January 2017...Came and Went!

I blinked and January was over!  Yikes!  We didn't have a lot going on this month but that's a good thing sometimes.  I love staying around the house and just spending time together.  It nice to have some time to relax after the busy holidays.

Bounce house fun at Gigi and Granddaddy's

Once afternoon Mason asked to take a nap...what?!

Justin and I were able to get out for a couple date nights - I never say no to those!

Date night with the girls from the office.  From left to right: Shaun & Kim Colonna, Wes & Marleni Bruner, Justin and I, and Jillian and Matt Wheeler.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Outback and a game night at Breakout.  So much fun!

Two weeks after we returned from Texas...our Christmas tree was still on the back porch.

Mason made me this beautiful pasta necklace.  I wore it with pride that night to church and got several compliments!

Kate has been excelling at reading this year.  She has already met and exceeded her AR (accelerated reading) goal of 7 points.  The nine weeks isn't even over and she's already gotten 17 points!  You go girl!

A couple snuggling pictures with my little boos.

All bundled up on a cold day (the only one?) this winter.

My little nursery helper.

The boys started off their new year by doing card pickup for the first time.  Both their daddies followed behind them and I heard they did a great job (I was in the nursery that morning)!

On the Sunday before Nanny's birthday, we all got together for lunch to celebrate.  Unfortunately Kate was sick with pink eye so she stayed home with Justin.  

Nanny and the boys.

Helping Nanny blow out her candles - it's serious business.

Happy Birthday Nanny!

Despite our attempt to narrow down Kate's stuffed animal collection, it seems to have grown out of control once again...

One of the things Mason has worked hard on at school is writing his name.  I'm so proud of him!

I had a jury summons this month for the first time in years (5 or 6 maybe).  It is always interesting to watch how the judicial process works but thankfully this time I didn't get selected.  Whew.

Another storm came through one weekend and left us without power for most of the day.  We cranked up our generator (which we bought after the hurricane) and managed to pass the time with flashlights and board games.  The kids love to put their flashlights on my cheeks (as I was trying to read) and what them "glow".  Exciting times at the Evers' house!

Poor fence...Justin worked so hard to replace the hardware and put the gate back up but it was no match for the storm.

Poor Katie boo...waiting on the doctor to confirm our suspected diagnoses of pink eye in both eyes,

Working hard on a birthday card.  She loves to draw!

Kate has been excelling not only at reading but all her school subjects.  I could burst with pride!  She works so hard on homework each week and doesn't complain.  This past nine weeks she got straight As, the citizenship award for good behavior and perfect attendance!  Keep up the hard work sweet girl!

A recent school writing assignment she did...she wrote very neatly and drew the cutest pictures to go alone with her story.

"One day there was a penguin named Tacky. (He) lived in an icy land.  Tacky was a fun bird.  He liked to eat cake".  That's my kind of bird! ;)

"He also liked to play hide-and-seek.  One day I took him to the movies to see the Sing movie also."

At the end of January was character dress up at school.  Kate decided to go as Pete the Cat.

Super cute Pete the Cat and the magic sunglasses.

Kate also had a 100 Days of School project.  I gave her several ideas (which I stole from Pinterest) and she decided to do a lollipop tree.  It turned out really good!

Proud of her!

I have to share this cute picture of my little firefighters.  They have recently discovered Firehouse subs and they love it!  We stopped by the Cake Shop one Saturday morning while running errands and they begged to eat at Firehouse, which is in the same shopping center.  So we got a cupcake and subs and ate outside. It was a chilly morning!

One Friday night when Aunt Katie was out of town, Uncle Jordan invited us over for a pasta dinner.  We barely saw the three old kids but little Cooper and I got to hang out.  He's such a sweetie pie.

Mason LOVES Cooper.  

It makes me smile every time I see them together.  Mason adores him and is so attentive.

Cooper loves his Aunt Becca! And Aunt Becca loves him!

And one final picture to share from January... 

These boys all came to school wearing their batman shirts.

From left to right: Mason, Connor and Atlas

We are excited to see what February has in store!

Texas Trip - Christmas 2016

On Christmas night, we drove to Baton Rouge, LA and stopped for night.  We were on our way to Texas to visit for the week!  The kids did SO good in the car and never complained once.  When we arrived, they got their gifts from Uncle Evan and Aunt Melanie - scooters!  They had a great time riding them up and down the driveway all week.

