The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It really is the most wonderful time, isn't it?  Every year I just want to grab it and squeeze it and enjoy every last drop of Christmas goodness.  But somehow each year it slips right through my fingers and before I know it it's behind us.  This year I was particularly lazy, and I hoped that a slower schedule would maybe help slow down time and let us hold on a little bit longer.  It didn't work as well as I 'd have liked, but it was a beautiful month filled with candy and cookies and Santa and family.  The perfect kind of Christmas.

We spent a week of our time in Denver, and missed Lyla's Christmas program at school because of it.  Worst planning fail ever on my part, and I cried real tears about this.  Luckily Lyla's teachers are the best ever and (without even the slightest bit of coercing them, I swear) they offered to put on my own private show on their last day before Christmas break.  It was the cutest!

We also attended the Life Time Fitness breakfast with Santa, which is a favorite every year.  This one was particularly good.  It may have had something to do with the Christmas bunny that showed up.  ;)  I also took the girls to the Macy's Santaland in downtown Minneapolis.  We heard it's their last year, so we snuck down on a weekday to avoid the crowds.  It was a fun little trip downtown...until I made Sis take a picture, anyways. 

A few days before Christmas Grandma and Pop drove into town and were a major help in getting the last minute details completed.  (Read: I made them roll out, bake and decorate ALL of the cookies).  I caught some kind of bug which only lasted until Christmas Eve night, thankfully, but they were incredibly helpful in letting me rest and recuperate.  Having grandparents around to help during those times is such a rare treat, so it was extra appreciated!

Everything about Christmas was so, so good this year.  We are at the peak of Christmas magic with Lyla and Evie all wide eyed with wonder about that old Santa Claus.  We always talk a lot about the real reason behind Christmas, read the Christmas story and play with our nativity scenes to make sure we don't lose sight of the precious gift we were all given that very first Christmas day.  Lyla learned a lot about it in her school too, and would "read" the Christmas story book better than the actual printed words, so she was nominated to tell the Christmas story on Christmas Eve.  There's something so special about these babes and their love for Jesus.  But while focusing on the true spirit of the season, I can't help but hold a special place in my heart for the magic of Santa and his elves.  It just adds such a fun touch when you're laying in bed and talking about what he's doing and where he could be, and what he'll be bringing.  I can still remember driving home on a Christmas eve and keeping my eyes locked on the starry sky the whole ride home, hoping for a glimpse of santa.  I mean, I still kind of find myself wishing it all was real, so we'll be keeping it real over here for as long as we possibly can.

We hope you had the merriest Christmas, too, and that Santa treated you well!  ;) 

- K

Our little snow bunny and Lyla meeting Santa after a pancake breakfast!  (Which somehow mostly consisted of gummy worms.)

I think they buttered him up!

Lyla sent 3 letters to Santa this year, and even got one back!

That bag holds a snowman kit for both girls (hat, scarf, carrot nose, etc.)  I made a joke about the reindeer stealing their carrots, so Sis was on bag patrol.  She would not let that thing out of her grip!  :)

Wondering if she could sneak in a quick ride to the North Pole.  ;)

The next day we got some of our good ol' MN snow powder.  After making sure they could not actually build snowmen they decided to go ahead and just eat their carrots.

Another letter to Santa at Santaland!  She loves writing these days, and constantly asks me how to spell things so she can write it herself.

I decided that Evie can't always win when she doesn't want to take a picture and told Lyla to hold her still.  #bestmomever

Showing Grandma and Pop clips from Moana, the new favorite movie around here.

My little beauty, all dolled up for Christmas Eve church!

Sis warms up to the camera every once in a while.  ;)

I was so proud of us that night.  We were 30 min EARLY, even after taking a million pictures to try to get any decent ones.

The whole Chapman crew!

After church we had our traditional bagel and lox dinner and opened a few presents.  The girls both got handmade nightgowns from Grandma and they were in heaven!

