Christmas Morning/Lunch

Evan and I had a wonderful Christmas day with the boys. After eating breakfast, the boys checked out what Santa had brought them and then we opened presents. The boys got toys, toys, and more toys, but they also got some practical things too like diapers, formula, bottles, and clothes. Evan's big gift was a GPS. He had been wanting one but he had no idea that I had gotten it. He was totally surprised. My big gift was a new camera. Yahoo!! I have been wanting one but couldn't justify going out a buying one for no reason since I already had one that was decent. Evan even charged the battery ahead of time so as soon as I opened it I could start taking pictures. He also got me this reed diffuser that I had been wanting for a long time. It was one of those things that I REALLY wanted, but I never would have spent the money on it.

The boys had the cutest matching pajamas that were monogrammed. I loved them! We enjoyed watching the boys play with their new toys, but they were mostly interested in playing with the wrapping paper. Until then, I had no idea how much the boys loved playing with paper. I think I have just found a good use for all those catalogs we get in the mail.

Evan and I cooked a delicious lunch and unfortunately the boys didn't get to eat any of it, but next year they'll be able to. Well at least the food part. We'll wait a few years on the wine. :-)

Santa's goodies

Caramel Turtle Brownies

Remnants of Lunch

Christmas at Nene and Pop's

This year we celebrated Christmas at Nene and Pop's on Christmas Eve. We ate lunch with everyone and then opened presents. The food was DELICIOUS and as always I ate way too much. The problem for me is I always like everything so I have trouble passing anything up. After lunch we opened presents. :-) The boys got lots of clothes, a super play yard, and toys and Evan and I got lots of things for the house which was perfect. The boys loved playing in the wrapping paper and it was so much fun to watch them.

Shaw Family Christmas

We do Christmas with my extended family every year. It rotates between families as to who hosts it and this year it was my families turn. About 70-80 of us get together the Sunday before Christmas and we've been doing this as long as I can remember. We chat and catch up with each other and enjoy lots of good food. It's always so fun seeing everyone. I'm so blessed to be a part of such a close knit family. It was a little overwhelming for the boys and they got kind of fussy, but I'm sure next year it will be a little easier since they will be a little older.

have yourself a merry little christmas...

We had a wonderful Christmas and we hope that you did as well. Christmas is my favorite holiday because I enjoy getting to spend quality time with family and friends. Some of the other holidays feel rushed to me, but I always feel like at Christmas we truly get to enjoy spending time together, which is one of my favorite things to do.

This Christmas was particularly meaningful because there were a lot of firsts for our family. This was the boys FIRST Christmas, which was so special because they will never have another first Christmas. I will always cherish the memories of how excited they were playing in the wrapping paper. Out of all the presents the boys received their favorite thing by far was the wrapping paper. :-)

This was our FIRST Christmas in our new house. I love to decorate for Christmas and I really haven't been able to in the past. We had a tree in our condo, but we were limited on space so we couldn't do much decorating. I have always wanted to have 2 Christmas trees, a fun (meaning colored lights) one and a pretty (meaning white lights) one. This year I had two trees and I absolutely LOVED it!

For the FIRST time Evan and I cooked a fabulous lunch on Christmas day. It ended up taking longer than expected so I didn't get a picture of the meal beforehand because we were starving, but I did manage to take a picture of the remnants. We roasted fresh organic chickens, had garlic mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and for dessert, caramel turtle brownies. We also celebrated with a nice bottle of white wine. It was DELICIOUS!!


For the FIRST time Katherine, Lesley, and I did our Christmas celebration with the kids. Things have changed a lot since last Christmas. There were only 2 kids last year and this year there were 5. Next year we will have 6 kids altogether. WOW! We had a great time, but it was a little chaotic! Lesley had given all of our munchkins matching outfits so we dressed them alike and attempted to take a picture. When you see the picture you have to remember that there were 5 kids under the age of 2 1/2. Ha, ha! They actually did better than I thought they would. Afterward, we said that next year we might do a nice quiet girls lunch. :-) We'll see...

We had lots of Christmas celebrations so it will take me a little while to post all of them, but check back regularly for updates. I hope you enjoy!

Christmas at Nana and Granddaddy's

Christmas at Nana and Granddaddy's is very chaotic and we love it. We get together with my grandparents and my mom's sisters, brother and all of the kids. There's about 40 of us all together and the family still continues to grow. Next year we will have at least one more little one. All of the kids open their presents first, then the adults, and then the adults do a Chinese gift exchange. It's a lot of fun and even though traveling for the boys was really hard this year, we wouldn't have missed it. I've been a part of this family tradition my whole life and Evan has been a part of it for close to 10 years.

Huge Giveaway!

