2012 Goals...REVIEW!!!

On the left side of our blog, you'll see our list of goals that we made in January of 2012.  We made a list of 12 things we wanted to do in 2012.  It was fun having this list because it gave us things to aim for throughout the year!  Some of them were easy, and some harder.  Did we do them all?  No...unfortunately not!  We completed 8 out of our 12 goals.  Honestly, considering I was pregnant from January to October and then healing through November... I'm happy with the fact that we accomplished MOST of our goals.  Here they are!

1. Take Caeden ice skating.  DONE!  We did this in December, cutting it close!

2. Go on a vacation - just our small family.  We went to Florida in July and had an awesome time!

3. Eat at three new restaurants.  We ate at Greenhouse Grille and Common Grounds for the first time (both in Fayetteville), and at Tavola Tratorria (in Bentonville).   

4. Read a John Grisham book together.  We read The Pelican Brief in February.  You can read that blog post here. 

5. Paint a new room in our house.  This was kind of easy since I had Callie - the nursery was the room we painted!

6. Contribute more money to our IRA.  YEP!  We used part of our tax refund to do this.

7. Visit one new state park.   We actually visited TWO new state parks.  We visited Mt. Magazine State Park in Arkansas and Honeymoon Island State Park while in Florida. 

8. Go mountain biking together.  Nope....Since I found I was pregnant mid-January and spent most of the year being pregnant - we didn't get to this one...

9. Eat more vegetables.  Yes, we tried!  I was more conscious of the variety of vegetables in all of our meals.

10. Hang a large family picture in our living room.  No....We almost did! We have the pictures and bought the frame.  We just have to PRINT the picture and hang it up....Can I have one more week??

11. Eat at Waffle House at midnight.  I thought this would be a fun goal, but it's just too late at night for this mama...

12. Go to a piano bar.  So, we couldn't find one.  We were told the one in Fayetteville closed and could never find one in the Joplin area either... I heard a week ago that the one in Fayetteville was open now? Oh well...too late...

I thought this was a fun idea (that I stole from a friend), so I would encourage your family to do this for 2013 if you want!  We may or may not continue this idea...  If we do - I'll keep you posted!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

The First Snow!!

This week we had our first snow of this winter!  We were hoping and praying for snow on Christmas Day, but it missed us!  So, after driving back to Arkansas on Friday, we all laid down for naps at 2pm.  We woke up at 3:30pm, looked outside, and the ground was covered with snow!  Maybe I was just out of the loop, but none of us even knew they were calling for it!  So it was a total surprise!

Therefore....no first-day-of-snow fudge!  (For those of you who have followed by blog before, you know that on the first snow of every winter, I make fudge - just a tradition we started when Caeden was born). :)  SO....since this snow was a total surprise and a little earlier than usual, I had no fudge supplies on hand....Uh oh....Reid was a a little disappointed!  So I promised I would have all the fudge ingredients ready for the next snow!  Here are some fun moments from our afternoon in the snow!

Eating the snow....not sure why....?

Catching snowflakes on his tongue!

Mommy & Callie....Her First Snow!

Snow Angels!

A little confused... :)

 SNOWBALL FIGHT!

Trying out his new truck in the snow

Christmas 2012

We're back in Arkansas, bags are unpacked, and toys are put away. Now it's time to blog!  And since we took 522 pictures while we were in Missouri for Christmas Break :) , I won't bore you with all of them.  I'll try to keep my post as short as possible, with few details, and the best pictures!  Here it goes!!!!

We went to Missouri for 6 days, spending all of our time with family!  Some days were busy, going from one family to another.  And some days were relaxing, laying around at home, just playing and enjoying time together!  Here were some of the highlights from our trip:

We went to Parsons, KS 

one evening to have dinner with

Reid's extended family

Sister bonding time

(over puppy chow of course) 

Cousin Bathtub Fun!!

(Caeden...3 

and Emerson...21 mos)

Family Christmas

at the Pierce's

Caeden helping Callie

open her presents

Practicing on his new keyboard

 Opening her first baby doll...!

Love this sweet picture

of her cuddling with her doll  :)

Christmas Eve:

At the Dennis house after our church service

My Santa Baby...

After dinner, Santa made a visit before

he got started on his rounds

(PS - this is an annual tradition 

since Ashley was a wee little girl)

This is Caeden handing baby Jesus to Santa....Love it!

The chaos that I love as all the kids

are opening their one gift on Christmas Eve!

Christmas Morning!!!!

 Checkin' out his new ride from Santa!

Callie checking out her new play

house from Santa

 Opening our stockings

Giving Emerson a ride!

 Taking it for a spin outside

(he didn't seem to notice the wind chill of 9 degrees!)

Some hang out time at the Pierce house:

 Building a pirate ship with his new tools

Going to visit an old fire truck!

We really cherish these sweet times as a family and are so blessed to have such great parents and siblings that we can share Christmas with!  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cookies

Something else festive we did last weekend was make Christmas Cookies!  This is something we did every year when I was a little girl, and we have continued the tradition with Caeden every Christmas (even when he was only 4 mos old)!  We have also used the same recipe for as long as I can remember.  It's the sugar cookie recipe and icing recipe from my Grandma Martin.  They're the best Christmas cookies ever!  Every year it's quite the mess, but we enjoy making memories!

Trying the cookie dough

Rolling out the dough all by himself!

Callie's turn!

Notice our flour mess when 

we were finished!

Decorating time!

And of course,

testing the icing!

His first cookie to decorate

Then he decided to just start

dipping the cookies in icing

and taking a big bite!

Who would've thought!?

Callie had to get in on the decorating action

Our gingerbread family!

We each decorated our own cookie

(except for Callie of course)