2 Year Blogging Anniversary!

Happy Belated 2 Year Anniversary to me! I had it in the back of my mind that I should be watching the dates for this but since it falls so close to Christmas I totally forgot. Shocking! :)

If you know me, you know I love comparing dates in the past to dates in the present. Can I just say  that if you would have asked me two year ago where I thought I'd be now I would have NEVER in million years guessed I'd be as happy as I am right now. In two short years I've had another baby, my faith renewed, and been blessed beyond measure!

This is my 399th post! (Although I'm sure that several of those are pretty crap-tastic and never made it past the "publish" button.) (I just checked...I have 11 in "draft" form still...) If you've simply got nothing better to do today go back and check out my blog from the beginning. I'd scan that first post if I were you and head on to some of the better ones :).

Happy reading Ya'll and thanks for hanging around with me for so long! I love you all!

Our Christmas Morning 2012!

We have had such a wonderfully blessed holiday (and it's not even over yet, we still have one more to go!) already this year. We did an early Christmas with my Momma up in Dallas a couple of weeks ago and so our second round of seasonal festivities was Christmas Eve itself! After the children's service at our church and a visit to my SIL Melanie's house for some tamales, we headed home to get ready for the big fat guy! :)

Grady was able to make two bags of  "reindeer food" at preschool the week before so we had some for each of the bigger boys to put out.

I managed to hold the boys up to try and get a picture of them in their Christmas jammies before they went outside. Don't you just love the pj's Gretchen?? :)

Poor Grady was sooo tired by this time... 

After the boys were snugly tucked into bed Bobby and I hurried out to the living room to get ready for the next morning. This is what the three boys woke up to Christmas morning! Bobby and I received a Christmas miracle in that no one came to get us up until 7:30!!

The stockings ended up being so heavy that we had to lay them out instead of leaving them on their holders. (pardon my coffee table...it looks like crap because the boys do nothing but play on it and I refuse to get anything nice until they are older :)

Sleepy little boy...

This was hilariously enough, the best picture of the 3 boys together.

The rest that follows was almost a blur :). There were toys, tissue paper, wrapping paper, everywhere! I could hardly keep up with my camera!

Graham's most coveted Christmas gift. An X Box 360! 

Graham's haul!

Grady's haul!

Griffin's (little) haul! Ya'll he's just a baby and already has sooo much stuff that he needed almost nothing!

Even Crash got doggie gifts.

 My awesome self remembered that I had an old "bike bag" put up with my wrapping stuff so I pulled it out to use for trash collection. Best.idea.ever. Instead of 97 smaller trash bags we used just one AND it even had a draw string at the top. I'll be buying one of these every year from now on just for this purpose!

Griffin wasn't super into opening gifts this year so he mostly just ate breakfast and watched. He was pretty happy about his set up. :)

...until brothers got too loud and rowdy for him...

Bobby and I ended our Christmas morning with the breakfast of champions (and by that I mean a Pinterest inspired casserole).

We had a wonderful morning together! I couldn't have been happier with our day!

How was your Christmas?

Christmas Blog Swap

A couple of weeks ago I participated in the funnest blog swap! I have never done one before but I thought that it'd be fun to get a surprise just for me in the mail and meet a new bloggy friend. Mission accomplished on both accounts!! 

My sweet online friend Beth Ann was one of the hostesses. She has the cutest blog and kiddo! Her son Holden is exactly one whole day older than Griffin. :)

I was lucky enough to be matched up with Jessica from Creations by Jessica Lynn! She sent me such a fun little care package of all sorts of Christmas fun.

Graham grabbed the chocolate chap sick and I had to run and grab it back for the picture. :) Grady got a hold of a fun package of m&m's and marshmellow that went with the hot cocoa and ate them all before I had a chance to even make the cocoa! Little stink... :)

I can't wait to do this again next year!

Merry Christmas From The Muellers!

Luke 2:15-20
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (KJV)

Jerry and Caroline

This is the first of several posts for today. :) I had to share this here today so I could save this image for a lifetime! If you follow me on Facebook then you've already seen it, but I really wanted it here today too.



It's our Elf on a Shelf, Jerry and he's hanging out with sweet Caroline today! I just love my 3 sweet boys on the right and beautiful Caroline on the left. All my amazing kiddo's together.... kind-of....

::Sigh::

Stay tuned for a little later today for my Christmas home tour and a blog swap gift in the mail!

Merry Christmas Eve ya'll!

Caroline's Newest Ornament

Yesterday I was greeted with the sweetest person on my doorstep!

Sorry Jorie, I totally swiped your newest Facebook picture :).

This is Jorie. She comes as the biggest blessing and Godsend! She is both our babysitter and most importantly a cousin. Her grandmother and Bobby's grandmother are sisters. Funnily enough Jorie's  grandfather and Bobby's grandfather were brothers! How cute is that, two brothers marrying two sisters! We are super related ... :).

