My niece is one of the greatest joys in my life!

Being with my family was one of the greatest joys this Christmas. This little face you see below brings me so much happiness. This Christmas was extra special because of her chatter, crawling and getting to know Santa! More pictures from Christmas day to come soon!

Little McCall has my dimples and chubby cheeks. Other than that, she looks like her daddy!
I love holding this little one!

My sweet sister and McCall. Don't you love the hat? Shelby is the best mom and does an incredible job of making her look precious all the time!

McCall loves Uncle Max. Especially when he plays catch with her!

And of course... Auntie Whinety was putting on her make-up and McCall wanted to participate too!

The Grench Who Stole Christmas - on Ice!

My in-laws recently went to the Gaylord Texas Hotel to see the annual Ice Sculpture exhibit. This year's theme was "The Grench Who Stole Christmas." The hotel brings in ice sculptures from Asia to come and do this every year. The room that the sculptures are in is about 25 degrees, but from what I can tell -totally worth it. We will have to do this next year.

A Pre-Christmas Adventure...Navy-Style

So, we are having the time of our lives. We are with Shelby, Jake, McCall, Mom and Dad and we are loving being together. Max, Daddy and Jake went to the base this morning and Max (as you can see below) was loving playing pilot!

Max played pilot today in Jake's plane! Max said he was the "crash test dummy" that they used to test the jet!

Jake's plane!

It is so amazing to see his name on the side of one of these powerful F18s. His service to our country makes us so proud.

Merry Christmas to each of you. May the Joy of the Lord fill your hearts this Christmas and always.

More to come soon!

Carriage Rides and Christmas Lights

My family, the Dismores (one of our close friends and their girls were flower girls in our wedding) Max and I took a Carriage Ride through Highland Park to look at the beautiful Christmas lights. This is one of our favorite Christmas traditions and we loved being with my parents and the Dismores! Thanks Dismores for treating us to this fun little Christmas tradition! Below are some pictures from our ride! Merry Christmas to each of you!

The Dismores, my parents and Max preparing for the carriage ride! If you can't see the Christmas lights in the back ground - they were gorgeous!
Grant Dismore, me, Kennady Dismore and my mama! We all bundled up and sat close which made it more fun!

Max, Savannah Dismore (up top), my daddy and Karen Dismore.

Grant and his precious girls!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

This is my absolute favorite time of year. I love getting our Christmas tree out and decorating it together. I love setting a weekend aside each year to get my house totally decorated for Christmas. Max is a great sport. We have lucked out that our tree (which was a hand-me-down) still looks good and the lights that are on it and have been on it for 10 years still work! We have already agreed that when the lights go out, we will start over with a pre-lit tree. Neither of us are interested in re-stringing lights!

I find myself coming home every night so excited to go and light candles and turn the Christmas lights on. I just wish that we could have this up for more than a month! Below is a little Christmas decor for you to enjoy!

Our front door. The garland supplies are all from Target! The stocking on the front door is made by Roundtop.

Our fire place. We are still working on stockings that match. Ava and Archers stockings are in the middle (straight from Target.)

Our Christmas tree. I love bubble lights - they look like a flash from the past.

Our hutch right off the kitchen. May be hard to see, but the Christmas santa lights are treasures that my mom collected for my sister and I since we were little!

My acrylic snow men and Christmas Spode on our dining room table!

This is the first year for our nativity set. My mom and dad gave it to us this past year, and I love it. It is made of carved wood.

Our entry hall table. These snow men and green/red candle holders are hand-me-downs from my mom! I love having things in my house that I grew up with!

These funky bead Christmas trees are our newest decoration this year. Mom gave them to us as an early Christmas sussie!

It is cold in Dallas. Ava and Archer love the fire!

Every year in Chicago

Max and I spend Thanksgiving with his family. We look forward to going and eating good food and shopping the Mag mile. Not sure if you all have experienced this, but there is not much out there that I really wanted to buy this year. Very unusual for me!

We stay at a hotel right off the Mag Mile - and I usually spend a ton of time shopping. The boys are always watching football, so it gives us girls some time to do some retail therapy! Below are a few pictures from our trip.

Mom and Dad Jodry and Al-bob (max's brother) in front of the tree at the Drake Hotel

Max and me in front of the Christmas tree in our hotel. It was an American Girl Christmas tree!