Christmas 2011

Here it is 10 minutes until 2012 and I'm barely getting our Christmas post blogged. I'll make it quick with mostly just a bunch of pictures. They speak for themselves though, don't they?
We had a great Christmas and I feel like it came and went just a little too quickly. It was definitely a different one with just having Judd. I feel like Christmas shopping was so random and sporatic, I was exhausted much of the month of December, and it was hard to get out and spend much time with family and friends with a newborn. However, it was a very special Christmas in that this was our first Christmas in our new home and as a family of four. We made many great memories, started a few new traditions, and just really enjoyed being with eachother; just the four of us.
And? Christmas in the eyes of a 3 year old? It's just something I cannot explain. SO magical and joyous.
We went to Aaron's grandparent's house for Christmas Eve. We have been going there every year since we first started dating and we always have such a good time visiting with all of his family. That first Christmas there was only two babies. This Christmas there were 9. Here are some pictures from that night. Ava had a great time running around with her cousins. Mee Maw loved holding Judd. We ate way too much food, opened presents, and made our way home to prepare for Santa!
                                  
This above picture is my favorite picture of the entire month of December. I love that they are both looking at the camera, that Ava is actually smiling, and that they look so festive and matchy:) Makes this mama smile!!

                                                     Christmas Eve 

We got home and did our traditional Christmas Eve of opening one gift from eachother of matching pajamas. This year I waited until the last minute so we went with non-Christmas and not really matching as much as coordinating. The theme was gray. Ha! I'm really into gray lately and I found all but Judd's pjs in one quick Taget trip. I got Judd's online at Carters.
                                

Here we are Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Santa was good to the kids this year. Judd's big gift was the Pottery Barn anywhere chair and Ava's big gift was a Disney fairies bike. They also got a "reading tepee" and some puzzles, books, and a few other small things.

Aaron got me a gym membership for the year. He actually got us a family membership which is just awesome because this gym has so much to offer, even an indoor water park for the kids!! That baby starts up on January 2nd. CANNOT WAIT to hit the elyptical. Yeay, operation lose this baby weight is ON!

Ava had so much fun opening presents this year. She really got into it and wanted to open everyone's gifts, little stinker!!

Our third Christmas was at my mom's house on Christmas afternoon. We went over and got our stockings, a tradition we still continue from when we lived at home, and opened presents. We also had a very yummy dinner of steaks, baked potatoes, and cherry pie. I also made a very tasty Pineapple Pretzel Salad. Thanks, Erin, for that recipe! I love the picture of my mom with her three grandchildren. And I especially love that Judd is crying. Ha! It's real life, huh?

I think Aaron's favorite gift was these pretty little babies. Redneck wine glasses. Have you ever seen such a thing? Mason jars on what looks like candle stick holders. Hilarious!! I think my mom bought these for him since he drinks cheap wine. Haha! He isn't a big drinker at all, and he doesn't drink liquor or beer so wine is his drink of choice. Only thing is? He prefers it to be cheap. And? He is not one bit ashamed about this. Love it!

What a wonderful 2011 it has been! Exactly a year ago on this very night I took my first Clomid pill, hoping to get pregnant with a second baby, and we were sitting around with my cousins talking about potential boy and girl names. It makes me smile to look at how blessed we were to welcome a sweet little baby boy into this world 10 months after that night.

(This picture makes me laugh so hard. Looks like Judd is wearing a hair piece.)

God's plan is perfect and his timing is better than any of us can ever imagine. I thank him daily for my life, my family, my friends, and all new blessings that come with each new day, each new year.
Happy New Year to you and yours. I hope this year is your best one YET!

Making Sweet Christmas Memories

We have had a fun month filled with many Christmas traditions. Some were old, most were new. One tradition we started this year was baking Christmas goodies with our friends. My best friend Jenn and I were chatting one night on the phone and decided we wanted to get our kids together to bake some goodies for our neighbors, the mail carriers, and for Santa! So today we did just that.
Jenn, Boston, and Ella Reese joined us for a morning of cookie decorating, candy baking, and ornament making! We decorated cookies to leave out for Santa, made special reindeer food for his four legged flight attendants, and even managed to find time to make salt dough ornaments with handprints of the kids and a wee little footprint of Judd. We had such a fun morning and it actually all went so smooth! The kids seemed to enjoy themselves it was just a nice time to get together with our very best buddies making special memories with our babes.

We finished with the following treats:
-Iced sugar cookies
-Walnut fudge
-Turtles
-Oreo Bark
-Saltine Cracker Toffee Bars
-Salt Dough Ornaments (or plaques in our case) of handprints/footprint

Oh! And we can't forget about the reindeer food! If Santa gets cookies, we have to feed his reindeer as well!
                                   

Each of these goodies were SUPER easy to make, which made this a piece of cake! {no pun intended} Great treats for little ones to help with!!

Dad and Ava enjoyed delivering the yumminess to our neighbors. Ava was grinning from ear to ear as she ran back to the house.

This, my friends, is what Christmas is all about. I know it's only food and not much, but I want to enstill the joy of giving at an early age with my children. One in which they can be a part of the giving from the beginning to end. And I do believe that this year, the mission was accomplished.

And just because Judd looks oh so cute with his reindeer booty...
                               

Christmas Decorations

I am ignoring the "sleep when the baby sleeps" rule tonight so that I can finally add some pictures of our Christmas setup in the McWilliams home. I've been wanting to do this post since Friday when two of my sweet friends, Kelly and Erin, hosted a link up on Christmas decorations.
We didn't go overboard with decor this year, but we did get the basics up. It did cross our minds to do nothing but a small tree since we have a newborn, (and we have a newborn that recently had surgery at that), but on second thought we wanted to make it special since it's our first year in our new home.
Aaron and Ava did most of the decorating, as we got all of this up the DAY after Judd got home from the hospital and I was EXHAUSTED. Sidenote: I will share Judd's story soon! I was VERY impressed with their mad decorating skills. The only thing I really did was the front entry way.
Here is our main tree and "mantle" in our living room.

