Merry Christmas!

It looks like Santa came!!

The kids had so much fun looking in their stockings and playing with their new scooters!

After Grammy and Grampy came over to see what Santa brought we packed up the truck and headed South to Marmee and Guy's!

The kids got to open their stockings before brunch.

After brunch the kids were ready to open presents! The presents get pretty chaotic at Marmee and Guy's house so this is the only picture I took.

And after presents, the kids were ready for a tractor ride!

Marmee made a delicious prime rib dinner and then we had a bonfire when it got dark. The next morning, Mom, Mycah, Presley and I loaded up my truck with gifts and we went to Mycah's apartment to hang some mirrors above her brand new couch.

Then we headed to my house to make some updates to the dining room and play room! I got a new dining room rug and a new table runner and place settings. I have two other colors of chargers to swap out. We also hung some art work to give the room some dimension!

The picture is sideways, but it is a cursive B on the top plate. I am so in love with them!

In the play room, I purged all of the kids toys and got rid of a shelf with 9 cubbies. We gave our blue recliner to my cousin Molly. We washed the couch cover and moved the couch against the wall. I bought new storage cubes for the shelf under the TV and Mycah gave us the letters to spell PLAY above the TV. We framed and hung the kids pictures on the wall as you come up the stairs. Mom and I cleaned out all of the drawers and cabinets and organized the puzzles so that the kids can access them better. We obviously didn't do all of this in one day, but here are the pictures of the end result!

It is a new and improved play room! Having less toys and "junk" has been so nice. The kids play with more of the toys and there is a lot less cleanup. They have also been watching movies on their bean bags that have been stashed in the media room for the past year because we didn't have enough room in the play room.

When we left Mom's house that morning, we knew that severe weather was going to come at some point. We checked with Dad later in the day and he said it would probably hit around 5pm. We could have worked on my house for days, but around 330 we loaded up and headed back south. We stopped at the store for a couple of things and then got on the road. When we were a couple of miles from Mom's exit, she and Mycah started getting texts and warnings on their phones that a tornado was forming very close to where we were. We quickly exited and I sped all the way to their house. The rain started right was we pulled in the driveway. We lost cable on and off for a while, but ended up spending the rest of the evening watching tornado coverage. I think there ended up being 11 tornadoes that touched down on the day after Christmas. It was devastating. The one that we came very close to ended up hitting the town that I grew up in. There were several others. We had a friend send us this picture of one across a lake from them. So scary!!

We were safe and sound and our prayers went out to all of the families who lost their homes in the devastating tornadoes.

On another note, Mikey and I splurged for Christmas this year and finished decorating our outdoor living area. I finally framed my shell art and we bought and hung curtains for both privacy and decorative purposes. It warmed the living area up and we absolutely love it!

We can close the curtains and turn the fire place on and it stays pretty warm.

This is a view from the outside looking in.

We were blessed to have a wonderful Christmas again this year. We love our traditions that we have created with the kids and each year gets more and more fun. I'll leave you with this picture of Bentley helping Marmee in the kitchen.