The best Christmas ever.

We had a wonderful and magical Christmas this year. It was one of those Christmases that i have waited my whole life to have and it did not disappoint.

I am sure that you can figure out just who the star was?

Gage was a pro at opening presents. He loved the paper and bows, but he was just as excited to see what was inside of them. I was surprised. 

We had a great time on Christmas Eve at my Grandma's house. Gage loved all the kids and all the attention. He was having so much fun that there was not a chance of him sleeping. I think we finally got him to bed around eleven-thirty. He was so excited to be at grandma's house. 

We stayed up way too late on Christmas Eve. Gage was exhausted when he woke up Christmas morning. He about fell asleep on our bed before we even got to the exciting part.
(which is so not typical of him. he is the busiest baby ever)

We finally went over to my parents to open presents. But first we had to try on Grandpa's glasses.

While we were opening presents, Gage was so tired he could barely stand it.

We finally had to take a break and let him have a nap.

He was much happier when he woke up.

He received so many cute toys and a lot of cute new clothes. Santa brought him a Little People Farm. :) He has definitely been enjoying all the new toys! And I love all the new clothes. :)

We even watch a little football. Gage loves watching football at Grandpa's house.

Grandma Dotson definitely knows Gage. This t-shirt describes him perfectly. He loves to growl.

We had the best Christmas ever and we received the best gift of all.
I will always be grateful to my Father in Heaven and to Korin for Gage's first Christmas.
It was definitely a dream come true.
And the best Christmas gift ever.

nine

NINE months ago today, our bouncy, happy, busy Gage was born.

I can not imagine life without him.

Today we think of his beautiful Korin. You have made this Christmas Day full of joy. More joy than we thought our hearts would ever feel. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your life.

You will always be part of us.

We love you with all of our hearts.

Merry Christmas Korin. 

reminders

Now that it looks like this outside

It can officially be Christmas, right?
(of course there is a whole heck of a lot more snow than that out there today)

So I decided to show you my Christmas decor. :)

This is something that my grandparents made for me. My grandma did the picture and grandpa Dotson made the frame. I am so glad we have little things like this around our house to remind us of them.

The plate is a neighbor gift from the best neighbor ever. ;)

The bear and snow globe is a gift that Korin gave Gage. She had the snow globe engraved for him. I love it. I love seeing reminders of her around our house too.

(I promise I do dust occasionally)

This is our nativity. Dustyn's mom gave it to us a few Christmases ago. I love that it's something that Gage can handle when he gets older. I love that I think of Dustyn's mom when I see it.

This is my favorite Santa night light. I love it. Again, from the best neighbor ever.

Our stockings. My aunt made them for us when we were married. I hope to make Gage a stocking someday. If not, I like his too!

Remember when I won this from TAMN? :)

Gage's ornament this year. We gave Korin a matching one. It is engraved, even though you can't tell. (I can't figure out Dustyn's camera. Too complicated for me!)

Our Christmas Card station. :)

My favorite non-sentimental decorations. :)

Our fake tree.

I hope the Christmas Spirit is finding you!

hey you farns/dotson peoples

do you wanna see more of these?
or more of santa?
The whole 40th Anniversary shebang is now at thedotsonclan.shutterfly.com
if you need the password you can contact Amy. (or you can email me)

I've never received Christmas gifts like this before...

I kind of think that we aren't the only ones who can't wait for G-baby's arrival.

Merry Christmas!

We hope your Christmas was full of fun and family!

(We were on our way to Vegas. More about that later)
We had a great one for sure!

Have a great New Year!

Gingerbread House, anyone?

This was our attempt at a good 'ole fashion homemade gingerbread house. Sadly I can't show you the wicked awesome windows on the sides or even the back because sadly, this is our only lasting photo. Shortly after this photo was taken, Dustyn was holding it over the sink to sprinkle crushed candy canes on top (i may or may not have had a cow when he started sprinkling them all over the table. (i.e. FLOOR). As he was sprinkling, it crashed and fell in a bowl of water. Suddenly it became a soggy gingerbread house. Really though, it was pretty sweet. We may try to attempt one next week, we'll see.

A post of randomness.

I finally got all the Christmas decor taken down and cleaned up! I am so excited, because it seems like most years I put it off until after the new year. This year I can focus more on partying in the New Year and not having to worry about getting the cleaning done before Monday. Nice. Very nice!

These cool people are coming to our house for New Years! I am so excited. I hope they don't get too bored with our po-dunk town. lol Either way, we can party hard, play lots of games and eat lots of food!

The one part that I do not like about winter - dry skin. Ouch. I have so many cracks on my hands and I am horrible about applying lotion consistently. It is a habit that I need to develop. Is there such thing as waterproof lotion? I wash my hands far too much during the day.