Lyla is always our early bird, but our rule is she can't come out of her room until the first number on her clock is a 6 or 7.  Magically she almost appears right after that first number turns to a 6.  Christmas morning was no different.  :)

Evie was still a little slow to open presents, wanting to take each one out and play before getting to the next one.

Lyla, on the other hand, could hardly wait to open them all.  By the time she was done Evie still had a pile to open.  It was a hard lesson, letting her sister open her own presents without any help.  ;)

New cowgirl boots!  One of her most favorite presents.

We had to take a quick art break at some point, then resumed the present opening.  :)

This is my favorite picture series because my gift was a total shock and complete surprise from my sweet husband.  Crying happy tears here...

And BIG hugs, because...

he got us girls a new car!!  It's not exactly new, but a whole lot newer (and more beautiful) than I was ever hoping for!  Cheers to not needing to fill our antifreeze every 3 days and to having a little heat!!

Evie got a Sheriff Calie guitar, so had to get the whole ensemble on, complete with her new pink boots.  :)

Love them.

Our turkey ended up being rotten, but Ryan saved the day with some delicious grilled chicken, cordon bleu style!  Quite the man right there.

Lyla got her very own American Girl Doll, and is thrilled!

Playing with their new toys.  What a fun Christmas!

Grandma snuggles the day after Christmas.

We found a new (not rotten!) turkey!

Christmas feast #2!  Their favorite are the turkey legs.  :)

Thanksgiving 2016

Last Wednesday was Lyla's first official holiday break from school, and one of the funnest days we've had all year.  She woke begging to help make pumpkin pie, so before we even got to breakfast we were whipping up our favorite pumpkin pie recipe.  As soon as the pie was in the oven we had to head outside to play in the fresh snow.  It was the perfect snow weather - a rarity in MN - and the girls had a blast.  There were snowball fights and snowmen and snow angels, then we finally headed in for scrambled eggs and hot cocoa.  Pretty much the cutest start to a holiday break ever.

The next day we headed to the gym for our traditional Thanksgiving workout, which makes you feel just a little bit better about those pumpkin cinnamon rolls we eat afterwards.  :)  Joan and Dave came over for our Thanksgiving feast, and then we all headed to Moana.  It was the best Thanksgiving we've had in a long time.  There were no meltdowns, except when Ryan realized he hadn't bought enough oil for the turkey fryer.  For the third year in a row.  ;)  But the girls were so great, buzzing around the kitchen with us ladies, and playing outside with the guys and the turkeys.  It was just so simple and easy and fun.

We have so very much to be thankful for this year, even more than usual.  Ryan and I spend a lot of nights reflecting about just how amazing this year, and even more so these last couple of months, have been.  It's been a real season of trusting in God's path and provision for our family, and through it all his goodness and faithfulness have shone through.

So much love to our family and friends!  We are always and forever thankful for each of you.

XOXO

- K

Grape eyes and a celery nose were the best we could do for this little guy.  :)

 



 

The Chapman snowman family!

 

Thanksgiving morning gym selfie.  :)

 

The best cinnamon rolls in the world.  The girls insisted on sprinkles this year.  :)

 



The cutest little pilgrim.

 



 

The only pic of the whole group from Thanksgiving.  Frying up turkeys on the driveway.  :)  Such a great day!!

4th of July

Last 4th of July Uncle Jeff, (basically Ryan's brother from another mother), came to visit.  It was such a good time that we decided to make it a tradition and even throw in an extra Jeff!  Ryan's high school friend, Jeff, and his wife, Tessa, came out to join the festivities and we couldn't have had any more fun. 

Tessa was the best thing since sliced bread to my little girls.  It took approximately 2 seconds for Lyla to crawl in her lap and profess her love for Tessa over and over.  Which sort of became the trend for the remainder of the weekend.  Even Sis couldn't get enough of "Tia".

