2009 Wrap Up!

The year just flew by...I seriously can't believe that 2010 is here. It was a busy year for the Mays! Here is a brief recap of all the ups and downs -
Scott started working for TXU after 11 years with Chase, my sweet PaPa Perry passed away, Michelle and Kasey got married, I turned thirty, Hudson has 7 ear infections and then surgery for ear tubes and adenoid removal, we had a train party for the boys' 5th and 2nd b-days, we remodeled our bathroom and Scott's jam room, I found a new love for cooking and blogging, Becca and Conner lost their baby, we "stay-cationed" in Granbury, we went to the river with friends, Michael Jackson died, Scott turned thirty, Nolan started Kindergarten, we saw Paul McCartney in concert, our country is still at war and still financially struggling, it was a good year, it was a hard year...here's to 2010! Who knows what our future holds?!?!

Here are a few pictures from our New Years Eve...we partied down with Sara/Chris/Ava/Addi, Mike/Nicole/Addyson, and Jamie/Billy/Lincoln. The kids wrecked the house while we tried to play a few games of Partini. It was a good time although I am pretty sure that the kids could have easily out lasted the adults!

The kids gathered around the iphone for some good old fashioned fun.


This last picture is hilarious. Nolan was given a "New Years" necklace and he felt the need to wear it all night and it kinda looked more like a gold link chain or something that a rapper would wear. He put on his Nerf Dart Tag vest over his PJ's along with his Mavs hat to complete the look. What made it funny was that he was dead serious in this outfit - like it was normal. Never say the kid doesn't have his own style. Oh yeah, and the band-aid next to his eye is from a fight over trains with Hudson. Hud has a matching scratch between his eyes on his forehead from Nolan. Ugh! Can't we all just get along - no need for cat fights over the train table!

Making the rounds on Christmas day!

After the glass incident we headed over to Granny's house. It was good to spend time with the Willard side of our family. The boys played with the train, Hudson got into all the candy dishes (as always), we had a huge yummy lunch and opened great presents.

Then we went over to MeMa's for deserts and more presents of course. My favorite gift that Nolan picked out this year was for Old PaPa (PaPa Harkrider). Nolan always wants to play in their garage (I guess because it is full of boxes and old stuff) but he always wants to go out there. PaPa and MeMa always tell him no because they say there could be mice out there. I don't think there are really any mice, but they have said it said since Nolan was little. At Dollar Tree Nolan saw a pack of mouse traps and got so excited. He picked them up and turned around with the biggest smile and said "I want to get these for Old PaPa - MeMa would be so happy if he could catch that old mouse out in the garage!". It was so sweet and very thoughtful. We wrapped them up and Nolan was so proud to give PaPa his gift. Just what any man would want - mouse traps! It was really cute.




Our last stop for the day was Grandma's house. She did snacks and presents in the evening which worked out perfectly for us. I didn't get any pictures at our last stop. I stole a couple from facebook that my cousin Alicia posted. Grandma gave the boys bikes this year. Nolan was SO excited about his new "big boy" bike with NO training wheels. We took the training wheels off his other bike this summer but he wasn't quite ready yet. This is a little bigger bike so I think it will be easier for him to ride it and I know he will have it down in no time!


This holiday season was jam packed with parties, family, food and fun! It is a blessing to have such a full and crazy life! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Ugh!

After playing in the snow all Christmas morning, we came in too get warmed up, got dressed for Christmas day, pulled out all of the presents from under the tree and were just starting to load up in the Explorer. Scott came in the house and asked me to come out into the garage. In the back of my mind I was thinking maybe he had a little Christmas surprise for me...boy did he, but not what I was thinking. I walked outside to a floor covered in broken glass. The back window of the Explorer was busted out. Scott said he was just lifting up the glass part of the door and loading the presents into the back when it shattered. I don't know if he was pressing too hard or what happened but we were both in shock. What a yucky thing to happen on Christmas day! We had to stop everything and get it all cleaned up. Glass was everywhere and it was a huge mess. We vowed to just try not to worry about it and call insurance the next day. We moved everything to my car and ended up being about thirty mins late to Granny's. The good news was that it's just considered a "glass claim" on insurance so the deductible is less. They has to order the glass from the Ford House because it has special things that go with it and they are coming on Thursday to replace it. Ugh! Stinks to have to pay for that right after Christmas but at least no one was hurt and we just have to pay the deductible.

Santa and Snow!

Christmas morning we woke up to Nolan yelling "Santa came, Santa left me a P-71 Blackbird!" It was 5:45 AM and we were super sleepy but had to get up with two excited boys to see what Santa had left for them. They loved their guitars, cars, a baby doll for Hudson and monster trucks...and of course the airplane model for Nolan. It was so cute to see Hudson get so excited about the presents and Santa. Nolan and I made monkey bread and Daddy went back to sleep for a few hours. Then it was time to get bundled up and head out into the snow to play. I just wish that the boys could have understood how special it was to get to make a snowman on Christmas. It was so much fun to watch them play in it. Hudson had never even really seen snow until this year and even Nolan had only seen the ice storms in the previous winters...this was their first real snow! The last time we had deep powdery snow was six years ago at Valentines when I was prego with Nolan. It was our whole family's first white Christmas.

