Bilton wedding

Saturday after Chritamas we had the pleasure of watching Caty and Kyle commit their lives to each other.  The ceremony and reception were held in a brick warehouse, decorated with Pinterest ideas galore, white Christmas lights, and purple rose petals.  

Here's a pic of Raegan and her papa before the ceremony:

Here's a pic of my handsome fellas just before the wedding:

Caty and Kyle provided crayons and coloring packets for the kids, which kept my kids very enertained.  I got multiple compliments on how well behaved they were during the ceremony, but I have to give the credit to the bride and groom for the great coloring idea! 

The kids danced the night away, spinning around till they were so dizzy they fell down and then getting back up and spinning in circles again! 

There was also a hot chocolate bar and a s'mores bar! Mmmmm!

We strayed till after the cake was cut, because wedding cake is more important to us than sleep :) then headed home that same night!

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Bilton!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve service at church

Gigi, aunt Jenni and baby J came too! Cameron was in the nursery. 

Reindeer pajamas!

Snuggled up with uncle Andrew

Baby J was the first to bed.  We let Raegan and Cameron stay up and watch 'How to Train Your Dragon' with us and then Gigi read 'T'was the night before Christmas' to them and tucked them in bed.  Then the rest of us got started on reading complicated instructions and putting together three large Santa gifts: a green machine trike for Raegan, a trampoline for Cameron and a red wagon for Baby J.  Took this picture just before midnight when we were done.

Cameron at around 5:30AM, after already dumping out his stocking, finished off Santa's leftover cookies!

Raegan was really excited about her "American Girl" ballerina doll from Grammee and Papa and a pink ballerina tutu outfit from Gigi and Papa that she put on and wore most the morning!  

I didn't take any pics at breakfast, but Ron and Cindy came and prepared a wonderful Christmas Day meal and we are still enjoying the leftovers!!

We had a great time and were so blessed to have both sets of parents in town for Christmas this year! 

Kinder Christmas party

Last day of school for 2014! 

My sweet friend watched Cameron for me so that I could attend Raegan's school Christmas party.  

Raegan's class had an ornament gift exchange and this cute little Christmas tree is the ornament she got to take home!

Her and most of her classmates wearing the reindeer masks they made that morning.  Sweet kids!

1st busy Saturday of December

Visit with the "fake Santa" at Home Depot. Raegan knew he wasn't the real one, because he had to "adjust" his beard. 

Despite the fake Santa we enjoyed making crafts!

Then we picked up lunch and went and helped Daddy at his tent atChristmas on the Square. Raegan was such a good helper!

It wasn't all work...

My parents brought baby J over for dinner and a relaxing evening spent watching football.  

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Cameron's first haircut

After a weekend of hearing how cute SHE is, I decided it was finally time for this BOY to get a haircut.

My wild child!

At the kids salon, they gave him a dumdum sucker, let him pick which car he wanted to "drive" and put on his favorite show, Mickey Mouse clubhouse. This picture was before his haircut:

This is after:

Not too much shorter but trimmed up nicely.  My little baby is growing up!

Time away - Just us

Philip and I dropped the kids off with his parents Friday night in Tyler and went and watched the newest Hunger Games movie Mockingjay Part I.  The kids were already asleep when we got home but we got to hang out with them Saturday morning before we left for Waco.  We went to The Baylor vs OSU game.  It rained nearly the whole time!  Luckily there were a couple of extra padded seats with backs next to our friends Josh and Jill so we went and sat by them after the first quarter.  Baylor played great and we left happy, wet and tired.  

We stopped by Chick-fil-A for a late night snack before driving straight to the airport.  We slept in our car in the airport parking garage and caught our 6am flight to Florida Sunday morning. Spending the night in a car will remind you how thankful you are for simple luxuries such as brushing your teeth, taking out your contacts, and washing your face of yesterday's makeup.

Sunday evening after checking out the hotel grounds, taking showers and getting ready we walked down to the other end of Duval street to meet our ferry to Sunset Key island for dinner at Latitudes.

The sunset, atmosphere and dinner at this place were all breathtaking! 

Philip's main course:

View from our table:

View from out on the pier:

We watched schools of fish in the water while we waited on our ferry boat back to Key West. 

On the way back to our hotel we stopped at an ice cream parlor on Duval.  Check out these cookies!

At 7:30 Saturday morning a shuttle picked us up for our fishing trip on Reef Runner I, with Captain John and Mate Jeff.

I was the only girl on the boat, so I spent most the time on the upper deck with the Captain learning about fishing.  I also helped point out when I saw a splash in the water from a fish jumping or birds diving so the Captain could check it out and Philip could catch more fish :) I saw tons of jelly fish, Portuguese jellyfish, a hound fish, and a flying fish and heard many fisherman tales!

In the meantime Philip was catching sea monsters like this:

This barracuda is on his way to taxidermy and we expect to have him back and mounted in our home in about 3 months.

