Everything Has a Theme

If you know me, you know that I'm a themed kinda' girl! Everything needs and deserves a theme! Everything! It's how I work, it keeps life fun and exciting! So, keeping with the theme of the upcoming celebration of Valentines Day, I brought out some "love" stuff! What better theme to decorate for than love!
Especially when there are gobs and gobs of wedding pictures I can display right? So I pulled out some fun little albums I've put together in the past, pulled out some rose petals and pink, pink, pink! What better way to create a table center piece then polka dots, rose petals, and feathers!! Anyone remember where those came from? So glamorous!

Saturday Updates

We have really enjoyed our past few weeks here in our little world. I've been greatly (being an understatement) adjusting to a short term teaching position. Harley got his "big pup" hair do. God's been tearing up our hearts for many, many different decisions. We have soaked up our family as much as possible. While soaking up each other as much as possible. Needless to say we have a lot to be thankful for. Early in the weekend, we went to a basketball game and spent time with John's family. We ate dinner, watched basketball, talked, yelled, played with baby Baylee, yelled some more, played with baby Baylee some more, and really enjoyed each others company! I am so thankful for all of them! Today, we celebrated one precious baby girl's first birthday! It was an absolutely adorable birthday party from start to finish! It was great to see all of my mom's side of the family together with all the babies running around. Trust me, there are a LOT! And it is a BLAST! I thank God so much for blessing our family with these healthy, happy children! They are really a treat to be around! Later, my parents, sis, bro.in.law, and boys came over to visit. We had a blast together! Played in the floor, played the wii, talked about God, and simply enjoyed each others company. Again, we have a lot to be thankful for. Weekends really are my favorite time of the week. It's the time when I get to see all of our family and spend quality time with everyone. Here in our little world, we would love to ask you to pause and pray for us. We have a lot of things that we feel God is laying on our hearts, and we are asking for His will in our marriage. We want to answer His call, whatever it may be. Join us in prayer if you wish. We thank you for it!

Finally

With Christmas, illness out the wazoo, snow, snow, and more snow, I finally got to see my family today! And finally is actually a HUGE understatement! I haven't seen my dad since BEFORE Christmas, and actually, haven't even talked to him! That's sickening! And I haven't seen my own mother or adorable sis and nephews in weeks and weeks and weeks! OK. I'll stop moaning and groaning! Because today I did finally get to see them and for that I am VERY thankful! And I got to take lots of fun pictures of them!

I love my family so much, and I soaked up every moment that I got to spend with them today! The boys are growing at rapid speed and getting cuter by the minute!

Oldest, B, is talking about playing basketball. I educated him on jammed fingers and how that is totally normal and NOT a big deal. We played checkers together and "Old Man" (Bible version of Old Maid).Middle, A, is off the wall hilarious with jabber and giggles every moment. I taught him to stick out his tongue of course, and we are working on pointing and saying "No, no, no!" Nana is in on the action as well, so it's all fun and games for everyone!Youngest, C, is cooing, drooling, and smiling at every little thing! He's ticklish like none other, and smells like the most beautiful baby in the world!My sister is adorable as always, looks like she's never had children, and always has useful coupon information for me! And my awesome mother was fabulous with the food and her over all presence and laughter. And Daddy was wise and hilarious as usual! Geeze! Can you tell I missed them! I am so blessed and very thankful to have enjoyed such a wonderful day with them.

A First

One priority that we have in our marriage is to continue to live every day to its fullest. It's so easy to get into the "routine" of things and live each day as the last. We like to keep things interesting. Another fact about us is that we love learning new things about each other. It's a life long process and we love every moment of it! The other night, John learned that I had never been to a hockey game, and I learned that he was oddly in love with hockey. So, we decided we would have a date and go see the Predator's. So, we fought the treacherous snow storm and headed to the game! (...snow storm?...) Now I am really one to get into sports.

I may not enjoy watching them continually on TV, or freak out if I miss a "big game", but live sports are a blast for me. You know, stand and scream, yell, really get into it, yes, that's me! And apparently, learning something new everyday, my husband loves them too! It's so nice to be married to someone who is competitive like me!We arrived at the game nice and early, got some rocking tickets and enjoyed the game! It was so awesome! (For lack of a better word!) It really was too cool! I was into it the entire time, and was actually sad when it was over. Needless to say, we will definitely be returning to another game!

Snow Day

Well, here we are! The long awaited "snow day" Who out there actually got 2-4 inches? Hmm? Yeah, us neither! We were really looking forward to waking up to a winter wonderland.