There's a huge giveaway going on right now. All the proceeds go to charity! Click on the Rebel for A Cause button on the side of my blog to enter or click below. Good luck!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Catching Up!

Where has the time gone? We've been so busy, I haven't had time to blog lately so I'm trying to catch up! We went to my grandparents house a few weeks ago to celebrate my granddad's birthday. We had a lot of fun visiting with family and as always we had good eats too!! :-)

The next weekend my brother and sister-in-law came to visit to celebrate my brother's birthday. Friday night everyone came over to our house for dessert and then on Saturday night we had a wonderful dinner at a Greek restaurant downtown. Afterward, we all came back to our house to open presents. The boys had the first real baby-sitter, meaning we were actually paying someone to keep them. :-) They did really well, but we didn't leave until after they were in the bed.

Breaking News!

Guess what? I am going to be an AUNT!!!! I am sooooooo excited! My brother and sister-in law are going to have a baby in June and we are so happy for them! Congratulations Jim and Ashley! Fisher and Davis can't wait to meet their first, 1st cousins! We love you!

New Adventure

I got a new job! Well, not really a job, but I'm starting a new adventure. I recently became a Southern Living at Home consultant. Since I have so much free time, I decided to find something to fill up the time. Ha, ha! Actually, I went to my first Southern Living at Home party a couple of months and absolutely loved the products so I decided to host a party. I had so much fun hanging out with the girls and sharing the products with them I thought I would enjoy being a consultant. If you would be willing to host a party or if you're interested in becoming a consultant let me know. It's a lot of fun and you earn lots of free products. Each month there are customer and hostess specials where products are 50-70% off. You can get some really good deals! There are 2 types of parties you can host-- an in-home party or a catalog party. Either way, you can earn your free products, but you typically have better sales at an in-home party if your guests aren't familiar with the products. I posted a link to the November specials below. Also, if you host a party this month, you get extra hostess dollars to spend on products. I hope to be your Southern Living at Home consultant!

https://www.southernlivingathome.com/pne/pdf/monthlySpecials/CorpSpecials.pdf

Wordless Wednesday

When you gotta go, you gotta go!

I had the day off since it's election day, but that didn't really mean I had the day off. I just didn't have to go to school today. :-) I was up and out of the house by 7:30 to go to the polls. Evan said he could keep the boys until 9:00 so I could go and vote. I waited in line for about 30 minutes and was about halfway to the door when I had to go to the bathroom. I held it for about 15 minutes, but then I couldn't hold it anymore. I asked the sweet lady behind me if she would mind holding my spot in line. She said sure, so I bolted for the bathroom and was back within a couple of minutes and I saw the sweet lady was flagging me down. The line had moved all the way inside and had split into lines by last name, A-K and L-Z. I was getting ready to get back in line in front of her when I realized she was in the L-Z line. Ughh!! I couldn't go in that line. So I had to go to the back of the line and start all over!! I finally got through the line again, booked it home and pulled up in the driveway at 9:00. I walked in the house as Evan walked out. In passing he told me the boys had not had their cereal. So it was now 9:05 and Davis had an appointment downtown at 10:00 so I now had 35 minutes for me to shower and get ready, feed the boys their cereal, get them dressed, and load them up in the car. And to top it off I walked in the den and smelled that smell. They BOTH had poopy diapers!!! We made it the appointment almost on time. We came home they took a short nap, I fed them lunch, then I ate lunch and then headed to get my haircut. My hair stylist was running late so I was paying at 2:25. The boys had their 6 month checkup at 2:30. So I had 5 minutes to get from the salon, to my house to get the boys and get them to the pediatrician. Needless to say I was late. I called on my way to let them know and they said as long as I wasn't more than 15 minutes late then it would be fine. I raced home picked them up and wheeled in the parking lot of the doctor's office at 2:44. Whew! I had made it! I didn't have time to get the stroller out and put them in it so I had to carry both carriers in at the same time. The appointment went very well. They had more shots, but surprisingly they only cried for a couple of minutes afterwards. I posted their stats below. Well, that was my day off. I hope yours was a little less hectic than mine!


Davis
Weight: 14 lbs. 8 oz.
Length: 27 in

Fisher
Weight: 15 lbs. 7 oz.
Length: 26 in.

To cool for school!

Check out my mohawk!

You have to look close, but I officially now have hair and I can even sport a mohawk. My brother didn't make this post because he's still bald. Hee, hee! :-) Let me know what you think about my new look.

Love, Davis

Pumpkin Farm

We took the boys to the pumpkin farm a few weeks ago. Although there wasn't much for them to do since they're so young, they really enjoyed being outside. We picked out 3 pumpkins- 2 orange and 1 green. :-)