Adams Christmas

Our Christmas parties kicked off this year with the Adams Family Christmas

My dad's brother, my aunt, and my cousin and his wife join us every year to start the

Christmas season off. I always look forward to getting to see them.

I don't get to see this side very often.

My dad and his brother

the kids table. My cousin has 2 boys- 1 is a few months older then Maci and the other a month younger then Maddox.

How the day typically looks- ladies sitting, talking and always eating...

while the men watch football (and Heather reads the ads :)

Maddox got some legos so that kept the boys entertained for a long time.

Great helper!!

After a recent party at our house, Eric and I were cleaning up after everyone left.

Eric was vacuuming and I was putting the furniture back in place.

When we walked into the kitchen this is what we found...

My sweet boy doing the dishes!

I had the soapy dishwater ready, but he took it upon himself to climb up and start cleaning.

He pulled the cups out, wiped them off, ran them under clean water and set them up to his left (you can see the green cups against the wall)

His siblings were to busy watching tv!

Guess who just got added to the chore chart :)

Christmas in Branson

After we got married we started spending several weekends each year in Branson. It was a place that Eric spent a lot of time at growing up, and it's the perfect little get away.

When we started having kids we stopped going as often. But a few years back we knew we had to go for the Christmas season. That started our little tradition.

The first weekend in December is our Branson get away.

A good way to get us into the Holiday spirit!

We started it off in a Winter Wonderland.

There's a Bass Pro Shop about 30 miles away, but instead we drive clear to

Springfield to enjoy theirs :) It seems to start the weekend off just perfect.

Maci and Lincoln started off by making some ornaments for our tree

While Maddox (and later Lincoln) enjoyed the games.

We then went to the Merry Go Round and took more then enough turns on it.

I love the picture above- Lincoln is loving it and waving, and Eric is looking a little sick :)

I'm thinking as he gets older, the circle motion is getting hard on him!

I love the concentration here!

and it can't be complete witout seeing Santa!

FIRST YEAR EVER that they all went up willingly and talked to him!!

The weather was beautiful, but by the 2nd night when we were wanting to enjoy the

water show at the Branson Landing it started to rain.

We still had a FANTASTIC time and will definetly do it again!

Advent Calendar

You can't start the Christmas season without opening a door on the Advent Calendar!

Every year it starts with us going from store to store to find that perfect

Advent Calendar. I don't know who gets more excited

daddy or the kiddos.

The Countdown has begun!

Home repairs

The American Dream....

home ownership!

I'm thinking my new dream is a rental.

Where someone else can pay the price of keeping the house up.

After the summer we've had-
with a basement that leaks water,
2 air conditioners that needed repaired,
a set of windows that have been fixed 4 times,
a back door that needed replaced,
a bathtub that leaked and had to be fixed,
to the repairs that those repairs caused,
to our (hopefully) final repair on the windows (pictured above)
I can find more fun things to spend our money on.

Christmas is going up

The day after Thanksgiving is always Christmas decorating extravaganza!

We have this poor little tree that we rescued out of my brothers trash can years ago. It's so so bad- but some how- our little annual tradition of Mimi decorating it- makes it oh so pretty!

I was blessed by my 4 angels with a day of sleeping in this year. When I awoke (at 7:30 am) I came out to see that the tree's had already been put up.

Yes we do fake trees- and no I don't mind that missed the setting them up. I prefer the decorating!

Our tradition is that we set up the trees and decorate everything, except for the ugly tree in the Living room. Later on, on the day after Thanksgiving, Mimi and Papa (Ashli's parents) come over and Mimi does her magic. The lady can make a bow out of anything. She's super talented in the decorating department!

And this is how the tree turned out.

AMAZING!

Scroll back up and see how ugly it was before- oh the difference :)

Thanks Mimi- once again you made it fabulous!

cutie!

If you give the kids to much freedom

they turn your little boy into a little girl

sisters clothes + Mimi's wig =

1 pretty cute little girl!

Go Cards!

It's hard to make the transition.

To go from being a Wellsville Eagle all my life

to turning into a Eudora Cardinal fan!

But I made some good ground this year

in sharing my heart with my new home town.

Eric and I spent several Friday nights at the field cheering on the football team this year.

The kids loved the games (running around with their friends) and our team had a great year.

After only losing 1 game all year they won a trip to the State Championship game.

The excitement of the town was to much to ignore, so we joined them in Salina today.

We enjoyed the trip with both of Eric's brothers and all of our kids!

It was a cold and windy day

Unfortunately the game didn't go our way- but we had a great time anyway!

Thanksgiving

This year we hosted our 8th annual Thanksgiving at our house.

We set an all time record with having 44 people in attendance!

The food was out of this world!

We had a little bit of everything!

After dinner the kiddos and men took off to play some football and soccer.

Eric and his dad did an amazing job with mowing out a football/soccer field for the day

and Maci's addition (thanks to grandma and grandpa) of a concession stand was a hit!

after a huge dinner you need popcorn, pop, and candy galore!

for the non sports players there of course is the play ground

Lincoln's loot from the concession stand.

Every kid got a quarter- and this is what he bought with his!

our kids table - minus the 4 youngest-

what a great group of kiddos!

We have been blessed and are so Thankful for so much.