Expect, the snow just capped the sidewalks and roads, not so much in the grass! But, we still have been enjoying our snow day here together!

This morning was Harley's first contact with the snow and he ran outside to potty and straight back in. He had nothing to do with the stuff.

That is, until later, we made them go outside again and they realized that snow was edible! Oh, how frantic the two were!

It was fun and hilarious for us to watch, and naturally, we took pictures! Happy snow day everyone!

Starting Here

Today I had the best time with my bro.in.law and his gal pal. I mean, girlfriend! Sorry.

They remind me a lot of me and John when we first starting goin' steady. I mean, going out! Sorry.

Their styles are very different, and it just so happened that today their wardrobe REALLY portrayed their differences!

And what do you know, opposites do attract!

So, we went out in a field and I shot away! With my new camera that is! It was freezing, but bro. and gal pal were AWESOME sports!

I made sure to make the bro. happy and put his dirt bike in a few pictures!

It was very beneficial for me, and it was a BLAST shooting people and not dogs or Christmas decor with my fabulous camera!!

Thanks you two!! Let us know what you think!

Practice Makes Perfect

And perfection is my friend! So, Santa brought me a really fun toy for me to work with and I've really been practicing!

This has been a LONG time coming, and was a real shocker that Santa decided to surprise me with this this year! I have been researching and watching tutorials and I even get to have a one on one session with my fabulous photographer cousin this week to get even better! Until then, I've been working hard on learning about my new toy! With a great emphasis on still learning! I love it so much! I'm pretty sure it hasn't really left my hand for more than an hour since I opened it Christmas morning! I'm looking forward to FINALLY learning how to take fabulous pictures for me and for others! YAY! Because, after all, practice makes perfect!

Merry Christmas from Our Home to Yours

Christmas morning was so special to us this year. It was obviously our second Christmas married, but it was our first Christmas spent in our new home!

It was a day that we had looked forward to for a long time! Some of us...ahem....John. were so excited that he thought it would be great to wake up at 12:00 midnight. Not me! So, when he decided to wake me up with the energy of a 5 year old, I told him a few more minutes! We both woke up again at 3:00 and decided to get up, simply because we couldn't wait any longer! Told you we love Christmas! We woke up to a note to me from "Santa" pretty much thanking me for being a good wife this year but to have fresh cookies next year! Apparently, I broke Santa's tooth this Christmas Eve due to the stale cookies we left for him! Sorry folks, but I'm not giving up the good ones! I got a kick out of this! The dogs were filled with the Christmas spirit too! It was probably just us being, well, "us" but we're pretty sure Heidi and Harley were excited about Christmas too! We let them open their presents first. We wrapped them in tissue paper, to see if they would actually try to get into them. They loved it, and it was hilarious seeing them open their presents and be so excited about them! We enjoyed taking our time opening presents while sipping on coffee and munching on some of our traditional Christmas breakfast. John loved all of his fun stuff that Mrs. Claus brought him, and I was extremely surprised to see what Mr. Claus brought me! It's amazing how much we've been through this past year. We are so thankful for how God has been such a large part of our lives. All glory to Him! We are excited to see what God has in store for us this next year! Merry Christmas!

A Maholland Christmas

Last night we got to celebrate Christmas with the Mr's side of the family at his parents house. We always look forward to this time to spend with his family!

We have the most delicious meal, dessert, and there is always coffee! We brought the fur babies with us this year because we were informed that they would be partaking in the gift giving as well! They didn't think much of the abundance of squeaky toys at the time, but this morning they are attacking each and every one of them! And as a matter of fact, in the amount of time that I have written this short post Heidi Beth has destroyed 3 of the toys already! She's a monster! So now, we have it all on video! yay! We loved spending time with our family this year! I'm so blessed to have married a man that has been brought up by such a fabulous family!

A Claytor Christmas

Last night we celebrated Christmas at my parents house with my side of the family. We had delicious food!

We always have fun foods like wings, rotel, pigs in a blanket, you know...junk food! It was the best! This year was so much fun because we had two big boys to buy fun stuff for! Bryce is into these skateboarding things and fun "little" stuff to play with, and Adam is obsessed with stuffed animals. And well, we got Carter clothes, because he's still little! It was an absolute blast watching the boys open their gifts and get so excited about all of the sweet stuff they got! We had a wonderful time! It has been quite some time when all of my family was together all under the same roof. It was a blessing to see them and to spend this special time with all of them!