christmas time

Since Thanksgiving was early this year, it felt as if we were given an extra week of Christmas which felt like such a gift.  The kids went to Columbus a day early to help Grandma prepare and so Tyson could play with Shane and that provided a day for me to prepare their rooms for Christmas.  They knew we were decorating when we came home that weekend after Thanksgiving but they didn't know that I had bought special Christmas sheets for their beds.  So I decorated their rooms and changed their sheets and pillowcases for the new festive ones and added as much Christmas as I could with the exception of actually decorating their mini trees because I know how much they love that part.  I couldn't wait for them to see their rooms when we arrived home and I will never forget their reaction.  They were all completely surprised, so many squeals, laughter, and thank yous.  It was precious.

We got right to work decorating the rest of the house that night and it was so much fun that as usual, I didn't want it to end. Our favorite part is always reminiscing as we look through ornaments and deciding where they should go on the tree.  The kids have their smaller tree up in the kid zone and they only hung ornaments made by Aunt Debbie and Aunt Beth on it this year while we hung all the others on the bigger downstairs tree. At least we thought we hung all the others but I knew some were missing and they turned up in a box in the basement about a week before Christmas.  Those will be the first we hang next year.

Jason took extra time off this year and we made the most of every minute.  It actually felt slow for those two weeks he was off.  It felt slow and beautiful.  We had plenty of downtime making room for cuddles and conversation along with plenty of adventures mixed in.  He cooked us some of the most amazing meals ever and we even got to go ice skating. We watched our typical Christmas specials including Elf and Christmas with the Kranks. We cut out and decorated sugar cookies, put together a gingerbread house that kept wanting to fall apart, made puppy chow and buckeyes that the kids delivered to neighbors, went out to eat, did our annual minivan express night, attended a Christmas Eve service at our church, and the kids were even able to go caroling again with neighbor friends just a few days before Christmas.  We had our candlelight Christmas Eve dinner of (frozen) popcorn shrimp and our cinnamon rolls Christmas morning complete with a candle lit on one so we could sing "Happy Birthday" and blow out the candle for Jesus.

A new tradition of the kids having a sleepover in the little girl's room on Christmas Eve began when we moved into this house 2 1/2 years ago.  This is such a big deal to them and they get really excited about it but this year, they turned out to be a little too excited.  Could have been the hot cocoa with tons of toppings they had at church that morning, the loads of sweets they ate that day, or the bottle of orange crush I thought it would be fun to let them have at dinner.  All of the above plus an extreme level of excitement are most likely all to blame for the fact that I heard footsteps at 4:00 am and went upstairs to see that the light was on in the bedroom.  I went in to find them all hanging out, eyes wide open, happy as can be.  They had been up since 2:00 am just partying it up together.  So, much to their dismay, I made them all go to their own beds so they could at least get a couple hours of sleep.  They were devastated but all fell asleep within a few minutes.  I was freaking out a bit thinking that Christmas day would be ruined because they'd be too tired to handle it.  I finally fell back to sleep after worrying about every possible scenario but assuming they would sleep in after all that partying nonsense.  6:45 am was my next wake up call.  So they got a few hours of sleep on Christmas Eve and thankfully, Christmas day was far from ruined.  We had a wonderfully sweet day.  They were losing their minds by dinner so they did have an earlier than normal bedtime but they were all ready and fell asleep immediately.  Crazy kids.

Jason and I played Christmas Vacation in our bedroom as we wrapped the kid's gifts, which has become a little tradition for us.  We went crazy this year and wrapped a few days before Christmas Eve which shocked us both.  We have so much fun laying them all out and deciding what order they should be unwrapped.  We put numbers on them so the kids know the order and each kid had their own wrapping paper as well.

The kids get really into giving gifts to each other and us.  They spend their own money at their school holiday shop or we take them to the dollar store and Target.  They wrap them all themselves and get so excited to give that they can hardly stand the wait.  It's my favorite part watching them light up as they give their sibling that well thought out personal gift.  And this year Violet got a set of 3 BFF necklaces for Avery and Mia which was so stinking cute.  Also, this year Avery made every member of both sides of our family a perler bead ornament.  They were the cutest things, so well done and thoughtful.  They were a huge hit.

The favorite gifts ended up being Avery's stingray stuffed animal, Tyson's mini indoor basketball hoop, and the little girl's microphones.  They played with those microphones ALL DAY LONG which meant loads of entertainment for the rest of us. A few weeks later and Tyson still can't get enough of his basketball hoop which Jason set up for him in the basement complete with 3 point and free throw lines.

We traveled to Scottsburg the day after and to Columbus the next weekend and stayed one night at each soaking up the extended family time.  The kids enjoy their cousins on both sides and we have a great time just being together.

