Date Night, Cousins, Friends, Weather, Food & Crowley the Elf…

With Christmas less than a week away now, I am glad to say I am done shopping, wrapping gifts, baking and stressing out! It is so nice to be relaxed the week before Christmas with nothing left to do besides deliver gifts and grocery shop for Christmas Breakfast & Dinner!

So glad to be done with all the wrapping!

Friday night Brandon and I had a very fun double date night planned, and our Hubby’s planned it all! We called upon our amazing babysitter McKenzie and had her watch the kiddos for us while we enjoyed a much needed night out. We met our very good friends, Alan and Melissa, at the movies to see Sherlock Homes 2. Wow, such a GREAT movie! Definitely theater worthy. After the movie we headed over to this really good restaurant Zia for a nice dinner. It was such a fun night with some super amazing friends. A much much needed break from all the holiday craziness. Did I mention how amazing our babysitter is? She fed both kids dinner, played non-stop with them and had them both fast asleep when we got home. We love her!

Brandon and I heading off for our date night. Yay!

This past Saturday was a fun one. My parents had Abi, my niece, this week so the kids and I just did some running around in the morning. At about 3, my parents dropped Abi off to me so they could go to church. I can not tell you how much fun the 3 cousins have together now that they are all mobile and their personalities have formed. It is so fun to watch them interact with one another. Owen definitely has the protective older brother/cousin thing going on and the girls seem to be best friends. Yay. Here are some pictures of them playing….

The girls will basically play anything Owen wants them to. They just LOVE to be right next to him. Which is a good thing because Owen likes being the leader. Here he is playing Hot Wheels & Monster Trucks with the girls.

Saturday evening we invited my parents and some good friends of ours (also one of Brandon’s Co-Workers) the Jeffers Family over to watch the Cowboys vs. Buccaneers game. It was so so so much fun. Scott and Athena have three boys ages 18, 16 and 5. Owen and Josh had an absolute blast together. It was basically Owen’s dream night of playing. Why? Because they wrestled and played Football ALL NIGHT LONG. I mean like 3.5 hours of strait physical playing! The boys were beat red with sweat dripping down their foreheads by the end of the night. Owen was up about 2 hours past bed time because the two were having so much fun! Every now and again the older boys and the Dad’s would go in the play room to wrestle around and throw the football with them. I forgot to take pics until the very end so I only have a couple. oops!

 

Playing Ball.

Playing Football with Brandon.

Owen has asked me every day (multiple times) since Saturday if he can play with Josh again soon. He loved him and they got along so perfectly. Not to mention they have the exact same interests. Needless to say, Athena and I are planning a play date for the boys very soon!

The weather here has been quite cold. With that being said I have been making lots of yummy warm soups and such for dinner. Nothing better than warm food on a cold cold day. So here we are Wednesday and it has been raining/snowing/sleet on and off since last night. I just LOVE this weather.

Last week I surprised my Hubby with his favorite, Split Pea Soup. He was pretty stoked to come home after a cold day to his favorite soup on the stove. I decided it was time to pull out the ham bone I had frozen since Thanksgiving. It turned out amazing. Yum, yum, yum!

Here is a picture from this morning. Isn’t it just beautiful? Hopefully it stays like this for Christmas!

And here is what is in the Crock Pot for dinner tonight. A huge Pot Roast with Potatoes and Vegetables. I can not tell you how amazing the house smells.

And to end this blog post, I will let you have a look at what Mr. Crowley the Elf has been up to. (I’ll let you in on a little secret. He hasn’t been very creative lately if you get my drift. He must be a bit tired and lazy. Hehehe.)

One morning, he died the kids milk. He made Owen’s milk Green and Autumn’s milk Red. Silly Elf!

One day we caught that silly elf swinging from the ornaments hanging from our kitchen curtain rod.

Another day we found the sneaky little elf with his head in a jar of Candy Corn’s and M&M’s. He even left a trail of candy on the floor that Owen and Autumn cleared up in no time flat. Hahaha.

And this morning we found him checking out all the wonderful Christmas cards we have got!

We just love the addition of this little elf to our family. He is so much fun and the kids just love finding him each morning!

Have a great week and stay warm!