We got back in town from California on the 27th and my amazing grandmother was already here. It was so fun to come home to her and the family!

The 28th was our third Christmas Eve and I spent the day on the couch with the stomach virus everyone had been passing around in California. Bleugh. Then Nathan came down with the croup on the 30th. Oh my…

We did have a wonderful Christmas, though, with my family. We are so blessed! It was a relaxing time – we watched a few Christmas movies we hadn’t watched yet, did a little bit of shopping and mostly just hung out in sweatpants the whole week.

Nathan scored about a million new bedtime buddies. He took a nap with all of them at one point and it was like “Where’s Waldo” except with Nathan. Someone was pretty stoked about it, as you can see. 😉

I love my crazy family!!
  

As I write this there is no evidence that Christmas ever happened in my house – everything is packed up and back in it’s normal place in the garage.

So it seems a little weird to only FINALLY be getting to posting Christmas pictures, but I did want to write everything down so I won’t forget!

We flew out on the 22nd to spend Christmas with Jon’s side of the family. It was so busy and so crazy with three VERY active toddlers running around, plus two extended families coming over, plus Santa, plus a million dirty dishes, plus a stomach bug and the croup.

But we had a great time and came home absolutely exhausted. Nathan slept until nine the next morning and then just laid in bed quietly until almost 10. Ha!

Jon’s uncle dressed up as Santa for the kids – so cute. Nathan kept telling him that “in the car” we sing songs like “Santa coming to town”. He monopolized him for a little while.

At one point opening presents, Josh (my nephew) said, “Oh my goodness!” as he unwrapped his present. Nathan, who was still trying to get his unwrapped said, “Hey! Where’s my goodness?” 😉

It was wonderful seeing Jon’s family again. We wish we got to see them more often!! I am very blessed to have the in-laws I have.

This year has been possibly the hardest year of my life but God has proven Himself to be so faithful to my little family.

We started the year with an 18-month-old who babbled all. the. time. and have now ended the year with a two and a half year old who will not stop talking. Or moving.

I cannot believe this was him one year ago!!

We met cousins we hadn’t seen yet and watched as the Lunch Bunch grew to include a few more dear, precious faces.

We discovered that Easter eggs can be hidden…

…and that jump houses are fun.

And a love for sports was formed.

We had the highlight of our year in April…

…and the lowest of lows when we lost our sweet little one in June. And in the middle of those things, God was still good to us in that we got to focus on this sweet someone who turned two.

Nathan woke up from his last nap in his crib….

… and went to sleep in his big boy bed in his new big boy room for the first time.

We were unsuccessful seeing the balloons at the Balloon Fiesta the first time but had a great time with some dear friends instead.

We welcomed fall and a new haircut at our favorite place – the pumpkin patch.

And someone kept practicing at the “wonderful” gift he received for his second birthday…

IMG 4764 from Erynn Mangum on Vimeo.

We had our first Christmas at home and then spent Christmas Day with the California cousins.

And then had Christmas number three with the Mangum side.

This has been a year filled with blessings and a year filled with frustrations. I have been forced to let go of things that I never wanted to let go of and shown the goodness of God in ways I never have seen it before.

It has been a year of waiting. We started with waiting and now, as we bring 2012 to a close, we end with waiting. My heart has been opened to so many of you, my dear friends, who are also in this sometimes very lonely road with me. And how we have prayed for each other. I have been so touched by your emails and comments and prayers. Words fail me in thanking you.

We have been so blessed with our family and friends. This year would have ended much differently without the perfect support system God had already put into place.

May God bless you and yours in this coming year and may we know even to a greater depth the love that He has for us.

Happy New Year!

Love,
The O’Briens

We just got home from a fantastic trip visiting Jon’s side of the family in California. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful in-law family! There was lots of laughing, lots of eating, lots of dishes and disciplining, lots of toys and lots of talking.

And not a lot of sleep. 😉

SO… I will recap our Christmas tomorrow! I hope you had a blessed day filled with family, good friends and great food (like pecan pie!).

