November kind of ended on a crazy note. This is just the season of crazy, though, I think. I used to dread January and February, but now I’m kind of just waiting for the days of snuggling at home and not having a million things on my to-do list before the holidays.

Little Miss woke up with some tummy issues right as we were getting ready to walk out the door for church, so I stayed home with her and we sent the boys. There not too much that can’t be cured with a warm bath, snuggling up under a blanket with your mama and some Cinderella. We had such a good girl time that morning. And she seemed to be back to normal by that night!

It’s Nutcracker Day!! We look forward to this performance every year!

The whole crew. Goodness, guys. This year was CRAZY. Between the parking issues and the theater staff and everything, I spent most of the morning there just very flustered. So frustrating, especially since we look forward to this so much! So fun to see the family, though!

Love her little tiny pigtail. 😉

Happy birthday, Jon!! We are so thankful for you! Poor guy had to work super late on his birthday and then most of the night doing contract negotiations, but it ended with a sold house, so we were excited. 🙂

Gabriel loves his Uncle Jon. 😉

We did a family birthday party for Jon the next night and I looked in the kitchen and saw this. 🙂 Eisley LOVES being in the kitchen and helping out. Bathroom stools are a dangerous thing in the house when she’s around and someone is cooking. Almost every night I start making dinner and I hear “I HULP!” as she’s running for the bathroom stool. Ha!

She was so cute helping Gammy count out Daddy’s candles, though!

And of course, she had to help light them too.

And blow them out. Ha! Happy birthday, Jon!

Thanksgiving this year was a little different than we expected, but still so much fun. We were supposed to have Nonnie, Papa O and Uncle Allen come in town for it, but at the last minute, Jon’s grandmother ended up having surgery. So, they opted to stay in California close to Grandma H, which is exactly where they should be!! We have been praying nonstop for Grandma and it looks like the surgery went extraordinarily well – so thankful!

Since I was already planning on hosting and both of my brothers had plans already, we asked if Cayce, Gammy and Pops wanted to come for Thanksgiving meal. It was so much fun!

Watching the “parade”, if you can call it that these days. Good grief – when did the Thanksgiving Day Parade become basically a bunch of commercials and inappropriate-for-children Broadway snippets? They did love seeing Santa though!

We were so busy cooking and talking and having fun that this is seriously the only picture I got of everyone there. We had the best time!! And it was so much fun doing Thanksgiving in our house. 🙂

After everyone left and Eisley got up from nap, we all spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside until it got dark. These are my favorite days – when there’s really nothing that needs to be done and we can just play.

Parker built a tower as tall as himself that weekend and he was so proud of himself. 😉 We love Thanksgiving weekend!! The older I get, the more I love it. Happy Thanksgiving, friends!!

Come middle of November every year, I always start to get antsy about getting my Christmas decorations up. So, one weekend, I just woke up and declared it The Day.

I had three small people in the house who weren’t too upset by this decision. 😉

She thought she was hilarious.

Our Fisher Price Little People nativity might be one of my most favorite Christmas decorations we have! Love seeing the kids acting out the story.

Christmas time is here!! This is their absolute favorite thing to do every year. 😉

My new morning view and I love it just so much. There’s something so much more magical about the house at Christmas time!!

This fall is flying past – it’s crazy how fast. I am ready for things to slow down.

Eisley basically sat right there the entire day, waiting for Daddy to get home. Someone loves her daddy.

“Mommy, painted nails.” Yes, yes you did. This is the day we learned that dry erase markers do not come off of toddler skin with soap and water.

I said, “Where are you going, Eisley?” and she cheerfully said, “Going to Hobby Lobby! Bye!” I am raising this one right. 😉

Nathan asked if he could play basketball this year and from the first minute of the first practice, we knew he would love it. And he has. He’s really pretty good at it too! He is outside playing basketball every single day every chance he gets. He’s totally a basketball kid.

So, we’ve spent a lot of time like this – entertaining two small kids at games and practices, if Jon is working and can’t get off for practice (which hasn’t been too often, thankfully!). Eisley is smack in the middle of hero worship when it comes to Parker. Anything he does is the coolest thing ever and worthy of repetition. ANYTHING. Which has led to both of them being in trouble many times. 😉

Nathan had a basketball game this morning, Parker was all scheduled to do the Grand Prix at Awana, so we divided and conquered and I got a little date morning with my boy while Jon took Eisley to Nathan’s game. We checked in Parker’s car, got donuts and watched some of the races, did a little bit of shopping for jeans for these kids who won’t stop growing, then ran to catch Nathan’s game and make it back in time for Parker’s race. It was a good, insanely busy day.

Parker and his buddy watching their cars race. This picture cracks me up, even though it’s not the most in-focus. And now you can see why we needed to make a stop for jeans. 😉

And because we hadn’t already crammed enough into one day, we decided to cash in Jon’s birthday dinner at Tucanos that night! We were looking at the calendar and there just wasn’t going to be another good night to do it, so this one won out. Happy very early birthday, Jon! 😉

I love posts like this!! This week, my newest Christmas novella, O Christmas Bree, released!! I cannot wait for you to hear Bree’s story. 🙂 You can order your own copy on Amazon! (Nook and Kobo versions coming soon!)

ALSO, such fun news!! My Christmas novellas are all going to be in PAPERBACK!! Yay! Hear Them Ring – a Christmas novella collection is releasing just in time to stuff those stockings! I will keep you posted on release dates and how you can order a copy for yourself! I will also be offering a Christmas autograph special right here, so stay tuned!

Happy Wednesday, friends!! <3 Much love to you all!