My heart is bursting with gratitude for another precious Christmas time with my people. So much goodness.  I always have a hard time letting it go but I have to remind myself that there is so much goodness in our everyday if we have our eyes open to notice.

  

  

easter

I have so much fun filling Easter baskets each year with just a few simple things which always include a Reese's Pieces carrot and Reese's Cup egg obviously.  Is it really an Easter basket without those things? This was the first year we had the kids actually hunt for their baskets because we would typically just have them on the table when they wake up.  The hunt is much more exciting.

We just stopped at our little community pool house for some photos after church.  They were troopers  humoring Mommy by cooperating for a ridiculous amount of photos.

You're never too dressed up for the park.

We headed home for the egg hunt which is always so fun.  It was an indoor one this year because there are so many more places to hide the eggs at the new house.

This was one of the last times Violet got to wear my Great Aunt Gerry's beautiful gold baby bracelet before it got too small and then broke.  It looked so precious on her sweet little wrist.

Next up was the egg coloring which we did in the garage because the weather was not looking good.  Jason got us all set up nicely out there and they had a blast.  Tyson always finishes in about 1/4 of the time the girls do and Violet just starts dunking hers in every color available.  It's entertaining for sure.  Although we learned that we never make enough eggs because they would do this all day long if we had an endless supply.

And then the rain came down and since we were right there in the garage, we just watched them play in the rain.  It was beautiful and precious and I was overwhelmed with gratitude for our risen Savior, for the rain, and all the sweet memories we were making.

Dancing in the rain seemed like the perfect ending to our sweet Easter celebration.

valentine's day

Valentine's Day is a favorite around here.  The actual day is always fun but it's the preparing for it, the planning of how to let our people know they are crazy loved that makes us all giddy.

Picking out the school valentine cards is always a fun time and thanks to the Target $ spot, we get adorable ones with a little eraser attached for cheap!  Violet helped Mia out attaching erasers this year while Mia wrote names.

This paper came home from Mia's class and it made me cry.  She loves her Great Grandma so much, we all do.  I love our sweet Mia's heart.

Some years I get more into it than others, but I believe that some sort of heart shaped food should be consumed on Valentine's Day.

Violet thinks so too.  She loves her waffles.

Sweet little thing went all out with the red and pink this year and was adorably festive and so happy about sharing cards and gifts with her people.

The Valentine school box tradition lives on and Avery has fun with that every year.

But the part I remember most about this year's Valentine's Day is the heartfelt, handmade gifts that Mia created for her siblings.  She planned and thought out something very special and unique for each of them and I helped her execute.  The results were amazing and she was incredibly proud.

Avery got a fabric bookmark made with mostly green fabric (her favorite color) and complete with her name stitched on the front.

Violet got a ballerina pillowcase with her name stitched on the front in pink.  So adorable and Mia made it with a tiny bit of assistance from me.  So proud of her thoughtful heart.

And Tyson got a fabric Pokemon card holder.  It was pretty cool and could fit his most favorite cards. They all enjoyed their gifts but watching Mia's face beam with excitement as they unwrapped them was the best part of it all.

We even managed to squeeze in some kid shots on the porch.  Love these sweet babies so much.

judd new years rockin' eve

We stayed home for New Years this year and planned a night of fun.  To prepare for our night of celebration, the girls and I gave ourselves a matching manicure with shimmery gold polish.  

We told the kids to dress as wacky as they wanted and they had a blast with that.  These kids have no shame, they will wear anything anywhere and it's awesome.  Everyone agreed on pizza again this year so we headed to Marco's.  There were not very many other customers that night so we practically had the place to ourselves which left time for a worker to take a family picture.

We changed up the tree to a New Year's tree and let the kids place balloons and streamers on the tree. We kind of ran out of stuff at the top but it was still festive and I was really the only one that would care about a silly thing like that.

These kids are so much fun.

We utilized the self timer on my camera which was quite an event but I was determined so we tried many times to get something decent.  This was probably our best shot and I love it so.

Jason with our girls melts my heart every single time.  I wish there was a way for these girls to understand just how incredibly blessed they are to have a Daddy that is crazy about them.

We had the kids fill out their Year in Review papers and they were awesome as always.

We set up our sundae bar complete with strawberry sorbet for our boy and all the toppings you could want.

Violet did not mess around making her sundae.  It was loaded with every topping we had.

We filled out memories, talked about goals, danced a lot, played some wii, ate ice cream, and counted our blessings.

And then we toasted to another year of God's faithfulness and the beauty and excitement of a fresh start.

christmas memories i never want to forget

Watching them choose the contents of their Operation Christmas Child shoebox and listening to them as they discussed who might receive their box and where they might be from.

Reading the sweet notes they spent so much time working on to add to their boxes.

Attending the horse drawn carriage parade with Aunt Beth.  Even though it was extremely crowded and only Jason got to sit with the kids, it was neat listening to how excited they were and hearing about their favorite horses after it was over.

