Christmas pictures in front of the tree end up like this?...

When we got home from church, we had a surprise!!!...

We had one wrapped gift with a message on it...

Christmas jammies! We put the cookies we baked & milk out for Santa...

And we left carrots out front for the reindeer...

The boys went to sleep pretty easily, and we woke up to much excitement!...(and I apologize for the following pictures that have my old street signs in the background...they create a horrible glare on the pics.)...

Brogan spotted a gift that is to be shared by ALL the boys in our family!!!...

A deer target to use for their bow & arrows!...

They opened all their gifts and actually used really good manners with them all! We had been telling them for the past 2 months that you never know how many things Santa will bring you. Sometimes it's only 1 thing, and we will still be thankful for it. The night before when Grady was in bed, he said, "Mommy, even if Santa brings me one thing, I'm going to be thankful. And if that one thing is only underwear, I'll still be happy!" So adorable! Well, they got more than one thing...

Opening the Wii...

And what is Christmas morning like without a picture of Brogan screaming!!! One year it was because he didn't get a bike like his brothers, and this year it was because he wasn't allowed to open all of Mommy & Daddy's gifts...

We were completely finished and eating breakfast before 7:00 a.m.! Crazy!...

The reindeer loved the carrots!...

And Santa ate his cookies & drank his milk...

After nap, we headed to David's parents for lunch and to play. Brogan & Grandma played together a lot this day, even sword fighting!...

Then our 4 little nieces arrived from Dallas, so we had dinner and exchanged gifts!...

Sunday, we were back at David's parents' house for the Walters reunion. LOTS of cousins and fun!...

Okay, y'all can seriously laugh at my last picture, and I'm completely fine with it. But...drum-roll...I made a pie! Now, if you know me, you probably are thinking 'where did she buy that?' But oh no!...I really made it!!! Not sure what got into me, but I made it the morning of the reunion because I knew it would be something David would like. I'm more of a brownie-fudge-sundae-kind-of-girl myself, but I did it! And people ate it!..like, their whole piece! ;) So, just needed a little proof that I actually made something that didn't come from a frozen box!...

My parents came to New Braunfels for 2 days and we celebrated with them, as well. My mom took all the pictures, so I don't have any to post! Bummer!!!

As Christmas is over, we prepare for the upcoming year with thoughts of happiness and good health! We wish the same for all of you!