The last time we all hung out for any decent amount of time was really in our mid twenties, and back then these guys were all just a little rough around the edges.  Like a little bit crazy, a lot bit unfiltered, and probably just typical mid twenties guys.  I'm pretty sure they all have a lot of that left in them, but 7+ years added other things, like fancy cheese trays, and fancy liquor tastes, and fair trade coffee conversations and saying things like "ugh, finally the brie is softening up" and "I prefer espresso with steamed milk to drip coffee".  I think you can say that they've all managed to out high-maintenance the girls in the group.  And that's hard to do when Princess Anna is always amongst you. ;)

All joking aside, it was such a good weekend.  These guys are just exceling in so many ways, and it was so fun to see them all together again.  I think the 4th is officially a tradition, and I can't wait to see everyone again!

- K

Ryan with the latest Jeff to join the 4th festivities.

Immediately attached at the hip :)

The whole crew.

Couple of cuties :)

At some point Sis grabbed the camera and things got a little weird.

And then Lyla had the camera.

I don't even know what's happening here.

Sis got the camera back.

The Chapman "Freedom Wagon" got lots of use over the weekend.  Lyla got to take a slow spin with the boys around the neighborhood.

Shortly after this we all (as in 5 adults, 2 children and the dog) piled in the back and drove a few blocks to our friends' house to see if they happened to be out.  Not seeing them out front wasn't enough, so Ryan went around the side to check their backyard and honked incessantly...not invasive at all.  They happened to be out there and yelled for us to come in.  Mind you we had Kevin, and most of us had no shoes.  Also they had friends with them that literally flew in from Finland an hour before, and their kids didn't speak any English.  Luckily they were all completely wonderful, and I'll never stop laughing about the dad from Finland saying "we were hoping for something like that!"  So I'm glad we could meet their crazy American expectations right off the bat, and for awesome friends that welcome a bunch of crazies in their home at the drop of a hat.  ;)

And then it turned into the "Meat Mobile" and they ran to the store together.  So cute.

They may or may not have made a run to Wisconsin to pick up illegal, huge, fireworks.  I asked Sis if she wanted to go to bed or stay up and she eagerly said "Wake UP!" with her eyes all huge.  So she stayed up, and she did great...until the next day where we were all severely punished by her 'tude.  All's fair in fireworks and s'mores though, and I'd say the memories were totally worth it.

The next day we all headed to the Farmer's Market for breakfast.

Sis found a chicken.  It might have PTSD.

If they ever start a boy band I think this will be the album cover.

I can't complain about the boys and their meat and cheese selections.  :)

Illegal fireworks and s'mores - Take Two

Sis was not invited to the second night of firework fun.

By 10 we had a visit from the cops, so the fireworks came to an end.  Lyla was somewhat traumatized by the whole ordeal, but to her joy the night quickly became a Disney music karaoke / dance party.

Tessa and Lyla making up moves to The Little Mermaid songs.

Uncle Jeff's glasses got broken shortly after this picture.

Sadly Jeff and Tessa had to leave us on the 4th, but the rest of us went to the same festival we went to last year.  Ryan and Jeff hit up a gyro food truck, and this little girl's parents ran it.  She quickly pulled up a chair for Lyla to sit in, directed her at one point to "sit like a normal person" (I have to confess that I've probably said that myself once or 100 times!) and then grabbed her and started ball room dancing with her.  Kids are the freakin best.

Never ceases to amaze me how they can just be instant best friends.

The best part about kids is they do everything for you.  I pretty much just sit on the couch eating bon bons these days.

Sis followed her big sister right up the ladder for this slide jump house.  We weren't sure what to expect once she got to the top but she owned it.  No hesitations, just straight down that thing.  Everyone around us started clapping and cheering.  She was pretty proud.  :)

Ride tickets!

Jackpot

I don't even know...

Her favorite game is acting as sour as possible.  She stands with her arms crossed and pouts, and throws major shade at the camera.  She laughs a little when you laugh, but then straight back to a scowl.



Lyla couldn't wait to get her face painted again.

Sis loved every second of this.  At the end of the night when I wiped it off she made it pretty clear that I'd ruined her entire life.  She might need counseling at some point.

Such a fun night!  What a great weekend celebrating our great country.