It gets better every year

I am seriously loving CHRISTMAS more and more each year. Our kids are at such a perfect age to really get excited about everything. Just sitting back and watching that and enjoying being together is SO much fun. When I read that back to myself it sounded like my grandma wrote it or maybe helped me write it, but I tell you that is really how I feel. I guess motherhood is just bringing out the sentiment in me more and more as time goes on.

Well, there was nothing spectacular about Christmas this year: we just stayed home and had our regular traditions. But what really made it special was that we had the BEST of ALL WORLDS! We had Christmas Eve in Cleburne with the Carvers, we spent Christmas day with our own little family at home, and Ryan's parents and Merilee were nice enough to fly down from Idaho and spend the next few days after Christmas with us. It was so nice to be with everyone and not even have to travel too far.

Before Christmas even hit, Ryan took some time off and we spent about a week doing fun things with the kiddos. I didn't take too many pictures, but here are some of our day at Bass Pro Shop before pictures with Santa. I love love LOVE dressing these cuties up in their Christmas best...

Here's some pics of Christmas Eve in good ole C-Town and the annual Carver Family Nativity. Mary and Joseph...

Ava took her role as a sheep very seriously. She had to wear Bryan's wool lined jacket inside out to look the part...

No Carver Christmas Eve would be complete without the missionaries joining the party. Here they are as the three wisemen (plus one)...

Carver grandkiddos in matching jammies from Nana and Papa...

Christmas morning was a blur. I prepared so much for what was all over in about a half an hour. We try to make it last, but those little attention spans can only stretch so far! I pretty much only got action shots with my camera too, no one ever wants to sit still...

I think this was the favorite gift this year. Thank you toys r us black friday sale...

Christmas afternoon was spent at Chris and Emily's place. As usual, Emily had an amazing meal prepared and the most amazing Christmas tree I have ever seen in someone's house...it seriously looked like it came straight from Neiman's or Macy's or something. I didn't take many pics, but we had a good time playing the x-box and hanging out. Plus it was great to see our good friend Daniel who is home from serving in Afghanistan...

Next, we headed straight to the airport to pick up our Idaho Andersons. We went home and had Christmas all over again. These two are such good grandparents...

Aunt Mer w/ Elsie...

The following next few days were spent hanging out, entertaining the kids, and playing games.

The fellas took the kids to the park so the girls could go out shopping. We were also treated to pedicures and made sure to make our traditional trip to Sam Moon (thanks Robyn). Here's Grandpa doing double duty on the swings...

The signs may say 12 and under, but you're never too big for the slides, just ask Grandpa...

Next, we took all 4 kids to Build-A-Bear workshop where we added 3 new members to our growing family: Max, Ruby Red Slippers, and Coco Chanel...

We also had a fun filled day at the museum...

Before we new it, it was time to say goodbye...

I can't imagine next Christmas being as action packed as this one, but like I said it gets better and better every year!

It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!

We kicked off our holiday season this year with the annual Southlake Town Center tree lighting. We haven't been to this since Carver was a baby, and we need to make it an annual tradition. There were so many free things to do, and we all got into the holiday spirit...

Kaydree made a mini snowman with real snow...

I think Carver's favorite was the cookie decorating station...

Elsie and Ava enjoyed the lollipops the most...

Yum!

Here we all are riding the train. Not a bad picture considering we asked a random stranger...

Of all the fun, probably the most memorable event of the whole evening was that Ryan's nose wouldn't stop bleeding! Everytime he would get things under control the blood would come gushing again like Old Faithful. But even the geyser that was Ryan's nose didn't stop us from having some good quality family time.

Rite of Passage

Hosting my very first Thanksgiving was big. My grandma, mom, and aunts do things like this, not me. In many ways I still feel like a college student: not enough matching dishes, not enough flatware, and definitely not enough perfectly coordinating serving dishes. Heck, with 12 adults and 10 kids, we didn't even have enough seats for everyone! I figure Martha Stewart didn't become Martha over night, so I'm taking baby steps. And with a little creativity and a lot of borrowing from my mom, Thanksgiving at the Andersons was a BIG success (if a little crowded).
My beautiful table complete with handmade centerpieces... Everything from scratch...Okay, so maybe those pictures were from Martha's website. In all the hullabaloo I might have missed some camera-worthy moments. But I assure you that my food and decor was equally camera-worthy (at least in my mind it was). We did manage to capture this moment...

And isn't that what it's really all about? Hanging out with the fam and friends and just being THANKFUL.

The bottom line is this: I survived hosting my first Thanksgiving, and now there can only be one thing left to say...

Watch out world, I'm a REAL woman now!

Family Movie Night

These pictures are from about a month ago, but as I was looking back through them I decided they were too cute to be forgotten. "The Rescuers" + popcorn = F-U-N at the Anderson house...
We definitely need to have nights like these more often!

Trapped!

If you think I'm going to comment on something relevant or profound, like the miner's who were trapped in Chile or something like that, think again! While my memory card was out of my camera, I realized some pictures had been trapped on it since last year. What a difference a year can make...

A, E

Uncle Jeff, Elsie(I think this awkward diaper change had something to do with the fact that Ryan didn't want to get up from the recliner)Christmas Kaydree

I can't believe how fast my kids are GrOwInG! We still call Elsie and Ava "the babies" but they are quickly outgrowing that title. Kaydree and Carver are moving on up too. Part of me wants them to be little forever...then again, not changing 3 kids in diapers several times a day sure would be nice! I guess I'll let them grow up...slowly.

You can take the boy outta Idaho...

...but you can't take the Idaho outta the boy. Which is exactly why we sported these for Halloween this year...That's right: Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, frantically sewn late last week by yours truly. As for these two, they are ALL TEXAN...

Jessie

Woody

And our twins? Well, we're not really sure what planet they came from...

ElsieAva

This year we celebrated Halloween by hanging out at our church's Trunk r Treat...

(Not the greatest picture of my costume, but look at Ryan - isn't he a good sport?)

(Carv with his buddy Jacob, both with that long wild curly hair...I finally bribed Carver into letting me cut his last week!)

The following weekend, we crashed the Methodist church's Trunk r Treat with some friends...

Kaydree got to dress up about 5 different times this year between dance class and parties. Here she is ready for dance as a Halloween Fairy...

They sure looked cute, but don't let the costumes fool you - I have come to the conclusion that they are ALL monsters!