My most favorite time of the year?!?! CHRISTMAS!! I love the holidays!! However, this year it didn't feel like Christmas. I blame the weather! It was way too warm for the holidays! 

Christmas was so great this year! I think it gets better and better each year! The holidays are so much more fun whenever you have kiddos to celebrate with! This was Drew's first year that he would sit on Santa's lap. ( Dylan-not so much!) We probably seen Santa about 4 times this year, just because he loved it so much. He told Santa each time that he wanted "little wrestlers" and "a steel cage." We also made our own list at home which included a BLACK DOG. It was a very tough decision to decide if Santa would be bringing a black dog or not. Dogs are big commitments and I am not a big fan of them, BUT we decided we would do it!

After getting some help from my Dad we found the perfect little dog for the boys! A black labrador!! The breeder agreed to wait until Christmas Eve to let us pick her up, which was so nice of her! Christmas Eve morning, Daddy left about 6am and drove to Princeton, IN to pick her up!! Thank goodness Daddy drove and got her, because if Mommy had to do it, we probably wouldn't have a dog! LOL!

Once Justin got home, we hid her at Justin's parents house for the day. We don't really do much for Christmas Eve so we hung out at the house all day and baked some cookies for Santa! (I am not a baker by any means, so of course we bought the pre-made dough that you just cut up! ) 

They had a GREAT time making cookies! However, Mommy left Daddy in charge of getting them out of the oven while I ran to check on the dog..Came home to the smell of BURNT cookies!! Sorry Santa!! :)

And someone decided to eat the reindeer's carrots too..BUSTED!

Christmas Eve night we celebrate Christmas with Justin's family. So after baking cookies, we headed out to celebrate!

Each year Santa makes an appearance and has an early gift for each kid. Drew sang Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer with him. And Dylan..well just look at the picture and you can tell how he was feeling about the guy! 

Once we got home, the boys crashed quickly! They must of been super excited Santa was coming!!

We had to wake the boys up Christmas morning otherwise the sleepy heads would have slept until 10 am! Once they walked into the room, Drew just kind of stood there in shock maybe?!? He was super quiet about the dog. He just stared. He sat down beside her and we asked what he wanted to name her, of course he said "Sugar." Then he noticed some Power Ranger mask and was off..he didn't care about the dog anymore! Really Drew?? After all that hard work trying to hide her and all the excitement I built up for this morning and a Power Rangers mask is more interesting?!? UGH!! Oh well, Dylan took to her real well! Dylan sat beside her the whole time we opened presents! :)

Of course, there were many other gifts besides the new puppy!! Drew, still a big WWE wrestling fan, LOVED all of his new wrestling gifts!

Overall, Christmas was fantastic!! They boys LOVED all their presents!! Dylan followed Sugar around all day. He loved to show her his new gifts including this Power Rangers mask...

Here are a few more pictures of the boys with Sugar...

For Halloween last year I was so wanting the boys to be the Mario Brothers, but Drew was determined to be Buzz and Woody...so, how could I upset him and make him be something else??? BUT this year came around and to my suprise Drew wanted to be Mario and Luigi! Boy did this make me one happy Mommy!

Since Drew's first Halloween we have made it a tradition to go downtown to walk in the Pumpkin Path Parade. I am an old school girl that likes to stick with the same tradition each year! After the parade we walk back through and trick or treat at each of the different stores located downtown. Much safer than going to strangers doors. We never had this kind of thing growing up where I am from, so it is nice to have something like this for my kids to look forward to each year!

This year Drew's Pre-K Halloween Party fell on the same day as Trick or Treat, so this lucky guy got to be Mario all day!! 

I think I definitely had the cutest Mario and Luigi!!!

We joined our friends and their kids downtown to walk in the parade with us! Lots of fun!

Here is Gavin as a Cow!! This is his first year in Carterville!!

This was also Keegan (army man) and Hudson's (shark) first year at the Carterville Halloween Parade!

And here is Drew and his friend Drake! They are such great buddies!

What a great time celebrating Halloween this year!! Dylan was so excited to open his candy when we got home! ( Imagine that! )

If you have ever met me you definitely know that I am nothing but a girly girl!! I love pink, ruffles, pedicures, make up, shopping, shoes, etc. One thing I do NOT enjoy is SPORTS!!! Hate them. No doubt about it. I am pretty sure if you know me you also know this very fact about me! So what did God do?? He blessed me with a husband and two boys!! Now I am stuck with sports FOREVER!!

I enjoy anything my boys enjoy doing, so I can suck it up and watch sports for a bit. And of course I will always enjoy watching my boys play sports. Quite funny how I always used to say that  I would never be the crazy Mom on the sidelines, but I just might end up being that way! :)

As we all know because of the wonderful millions of Cardinal posts on Facebook, the Cardinals won the World Series this year. We were lucky enough to get to go Game #2 of the Series. What lucky boys I have! Some may say I am just wasting a seat in the stands with my "Negative, I don't care about the sports attitude." Haha! However, of course I wanted to be there to witness by boys getting to go to their first World Series game. After all it is a pretty big deal in sports and once again, I have to suck it up and realize, they are about to take over my life!

The Cardinals may have lost the game that we went to, but overall it was a wonderful experience. Drew is only 4 years old and he has already been to an All-Star Baseball Game and World Series Game! I was pregnant with Dylan at the All Star Game, but Dylan is 2 years old and he too has already been to a World Series Game. That's a big deal is boys lives! :) And Mommy even had a good time! And Justin-well of course he had a good time!

 Need proof?? Here is Justin and his family after the Cardinals scored!

And precious Dylan is just always happy! He too even yelled Cardinals, Cardinals, Cardinals a couple times throughout the game!

Daddy was so happy to have experience a World Series Games with the boys! (as they stuff their faces with popcorn! lol)

Drew cheered throughout the game, waving his rally towel, and cheering Go Cardinals! Cardinals!! Cardinals!! Cardinals!!

So happy I went! We went with Justin's sisters and their family, here is a pic of all the kids, minus Dylan, at the game!!

Moral of the story: What makes my boys happy, makes me happy!!!! I'll do anything for them!!! :)

Best Couple

Funniest Costume

Most Creative Costume

Best Overall Costume

And the winners were....

BEST COUPLE:  SEAN AND CAROL GREENLEE AS TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

 

FUNNIEST COSTUMES GOES TO: TENIKA

MOST CREATIVE COSTUME : TRAVIS AND LIZ HAAS AS CROWN ROYAL KING AND QUEEN

AND DRUMROLL....

BEST OVERALL COSTUME WAS ONCE AGAIN: TRAVIS AND LIZ HAAS!!!

Congrats to the winners! We hope everyone enjoyed their prizes! Kindling gift cards! 

All the costumes were so amazing, creative, and great! Here are some otheres...

CARDINAL PLAYER AND RALLY SQUIRREL

TROPHY WIFE AND RICH HUSBAND

DAVID AND VICTORIA BECKAM

STEVE JOBS AND THE iPHONE

QUARTER AND GUMBALL MACHINE

WHITE TRASH

JERSEY SHORE

PREGNANT SKELETON AND SCARY MAN

CHARLIE SHEEN AND 8 BALL

AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITE: BEN CALCATERRA HAS HIS OWN FACEBOOK PAGE

What a FUN night!! We hope everyone had just as much fun as we did! Can't wait for next year already!!