Bellingrath Gardens and Grandma and Grandpa Visit!

 

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us in early December and we had so much fun sharing all of our Christmas traditions with them.  

The first stop was Bellingrath Gardens, which is a 65 acre stroll while being awed by 3 million lights and 1000 different Christmas design pieces.  It is such a fun place to get excited about Christmas.  

Although the pictures are not great :(

Grandma and Grandpa are there with the kids...do you see them??  Ha!

 

 

In front of the lake with the Christmas Alligators.

 

Luke wanted his picture in front of these cool lily pads.

 

Yay!  Fun at Bellingrath!

 

The next day we headed to a little Christmas festival in downtown Biloxi and got to visit another Santa. 

 

Merry Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa!

 

Present time!

 

New cowgirl boots!

 

Luke was super excited about his new Nike Air Jordans for basketball season!

 

Another fun tradition is taking our boat out to watch the Christmas Boat Parade on the water.  

About 30 boats cover their boats with Christmas lights and have a parade all the while playing Christmas music and then it is capped off by fireworks over the water.  So fun!

 

The kids just being goofy.

 

Grandma trying to get Grandpa to move his hat for the picture.

 

Grandma and Grandpa were excited they got to enjoy this fun event with us.

  

Me and our captain!

 

The boats always look so pretty.

Ocean Springs Christmas Tree Lighting

 

I hope my kids never get to big for this event!  Ocean Springs has this cute little ceremony to ring in the Christmas season- choirs singing Christmas carols, Christmas cookies, Santa arrives on a Firetruck, what more do we need?

 

Waiting in line for Santa to come while the kids ran around with their friends.

 

Amelia helping Addison write her letter to Santa.

 

Big smiles from Addison!

 

At the tree lighting...before the tree was lit.  Whoops.  That's what I get for being early everywhere I go.  BUT, we were the first ones in line to see Santa which is priceless.  

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Me and My Girls. Love.

Church Advent Festival

 

These three cuties have been friends since they were in utero!

Christian, Addison and Sarah church buddies since birth.

They were working together on their Advent wreaths.  

 

Photo bomb by Pastor Jon!

 

Amelia collecting all of the pieces to do a manger scene Advent calendar!

 

Amelia and Lizzie :)

 

Finished project!  Ta Da!

 

I made Addison and Luke stand by the "Peace" tree to inspire some peace between the two of them.  Tis the season after all. 

 

Amelia and Addison crafting our sand jars for our Advent candles-hope, peace, joy, love.

 

Cute ornament the kids made with their picture inside.

 

And these cuties have been together for ages, making memories.  

Lizzie, Amelia, Mckenzie and Hayden.

More remodel...

 

Our new front door from the inside.

 

More hardy siding went up on guest house!

 

Inside of the guest house.  I am standing in the family room looking into the bedroom.

 

They took out my old run down front walk and framed it up for the old Chicago brick to be laid.

 

View of the screened in porch addition from the driveway.

 

View out the new windows in the blue room.

 

The new french doors instead of the nasty, old sliding doors that did not function well.

 

New windows instead of doors over the driveway.  

 

We went with all composite decking for our deck and screened in porch.  No more splintered wood, yay!

We got new french doors into our bedroom as well (Amelia is in front of those).

 

View of screened porch addition from back deck.  

Happy Thanksgiving

 

What?   You never spent Thanksgiving playing beach volleyball? 

Ha!  It was too pretty of a day to be inside and since Stephen was working on Thanksgiving, I took the kids and Mckenzie and Hayden to hang out at the beach for a couple of hours.  

 

Look at the awesome turkey they made out of sand!

 

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

 

After Thanksgiving it is time to head to our favorite place to get Christmas trees!  

These guys drive a big truck of Christmas trees from Wisconsin every year and we always buy both of our trees from them.  As far as the pose, who knows?  My family is weird.  I just told them to smile.

Close enough I guess.

Fun odds and ends

 

Stephen accompanied Luke and his class to the Stennis Space Center for a fun field trip.  Luke of course loved having Daddy there!

 

Our family attended a fun wedding recently.  It was a tennis friend's son that got married so us tennis girls had a great time!

 

And so did all of our kiddos!  They danced the night away.

 

We also recently attended the musical Peter Pan.  Our friends from church were in the cast and the kids LOVED it!

 

Last but not least, just a cute recent picture of my kids.  Who are getting way to old, way too quickly.