Speaking of ouch, and hands... yesterday when I was packaging up some lights in a cardboard box, I got a BAD cardboard cut on my palm. Ouch! Gotta love those, aye Michelle? Takes you right back to the good 'ole days at Smead. Ugh.

My legs ache today. You know, like "growing" pains ache, but times ten. Ouch. I hope it passes soon. Guess I was on my feet a little too long yesterday.

So one time I read in a blog post that you are only suppose to put one space after a period now-a-days. (And she's smart. And a better reporter than I would ever be.) I really, really, really try hard to do it, but I seriously cannot change the habit that I developed all those many years ago. How do you fix a habit like that? Seriously.

I am tending today and MyMy is still sleeping. Silly girl! It's almost 9:00, that is unusual. Mal, on the other hand, has some serious bed head. lol (She woke up right after I typed that.)

By the way, this is going to end up being an all day entry.

I think I left my phone home. Dang. I hate that. What ever did we do before cell phones and internet?

I keep neglecting to mention our Christmas Eve. I was great! We went to Dustyn's sister's house and had dinner and games. Fun times, fun times. Of course we had Steak and Crab because that is the tradition. (thanks guys, it rocked)  Then we played a few games. They were even good sports and played Quelf with us. If you have never played it, it is a super crazy game. Crazy, I tell you. But there was definitely good food and good times.  (Thanks again guys!)

Oh yeah, I took ZERO pictures during the Christmas Holiday. What is up with that. I have one small video of Dustyn opening his present and that is all. At least I have that! Oh yeah, and pictures of the race track. :)

Dustyn is so funny with his race track. I walk in the room and there he sits staring at his tracks. (during the 15 minute rest time) He comes up with a new configuration tries it out, makes adjustments, tries something new, and over and over again.  It makes me laugh. He's cute. Here is one of the tracks he came up with last night.

I have a lot to clean up. So many new toys! But for sure a disaster. Guess I should get busy. I guess that is all for now. Have a great Tuesday people!

Christmas fun!

We had a great Christmas this year.  It was pretty low key, but great.  We spent the day hanging out, playing games, and watching movies.  What a fabulous day!

We were spoiled yet again.

Of course you all know what Santa brought Dustyn...

I think he is really enjoying it.  And he really loved that I posted the video.  I'm sorry Dust, but is just so funny and perfect!  I love it!

He had only set up the small track.  Here is a blurry diagram showing the small and large track.  Plus, of course you can make up your own.

Santa brought me...

I love it!  I use to have to turn on the radio in the living room and BLAST it in order to hear it in the kitchen... the whole house vibrated.  Now, I don't have to let the whole town listen to my music while I am cooking!  Love it!  Thanks Santa!  ;)

Dustyn brought me all sorts of things...

(the last time he bought me this perfume, I left it in a hotel, brand new.)
I am spoiled.

My parents gave us some money to spend at Costco again this year.  Such a nice gift that lasts all year.  I love it.  They also gave me this scarf, headband and gloves set.  Very cute.

Dustyn's Mom and Clyff gave us these...

A yummy cookbook that I am so excited to use!  I LOVE cooking and I LOVE new cookbooks!  And a pizza stone?  So cool!!  I can't wait to make pizza!

This is a drawing that Dustyn's dad did of Dustyn's grandfather.  They gave a framed copy to each of the kids.  We love it!

My grandparents on my dad's side gave us these...

I love them!!  Grandma's towels are the best!  We have yet to buy a towel since we have been married.  So nice!  I am so excited to use these.

My grandparents on my mom's side gave us these...

Who doesn't need a pair of leather gloves?  They come in so handy and Dustyn loves getting new gloves.  And I am so excited for my new table cloth.  That is one thing that I am lacking in.  Tablecloths.  So that was perfect!

Dustyn's brother got us these...

So fun!  And when we master the targets...

An jungle safari. :) Nice!

My brother, Chet had us this year.  He gave me this...

awesome purse.  I love it.  He has one of his friend's mom make it.  It is so nice!  I absolutely love it!  And it's my favorite color!  :)

Even the inside is cool!

Chet got Dustyn some DVD's.

My sister JaKell get us a present every year even though she doesn't have us.  She is too nice!  Here is what she got us...

And some plate holders and a banana bread mix that I forgot to take photos of.
*edit* Here is the plate holder/picture holders.  Now I just need to figure out what I want to put on them!  :)

My aunt, who I babysit for, gave me a sentsy wall plug with some YUMMY smelling sentsy wax. (snowberry).  I LOVE it!  I was so excited.  It is my first sentsy product.  :)

We also received so many awesome and yummy neighbor gifts.  We seriously live in the best neighborhood ever.  I love it.

So you can see we had a great Christmas and were so blessed to be around so much family!

Thank you so much for being the best friends and family ever!  Love you all!