Ava was really into trimming the tree this year. She loved putting the ornaments on and in fact, she is still loving it...17 days later! I have to tell her no less than 50 times a day to quit moving around the ornaments!! I also wanted to add ribbon or mesh to the tree, but this year it just wasn't in the cards. I am just happy it is up and decorated!

This is our "mantle". I never even realized until about 3 months AFTER we moved into our house that we had no fireplace. Isn't that so odd? I was a little panicked (yes I am dramatic) about where to put our stockings that would not be hung by the chimney with care. But have no fear, Ashley! The TV hutch worked out just as well. I just love our Pottery Barn stockings so much. Next year I plan to add mesh to the sad looking garland.

Here is our stairs leading up to the playroom and "SheShe Office". I love the lit garland as it just adds another warm touch. Do you see Beth the elf perched on the rail? Ava loves that elf more than the big Jolly ol elf himself!  

This is Ava's little area in one of our hallways. It is a bit on the Griswold side, but these are for Ava to play with and enjoy. She can break them and it will be okay. The light up Christmas village is her absolute favorite! It plays a variety of Christmas carols and she will stand next to it, with microphone in hand, and sing at the top of her lungs. I will be adding that fake snow stuff to put underneath the "junk" for next year.

Here is our breakfast nook area (aka home to our dining room table). I would love to have my nice Spode Christmas china out on display but with little ones it won't be happening for many years. So this is it for now. I put evergreen greenery inside the hurricane vase and used a red holly berry wreath as the centerpiece. I got those "disco ball trees" as I call them at Big Lots on sale for $5 each.

Here is our entry way. I bought all of these decorations on the table this year at Hobby Lobby before Judd was born. The Sleigh holds all of our Christmas cards. The picture frames on top of our windowsill are pictures of Ava every year at Christmas. Some are Santa pictures while others are of her on Christmas morning. I have already added a picture of Judd and Ava in two frames:)

This little tree is also in our entry way, but more in our kitchen. I am not sure if I like it with or without ornaments on it. The cord drives me insane so I put the "Falala" sign there for my own peace of mind. Like it really did any good, right? Haha! It made me feel better. A little, anyway. We have two more trees I didn't photograph. One of Ava's room and one in our formal  dining room. It was naptime when I took the pictures, what can I say?  

And here is our home looking in from the front door. It's so nice and majestic at night. I just love Christmas time in the home. Thanks for checking out our decorations and I wish you and your family a happy, healthy, blessed Christmas!

Christmas Card {2011}

Today I am linking up with Faith's blog for the Christmas Card Carousel and I'm excited to share our Christmas card with you all!
This year's card was extra special since we had one new little addition to our family. I'm very please with how it turned out as well!! My sweet friend Sarah designed this card and I think she did a great job. I wanted to incorporate brown houndstooth with the aqua and red picture. I love those three colors together!

front

back

I hope to get a few minutes (who am I kidding I get lots of minutes with these late night feedings) to look at all the other Christmas cards in the link up! And from our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Sneak Peek {SheShe Made}

Snowmen, candycanes, ornaments, and sock monkeys. These are just a FEW PEEKS at our Christmas items we are rolling out for SheShe Made Christmas Collection 2011. While we wanted to add so much more, we had to say enough was enough and trust that our customers would be very satisfied with the selection chosen.

                                               

(can you even HANDLE these tights?!?!)

Monograms, appliques, smocked dresses and ruffle tights. It's all pretty much enough yumminess to make your season merry and bright!!

There will be EVEN MORE to come next week! Think elf shoes and little red wagons, lollipops and gumdrops. Keep up to date when the Christmas items go up for sale on http://www.sheshemade.com/ by following us on facebook!

Special thanks to Sarah Carlson Photography out of DFW Texas and Tracy Marshall Photography out of Severna Park Maryland for most of the images.

Merry Christmas!

Up on the housetop Reindeer pause

Out jumps good 'ol Santa Clause!

Down through the chimney with lots of toys,

All for the little ones, Christmas joys.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Who wouldn't go?

Ho! Ho! Ho! Who wouldn't go?

Up on the housetop click, click, click!

Down through the chimney with good Saint Nick!

Christmas Card Carousel

Today I am linking up with Faith's blog for the Christmas Card Carousel she is hosting. Thanks, Faith for such a fun topic to blog about!




I have to say that getting Christmas cards is one of the greatest highlights of Christmas. Sending Christmas cards is just as great...minus the addressing part. And double minus the licking part. Eew!
I love getting the perfect picture and finding the best card to compliment it. Every year since Aaron and I have been married we have done picture cards. I enjoy seeing pictures of family and friends when we get a card in the mail, so I just figure the same rings true for others.
It's especially fun to add pictures of a cute little subject such as Ava.
Here is our card this year.

(click on the picture to see it better)
Anita from A Piece of Pope made our card this year and I think she did such a great job! I will be using her in the years to come for sure!
I save all of our cards from year to year and add them to this big 'ol bucket. Each year we go through and look at them again, including our own cards from the past. In fact, just today we were looking at our card from 2005. I am not even kidding when I tell you that Aaron and I said at the same exact time "We were so thin!" Haaa!! Married life can sure add some poundage can't it?

Can't wait to see other's cards! Merry Christmas to you and yours!