Happy 2nd Birthday Olivia and Polar Express Night

Today is my sweet baby girl's 2nd Birthday! She was born at 5:53 pm 2 years ago and boy has the time flown bye. Tonight we went out to dinner for her birthday. We had such a wonderful time. All the grandma's showed up to celebrate her birthday. Odiss, Olivia, and me. Mimi and Olivia

Olivia opening a sweet present from Mimi.

G-Pa and Olivia outside.

Tonight at Chick-fil-a was the Polar Express night and everyone had so much fun.

Kynnedi, Savannah, and Micah on the train.

Mommy and all her girls.

Savannah

Christmas Decorations at the Ward Home Part 2

"For He is good and worthy of all our praise!" I'm trying so hard to teach the girls the reason we celebrate Christmas. My heart is for them to know our Savior was born and loves us so much. I also want them to know it's far better to give then to receive. I truly hope you enjoyed seeing our decorations. It's not much, but something I really had fun doing. I feel so blessed to have a home to decorate and a family to do it with. This is our Christmas tree. I added a couple of new things this year. The girls and Tim did an amazing job.I added extra ribbon, a new angel, and some fun things as a topper. I think it's fun to add new things each year. In five years it's going to way cool!! ha ha

We started a tradition last year, making a gingerbread house. The girls love it so much and it's something fun Tim and them do together. It takes about an hour and it's a wonderful Daddy/Daughter tradition. They laugh and eat the whole time.

Some special stockings in our sitting room. Our second year married, we had no money to spend on any extra things. My husband was so sweet, these stockings were something I had seen in a special store, but were way to much. The day after Christmas he took me there just to get these half off. We truly didn't have the money for them, but he really wanted to bless me with them. It makes me cry just thinking about how thoughtful he was.....I'll always have these stockings.

I love reading other blogs and on Kelly's Korner she was showing her Christmas stuff. She had taken some everyday Christmas balls and tied them to her tree with fun ribbon. Well, I just had to try and I'm so excited with how it turned out. This is for our Christmas tree in the TV room.

Our Christmas tree in our TV room.

A snow village. Well, really not a village. ha ha Just a church and a bakery! I love these and hope one day to have tons more.

Christmas Decorations at the Ward Home Part 1

Merry Christmas everyone!! I just love this time of year. The girls have made this season so much fun for me. I know it's not about me, but I truly have had an amazing month. I wanted to share with everyone some of our decorations and traditions we have in our home. This frame was a birthday gift from my sister and I just love it. I was walking around my home taking pictures and saw this and thought,"This is way to cute not to post!"

Our Kitchen Christmas tree. I had this tree when I was in college and remember putting it up all by myself just waiting for a family to share it with. Five short years later...a huge family. ha This year the girls helped me with all the decorations and of course they had an input on everything. ha ha
Our gingerbread night light. I have her in the kitchen glowing bright day and night. My sweet grandmother gave this to me as a gift this year. I love it!

This is our mantle in the TV room. I've never had a mantle to decorate so this was so much fun to get to put together. I love all the reds and golds.

Here's a closer look at some things on the mantle.

Our kitchen table set with our holiday dishes and nutcracker men.

Of course, what is a holiday without Southern Living!! ha I also love this red plate! I found it at Marshall's for 2.39! What a wonderful find for something so fun.

A Craft for Today

I found a craft from another blog I wanted to try. I really was pleased with how it turned out. I just got three picture frames and added some glitter. Then I got the letters and sprayed painted them and then of course added some more glitter. I put scrapbook paper behind the letters and then added a cute bow. I was going put this on my mantle, but the Lord had other plans for it. I wanted to take something to Tim's aunt for letting us stay in her home for Thanksgiving. I really was asking the Lord what she needed and I really felt like I was suppose give her this project. When she opened it she was so excited because it was Christmas stuff and she had promised her children she wouldn't spend any money on decorations this year. She was wanting something new to decorate with and now she has these. I thought it was so wonderful how the Lord knew the desires of her heart and answered them. It really encouraged me. Hope everyone is having a great day. We've loved the snow this morning. Sad it didn't stick, but it was so beautiful to watch.

