Christmas Day 2013

Our Christmas day in pictures...

We opened presents as a family this morning:

Love this look of excitement

Pure bliss

Then we went to Papa and Grandma Donna's for Christmas morning breakfast and special time:

Fella and Papa

Love these guys!!!

Ben and Grandma Donna

My sweet little family!

Fella trying on my sock LOL!!!

Spent our Christmas afternoon playing with all our new toys:

Ben and mommy building a Lego aircraft

Wiped out after a busy Christmas morning

Then we went back to my parents for Christmas dinner:

Uncle Jim and Fella having special time

Cousin Jeff passing along all his Lego wisdom-
Jeff was the Lego master when we were little

Elfie Antics

Elfie spent the entire night TPing our house... the boys couldn't stop giggling!

Crafty Fun

The other afternoon the boys and I went crazy doing a million Pinterest crafts... ok maybe it wasn't a million, but with the mess we made, it might as well have been a million crafts LOL!!!

shaving cream and glue mix= puppy snowmen

decorating their own Christmas trees

Seasons of Change

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

                                                  -Eccles. 3: 1-8

The Christmas season is one of my most favorite times of the year!!! Growing up as a young child, I looked forward to it all year long and now that I have my own children, I love to see their faces light up, listen to all their softly whispered "oohs and aahs" and watch the magic and excitement of the season spread across their faces. The lights, decorations, music, food, stories, traditions, friends and family all come together to make this magical season one filled with wonder and delight.

This Christmas season however has been hard and different from what I have grown to love about Christmas and has reminded me a lot of the verse in Eccles. This year, I have found myself struggling with how to navigate myself and my boys through this Christmas season as a single mom. Gone are the traditions that we have built over the past years, gone are the nights snuggled up as a family of four around the fireplace watching movies, and gone are the fun times planning with my partner what gifts to surprise the boys with and what holiday adventures to take them on. Instead, in place of all that, are just questions and doubts that fill my head and remain to be answered such as:

• what traditions do I want to make and/or keep for my new little family?
• what can I do as a mom to make sure that my boys feel loved and secure with all the hustle and bustle that comes with this season?
• how do I get everything done that I need to, as a single mom?
• learning to let go and understand that just because things are different this year, doesn't have to mean that they are bad
• learning to put aside my own feelings and do what is best for the boys, even when it's hard
• knowing that I am not ready to be in a dating relationship, and not interested in being in one, but still missing that partnership

This Christmas season has been a challenging one filled with times of laughter but also times of tears. There have been times to celebrate and times I feel I have failed. There have been times when I'm ok and other times when I just put a smile on get through the day anyways. There have been times of brokenness and times of healing. Times of hurt and times of unspeakable joy. Through it all though, I have really come to learn who my friends are (old and new) and I am blessed to have such wonderful support from them and my family. It is amazing to know that no matter what seasons come along in my life, whether the Christmas season or just seasons of life in general, that I am loved and supported. So even though this Christmas season was much different than past Christmas seasons, it was still filled with Jesus, hope and love and in the end... that is really all that matters!

Introducing the Starks Family

Every once in awhile, if you are really lucky, you will have somebody come into your life who will change everything. It's as if you have known each other your whole life and in no time at all you go from perfect strangers to not being able to imagine your life without them in it. Well thankfully my boys and I are lucky enough to have that type of friendship in our lives... introducing the Starks Family.

There have been times over the past 7 months that I have wanted to blog about our adventures with our friends the Starks family but it just hasn't really seemed to be the right time but now as the year is coming to an end, I feel as though continuing to exclude those posts/adventures from the blog just feels as though a whole piece is missing to our puzzle/story. So let me take a second and give you some quick introductions to our amazing friends: Mr. Chris, Olivia, and Selena Starks!