Watching the kids get creative and excited with cousin Shane as they worked on a gingerbread house together.  

Getting to attend the Awaited show this year at our home campus and with Aunt Steph, Uncle Dave, and Shane.  Watching the kids faces year after year as they are in awe of the beautiful dancers and music.

Creating sweet treats with cousins and then delivering them to a nursing home afterward where we met "the Colonel" who danced for us and a lady who had recently turned 100.

The fact that I decided to put the Christmas lights up myself for the first time ever while Jason was out of town.  Violet got really excited when I told her what I was doing and she did everything she could to help me out.  

The fact that Jason let me get another Christmas tree downstairs so the kids could have a special one upstairs in the "Kid Zone" for them to decorate to their hearts content.  The way that getting out ornaments year after year gets everyone excited and sentimental.  Watching them put five ornaments on a branch and not caring anymore because I grew up and now their tree is the most beautiful sight to me.

So many extra cuddles during Christmas movies and also introducing the kids to Bob Ross and them requesting to watch him again because they loved it.

The fact that the kids did their nativity reenactment this year randomly and without prompting and it was extra dramatic and awesome.

The way that our "Minivan Express" tradition always seems to get them more excited than almost anything and we have such a blast doing it.  The fact that Jason wears a conductor hat every year and the kids get popcorn in the car.  And this year we even added hot chocolate with marshmallows of course which thrilled them.

This year, we added the Kindness Elves to our Christmas traditions.  They arrived only 5 days before Christmas and the kids were extremely excited about them.  They named them Kennedy and Max.  They loved finding them each morning and completing the kindness missions for the day.  Simple, effective, and fun.

Our kids along with some neighbor kids decided that caroling in our little neighborhood was a great idea and they wanted to give out candy canes to each house.  It was freezing and started to rain during the process but they had a blast and covered as many houses as they could.  

Neighbors were so kind and gracious listening to them and seemed genuinely happy to have the sweet experience of kid carolers at your front door.

We finally experienced a Prasco Christmas thanks to the sweet couple that bought our old house.  They gave us special tickets and we had a magical time.  The kids got hot chocolate, ice cream, pictures with Santa, and it ended in a candy land full of every sweet and treat you could possibly imagine.  Watching Violet and Mia's excitement about meeting Santa and trying to decide what to tell him they wanted for Christmas was simply awesome.  

Watching the girls twirl in their special dresses I made them.  It was my first year to make their Christmas dresses and I was so happy with the results.  Watching how the girls loved to twirl in them made me so happy.

I love this sweet photo of the babies in front of the tree.  It's made even better by the fact that Violet has "sleeping baby" and is sucking her thumb.  Such a blessing to be momma to these precious souls.

We lit as many candles as we had for our annual Christmas Eve candlelit dinner at home.  The kids love this tradition and it's especially exciting for them when it's time to blow them out.  Wonder if they will always argue about who gets to blow the most out.

The kids gave gifts for each other and their siblings.  Some were handmade, some were bought with their own money and they were all so very thoughtful.  Watching their faces beam with pride as their gifts are opened is priceless.

Mia got Tyson a boomerang.  She was squealing with excitement to give him this gift.

The fact that Violet asked for a vacuum for Christmas and was crazy excited when she opened it.

Mia was most excited about her nutcracker that she had asked for ever since Christmas was over last year.

Little buddy got the Wii game he wanted so bad from Santa and he was pumped.

The way our 10 year old still wanted stuffed animals more than anything.

We surprised Tyson with his basketball hoop.  He had been saving money from his birthday and stuff for one but still had a lot to go so he was very surprised.

All of their sweet reactions to gifts, those dramatic faces they make that are awesome.  They do it over vacuums, basketball hoops, books, and even toothbrushes.  It's the best.

Watching them enjoy their toys throughout the day.  The fact that we got Violet a baby doll that can put her little thumb in her mouth.  How Violet named her Rosie immediately because of the flowers all over her sleeper.

Watching Violet put together her first Lego set with her tongue out.

The fact that this was the first Christmas in awhile where nobody was sick was a big deal.  There was so much love going around and such sweet attitudes.  I never want to forget the sweetness of this Christmas and how much we all enjoyed every minute.

The way the kids couldn't wait to head to Grandma & PaPa's the next day and how well they play with their cousins.

And then more cousin love a couple weeks later at Grandma's house.  Violet sat with Shane through most of the present time.

And then there was the moment when we all realized sweet Grandma had fallen asleep sitting up in the middle of all the unwrapping of gifts.  We got a good laugh out of it.  Poor Grandma, it's got to be tiring to have been through 95 Christmases.

It was a Christmas to remember, that is for sure and I am so thankful for all these precious memories.