Happy New Year!!

Once again another year has come and gone! 2018 was a good one!! We sent it out in style! We celebrated this year and our dear friends Jim and Katie's! I think this will be a tradition! It was a little sad though because Ella spent the night at a friend's party. First time we celebrated without her:( But I know she had a great time and we were able to facetime with her at midnight!

Luke and AB had a blast with Landon and MK. The played games and light sparklers!

Of course it wouldn't be a party with out Katie's famous cake pops!!

The grownups had a great night of drinks and dominoes! Best way to spend a New Years! Happy New Year everyone! We are ready for 2019!!

Christmas with the Burdines

We spent Christmas at Mims and Pa's this year. We got down there a couple days before Christmas so we could unwind and have lots of fun! It was perfect!
Mims had a big party on the 22rd with all of our extended family. It was great seeing so many and unbelievable seeing how big all the kids have gotten. I think the kids enjoyed seeing cousins. Its important to remind them they have a big family!
Here are some pics of all the cousins! Back row from left to right: Mason Holmes, Garrett Holmes
Middle row: Ella, Belle, Claire Holmes, Hannah Holmes
Front row: Luke, Blake, Brooks
Little Annabeth
Only missing Brody and Zia!!

My kids enjoyed all the good food!!

The 23rd and 24th were very low key! Exactly the way we wanted it to be. We love getting to do special things with the kids and Mims and Pa. Like:
Going to TopGolf!

Or Escape rooms! This was probably one of the best ones we have done!

That night we went to Christmas Eve mass at Most Blessed Sacrament. A tradition we always have when we come to Arlington for Christmas. The kids looked beautiful! I love this family!!

But then it was time to get serious! Santa would be here soon!!
The kids decided they would go to bed early!!! Nothing is better than Santa excitement!!

Finally the morning arrived and the kids tore through the house and the presents! It was a whirlwind of fun and excitement!! I think everyone was happy and we are all so so grateful for another perfect year!
Just a few of the gifts this year: Ella - suitcase, makeup, clothes, boots
                                                   Luke - baseball bat, VR system, wireless headphones
                                                  Annabeth - LOL surprise, Frozen castle and too many toys to list!

On Christmas Day we continued the excitement with the Aledo crew coming over.
We exchanged gifts with the kids, had a delicious lunch, and watched a few football bowl games!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!

Annabeth gets to meet Santa!

A friend of ours had a sweet Christmas party for the kiddos one day and Annabeth was very excited to attend because she heard Santa might make an appearance! I had to snap a quick picture of her once she finally got to sit on his lap although I don't think she was convinced that it was the real one! The party was at a friend of Ellas so I snapped a picture of the "teenagers" having some fun with Santa as well! Christmas is almost here!!!

Christmas School Fun!

Christmas is a very fun time of year, not just at our house but at the kids' school as well. Lots of parties and activities to celebrate.

Luke's class performed the the story of the Zachariah and Elizabeth and the conception of John the Baptist in their class. Luke was Zachariah. In the play he had to pretend he lost his voice since Zachariah didn't believe the angel Gabriel that Elizabeth would conceive a son. He did it pretty well. Maybe acting is in his future:)

Annabeth had a fun Christmas party where we decorated christmas cookies and made Christmas tree ornaments. I was lucky to get to join her for all the fun!!

Ella is in the choir and they performed a beautiful Christmas performance! They also sang at the UAMS hospital and Capitol Building earlier in the month. I snapped a few pics from both and a quick pic of my beautiful girl before the performance. Love you sweet Ella!

Christmas at the Schlutermans

Since Craig and I were both going to be out of town this Christmas we decided to have our family Christmas the week before to allow us a chance to all get together and exchange gifts. We got down to my parents early that morning to have the whole day to celebrate. My mom had everything setup so nicely with lots of delicious food. We played card games, laughed about our crazy kids, went to mass and then got down to the serious business of opening gifts! The kids just could not wait any longer!

My wonderful parents!

Annabeth anxiously waiting for the moment someone tells her she can open a gift!

Everyone was more than willing to help her open when it was her turn!

Daddy was thrilled with his pizza scooper as you can tell. He didn't understand why I got him this gift but once I explained to him that it was for his EGG grill then he was happy!

Before the night was over, we made a quick trip to Great grandma and grandpa's to sing them Christmas songs just like we used to do when we were little. I think they enjoyed it but it was hard seeing them age so much. Christmas's used to be very different in that house 30 years ago.

But the best part of all was watching the kids play with their toys at the end! Love all these cousins!!

Fancy Feast 2018

We did our Family Christmas Fancy Feast a little early this year so that we wouldn't miss it. The weekends get so full this time of year that we had to get it scheduled or else we wouldn't have time for it. We were lucky that Grandma and Grandpa were going to be coming down that weekend too so they got to share the day with us.
Ella was a huge help with year. The older she gets the better she is in the kitchen and I was happy to have the help! Since we were going to be in Dallas this year for Christmas we decided to have our Christmas pork loin this night, I usually cook it on Christmas Day. We also had the famous rolls which if I do say so myself I have gotten pretty good at making. Chocolate pie was for dinner. It was also special this year because we finally got our new dining room table and could enjoy our fancy feast on our new beautiful table! It was a really fun day of relaxing, watching football and enjoying time together before the real Christmas rush starts!

St. Nick's Nativity Scene

This year on St. Nick's Day, he brought the kids a sweet nativity scene for them to paint together....of course he brought all the yummy candy too!
Its not often that the three of them sit still together doing so for longer than 5 minutes so it was nice seeing them enjoy being together and laughing with each other as they painted. This little scene will join our Christmas Traditions and be set out each year. Starting to really feel like Christmas!