Christmas & the Rockettes

I just have to say that I absolutely LOVE Christmas. I went to see the Rockette's with my mom, sister, Grandma and Dave's Grandma this week and it really got me in the Christmas spirit, even more than I already was. First of all, the Rockette's were AMAZING. They put on an awesome show. One of their segments talked about how we all have favorite traditions and memories of Christmas and if you think back you can remember something from each Christmas. I was thinking of some of my favorite traditions and things about Christmas and I just wanted to share. Some of my Christmas favorites are...
1. My pink angel ornament. My brother and I each have a favorite ornament that we received when we were young that still, to this day, we have a competition to see who gets their ornament at the top of my mom's tree. My brother's ornament is a tiny pack of juicy fruit gum and mine is a pink angel; both of which we got from our grandparents a long time ago. My angel is far from a beautiful angel to most people; her hair is falling off and she has been chewed up by one of our many animals resulting in holes throughout her small plastic body. Still, I love this angel who represents so many memories for me and it will always be my favorite ornament-plus, my brother and I will always continue to have our little competition. He won last year but I'll get him this year:)
2. Taco dinner on Christmas Eve. My family has always had our main Christmas on Christmas Eve. We have a tradition that I love. We all go to church together and then come home, eat tacos and then open our gifts (except of course the gifts from Santa which come the next morning). Our taco tradition started a long time ago. When we were young we always spent Christmas Eve with my Grandma and Grandpa Heiser. The dinner tradition then was sloppy joes for dinner. When my family moved away from North Dakota to Wyoming, we started our own tradition. At the time, my brother and I decided our favorite meal was tacos. So, we have eaten tacos for our Christmas Eve dinner ever since. When Dave joined our family he thought we were nuts but has since come to enjoy our taco tradition!
3. Finding the perfect gifts. I often get teased about my love of presents and some people think I am obsessed about getting presents. But, my real joy is finding the perfect gift for everyone I love. I shop for Christmas all year long and honestly, I have some Christmas gifts for next year already. I can't even explain the feeling I get when I find something that I know the recipient will love. I absolutely LOVE getting gifts for other people, even more than I like getting gifts myself.
4. Christmas Music. I LOVE Christmas music. There is a radio station here that is already playing Christmas music and it is programmed into my car already. This drives Dave crazy but honestly Christmas music just makes my heart happy.

These are only a few of the things I love about Christmas, I could really write all day long about what I love about this time of year. I am hoping to wrap some Christmas gifts this weekend (another one of my favorite things about Christmas).

Thankful

Since it's November now and we're thinking about Thanksgiving (which we will be hosting at our new house this year!!!) I just wanted to share some of the things that I'm thankful for. Keep in mind that this is a very partial list:)

I'm thankful for my awesome husband. Dave has been working so hard on our house and at work lately and I'm just so lucky to have him. He is a great daddy and I am so thankful that our paths crossed in Wyoming:)

I'm thankful for this amazing little girl that God gave me, I love her more than words can say. Madi makes my heart smile everyday; she is always so happy and loving and I'm so thankful that she's mine!

I'm thankful for my family. How many parents would pick up their lives and move halfway across the country to live by their kids and babysit their granddaughter? My parents did and they have no idea how thankful I am for that. I am also so thankful for Dave's family but I didn't have a picture of them all together on my computer:( I'm lucky to have such great in-laws.

I'm thankful for my WONDERFUL new house. It still doesn't seem real that this beautiful of a house is ours. I'm looking forward to many memories in this house.

Halloween

Madi on the "Great Pumpkin Train" making me proud
Madi at the pumpkin patch looking cute...I just LOVE those chubby little thighs

Heading out to go Trick-or-Treating

Little Ladybug

I love the look on her face here

House Pictures...Finally

Dave & my room
Our room again

More of our room


Madi's room

Madi's big girl bed

Here are some pics of the new house finally. The pictures of Madi's room have a pink glow to them because of her curtains. Her room turned out just how I had pictured it. I will post more pictures soon and some before and after pictures of the living/dining room. We just finished the master bathroom on Monday so we're slowly making progess.

The Long Road

This whole home buying/selling road has been such a long one for us and just as we finally start to feel like the end of the road is in sight we hit a pothole leaving me feeling like a flat tire. We're all set to move out of our house this weekend and we get a call on Thursday that the gentleman who is buying our house can't get the final go ahead on his loan because we have a shared a driveway. What!?!?!? The fact that we have a shared driveway was disclosed from the very beginning and if you look at the house, it's no secret. Well, now a lawyer has to draw up some papers and we have to sign and our neighbor has to sign and yada, yada, yada. I'm just feeling so frustrated that this is coming up less than a week before we close on the house. Everyone keeps saying everything is fine and we're closing on the house just as planned next Wednesday but I'm just so stressed about it all. Please keep us in your prayers right now because we could really use it:)

Spoiled

I've always known that Madisyn is a little spoiled but I guess I never knew the extent of it until this morning. We got to my mom's house this morning where there was a new outfit and a new coloring book waiting for Madi. She proceeded to check out her outfit and try to put it on and flipped through her coloring book a little bit. Pretty soon, she turns to my mom and says as clear as day, " what else you get me?" My mom and I could not stop laughing. My mom told her that she had gotten her a new outfit and a color book and Madi looks at her and says, "what else?" It was a great laugh to start out Monday morning:)

2-Year Check Up

Madi had her 2 year check up yesterday and boy is she ever growing! She weighed 35lbs. and is 36in. tall!!! She really thought it was cool that she got to stand on the big scale this time instead of having to sit in the baby one; in fact, she wanted to "weigh self again." She had to get one shot but she did a great job; she only cried for a minute. After her appointment we went to the store and she got some princess shoes since she did such a great job:)