Sunday, December 31, 2017

2017 | A Year In Review

The year started off great! Scott and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary with a getaway to Mexico. Our first vacation since becoming parents!! It was much needed and we were able to relax in ways we haven't been able to in years. However, when I got home to the boys I realized I missed them so much and said I wouldn't ever take another trip without them. Hahaha!!
February kicked off what would end up being months and months of constant sickness. It was really stressful and I was SO tired of Bennett and I constantly getting the stomach bug. He lost a lot of weight but remained the sweetest, happiest, most chill baby in the world.
March brought us the beginning of warmer temps and some big birthdays! Ivy and Madison turned five and Campbell turned three! We celebrated his birthday with a party aboard a real choo choo train and Campbell had the time of his life.
Spring finally arrived with April flowers. Campbell discovered how fun it is to hunt Easter eggs and Bennett learned how to clap his hands.
May is another big birthday month in our house! Our sweet Bennett turned one year old and we had the best time celebrating his first year of life. Scott and I both had birthdays as well. We did a lot of fun things like pick strawberries and spend most of our time outdoors. Bennett was dedicated at church and we kicked off the unofficial, official start to summer by swimming at Pops and Gammas house!
June was spent swimming and taking a lot of trips to the Farmers Market. Campbell and I were in a Gap fashion show together and we had a lot of fun participating in it!
In July we had a great time celebrating America with our neighborhoods annual 4th of July party. We broke ground on our home, picked blackberries, and spent a lot of time in Little Rock with family!
August brought big changes! Campbell started pre-school and Bennett attended MDO. We took the boys to a carnival and they had the best time (and I got some of my favorite photos!). Razorback football started back and we soaked up our last days of summer.
September was full of a lot of house planning. Scott and I had fun picking out and designing the interior of our new home and our home build really started moving along!
Pumpkin patches, fall leaves and that warm golden sunset filled our October days. We ended the month with a super fun evening of trick-or-treat and we enjoyed the temps dropping as fall rolled in.
We took the boys to a Razorback tailgate in November (first for Bennett, second for Campbell) and we all had a great time exploring campus and cheering for the Hogs. I began taking photos for a lot of families and realized how much I enjoy it. We celebrated Thanksgiving at our house then went to a petting zoo the next day and the boys had a great time!
December capped our year off perfectly. We had such a wonderful holiday season thanks to our little 3.5 year old and watching his excitement over Christmas the entire month. Bennett began coming more of a toddler and less of a baby and watching him grow has been such a delight. We received some snow just a few short days before Christmas and that was so fun and exciting even if it only lasted a few hours. Christmas day was pure magic and we made memories that will last a lifetime.

2017 has brought us so much joy and happiness. It's amazing that another year has come and gone so quickly but I'm looking forward to seeing what 2018 will bring! It will definitely bring us some changes with our new home here in just a few short months. We will be sad to leave our beloved home where we have created so many incredible memories but we look forward to next year bringing us a new home where we can make new memories and hopefully new neighbor friends too! Until next year!!

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Favorite Photos 2017

Hey all! I've been taking a much needed blogging/social media break this week. I've been popping into social media here and there but not spending much time on it and it's been a bit refreshing. For me, social media and blogging can sometimes be viewed as a form of "work" so it's basically like I've been on vacation. I know that may seem silly to some of you but a lot of you will get it and know what I mean by it. :) 
All of that to say, I feel like I'm a little behind on some stuff but I wanted to share this little collage I made (in the car on my way home from Christmas in Little Rock). These are most of my favorite photos I took in 2017. It was fun to go through them but hard to pick! Some of these images were no brainers and some I had a hard time narrowing down because I loved others from that same day/shoot equally. But this is what I decided on and I honestly just love this little collage. These images mean so much to me. I remember each moment of taking these photos and hope I always do. That is why I love photography so much. It freezes a moment in time and allows you to remember it forever. 
So these are my favorite photographs I took in 2017. Come back tomorrow for my year in review! 