Christmas Eve at NaNa's

Christmas Eve at home with my immediate family is something that we have done since I was little. Christmas day we always had Santa and then we went to both side of our grandparents. So Christmas Eve was the special time for just me and my sisters to spend time with my mom and dad and open presents. We continued to do this even when I moved out and as they moved out too. We spend Christmas day running from all three sets of grandparent's now with Scott's family in the mix too. This year was a sad year for our family with the loss of my PaPa. My Grandma has always spent Christmas Eve with PaPa at their house preparing for the next day. This year was different. Grandma was telling us about how hard it was on the night before Thanksgiving since she was alone preparing for the holiday. I just hated to hear her say that. We asked her to join us on Christmas Eve at my mom's house. I was so excited when she said that she would! That made the night special for all of us. It was a perfect evening with the snow. So special! Nana gave the boys a train table with a bunch of trains to go with it. They LOVE it and it was certainly one of their favorite gifts this year. Nolan picked out special presents with his own money for all of the family. We went to Dollar Tree a few weeks ago for our big shopping event. Nolan cracks me up with his gift choices. He is so serious while we are shopping and really thinks about everyone as he picks out their gifts. He picked out some lovely Dollar Tree perfume for my mom along with a new red squirt bottle. Aunt B got a squishy ball, Auntie M received a double pack of hair color, Uncle Conner got a very fancy sport watch. ("Because he just got an i-phone and loves electronics" is what Nolan said when he picked it out.) Nolan even got the dogs people crackers...similar too goldfish crackers but for dogs so they are shaped like people - Nolan thought that was hilarious! Hudson was a maniac about all of the food. Since it was all in places he could reach, he just continued to help himself to dips, fudge and of course cupcakes. I felt like I spent half the night wiping his face! So cute.

Christmas with MiMi and PaPa

This year we did our presents the day before Christmas Eve which worked out perfectly! The past couple of years we have done it on Christmas night after lugging the kids to all of the grandparents and that just makes for a really long and hard day. Four places is too much. We are so blessed to have so much family but at some point something has to give. It was awesome to start off the long holiday weekend with dinner and presents at MiMi's. We were able to relax, enjoy the night and not be in a rush to get to the next stop. We loved it! I hope that we start doing that every year! The boys received great gifts - Nolan's favorite was the Razor scooter and MP3 player and Hudson LOVED his Bass Pro Shops truck, trailer and boat set. Nolan picked out a dusting mitt and work gloves for PaPa and a very nice silver platter and coffee mug for MiMi. The house was filled with loved for sure!

Christmas Surprise!

Becca and I decided to surprise the family with a dead serious portrait of us in our masks. We then framed and wrapped them up and gave them to everyone on Christmas. It was hilarious when we went to portrait innovations to get them taken. We got all dressed up in cute tops and everything. The guy that was our photographer was in shock when we pulled the masks out and told him we wanted to do the whole photo shoot with the masks on. At first I don't think he really knew what to say or do. Then he got into it when all of the rest of the studio workers were standing there watching and laughing at us. He kept taking shots and then saying "beautiful!", he even made us take individual shoots - you know the ones where they have you look over your shoulder and the other shot where they have you look off into the distance with a black background....ridiculous! It was SO much fun just taking them and super hard to then pick out a single pose for our $9.95 package. Ha ha! Our family thought we were crazy. We gave my mom the 10x13 and Scott and Conner the 8x10's for their desks. Even our aunts and all of the grandparents got pics. It was a GREAT way to start of the Christmas season of giving. :)

Merry Christmas

As I sit here snuggled up with Daisy on my cozy couch; the snow is coming down in big waves of white. It is truly breath taking. I cannot believe that it is snowing on Christmas Eve. It is so magical for the boys to have a "White Christmas". It is about 3 o'clock and both boys are taking a nap. My tree is full with wrapped presents waiting to be opened. I am finished with my Christmas baking and the house is warm with the smell of cupcakes. Scott is playing the guitar and it is quiet. It is, dare I say...perfect, around here. Soon the snow will stop, the boys will wake up, the begging and fighting will start again, we will have to get everyone dressed, hair fixed, pack up the car and head out in the cold to do Christmas with my family. But for right now, right this minute...I am blessed and filled with Christmas spirit. Thank you Jesus for this beautiful moment... Thank you Jesus for this beautiful life.

Christmas with the Self's

Holiday in the Park 2009

Sunday night we went to Six Flags with Mike, Nicole and Addyson. Mike's dad retired from there a few years ago but still gets tickets. Mike has invited us the last few years at Christmas and it is always so much fun! We took Hudson for the first time and he LOVED it. Such our little dare devil. He rode anything we put him on and was amazed by all the lights. Addyson and Nolan had a great time too. I love this tradition that we have started with the kids.

Women's Thank You Lunch

I hosted a little lunch at my house on Sunday as a thank you to all my family that have done so much for us this year. Without their love and support I do not know how we would make it. We are so blessed! They say it takes a village to raise a child - well this is our village....



These next two pictures crack me up because they were "silly shots" and I think everyone's faces were too cute.



I gave each person a little goody bag of my favorite things. Kinda like Oprah's favorite things but on a much smaller budget! Ha ha! I gave them each a set of reusable shopping bags from IKEA, my favorite reusable water bottle, a fleece scarf, a Dublin Dr. Pepper, a package of these Olive oil seasoning that we use on everything, a few other little things and a little tile with my favorite quote:

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles." ~Audrey Hepburn