In her sweet and thoughtful hands was this

I die...

So beautiful and sweet just like my precious girl!! I immediately started to tear up despite Jorie saying "No! Wait! Stop! Don't cry!" :) I just couldn't help it. It was such a thoughtful gift. It meant more to me that she remember our sweet girl at Christmas time than the gorgeous ornament in my hand (which don't get me wrong, I ADORE).  

Jorie, we are so thankful for you, love you, and are continually blessed by both your outer AND inner beauty!

Merry Christmas From The Muellers!

Merry Christmas to everyone! May the joy of this special holiday season fill your homes and warm your hearts! 

"Those Mueller's Sure Are Awesome Ice Skaters!"... Said No One Ever.

A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to go skating as a family with Graham's cub scout group. Graham and I have not ice skated in about 4+ years, Grady has NEVER ice skated, and I've never seen Bobby do it once (and we've been together like 13 years). That right there should adequately sum up our skating skillz (and I use those two words together very loosely).

This picture here describes how we rolled (or rather slid) a lot of the time :).

For the nine millionth time... please pardon the blurry pictures. My camera had the hardest time ever focusing. I was pretty much in motion the whole time (have you ever tried to stay still and not fall on ice skates all at the same time??) and so were my subjects :). Poor camera was soo confused.

Bobby skated with Grady while I skated with Graham (Griffin stayed at home with his Omi). We figured a one-on-one approach would be the best thing :). Since we were there around Christmas time they had Christmas carols playing and I was able to imagine myself here...

If only...

My boys taking a break in the hockey time out box (is that even what you call it??).

I was SO proud of them here! Neither one of them was holding onto the wall!!

Holding on for dear life...

Graham and I considered ourselves big successes when the last couple of laps neither of us held onto the handrail OR each other! :)

Graham even made a new friend while we were out skating! He kind of attached himself to us but he seemed really friendly and was a great skater so he was able to give Graham all kinds of advise and really cheered him on!

That's our new friend in the black and yellow jersey. I was going to get him and Graham's picture together but I didn't want to be that stranger creeper person taking random kids pictures... :)

Both Graham and Grady asked to go back soon so maybe we'll see Graham's new friend again.

We all really did have a great time together. We all laughed a lot at each others very sad skating skills, cheered each other on for a job well done at the end, and got great family exercise out of the deal! 

I see a lot of family skating in our future!

These Are A Few Of My Favorite {Christmas} Things!

Makes me feel like Oprah. :) Just without all her money. HA! 

This Christmas season I have collected quite a bit of things that have me super excited for this special season! I love to discover new and special things for both myself and my boys (and that includes my sweet hubby as well :).

We started out the Holiday season with mugs of hot cocoa. Yummy! My boys and I really love the mini marsh mellows and how they melt into foamy layer of delishishness.  OMG. I could drink it daily!!

My next fun find was this gorgeous necklace and earrings! I found them at the cutest local shop. I love how the necklace has both pink AND red in it. I now can wear it all season long with almost anything! The hot pink sweater was an awesome Old Navy find for only 15 bucks!

The next great find was these fun little flavored straws for the boys. Who wouldn't want to drink Chocolate Candy Cane flavored milk?? :)

 We are also loving our Elf on the Shelf, Jerry. We've had Jerry for a couple of years now but this is the first year that boys have really paid him much attention. They just love to get up in the morning and see who can find first where he moved overnight.  Only one night have Bobby and I forgot to move Jerry. OOPS! I had to do some pretty quick talking that morning to get myself out of that jam!

The next picture is how Bobby stays Holly and Jolly during the holiday season... :) 

A couple of weeks ago I found the cutest tree at Target! I have been looking around for a little tree to go in our dining room for the boys to decorate and this one ended up being perfect. It tops out at 6 feet but the boys were still able to reach most of it to do all their own decorating. I think it turned out super cute! (Sorry that the picture is a little blurry. My camera just couldn't seem to focus.)

+

The boys received several advent calendars this year. The two oldest each have a fun chocolate filled one to open. Grady's is the Santa one which is perfect as each little door has the traditional "Santa story" on it. Graham's is the advent calender that depicts the birth of Jesus. His, of course, has scriptures and the true Christmas story on the insides of the doors. I love that we can combine the whimsical secular side of Christmas as well as the religious "reason for the season" portion. 

The middle advent calender is their favorite! It's a Lego one that has a small figure or item to build behind each door. It made for a great St. Nick gift! Thanks Omi!

 I love that this year I was able to add a couple more pictures to my "Christmas Collection". I am so thankful to have all of these memories that the boys and I made together!!

I also found these super cute Christmas walls clings! I have always seen the window ones but recently discovered the wall ones. I always want cute Christmas stuff to hang on my walls  and these were perfect!

 What fun Christmas things have you discovered??