They let most the fish they caught go, but     these guys weren't as lucky. That pretty pinkish one on the right end is a mutton snapper, the experienced fishermen seemed impressed that Philip caught it.  

These pelicans were hanging out at the port waiting on our fish leftovers.

We relaxed on a hammock on the beach at our hotel Monday afternoon. Before heading to dinner at Point 5.

After dinner we went to a different restaurant just for dessert!  I'm pretty sure we both left this trip a few pounds heavier :)

Tuesday morning we rented bicycles and rode all around key west! It's been awhile since I've been on a bike so it took a little getting used to!  We did the touristy thing and visited the southernmost point marker which was right by our hotel! 

We rode down to a public beach, rehydrated with a couple of snowcones, and then plopped down in the sand for a while and enjoyed the sun!

It was nice to see the not so touristy side of Key West on our bike ride.  

Tuesday evening we had dinner outside at a quaint little place just off Duval street called Onlywood Pizzeria.  Wednesday a cold front blew in and we checked out of or hotel and camped out in a little cabana at the tranquility pool before heading to the airport. 

I enjoy spending time just being his! So thankful!!!

 

Cameron turns 2!

For Cameron's birthday instead of throwing a large party, I decided to keep things quiet just like our lil guy.  I took Raegan to the toy store the week before and let her pick out gifts for her little brother.  She picked out an alphabet puppy and a yellow school bus, because "Cameron loves puppies and buses."  He also loves his big sister!

Cameron has graduated from his crib and is a great sleeper, if it wasn't for his sister in pretty sure he would like to sleep in ;) recently they've been taking turns sleeping in each other's rooms.  

I let the kids help Philip and I bake a cake, Cameron did not like the sound of the mixer! Raegan was set on the cake having sprinkles on top but we convinced her we could just put sprinkles on our individual pieces.  Cameron picked blue sugar sprinkles!  

He had his 2 yr check up today. He got one shot and didn't even cry and was so good for the dr the whole time.  

Quick stats:

Weight 25.8lbs (23rd percentile)

Height 32.5" (13th percentile)

Birthday pics:

Love you baby boy!

2nd annual fall trip to Oklahoma

We made a short trip to Oklahoma this past weekend to visit old friends and watch Baylor's football team dominate OU.

On the way we stopped in for lunch at the brand new Chick-fil-A in Ardmore, OK.  The place was packed with people, cows, and balloons!  My kids enjoyed all the extra excitement and Philip and I had the opportunity to meet the new Operator, David, and his wife Stacy. Some of Philip's old OKC operator friends had also come down to help with the grand opening of the store so he got to chat with them for awhile as well. 

Some of our children's adopted Chick-fil-A grandparents (we're all one big family), our dear friends, Mike and Susan, were away on vacation, but were so very generous to allow us to stay at their beautiful home.  They have many grandchildren of their own so there were lots of great toys both indoors and outdoors for our little ones to enjoy! PS- Oklahoma in the fall is so, so beautiful I wish I would have taken more pictures of the red, orange, and yellow leaves on all the trees!

We enjoyed a huge meal with aome OU fans at one of our old favorites, Yamato! (Why can't any place in Texas duplicate their Yum, Yum sauce for me!!) 

And after dinner a quick visit to our old stomping grounds, Sooner Mall.  Not too much has changed in the mall but these huge, ride-on stuffed animals are new and a bit crazy, but the kids obviously enjoyed it!

Saturday morning we gabbed breakfast at our favorite, Chick-fil-A, and then dropped the kids off with their old neighborhood friends, Lily (7) & Gavin (3) and a sitter before heading to the game in Norman with Chris and Charlotte.  

It was a chilly morning.  Our seats were up high but we had a great view of the field, the OU campus, and could even see downtown OKC buildings!  We were that high! The sun warmed our faces and I may have even gotten a slight sunburn!

After Bayor was clearly going to win the game, nearly all the OU fans quickly left the stadium and only the few Baylor fans that had traveled for the game were left, you could hear our Baylor fans cheering much better! After the victory we picked up our kiddos who had been playing and eating all day with their buds and visited our old neighbors, Payton (4) and Jackson (1), from across the street. The kids played outside while we caught up.  We do miss our friends and old neighbors in Oklahoma! 

After dinner back at Mike and Susan's house, we went next door to visit our friends and their littles, Mason (3) and Ethan (1).  It's amazing how much these guys have grown in a year!  Laura's littlest brother and his fiancé, Darcy, were also in town visiting so we got to meet Darcy as well, which was a treat!

Sunday morning we got up early to go enjoy breakfast in downtown Norman at Syrup.  The wait was an hour long, for breakfast!  But oh, so worth it! I should've taken pictures of Reagan's cinnamon roll pancakes or Philip's waffle with peanut butter and bananas on it! But the name of the place is what Cameron was covered (seriously covered) in when we were finishd eating! Cameron really likes syrup! He was a sticky mess from his hair to his shoes! I had to wipe him down and change his clothes before putting him in his car seat to head home!  

And that sums up our trip it was covered with sweet, sugary blessings!