Selena (13), Mr. Chris, and Olivia (16)

Ben, Selena, and Olivia

Selena just turned 13 last month, Olivia will turn 17 on Christmas day and Mr. Chris (well, I won't tell you his age haha) but he is a deputy with the local Sheriff Dept and also works with the bomb squad. He has been a single dad since Selena was less than a year old and is a great resource for me in regards to single parenting and how to best co-parent. He is also an amazing friend to me and can make me smile or laugh whenever life gets crazy or feels too overwhelming. He is my best (guy) friend!!! Olivia loves to read pretty much anything she can get her hands on and I am sure one day we will see a book in B&N that she has written. Selena is the starting middle blocker on the club volleyball team that I currently coach and she is one of the most tenacious and driven girls I have even known! The boys are in love with both girls but if you ask them who their favorite is: Nathan will always say "Owivia" and Ben will always say Selena. These 2 girls are the sweetest, most polite young ladies that I know and I love them like my own. In addition to the boys loving the girls, the boys also love to hang out with Mr. Chris. They play with his police car and pretend they are catching bad guys too, they play with his puppy Sadie who loves to give them kisses, they help Mr. Chris with his tools and they love to play pirates with Mr. Chris. Both boys love Mr. Chris but Nathan and Chris have a super special bond- Nathan loves Chris to death and calls him his "special buddy" and can often be found following Chris around or snuggled up in his lap. 

Over the past 7 months our 2 families have hung out and gone on many various adventures together and we always have a blast. It has been such a blessing to have such an amazing family in our lives and to have built such a strong friendship. I am thankful beyond words for the Starks family and the friendship we have built. The laughter, joy, friendship, support and memories are more amazing to me than words can ever explain!!! 

Welcome to the blog Starks family- I am sure we will be seeing a lot more of you on here in 2014!

Christmas With the Starks

This past Friday night we celebrated Christmas with the Starks family. We had dinner at Wood Ranch, we exchanged presents, we had chocolate, and we went to see the Christmas lights! What a great night! Nathan said it best though as our night came to an end on Friday:

Me: Goodnight Nathan I had a great time with you tonight, I love you
Nathan: me too mommy, it was magical

Fella painting his Christmas present for Olivia

The boys each painted on a canvas then we removed the blue tape and
scripted each of the girl's names on their own canvas

Wood Ranch dinner

Selena and Fella snuggled up in the top bunk

Merry Christmas Starks family- We love you guys!!!

Snuggle Times

Nathan is a BIG snuggler. He loves to be held, tickled softly, and snuggled up. He is a lover for sure! I recently got a new blanket and I love Fella will drag this huge blanket over to me with a book and just snuggle up for me to read to him... melts me!

Special Date/Movie Night

Sunday night, the boys and I headed our for a fun date night! We conquered a Christmas errand, enjoyed a yummy dinner, and then headed to the movies to see Frozen. This was Fella's first time going to the movies and he did EXCELLENT!!! We packed some snacks and the boys sat there the whole time enjoying their snacks and the movie. It was a wonderful movie and a great night with my boys!

The weird thing Nathan does with his fingers 

Fella watching the cooks make dinners- he was fascinated

Nathan's first movie

"playing" video games before the movie starts

Nathan watching the movie- his favorite character was the snowman

A Special Welcome to My Sweet Nephews!!!

On Wednesday, Dec 11 my sweet little nephews surprised us all and arrived a little early. I am so glad they are here and can't wait to watch them grow up and see what fun their little personalities will bring to our lives. Welcome to the family Lucas (Luke) and Andrew (Drew)!!!

Lucas- red hat, Drew- no hat

Lucas- red hat, Drew- blue hat

Puppy Love

The boys love puppies and the other day while we were out doing some Christmas shopping, we stopped by the puppy store and snuggled some cute puppies. There was the sweetest puppy there and Fella and I FELL IN LOVE with her!

This puppy was just full of energy and loved playing!

This puppy just wanted to be snuggled and loved on. She was the most mellow dog I have ever seen and even with some of Nathan's antics, she just sat there and laid in our laps. IN LOVE!!!!