Happy Birthday Katie!

Where does the time go?  Yesterday we all celebrated a big birthday...Katie turned FIVE! It seems like only yesterday we were here.

...and in the blink of an eye....

How we love our Katie-belle!

We all loaded up and headed to none other than the American Doll Store for a breakfast brunch and a shopfest.  

Even though it was 20 degrees outside we were out waiting on the store to open.  The birthday girl was the first in!

 The girl of the day.

 Yes, even boys were invited...pretty handsome ones I might add.

 Lots of babies a the table let me tell you.

 It was a rounded table, my attempt at catching the group.

 Haha, the other side...as you can see the boys were up to no good.

 Birthday pancakes, yummy!

 Nana hugs. 

 Blowing out candles.

 Waiting on after breakfast surprises.

 It's my party and I'll cry if I want to...wait, that's not how it went.  More like, It's someone else's party and if I can't open them I will cry.  Only child  problems, they are real.

 Lukily Katie let us help!

The girls were the last standing at the American Doll store, the boys bailed early.

 Headed to ice skate!  I did not snap any pictures there, hey, after my last bust, I needed both hand for balance!  No falls to report this time!

 Showing off their Wellie Wishers.
Now headed next door to all of our favorite, Mi Cocina.

 Headed home, what a perfect day for a perfect little girl!

 Playing with some of our finds from the day.

Some Sunday shots, first of 2017!

Putting on some lip gloss, oh, I think I am going to have my hands full!

 Ashlyn got to go to church with us this morning.  Maddie always chooses to sit with us during the service rather than go to Wigglers worship...but each Sunday I give her the option.  Today, when I asked her, she said she wanted to go to Wigglers!? (insert sobbing sad face here).  Robert took her, and when I looked up to see him return, I will admit that I was elated to see her come back with him, ha, she changed her mind...thank goodness.  I love having her with us in church!

Someone, ok, not just one person...three people are headed back to reality come Monday!  We are trying to soak in these last few hours of vacation!  

Happy New Year! 2017

Well, hopefully this is not a sign of the year to come, this will be truncated from the original, since my work I did on the first complete one was not saved on the new computer I got.  Ugh. So I will try and throw some pictures up, but right now I am too annoyed to regurgitate it all.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's been a nice relaxing start to hopefully a good new year ahead. We came to visit Nana and Papa this weekend.  Nothing like a little fresh air to start off the New Year.

We girls did a lot of:

Snacking...and more snacking

That Nana can fix up a pretty mean fruit plate.  It's like this child had never eaten fruit before!

She ate more grapefruit that I can count in our short stay.

And of course everything is better when

 and Mangoes. 

Movie watching.  
Maddie LOVES Tangles (Rapunzel movie).  I did, too! 

Playing

 I guess I was too busy playing princess to snap a picture. 

Writing/cutting/crafting
Maddie loves writing.  She can draw/write for hours.  She actually has gotten to where she does not like coloring books, she prefers white printer paper, ha.  So, if you ever need anything printed around our house, check Maddie's stash! 

The boys on the other hand were taking advantage of the last few days to shoot some deer.  And boy did they take advantage!  Deer, hogs, squirrels, no one is safe in sight of these two!

  

Papa got this one on the last day of the year to get a buck!  Way to go Papa, long overdue since he is usually taking the boys around as their personal hunting guide ;)

Maddie also spent her fair share enjoying the beautiful January weather, literally.  It was pretty and sunny both days.  She went out with "just the boys" the first day.

The first day she was timid around the sheep they said. 

 She had the time of her life!

 I think Papa may have some good summer help, let me know when you want me to bring her!

 Oh, you know, walking on the hay bails. 

 Yep, just Maddie and the boys, not that I am bitter. ;)

The second day she told us we could tag along.  I got to work on a little target practice.

 
We also got to meet Maddie's new friend, Snowflake.  I thought we were going to bring her home with us, literally.  You know I love this girl if I contemplate bringing home a soon to be 100 lb dog!

 We are going to think about it, in the meantime, Papa said he would feed her and pet her for us!

  

 Snowflake got to cruise in the Polaris with us.

The second day Maddie was not timid at all with the sheep, she hopped up to it, NO help needed!

 Ha, even trying to pose with her.

We also got to try Maddie's new bike out.

 And like that, I watch my baby drive off, ugh, a tear thinking that one day that will be a car she is driving.

Just like a year, things must come to an end, so we packed up and headed home.  I had some work to do and sugarplum fairies were no longer dancing in my head, thoughts of this elephant in the room were.

 But, in a few hard core hours we went from this...

To this.  
Whew, at some point I am glad Christmas only comes ones per year.  It is at this point in the year, I become very interested in buying a new vacuum cleaner.  And the point that I feel my house is empty and brown! haha

 Last picture in front of the Christmas tree for 2016.

   

 Once our work was done, we headed to the mall.  Most people take off the week between Christmas and New Year.  But, in the last couple of years I have worked that week (and enjoyed NO traffic on the way to work).  We both then take off the first week of the new year, which proves to be very slow as well.  We probably won't get away with that when Maddie starts school, but we will enjoy it for now.
All that being said, we took off to the mall yesterday, which by the way, was finally a ghost town, BUT for all shoppers out there, there were NO sales and NO remaining Christmas items.  So lesson learned, if I want clearance Christmas, I have to fight the crazies and go the day after Christmas instead of sitting home in my PJs.  Hmmm, not sure if the few bucks saved is worth it.

HOWEVER, I did score this big guy thanks to Cruz and Robert who did fight the crowds.  Woohoo!  I only had a few days to enjoy him before he got boxed up, but hey, I have always been one for delayed gratification.

 After our work taking down the tree, we rewarded ourselves with a trip to the movies to see Moana.  We all liked it, I'm not sure if Maddie would say she liked it better than Tangled, but it was good nonetheless.  I must say, I like the newer movies that come out showing young girls who are strong/confident/smart with absolutely no love story and prince to help!  Ok, I'll get off my soap box now. :)

 Just relaxing. 

 Yep, I have close to the equivalent of my PJs on, but hey, late movie on a Tuesday night with 4 other people total in the theater, why not!?

 Well, that is a wrap, we will see what today holds, besides redoing a blog, laundry, dishes and likely cleaning out an over crowded play room.

But, this may be my favorite gift of the season.  I thought that I had had my last cup of coffee with Peppermint Mocha flavoring for the year.  But, Mom found some in Comanche and stocked up for me.  Check out these beauties.  I have enough to last me until May, who am I kidding, February at best, seeing as how I like coffee with my creamer. :)

Happy 2017