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Christmas 2017

I hope everyone had a Very Merry Christmas!! We absolutely did. This was our first Christmas to wake up at our home so it was a little different this year than in previous years. We have always planned to change up our Christmas routine when Campbell was 3.5 because we wanted to start our own family traditions when he was of an age where Christmas would be extra exciting to him. It was so wonderful and we made some amazing memories. I loved being home on Christmas morning with just my little family, doing our own thing, spending that special time just the four of us. Scott and I stayed up until almost midnight on Christmas Eve getting everything ready. We had so much fun doing it and kept talking about how happy we were and how much we just adore our boys. I woke up at 6 am on the dot on Christmas morning. I'm like a kid. Any other day of the week I can hardly pry my eyes open when my alarm goes off at 7:15 but not on Christmas! I tried to will myself back to sleep but it did no good. I was just too excited to see Campbell and Bennett's reaction to all of the Christmas excitement.
Scott and I went to the boys rooms together to get them and carry them downstairs. When Campbell saw all of the presents Santa left, he gasped the biggest gasp I've ever heard. It made me smile so big! Bennett was very overwhelmed and unsure about it all for about 30 minutes until he decided Christmas was awesome and he was all in. Scott and I just sat on the sofa together and watched them ooh and aww over their new toys that Santa brought. After about an hour I asked Campbell if he wanted to open up the presents under the tree and he jumped up and down with excitement. He wanted us to open up every single present so he could play with it before moving onto the next. Bennett was too busy to open presents so I opened them for him.
Scott's mom came over around 10:30 and we all had a big breakfast together. It was delicious if I do say so myself. Campbell and Bennett opened up even more presents from their JoJo then by 1:30 we were on the road to Little Rock to see my family. We had our family Christmas with them and the boys stayed up until 9:00 all hopped up on excitement. My mom cooked an amazing dinner and we made a lot of great memories. It really was just the best day. I absolutely loved every second of it. I even loved the 3 hour car ride because I was actually able to just sit, relax, talk to Scott, and look at social media. Ha! These are some of my favorite photos of our Christmas day.
I asked Campbell was his very favorite present he received was and he said "the choo choo train" which was "technically" Bennett's gift so go figure. I asked Scott was his favorite part of the day was and he said Campbell's gasp when he first saw the presents. My favorite part was just sitting on the sofa with my coffee, watching my boys with all of their new toys first thing Christmas morning. Oh and also watching how much Madison loved all of her new presents. She knew the day was special and was overwhelmed with excitement over her new toys and I'm not even exaggerating. It was so funny.
Christmas was a great day. I'll forever remember it and hope every Christmas will be just as good as this one was.

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Christmas Eve 2017

Merry Christmas Eve! We celebrated the birth of our Savior at a beautiful church service this morning then came to our house after for a family lunch with Scotts mom. It was a really nice afternoon spent with family, worshiping the Lord. I love Christmas Eve and it was so special to begin the day at church.
Later this evening Scott's Dad is coming over so we can have our Christmas celebration with him. I know the boys will be so excited about the gift their grandpa is getting them--a new kitchen! Campbell LOVES playing kitchen and I know he and Bennett both are going to be so excited to have their very own to play with. I will be excited for Campbell to (hopefully) stop playing with my pots, pans, spatulas, and food and now play with his own.
Scott and I are so excited about getting the house set up for Santa to arrive once the boys go to bed! I absolutely cannot wait to see the boys faces in the morning. It's something I've been looking forward to for a long, long time. I hope you all enjoy your Christmas Eve and Day and are able to spend it with those you love most.
Merry Christmas!!

Saturday, December 23, 2017

White Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve, Eve!! We woke up this morning to a little winter wonderland. We got about an inch or so of snow and it was so pretty! I knew we were supposed to get a little overnight and when my alarm went off this morning I popped out of bed to look out the window. I felt like a kid (haha!) but I do love me some snow!!! I noticed Campbell was awake so I went upstairs to get him. When I told him it snowed he gasped real big then said "I want to see!!" When he looked out of his window he immediately declared "I want to play in it!!!" Less than 10 minutes later we were out there in the snow. Bennett was still asleep and I hadn't even brushed my teeth yet but it didn't matter because snow was important.
Scott got the sled out and he pulled Campbell around and Campbell thought that was just so much fun. We got this sled for Campbell for Christmas two years ago and this is the first time we've been able to use it. We used to get crazy amounts of snow in Northwest Arkansas but the last two years we haven't gotten anything.
I have always dreamed of a white Christmas! Even though it was just a dusting and even though it had all melted away by the afternoon, it was still magical!

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Deck The Halls

Wow I can't believe Christmas is just a few days away. Scott asked me if I was getting excited and I told him yes but also sad because I don't want it to be over!! I can't believe another year has come and gone. Something about another year passing by in a flash always makes me sad. Anyone else feel this way?
I am getting so, so excited about our fun Christmas festivities though. Things seem to really start kicking off for us on December 23 and we go full speed for a few days. I booked our train tickets for this coming Saturday. We ride a Christmas train every December 23 and I think I got the last set of tickets so I'm glad I checked a few days ago and purchased them!! The boys absolutely love this Christmas train ride and it makes Scott and I happy to watch them. Our tradition of doing it so close to Christmas is fun because it feels like it kicks off the Christmas festivities in a really fun way.
I finished all of my Christmas shopping last week so no more frantic holiday shopping for me! I do have some food prep to do but it won't be stressful. I did my best to get everything done as early as possible so I could just enjoy the week of Christmas, stress free. I've not had any work to do in the evenings and every night this week I've gotten in bed early to watch a Christmas movie. It's been pure bliss. If only it were snowing outside and then it would be perfect.
This year will be different for us because we're waking up at our house on Christmas. I have some fun stuff planned that I want to become new traditions for us. I'm planning on having the boys make Christmas cookies for Santa over the weekend. We'll read T'was The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. Maybe we'll go look at some Christmas lights over the weekend as well. Does anyone have any fun family traditions you do every Christmas? I would love for you to share them! Traditions are what make Christmas so fun so the more traditions we can come up with, the better!!
Leave me some ideas in the comments!!

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Wordless Wednesday