Favorite phone pics from 2012

The year 2012 is coming to a close. I was looking through my phone at all the 2,000 pictures I took this year and decided to blog my favorites.

The E.T. picture. Ava always loves to go into Judd's room when he wakes & play with him in his crib. Her favorite thing is to unload his entire toy chest of blankets and stuffed animals. And better believe that by the end of 2012 we successfully taught Ava the cardinal rule of "you make the mess, you clean it up".



Judd and mommy hanging out at the club pool this summer. Those cheeks!



Y'all. This picture makes me laugh SO hard. It's so not funny to anyone else I'm sure, but I cannot delete it from my phone. It just makes me giggle every time I see it. Ava put her dolls in the hula hoop "pool" all clad in stylish swimsuits with their own "swim up bar". Love her imagination!



Best of friends waiting so patiently at the dentist office. She has turned into such a wonderful big sister!



All smiles in Destin Florida! This was on our way out the door to eat dinner at Louisiana Lagniappe.



Judd's first feel of sand. He wasn't sure what to think of it! I wish I knew what was on his mind at this moment.




My 30th birthday with some of my best friends! We had such a great time and I love these girls so much!!



My little witches. Judd makes such a pretty witch, doesn't he?



Ava busting a move in the car. She was SO funny and SO serious about her choreography. I wish I remembered the song she was dancing to.



Nap time snuggles. My very favorite part of every day. Hands down! This little guy LOVES to be rocked before bed and sometimes I'll rock him until he falls asleep. One of the greatest perks of having my babies far enough in apart in age. Ava gets extra TV time; Judd gets extra snuggle time. Win/win for everyone!



Love this picture of the three of us.



Wyatt and Ava donning their true personalities, clowns, at the circus!



Daddy reading to Judd before bedtime. This is Judd's favorite book. He would be pleased to spend a solid hour having this read to him over and over again!



Meet the teacher for Pre-K! Ava was so excited to begin pre-k with her friends, both old and new.



The sweetest momma's boy I've ever known. I'm so blessed to be his mommy!!




The cuteness in this picture is too much for me. Those teeth, that outfit, chubby arms...love!



My mom would KILL me for posting this picture of her but I love it so very much! This summer I would bring my kids over two mornings a week so I could run. Judd would usually be ready for a nap by 9am and she loved to hold him while he slept in her vibrating recliner.



Miss Priss before museum school one Friday morning.



Somebody escaped the diaper change AND wet his chair all in a matter of 30 seconds! He was so proud of himself!!



Probably my most favorite picture of all. Bathing beauties.



Ava and mom at Disney World!






LOVE this picture of Ava on our last day of our Disney vacation. She's turning into such a beautiful girl!



Little Bo Peep? You lost your sheep.



Singing "Happy Birthday to Judd" upon walking into his bedroom on his birthday morning. He's trying to look all swagger. Psh.



Judd let it be known that he's not a fan of sister's hand me down toys. Particularly the dolls!



Hanging out in the laundry hamper. Ava said they were playing cards. Judd is the perfect playmate for my bossy, imaginative girl.



Mommy's first baby.



Watching the Ft. Worth Parade of Lights. It was so cold this night. We enjoyed taking Ava out by herself to kick of the holiday season.



Breakfast with Santa. This picture turned out basically exactly as I had imagined it would. Ha!



My sweet boys!



Pretty ballerina. This was at her Christmas demonstration. She looks so grown up here!



Ready to sing her little heart out at her Pre-K Christmas program. Her class sang "Silent Night" and it was so very cute!



And my two favorite pictures from today of my two favorite little people...


At the movies seeing Monsters Inc.



Visiting Nee Nee for pizza night!


So, this turned into a "year in review" of pictures more than a selection of a few favorites and I promised I skipped over many I wanted to add.
Oh well! What can I say? It really IS such a wonderful life. I love it so and my new years goal for 2013 is to simply stop and smell the roses & enjoy what all I have, especially those moments that may not be of anything special or big on the surface. I want to work on finding joy in the small things. To pause more. Relax more. Breathe in, breathe out.

Happy New Year!

Our Christmas Card

For the past few Decembers I have loved Faith's Christmas Card Carousel. I'm sad to be super tardy to the party this year, but Monday I couldn't get my act together and yesterday was a blogger day of silence to remember the Connecticut school tragedy. So here I am today!

I (hopefully?) got all of our Christmas cards sent out yesterday and am so pleased to share another amazing creation by Sarah. Both Sarah's, actually. Sarah Carlson took our photos and Sarah Martin designed our card. I sure do love both of those Sarah's! They never disappoint me. And although my husband would strongly disagree, I can be hard to please. Hahaha!
In fact, I knew I wanted something along the lines of a tartan plaid background with red, green, white, and black. Sarah couldn't find what I was wanting so the girl drew the plaid herself!!

I wish I could've sent cards to ALL of my Internet friends, twitter pals, customers, and blog buddies but the budget and time just wouldn't allow for it. So please consider this virtual card a Christmas greeting from my house to yours!

