It's the Holiday Season!

Christmastime is all that more spectacular when you see it through the eyes of a small child.  Paxton is all about Christmas, Santa, reindeer, lights, carols and so clearly he is my child.  We are in full holiday cheer mode over here and I just love to see his joy and excitement.  Every day we go around and turn on the multitude of Christmas lights and it's always "wow!" "pretty!" and "tree!".  It's the best.  Really. 

Christmas Card photos attempt #2

Being a photographer is hard.  How do they get the kids to smile??  This time started with a lot of screaming, but ended up with me rolling around in the sand with Pax, doing some beach yoga, and we both ended up having a lot of fun.  But did we get the perfect Christmas card quality photo?? No.

Christmas Photos attempt #1

So I have this grand plan of taking my toddler down to the beautiful beach and capturing the perfect photo for our Christmas card this year....

 And this is exactly how it goes...

 Perfect sunset, beautiful waves, white sand, cute little Christmas sweater... and screaming.

" It's ok Pax.  We'll try again later.  I still love you!" He's like "eww mom get off."

Photo fail #1.  Stay tuned for the 2nd and 3rd editions.  But really... how pretty is this beach!?  So lucky to get to live so close and get to come here whenever we want!

Thankful Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful, happy Thanksgiving!  This might have been the first year ever when we just celebrated ourselves without any friends or family.  It was a little sad, but also kind of nice to just do our own thing, be on our own schedule and just stay in comfy clothes all day.  Paxton turned 17 months on Thanksgiving Day and so we had an extra special gift to be thankful for, our happy, healthy, vibrant little boy. 

I  make an apple pie every year, so it was extra special that Paxton wanted to be apart of this years tradition.  He climbed right up onto the kitchen stool to watch me and it filled my heart with so much joy that he wanted to be apart of it all. 

When the pie came out of the oven Paxton was still napping, so we went ahead and had dessert before our dinner which is something I totally loved because I could totally just eat the pie and forget about all the rest.  Sweet tooth forever.  I made a chicken, roasted green beans, a sweet potato and cranberry casserole, crescent rolls (because they are Brad's favorite), broke out the fancy china and we totally enjoyed our little feast.  And we totally had another piece of pie after dinner too!  It was the day of over indulgence after all.  I hope your day was relaxing, peaceful and that you were surrounded by the people you love.  Happy Thanksgiving from the bottom of my grateful heart. 

My horse is my therapist

I think I saw the "my horse is my therapist" saying somewhere on a tee shirt or somewhere, but really it's so true.  Escaping to the barn for a couple hours is crucial. Horses are good for my soul and for my healthy mental well being.  I most often am able to go out Sunday mornings and I joke to myself that I go to The Church of the Sunday Ride.  Spending time with this lovely creature brings me closer to God, to peace, to finding resolutions to my problems, to finding joy, to seeking quiet in my mind than anything else.  I am so thankful for this sweet gentle giant and all our time together!!