Love to you all,

…is Alicia! 🙂

Congrats! Send me the email address you’d like me to send the link to and I’ll will get that your way! 🙂

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!! The presents are opened, the fire is crackling, Michael Buble is crooning – how about a new Christmas e-novella to read while you’re relaxing this afternoon?? 🙂

Introducing my newest novella – My Revised Christmas List!

Leave a comment letting me know the best moment you had today and I’ll pick a winner tonight to get a free copy!

Have a wonderful day!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever!” – 2 Peter 3:18

I know that many of you will be enjoying today with your dear friends and family. And I know that some of you are just hoping to make it through today without breaking down. May Christ Jesus show us the riches of His love, the sweetness of His mercy and the miracle of His incarnation today – no matter what our Christmas is looking like. Praying for you all!

Blessings to you this Christmas Day!

Jon, Nathan and I celebrated our own little Christmas last weekend and we had so much fun. Santa brought Nathan a kitchen and he LOVES it. 🙂

Our house on Christmas morning! I was so excited – I woke up like an hour before Nathan did and just laid there waiting for him to wake up. That was the LONGEST hour… 😉

I don’t think he really knew what to do at first. Love his face: “Hey, how did this get here?”

Warming up… 😉

Okay, this is a fun day.

This is a GREAT day!!

We spent the majority of the morning playing with the kitchen and the little trinkets from his stocking.

Showing off his present to Kody. 🙂

Someone is very, very, very, very loved in this house. Just in case anyone was wondering. 😉

Then it was time to unwrap presents. Nathan got a lot of fun new things for the kitchen and Jon and I exchanged gifts. I love my little family!

What blessings this Christmas! Questions of the day: what are you planning to give for Christmas and what are you hoping to receive??

Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve! 😉

We had such a wonderful “Christmas Eve”! We celebrated early just the three of us and it was so much fun. So many dear, precious memories were made! We made cookies, we watched Frosty while eating a picnic of pizza in the living room and Santa even came to our house.

We started by making cookies and Nathan was very adamant that he get to help with every stage of it. 😉

Me and the little chef 🙂

I’m pretty sure our entire kitchen got flour on it.

I love the concentration going into the cookie cutting process here. Ha!

Just a little messy. And a little wound up. 😉

We gave him a little bowl of icing, a little knife and two cookies to decorate for himself. Half of the cookie somehow “disappeared” while he was icing it. 😉

This is where most of the icing went.

Success tastes great! 🙂

Love this picture – Jon is working so hard making beautiful cookies and Nathan has moved on to decorating his arm with icing and sprinkles.

Gammy and Pops stopped by for a few minutes and got treated to an icing covered hug. 😉

Why stop at cookies, Mom??

I pretty much had to scrub my entire kitchen down that night.

It was worth it. 😉

The aftermath. Oh my goodness, he was COVERED. I think we found sprinkles in the boy’s ears.

Told you Santa came to our house. 😉

We had to pick out cookies for Santa after a much-needed bath.

Cookies for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph. Rudolph “LOVES” carrots, apparently. 😉 Then we read the Christmas story from the Jesus Storybook Bible (I adore that book – if you know or have little kids, get it for them for Christmas!).

My sweet family on our Christmas Eve! I am so blessed with my boys – God has given me so very much.

Now that we’ve totally disgusted you with our cookie making pictures, I hope you have a wonderful night! Ha! 🙂

December is always such a ridiculously crazy month and this year has been no exception. I think we’ve had something every single day for the past three weeks. Oy! I have so much catching up to do on here!

We’ve been doing a lot of baking around here lately. A certain little man who lives here has not seemed to mind so much – especially when he is allowed to “help” and it involves “smarshmellows”. 😉

Cutie.

Last week, we went to the River of Lights with Clint, Leigh Ann and Hayley Grace. It’s a big Christmas lights display that our town puts on in the botanical gardens. It was so fun but SO cold.

The kids had so much fun running around the lights but I think everyone in the entire park knew Nathan’s name by the time we left because I felt like I was constantly saying, “Nathan, stop. Nathan, come back. Nathan, watch where you are going!”

My dear friend! What a blessing this girl is to me!!

What have you been up to in your home to welcome Christmas??