Twas the Night Before Christmas..

Dalton snug in his bed

"Dear Santa, take my brother and leave your presents"

Traditions.................

Isn't that what Christmas is all about? Technically Santa Clause is a tradition, right??
This year was all about starting NEW ones for us. New traditions in OUR first real home(the other homes weren't fake, but you get my point)!
Christmas Eve we typically join the Atcheson family for a mass chaos event, chaos only because my Mom has 6 siblings who have 2 or 3 kids each which are my cousins whom then have 2,3, or 4 kids of their own! That's a lot of cheer under one roof don't ya think?
This year Russ and I decided to stay in with Dalton...well we didn't technically "stay in"...we as a matter of fact went out to see Yogi Bear at the movie theater. It was great! On our way home we did "traditionally" hit up a gas station for some milk and cookies. We have done that the last few years. I am positive my Mother just gasps at the thought of it but it's how we roll. :)
We took pictures of Dalton by the tree with his milk and cookies for Santa, as we did last year.
Ohh I almost forgot to tell you..an Elf stopped by today while Dalton was napping and left him The Grinch plush toy and Thomas the Train jammies. He was sooo excited! We then tucked him in bed and hung the sign on his bedroom door with simple instructions for Santa. :)
PS: If you don't have a chimney Santa makes "magical" keys. We got one and it is on the front porch so that Santa is sure to make it in the house.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a Goodnight!

Home Sweet Home

Never realized I didn't show you a picture of my HOME! Here is one that was in the listing, of course the grass is nice and plush. We are still getting settled in so again pictures to come!!!

A Unique Tradition...

Ever since I was a little kid I have ventured out to the house on Falmouth Street in Mission, KS. Cars line the streets to park as families with firstborns in strollers or 5 kids in tow, teenagers dating holding hands or newlywed couples walk up to the house. You peek into the windows and doors of this now old mans house. Its decorated with all vintage toys. The garage is a working toyshop with elves, a manger sets on the side of the garage, the roof is lined with figurines, Santa in the front bay window. This year we noticed he has added on and even Santa was there live in a sleigh to take pictures for free with the kiddos. All the while the family inside is living life, even a teenage boy was asleep on the couch in the living room. This year the neighbors/city tried to shut him down. He has been doing this way before my time. Ba-humbug to them! As you can see they didn't stand a chance at ruining little kid dreams :)

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

(Santa visit for FREE)
Mom of course, put on an amazing prime rib annual dinner for Dads birthday. Go ahead and say it, he is spoiled rotten! We don't complain one bit because we were on the invite list :) Prime rib, twice baked potatoes, green beans with bacon and bread! Desert was cherry cheesecake :) We stuffed ourselves crazy then opened gifts. After that there was a knock at the door and jingle bells ringing outside.........Santa Clause made a visit :) Shhhhh...you might recognize Santa's voice but the kids didn't have a clue, so mission accomplished yet another year!
Below is a picture of how my Mom, aka Martha Stewart, does dinner. This is days of preparations that I will never have the patience for. I grew up this way and it makes my mom feel very good to do it for everyone. Cooking is her major talent :)

Ryan...seriously!! LOL

This is cruelty on Grandmas part. She has these gifts for the grand kids already under the tree and they CANT open them until next week. CRUEL!

Here is the Santa visit video!

Family Photo Shoot

I totally forgot to share some of the family photo's we had done by Candie! LOVE THEM!!!

My Grown Up Christmas Wish

A recap from last year

"Dear Santa Clause,

I have one last request this year.

First I will tell you what I don't fear..

I have a solid roof over my head,

my bills are paid before my lights go dead.

I have good friends, the kind you walk through fire for and at night when I lay down my head next to Russ I pray for nothing more.

Yet Santa when I look at this picture of me and my son,I know that one day he will not be so young.

So Santa my last request or wish this year

is for you to whisper softly in Dalton's ear...

tell him Mommy and Daddy love him with all of our hearts.

Tell him everyday we think he is so smart.

Tell him on his worst days he can still make us smile

So please oh please Santa

let him be little for just awhile.....................longer "

Dear Santa,

Please know, that my wish list, did not grow.
I wish for nothing more than what I had before.
Thank you for Santa for all that we have received, simply because somebody believed.
Ok so...Maybe one special little request just for me? As of Monday, my little guy is no longer just 3.
So...Don't rush my mornings, days or nights because life is so limited with little kid delights.

Dalton's "Fake" Birthday Party

My goodness were we blessed yesterday. Dalton aka Bubba aka Bandit was spoiled rotten. He received soooo many much needed clothes, tractors out the wazooo, including a remote control one and even a ride on one from Uncle Ryan and Aunt Sister. He also got Johnny Popper John Deere cowboy boots to go with all the toys! Duh he has to match right Candie?? He is soooo my favorite cowboy. He also got monster trucks and......... a bug vacuum--ask Ashley about that one! LOL
Not to mention the Costco cake that was outstanding. YUM! Thanks to ALL of my friends and family that got together under my NEW but tiny roof! You made my heart and Dalton's smile extra big yesterday!!!