 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Decorations

Welcome to The McWilliams Residence! I am happy to be participating in this year's Christmas Decor linkup from over at my sweet friend Kelly's blog, Kelly's Korner.

Our family LOVES to decorate for Christmas. In fact, I'm not sure which one of us loves it more between Aaron, Ava, and myself. We enjoy bringing the decorations out of the attic each year and discussing when we bought particular pieces, why it has sentimental value to us, or maybe we just recall the great deal we got on something! We look forward to decorating each year after Thanksgiving and can't wait to add even more decor as the years pass.

 

On the porch, I added the super cute gingerbread boy and girl to our porch swing, purchased from my friend Meredith's etsy shop. I fully intended to sew some red burlap pillows but never got around to it this year. I did get the deco mesh wreath made and am happy with how it turned out for the most part.

 

Once you come inside the house our formal dining room is off to the left. We currently use it as a play room since it's the only open carpeted area in our bottom story. Just comes as a great area for the baby since the tile floors are cold and hard.

Anyway, I added the holly berry balls to the ligh fixture of this room.

 

 

 

These snowmen handprints are to the left of the front door. We made these this Christmas and I think it's hysterical that Judd and Ava's hands are almost the same size yet they are 3.5 years apart in age.

 

 

To the right of the front door is our entry table where I have it decorated in a candy cane theme. The sleigh holds our Christmas cards. I like this look for this year and will keep it for a few more years, but eventually want to move the cards somewhere else where we can look at them all displayed. I think I will use the sleigh to hold Christmas crafts that the kids bring home. Or maybe Christmas recipe cards? Not sure yet.

On top of the entry way table, the window ledge, holds yearly Christmas photos. I like to choose 1 or 2 favorite pictures from each year and frame them. This has been a personal "bonus" tradition for me that I have come to love!

 

 

Back to the front room...Ava says "hi' as she photo bombs my picture. Isn't she cute in her summer pajamas? (Don't get me started on our daily battle with wearing sleeves and pants.) This little tree holds our memorable ornaments. It has old fashioned bubble lights that I had on my tree as a little girl, along with some of my ornaments as a baby, and then homemade ornaments of Ava's.

 

 

This is the gingerbread house we made tonight. We all had so much fun decorating it while listening to Christmas music and just talking about our day.

Here is our living room area. I have it semi-decorated in a toddler friendly fashion but it still has been a booger to keep little hands from redecorating each corner every time I turn around. 

The top picture is during the day and the bottom is at night. We don't have a fireplace so we hang the stockings on our entertainment center. I added the mesh garland this year and next year I'm going to add one more layer. I think I'll go with lime green. I love decorating with bright colors while my children are young. I'm not really sure why, but I just think it makes for "brighter memories". At least in my head that's how I picture it! 

 

The nutcracker on the TV center is our "candy cane advent calendar" and then we also do the "christmas book advent calendar". Ava opens the book in the morning and then opens a nutcracker door each evening after dinner. She has LOVED this tradition so much this year!!

 

 

 

This is the "kids table" with Ava's favorite village that plays Christmas songs, her two disney princess snowglobes, and this year's Santa picture. Don't you love that Santa picture? Don't report me to CPS please.

If you must know, we have gone through 5, FIVE, snowglobes this year. Judd loves to pick those up and chunk them across the room and watch water go everywhere. It's really fun. I also enjoy cleaning up the water then driving down the street to Walgreens in order to get my sobbing 4 year old to calm down. You do understand that damaged princess snowglobes are pretty much the end of the world for a 4 year old, don't you? It's a no win situation with those globes. I can't put them out of Judd's reach because then they are also out of Ava's reach. The DRAMA I tell you.

 

Aaron's favorite decoration. "The train village"

 

 Our dining room table. Decorated with holly berries, shimmer trees, and silver chargers.  

 

 

This is the kid's hallway. They helped me make this burlap stockings. Ava loves to tell everyone that "Judd's stocking is perfect and mine is a disaster!" She is so silly!

Ava's bedroom. We don't turn on the Christmas tree lights very often in her room. See Beth the elf hanging out on her tree today? And her pink star? She insisted that we find a pink star for the tree this year. Thankfully Wal Mart came to our rescue! Our LP nativity set is on her window seat, currently MIA are baby Jesus and Joseph. I asked Ava where they were and she said "prolly using the bathroom." I am SO OVER this 4 year old potty humor. So over it. Anyway, baby Jesus and Joseph are somewhere around the house. 

 

Ava's Hobby Lobby finds this year! 

 

This collage includes a few of my favorites among our trees in the house. I love picture frame ornaments and love looking at the ones from our first year of marriage. Aaron and I both were at the same school (he the VP and me the kindergarten teacher) and I put our school pictures in the ornaments. One is of Ava's tree. She has been adding bracelets and hairbows to it with each passing day. Haha! Last, do you see the tiara on the top of the front room tree? Wonder who did that... 

 

Thanks for stopping by. Sorry for my mommy's rambling stories. She doesn't have very much adult interaction these days and tends to get carried away.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!