Gingerbread House Fun

Keeping traditions at Christmas time is important to me, I want my kids to remember all the fun times they had leading up to Christmas and what the season is all about.  On top of our family traditions we added a new one this year...donating some gifts to kids less fortunate.  The girls love the idea and had fun picking out toys to give to other kids.

Our elf Rudy brought the girls a Gingerbread house village, it included 4 mini gingerbread houses.  Which made it awesome cause that meant each of the girls got there own and was able to decorate it however they wanted, which is a big stress reliever for me.  Daddy built all the houses and the added the frosting and the girls did all the decorating, since there was an extra one Mommy & Daddy got to have some fun as well.

The girls had a great time decorating and eating the candy along the way.  The houses are now proudly sitting on our dinner room table and we get to see them every time we eat.

 

 

Jess Decorate the Tree

Once the day after Thanksgiving hits we are in full on decorating mode here at the Jess house.  Decorating the tree and putting up all the Christmas décor is my favorite part of the holidays.  The twinkling lights, the hot cocoa and the warm fires.  While decorating the tree with 3 kids under 6 my OCD tends to come out a little bit on how they decorate it.  Not putting all the ornaments in one spot and anything else that comes with a toddler decorating.  So I hold back and wait for them to finish and marvel at it and walk away from it before mom comes in to fix it.

I will say that they did a great job this year decorating the tree and not getting to many ornaments in one spot, they spaced them out nicely.  I love all the Christmas décor around the house that I wish it was acceptable to leave it up all year around, I mean wouldn't you agree!?

There's a few Christmas traditions that we've started that we will keep doing this year....
* Going to look at Christmas lights (this year I added a fun little scavenger hunt print out that I found on pinterest, just to make it a little more fun)
* Bake and decorate cookies
* Decorate Gingerbread Houses
* Elf on the shelf

 

 

 

After this picture was taken I found some of our gold glittery snowflakes and added them to the tree so it's filled in a little more.  The fun thing about our tree is that it has a remote and we can have it on colorful, white lights or going back and forth between the two colors.
 

Thanksgiving 2015

As a mom to three little beauties and one handsome guy I have a lot to be thankful for.
They make me want to be a better person and I feel like I am with them around.

Any holiday for us can be overwhelming, since both mine and Jason's parents are divorced we make lots of stops for holidays.  We decided to head up to Jason's grandparents house early Thanksgiving morning to hang out and visit with them.  We always love going there, there house is up on a hill and the view from there house is just beautiful.  It's so peaceful there, makes you not want to leave.

After spending a couple hours there we left and then headed to my dad's house for Thanksgiving dinner with some of my side of the family.  It was great to see everyone and eat good food too.

 

Happy {one year} Anniversary

A whole 365 days have passed since we stood up in front our family, friends and little ones and promised to love one another and spend forever together. 

 

"We come to love not by finding a perfect person. 

But by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly"

 

Happy ONE YEAR Anniversary to my best friend, my rock, my partner in crime, the only person who can make me laugh when I'm having the worst day, the one I laugh with, cry with and make great memories with.  Here's to many more happy memories together.

 

1 year down, forever to go!

 

I've been able to spend almost 13 years with this man, so year of marriage seems weird since we've been together for so long.  13 years together, 3 kids, 3 dogs, 2 houses owned and 1 year of marriage under our belts with many more amazing things to come.

 

"Grow old with me.. The best is yet to come"

 



 

 

Fall In Love with the Jess' {our family pictures}

It's been 2 years since our last family pictures were taken, so I knew it was time to get an updated family picture done.  The timing worked out great cause my parents were in town from CO for my aunts wedding, so they took pictures for us and I took pictures for them and we took pictures together.  It was fun and I love that I was able to get an updated picture of us that I love.

Here are the pictures with my parents & brothers with us too