My niece Stacia---she cracks me up!

Moose trying out the Johnny Popper boots Aunt Candie bought his brother.

"I just want it"-----Cadence and Dalton testing the cake

How many men to put together a toy Tractor?? Um--an OU and TX fan I guess will do it!

-A sweet moment-

The girls-Jasmin, Des, and Julisa

Austin, Stacia and Bubba

By the way its a "fake" party because he is not 4 until Monday!

SURPRISE

A Surprise----in deed it was when my Aunt Jill asked us one day why we don't buy versus renting. Well our response was "Hello!! We filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy 2.5 years ago and that means you don't get a house until your done paying all your debt back which takes 5 years." Her response was "let me run some numbers" and POOF here we are!
No it was not easy and it was without a doubt an emotional roller coaster in which many times we felt like unbuckling at the top of the ride but instead we held on like hell and landed rather great! By the way the "emotional" roller coaster is the only roller coaster I will ever ride.
Here are some specs. ****wait backing up Jill introduced us to Zoran our realtor and well lets just say he is amazing too****When we wanted to call it quits Zoran kept sending homes our way until-------we found OUR HOME!
It is a 3bed 1 bath 1 car garage but a 2.5 car length driveway and on a corner lot in Shawnee, the character it has was it's selling point. (pictures will come I promise)
Anyway we paid 10,000 less for this home than Russ paid 11 years ago with his first wife, and it's almost the same layout. It's cute and cozy and we are already quite settled in. So there ya have it. My surprise! We kept it on the down low because in cases like this you just never know and trust me sometimes we never knew.
My Aunt Jill worked a miracle that is for certain!! MUAH

Thought-Less Tuesday

I know I mentioned that I would be unveiling a surprise today but as we all know life throws a couple curve balls before you get to swing at the home run! So Friday it is! I will speak Friday!!! In the meantime stare at Dalton's four year picture! Too handsome!

Picture Perfect-ion

These are only a few-more sneak peeks of what Candie, the photographer/friend captured! The one of me and Russ drew instant tears. I am in love with that picture! Thank you Candie! Thank you!!!

Another visit with Mr. Moose

Gosh darn-it if we aren't all in love with this little fella! Sure is fixing my want for a new baby in the house. Like I told my Mom, I am sure there will be days I say "What was I thinking?" However, I am sure I said and still say that with Dalton :)) Regardless he is a keeper. We have already been to Dressler's, his new grocery store. We have also called and spoke with Nichole, Dr. Heath Rose's(the vet) wife and my friend about making his "new puppy" appointment. The breeders are instant family. We are soooo blessed! Once again...

Christmas Lights Part 1

I say Part 1 because I am positive this is not the first time we will load up in the car to see Christmas lights this year. We literally jumped in the car, grabbed hot drinks from Starbucks and headed out to Longview Lake to see Christmas in the Park. Dalton loved it! We jammed out to 98.1 KUDL Christmas tunes the whole way. Dalton's favorite song is I wanna a hippopotamus for Christmas. It was his favorite last year as well.
Tomorrow we get to go visit Moose at 2pm. In the meantime life is chaotic getting ready to unveil my Tuesday surprise. He-He..you all have no idea how much fun it has been torturing all of you with this surprise of mine! :)

Meet Our New Son

Meet Moose, Mr. Moose, Moo-Moo..
For awhile now Russ and I have contemplated a dog for Dalton to romp around with. Russ and I went through a handful of dogs years ago. Our first mistake was that we NEVER researched a breed. Second mistake we bought from a shelter vs a breeder and third was we spent like 50.00 each time. I am not saying that there is any wrong in that but we always got a "ruined" dog that way. So after seriously researching breeds that are large, don't shed and are great with kids we came up with the Golden and Labrador Doodles. Then we saw the prices for them and thought it's just not gonna happen for us. :( I wasn't gonna settle for a "reasonable" dog just so Dalton would quit carrying the stuffed dalmation around. He-He!
Driving sown SMPKY the other day there was a handmade sign that read "Labradoodle Pups For Sale" I passed right by it wasn't until a day later that I told Russ I wanted to go back and at least call the number. (A.) You never see breeder signs in Shawnee. (B.) What if the price was right? or (C.) What are the odds that we know the breeder.
So I called Wednesday night and Bobby answered. We talked and talked and talked! Then we made arrangement's to meet up today and see the 3 male puppies they had left.
So at Noon today we met OURS!
(A.) We have a mutual GREAT friend with the breeders. They know Mrs. Gabby, Dalton's daycare teachers. (B.) The price was ridiculously fair! (C.) Moose was amazingly large and lazy. What more could I ask for?? Bobby and Connie (the breeders) were also so neat. They are keeping Moose until Next Saturday and the reason for that is in my soon-to-be-surprise! We LOVE you Moose and cant wait to bring you HOME!