Christmas 2013

Wren loved helping me decorate the tree. I think she was amazed at the box of toys (ornaments) I brought out. "Where have these been all my life, mom???" After I put the lights around her neck, she WOULD NOT let me take them off.

I made a new felt garland for our tree this year, and I absolutely adore it. I think I'll make a new garland every year so we have something new to string around our little tree.

Baking and decorating homemade sugar cookies to leave out for Santa has become a tradition with Rowan. I think she likes the decorating (aka - eating a gallon of icing off her fingers) part the best.

Our Christmas card this year was from Shutterfly. I took a bunch of our Instagram photos from the year, made them black and white and turned them into a collage.

Rowan made the cookies AND wrote Santa a note - so cute.

I was able to get together with some momma friends during my trip. We all knew each other when we were young and in college, and now we all have babies around the same age. So much fun.

I also got to meet a friend from Instagram at the end of our trip! I started following Brianne on Instagram when we were both pregnant, and we ended up having our babies on the same day. It was so fun to meet her and Eden at their house in Houston.

My parents gave Jon and Andy matching pajama jeans and sneaker socks for Christmas. They had to put them on immediately, of course!

Andy and Brianne twinned it up on Christmas day in their buffalo plaid.

These guys are trouble when you get them together, and they know it.

No visit is long enough with my sister, Brianne. We were finally able to see her new house and spend the night there before we flew home. She is the best hostess there ever was, and we had the best time. We definitely wished we lived closer to those two.

I'm about a month late in getting these Christmas photos up - but better late than never is currently my life's motto - so forgive me. We had a great Christmas this year, packed full of family and friends we don't see nearly enough.

Wren's First Christmas Ornament

I knew that I wanted to get Wren a "First Christmas" ornament, but unfortunately I didn't find the time to buy it until a few weeks after Christmas. (Shhh, she'll never know!) After seeing Samson's first Christmas ornament on The Rockstar Diaries, I browsed Etsy for something similar and ended up ordering the cute little star above from Baker Baby. I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. Such a sweet little memory to hang on the tree every year. Hopefully, as she grows up, it'll be one of her favorites. :)

P.S. - Forgive me for posting about Christmas on Valentine's Day. As you can see, I live my life two months behind these days. ;)

Birth Announcement + Christmas Card

Since Wren joined our family a few days before Thanksgiving, we decided to do a joint birth announcement/Christmas card for 2012 (finished product above). We had it printed on nice, sturdy card stock and signed the back with "Happy Holidays" and our names. I like that it includes all of her most important information, and oh, those little fingers and toes - so cute!

(I know I'm really late posting this, but Christmas cards in January are still fun, right?)

Four Generations

Wren's first Christmas was extra special because she got to meet her family members who live in Texas for the first time. We had family over to my parents' house on Christmas day, and I couldn't resist getting everyone together for some photos. The one above is my favorite - Wren with her mom, grandma and great grandma. Four generations of Neeb/Dengler/Klock women! Pretty neat, right? :)

Wren's First Christmas

Christmas Eve church with the family // Whiskey napping on a pile of presents 

Christmas morning donut breakfast // Reindeer feet 

Wren and her first stocking // Presents! 

The most popular person at the party // Wren and her great grandpa

Wren's first Christmas was pretty exciting. She got to meet most of her Texas family members, and everyone was so excited to spend time with her. No matter where we went, she was always the most popular person in the room. Even though she slept through a lot of it, I think she had a pretty good time. :)

Happiest Moments

Did you see the editorial Joanna mentioned last Friday about life's happy moments? You can read Abbey's take on it here and the original editorial here. I thought it was so neat, the idea that there could be only a few moments of complete and total happiness that define our lives. Then I got to thinking about what mine would be, and I thought I would share.

Like Abbey, the first moments that came to mind were kind of predictable. Laying poolside with my sister in Vegas (or anywhere), Christmas mornings (especially the year we got AOL - it was all oooh. eeem. geeee!), Easter mornings (when we were really little and woke up to baskets overflowing with goodies), the day I adopted Cajun from the shelter (and the moments of snuggling him in the car before I drove him to his new home in Santa Monica).

Then there were some that surprised me a little. The hour I spent in the airport on my way to Kentucky to visit Jon in January (the feeling of excitement about starting this new life was intoxicating), waking up to a cool morning at our lake house and eating banana bread on the porch in my pajamas (this one brings me so much peace just thinking about it), waiting outside in my bathrobe for the Uhaul to pull up to my Manhattan Beach apartment the day my sister moved to California, the summer after my sophomore year in college when the world revolved around jean skirts and tans and romance, sitting in my parent's kitchen with my mom and sister eating Casa Ole chili con queso and talking (one of my happiest moments had to include chili con queso, right?).

Anyway, those are just a few that came to mind right away. Thinking about them makes me smile. What would you consider your happiest moments?

P.S. - I'm SO EXCITED about the Rivers & Spires festival this weekend in Clarksville, TN. I've been looking forward to it ever since I moved up here. Cotton candy, funnel cake, sausage on a stick - watch out - you are MINE! (I hope your weekend is filled with fun treats, too. Have a good one!)

Merry Christmas!

I'm running around crazy today getting ready for our trip to Washington in the early morning. We'll be there tomorrow through Wednesday of next week, and with all of the family time, Christmas parties, present opening and cookie eating, I'm not sure how much time will be left for checking in here - so, I thought I'd go ahead and wish you all a very, very merry Christmas and the happiest of holidays, from me, Mason and Cajun - to YOU!

(In case you're interested in the card details, I found the art as a free printable on a blog that I can't seem to find anymore for the life of me, then uploaded it to Vistaprint and added our signature. I'm so happy with the way they turned out. We would've loved to do a photo card again this year, but with the craziness of the move, there just wasn't time, so I figured fun typeface + cute colors was a pretty great second choice. What do you think?)

*In case you missed last year's card!

Life Lately

A few photos of life lately - which has been ca-razy! The holidays are always a busy time of year, but with the move, I'm pretty sure the craziness has been doubled - maybe tripled. However, I am happy to announce that I got our Christmas cards sent (with five days until Christmas!), our shopping done (what did we do before Amazon??) and everything washed, packed and ready to head to Washington for the holiday (thank you, thank you, my very own washer and dryer - I love you).

So, all in all, I'm calling this holiday season + relocation a huge success (and I'm choosing not to focus on the fact that our tree only has one ornament on it - it is a really great ornament, after all).

Now the only thing left to do is wait.... for Santa!

What a Beauty

I was driving around downtown the other day, completely lost (as is usually the case here in Austin) and listening to my navigation as it brought me in circles, when I rounded a corner and saw this. Isn't it just beautiful? I certainly think so.

Holiday Wish List 2011

With Christmas only 10 days away (10 days!!), I couldn't resist posting my wish list. If you're in need of last-minute gift ideas for me (because I know all of you are planning to buy me gifts, right??), any one of these will do. ;)

1. Timex Weekender Watch

2. Nail Art Pens

3. Jonathan Adler Love Pillow

4. Fur-Trimmed Sorels

5. Fun Wallet

6. 2012 Planner

7. Small Backpack

8. Washi Tape

9. Chevron Missoni Throw (I can't find this on Target.com anymore - and it kind of makes me want to cry.)

What's on your wish list this year?

(Psst, you can see more on my Pinterest board if you want!)