Rewind

And I mean let's do a major rewind. In fact, let's pretend it's not almost August and I haven't posted since February. Yikes.

We've had so many things happen between now and then, that I've actually had plenty of things to write about, just not the time. So instead of going back and writing a very long post, I'm recapping our life since February. So here are the highlights:

March: We found out we are moving back to Katy, TX. I declare this month March Moving Madness. I went on a girls trip with my mom and sister. My mom watched the boys while we went house hunting. My sister and her family came to visit, and my brother and his family came to visit.
Oh and the biggest news of all, we found out we are expecting baby number three!

April: Jesse officially started his new job on April 1. The long commutes and overnight stays have begun. We sold our house and bought a house all on the same day.  Emerson turned FOUR! We celebrated by going to Chuck E Cheese and then with a little party at church friends. This was the boys last month at school. We say final goodbyes to our Lumberton home and get the keys to our new home.

May: Moving month!  So I now officially declare this month May Moving Madness (part 2). We got the keys at the end of April, but our stuff didn't arrive until May. We celebrated my 31st birthday. Jesse's parents visited, and then my parents stopped for a short visit and took the boys back with them to Oklahoma so Jesse and I could take a mini vacation to Las Vegas with friends.

June: We found out baby number three is another BOY. To celebrate we had the most amazing dessert, a warm doughnut stuffed with ice cream.YUM.

July: We visited my best friend and her husband in Austin, TX. Took the boys to their first firework show on the Fourth of July. Both did really well with the load noises. I turned 20 weeks with baby number three. I spent a girls weekend away in Colorado celebrating my friends upcoming wedding. And we took our family Colorado vacation, separate post is already in the works on this one. Promise.

 

And I think that about does for a quick catch up. See, you didn't miss much in the McKee life. Just some major life events, no biggie. 

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas...And a Happy New Year!

Whew. What a busy, yet fun time of year. Our holiday season was filled with travel, fun, family, and two happy little boys when it came to gift opening time : )

Christmas Round One.

Started off with a bang with a trip to the ER for Jesse. He crashed on a dirt bike right before we were going to do our family of four Christmas. He damaged his shoulder (later to learn he had a separated shoulder). All is OK now.

The accident sure didn't stop these boys from being excited about opening gifts. Henry was the shocker this year. He LOVED all of it and got super excited when he would open anything. It was adorable.

Christmas Round Two.

A stop in Nashville to spend some time with Aunt Molly, Uncle Jonathan and Cassidy. A quick visit with Jesse's grandparents on the farm as we drove out of Nashville, and then it was on to Knoxville to see Gramma, Pops, Uncle Evan, Aunt Lea, more great grandparents...and Aunt Molly, Uncle Jonathan and Cassidy again.

Cassidy was full of sweet hugs for her aunt!

Only at a great-grandparents house do you get away with eating ice cream and cookies at 9 a.m.

Playing on Gramma's Dulcimer very carefully. This boy was born to play music.

On our way to Jump Jam trampoline park.

We think Pops had the most fun.

This is what happens when you spend an hour jumping and then decide to skip nap. He finally crashed around 5 p.m.

Baking our cake for Santa.

A Merry McKee Christmas!

Christmas Round Three.

My parents came to visit us around New Years weekend to celebrate a late Christmas with us. Always so nice to have family willing to travel to you after lots of car time.

Love Henry's face : )

Playing Memory Match game with Grammy.

Henry and Granddad reading the same book over and over. Henry was very content until I whipped out my camera.

And lastly, a very happy New Year! We celebrated with a Netflix countdown, sparkling white grape juice, party hats and an early bed time. Just the way it should be.

Now it's January. Happy detoxing everyone!

O Chritstmas Tree, 2016

Ah, nothing beats a fresh Christmas tree! And finding one, well that's just all part of the fun that helps me get into the Christmas spirit. I love going to a tree farm on a cold day, with the sun shining bright, and trailing through rows and rows of trees, evaluating each one (twice) before decided on the perfect one. And the perfect "one" is always a Fraser Fir.

This year was nothing like the scene I described.

We made a mad dash, past the kids bedtimes, to Home Depot and grabbed one of few Fraser Firs that were left. The kids were cranky (and rightly so), and no one really wanted to take a family photo that I was making them take (see photo below).

The experience of shopping wasn't as wonderful, BUT I still love my fresh tree, and loved getting to pick it out as a family and decorate it. It's always the start of our Christmas season tradition.

If looks could kill, Henry's just might!

 Traditional "binging it through the door" photo.

Time to decorate!

I love this one just because Henry is in the background with his toy cell phone saying "cheese" while he snaps the button. Obviously he's from a generation where only cell phones are used as cameras.

Emerson was all about decorating the tree this year, and he did so well. He was very gentle with each ornament he hung...and only broke one. Success.

Henry had no interest in decorating the big tree, but...

 

 ...he did enjoy decorating his little felt tree.

Happy December, Everyone!

P.S. it took has a whole week to complete the process, hence all the different outfit changes we had : )

Thanksgiving, 2016

 

It's a cold and rainy day at our house. It has rained all day and all night with more rain to come. There has been very minimal activity going on, and I love it. We ALL slept in (very rare), we stayed in pj's till noon, cleaned house, ate waffles, watched football (Bedlam!), and decorated our Christmas tree (to be blogged about at a later date). It's been a great day.

Since it's a lazy day, I decided I'd better hop on my blog and update. Latest adventure for us was traveling to Grammy and Granddads house in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving.  

The kid table.

Henry got to sit with the adults. Pretty sure all he ate was mac and cheese, but I was too busy chowing down to notice or care.

There was lots of this going on...

 and this...

 We swung, climbed and jumped for hours outside. Thank goodness it was a nice weather visit.

 We also took a trip to the Holy City with cousins and went up Mt. Scott.

And of course it wouldn't be a trip to Grammy and Granddads house without feeding the cows,

and riding our new favorite toy, the Viking, which brings thrill and fear for our two children, especially when daddy is driving. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! On to Christmas and more holiday adventures.