 While we were out there, we kept busy out at the farm, going shopping, eating delicious Mexican food and watching Erin play in her basketball tournament.  

 Erin and Mason

 Erin and Kate

 Yummy lunch at Alex's!  Complete with a Mexican coke!

  Mason and Buck became fast friends on this visit.

Hanging out at the farm:

 Shopping for new cowboy boots:

 As if he didn't get enough toys already....more were bought.

While we were in Hobby Lobby one afternoon, there was a 7.5 foot Christmas tree on clearance for $80!  I have tried the past couple years to buy one at home but they are always sold out.  There were two left this time so I snagged it (once I cleared it with Justin).  I was a little concerned how we were going to get it home but we packed it in! 

One afternoon we took the kids to see the "Sing" movie in 3D.  That was the first 3D movie I have seen and I'm not a big fan but the movie was fantastic.  I want to see it again (not in 3D). 

The second half of the week we spent driving to Erin's Basketball Tournaments in a nearby town (about an hour and a half away). Unfortunately they got eliminated on Friday but we had a great time watching her play!

  The guys crashed in the car on the ride back to Blossom.

Enjoying lunch at a local gas station before a basketball game.  Never thought I would but it was good!

Car packed with my tree and two scooters.  It was a Christmas miracle!

We were sad to see the week end so quickly but we had a great time!  Thank you Uncle Evan, Aunt Mel, Erin and Ryan for having us. :)

Christmas 2016

We had another wonderful Christmas!  Since Christmas was on Sunday this year, it was a little tricky to arrange our annual activities around church.  On Saturday (Christmas Eve), we ate our traditional Christmas breakfast at my parent's house.   

 Nanny and Cooper

Blue eyed boys.

Later that evening, we had the Cowart/Olk Christmas dinner at Uncle Jordan and Aunt Katie house.  For dinner we enjoyed taco soup and afterwards had a great time playing the family white elephant game.  I ended up with four lotto tickets (won $15) and Lucky Goat coffee but the real winner was Aunt Katie.  She ended up with the box of chocolates with $50 hidden in the wrapper (Nanny's gift).  It's safe to say Nanny went over the $10 recommendation. 

 Christmas Eve!

  Dad ended up getting one of our gifts.  He drew #1 so he had the prime position to snag a good gift.  He opened ours first, which was a XXL t shirt with a screen print of Kate's Kindergarten class picture.  We accidentally received it when I placed my order back in the Spring and I knew I had to save it for the white elephant gift exchange this year.  The only other gift dad was interested was my coffee and lotto tickets (which had been locked since I was the second steal) and he didn't know about the money in the chocolate wrappers, so he kept his beautiful t shirt. :)

 We had a wonderful Christmas Eve!

Before the kids went to bed, we put out cookies and milk for Santa.

 Ready for Santa!

Before the kids went to bed, we let them open the gifts from mommy and daddy.  They were excited about the board games and movie.

On Christmas morning, the kids were excited to see this... 

 I filmed most of them opening gifts and didn't take any pictures but I did take a couple pictures of what they got: 

 After gifts, we quickly got ready and went to church.  After church, we went over to my parent's to open gifts with them!  Since we were fixing a big dinner at our house that night, Gigi fixed us a light lunch complete with melted ham sandwiches, fruit, chips and Christmas cookies! Again, I didn't take any pictures while we were opening but I managed to get a family picture.  Poor Gigi was really sick so we tried to keep a safe distance so we didn't get sick (thus the reason for no extended family pictures).

  Christmas afternoon, Mimi and Papa came over aroudn 2:00 to open gifts and spend some time with us before the rest of the family joined us later that evening for dinner.  

This year, we ate at 5:00 since we were leaving for Texas later that night.  It wasn't going to work out for us to visit at Spring Break like last year (Melanie and Erin are going to New York!) so Justin and I thought it would be fun to go after Christmas!  

We had a wonderful Christmas meal and the Boerstler family joined us this year (Kyle, Hannah, Ruby and Michael)!  It's always to fun to have friends join us  Everyone brought a couple side dishes to complement our Boston Butt (something I ordered at Thanksgiving and froze until Christmas - delicious!).  Justin and I had the car packed so as soon as our last guest left around 7, we jumped in the car and hit the road. 

We had another wonderful Christmas full of friends, family and love.  

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!