happy new year, friends! i can’t believe it’s 2018 and whether you were in your jams {like us!} or out on the town, i hope you rang in the new year with loved ones all around.
things have been a bit quiet around here as i’ve been focusing on our fam.. we’ve had a lot going on lately and it’s required a lot of extra ‘mama time’. i wouldn’t trade it for the world, but i certainly am hoping things calm down here a bit soon. but. i also couldn’t let the days go by without sharing a bit about our holiday!
every year we rotate which side of the family we spend christmas eve / christmas with and this year, we spent christmas eve with my side and christmas day with zach’s side.

christmas eve

we kicked off the festivities with lunch at my moms with all the babes + grandparents, aunts + uncles. lots of laughs, food + a whole lot of nothing filled most of the day until we all packed up and headed out for the christmas eve service. it is by far my favorite service of the year and our church puts on a full show with music + dance to tell the story of jesus’ birth. this year was absolutely stunning with an original production of ‘unexpected’ and it was the perfect reminder how god always uses the unexpected, with a tiny babe in a manger. the most perfect way to prepare our hearts for christmas day.

after church, it had really started to snow and we even caught some snowflakes on our tongues! we went back to my mom’s for dinner with a few family friends for my papa’s reading of ’twas the night before christmas, a tradition that has been happening since i was a tiny babe.. we filled our bellies and laughed until our faces hurt with so many toddlers running a muck around us.. it was the most perfect christmas eve. when we got home, the girls set out their cookies for santa {paired with apple juice} and crawled under the covers with one more reading of ’twas the night before christmas.

christmas day

we started christmas morning with the biggest gift from santa… a pink car!! if you caught it on instagram, you saw it was like -12 windchill outside and while the girls were super excited about their gift, this picture pretty much sums up how the felt about the super cold weather… ha, it lasted all of 45 seconds before we were all running back inside.

we snuggled up with some hot cocoa and opened up some more presents with grammie + grampie and even snuck in a little play time before it was time to head out the door.

it was the perfect morning at home with our crew.

we headed over to mammaw + pappaw’s house {zach’s mom + dad} to do presents with them + his side. the girls adore all of their cousins and they all had the best time opening and playing. all of the extended family joined us for lunch and a white elephant exchange which always brings lots of laughs… this year we had an ‘ohio’ themed gift exchange and everything from maple syrup, esther price, buckeyes + craft beer was opened!

the kids opened up a couple more presents {spoiled from so many} and had a blast playing with each other’s toys.

we loaded up our crew about bed time and came home to tuck the kids under while we watched one of the girls’ presents, trolls.
it really was the merriest of christmas’s with our families and the kids were full of so much magic.
seeing it all through the eye’s of a child is simply one of the most beautiful things in the world. hearing them sing happy birthday to jesus and talk about His love is by far one of my favorite memories so far in this parenting gig.

new years eve

brings us to last night… over the years this evening has changed from going out on the town to being very sick + pregnant…this year our hearts are fuller than ever with these three babes in our arms. i’m usually a pretty low key girl and am happy just spending time with our family. we never actually got out of our jams yesterday and piled into the car for an evening with some of our best friends. 9 kids under the age of 5 + 9 adults, we ordered pizza, had a kids dance party + played games until the ball dropped. it was the perfect evening for our family and the girls are still talking about their monkey dance party.
as zach and i drove home last night, we set our goals for the new year and decided upon some goals for our family, our marriage and ourselves. it’s a perfect time for us to push the reset button and turn our eyes to the Lord. i’ve learned this year more about grace than i ever thought possible. grace for others, for our children, our marriage and mostly for myself…

we’re heading out the door to go welcome in the new year with zach’s family and as the floor is sprinkled in legos, there’s giggling girls reading books in the corner and i have my 2nd coffee reheated for the 6th time this morning after an entire night nursing a teething babe with a cold, my heart is fuller than i ever thought possible.

2017, you gave us one of the biggest challenges and the biggest blessings as we grew our family… cheers, 2018, we’re ready for you!