Christmas Card Pictures

While we were in College Station for Thanksgiving, we made our way to the George Bush Library. It was beautiful and had so many great spots to take pictures. I can't decided between the two pictures of our family for our Christmas card, but I'll probably go with the one Olivia's smiling in.

Ms. Savannah posing for her picture. I can't believe she's getting to be so big!

Ms. Kynnedi in her picture. I think they turned out wonderful.

Tim's oldest brother Paul and his family.

Tim's whole family. His mom and her sister married brothers so Tim has double cousins. They all are so close to one another.

Tim's Family

Tim's brother Dwight and his family.

Tim's youngest brother Stephen and his family.

We hadn't gotten pictures taken of just us since our wedding day. I loved how these turned out.

Kynnedi and her sweet Grandma.

I wanted to get a picture of me and my girls, but by this time of day. They were done!

I thought this picture was really cool with the plant behind Kynnedi.

Olivia had so much fun running around and exploring.

A Day Trip to Granbury

We decided to take a one day trip down to Granbury to visit my grandparents and my great grandparents. My mom was so sweet to drive us all down and back. Here's Kynnedi with her great grandfather. They have such a sweet relationship. We're so blessed to have family who's still really healthy and in great spirits.
My grandfather, my mom, and Kynnedi working on a holiday puzzle. I remember going to my grandparents home when I was little and working on the same puzzle. It was such a sweet memory. I'm really glad my girls are getting to share the same memories with the same people.

This is my sweet great grandmother, Ma-Maw. She's 92nd and such a dear. My grandparents are now taking care of her full time and are doing such a wonderful job. My great grandmother was wanting to help with lunch and she was making a salad. I can remember her in her kitchen making us such delicious meals. Now it's to hard for her to stand for a long time. She just broke her hip this summer. I LOVE my time with her. I love hearing her stories and encouraging words. It's like a history book right in front of me.

The girls loved their surprise from my grandmother when they got there.

Ms. Olivia on her rocking horse. I loved this smile and her expression. Ride 'em cowgirl!!

Thanksgiving Round One and a 75th Birthday Party

This was our first Thanksgiving in our new home. We were blessed to host my side of the family for dinner the weekend before Thanksgiving. It was so much fun getting everything ready and then getting to serve everyone. The Lord has blessed me beyond measure with such a gracious and wonderful family. We ended up putting two tables together so that we could have enough room for everyone. I loved it that we all ate together instead of spread out in different rooms. The sweet kids table. My cousin, Leslie, Savannah, Olivia, and Kynnedi.
The whole bunch we had for Thanksgiving 2009. We greatly missed my cousin Matt, who passed away last December. He was only 21 years old and had brain cancer. He's now home with our Lord and someday we're all be together again.

Savannah took this picture of Kynnedi and I thought it turned out so cute. Kynnedi was showing off her ring. I thought it was to funny.

Kynnedi took this picture of Savannah. This is such a great picture of her. Here is her normal smile, we all love and adore.

We also celebrated my grandmother's 75th Birthday that afternoon. We had a wonderful party for her to celebrate such a special day. I loved hosting everyone! Here's part of the table we put together for her party. The flowers turned out better then I could imagine. We put up old pictures around the house and decorated with all fall colors: golds, oranges, reds, and browns.

The beautiful birthday cake, my sweet sister Haley got for her party. WE loved it! She was able to get it at Cretia's in Duncanville. We're a huge fan of all their cakes. So yummy!

My sister, Haley, and Kynnedi during the birthday party. Haley was wonderful. She came over all weekend and helped me with whatever I needed done at that time. She was such a servant that she even helped clean my bathrooms with Kynnedi and Savannah. Thank you for all your help and encouragement. I love you Haley!!

My sweet grandparents. My grandmother who's birthday party it was didn't want to stand up by herself. I love my grandparents very much and I'm so blessed to have them in my family's life.

My wonderful husband, who didn't fuss once about us hosting all these events. He was a huge help and support. I love this picture of him. He's so handsome. I love you sweetheart!!

Last, but not least....the girls. They have such a great time together. I'm sorry for not having a lot of pictures of Ms. Olivia, but she was napping for most of the afternoon. This was just the beginning of our wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. There's so much more to come. Hope everyone had a blessed and encouraging Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be thankful for!!