Happy Ho-Ho-Holidays!

We had such an amazing Christmas this year!  It is usually hectic for us, but this year all of the festivities and dinners were spread out over the past week rather than just trying to cram everything into two days.


Not only was it a wonderful time with family, but Jackson's 1st Christmas was a WHITE ONE!!!  I was soo excited to wake up to snow on Christmas morning!!!  It was beautiful!

The snowy scene at my in-laws on Christmas morning

Grayson with Santa.... hmm... Santa looks really familiar...

Jackson also thinks Santa resembles somebody....but who??

Grayson was really excited about something in his stocking at Meme and E-Pa's

Jack enjoying his 1st Christmas!

My very festive husband got into the Christmas spirit this year!

Santa's little helpers

Merry Christmas to you and yours!!!

And then there were 3

3 dogs, that is!

Meet the newest addition to the Ragsdale Clan.

This is Jersey. She's a Great Pyrenees mix.  She just showed up at our house about a week ago. She is the sweetest thing! I posted fliers, called around and even went door knocking to see if anybody knew where her home was - and nobody knew anything.

So.. Merry Christmas to her, I guess, because she's sure found a great family!  :)  

Here she is all dolled up. (Hey, I'll never have a little girl that I'll get to paint her nails and put bows in her hair. This is my outlet.)

Gettin' in the Christmas Spirit

I love Christmastime!  I love all the decorations and the other sights and smells of the season. It just makes me happy! Every year I alway say I'm going to bake goodies and whatnot, and I never get to it. But this year, I'm going to! I have lots of recipes that I want to try!

This year, we headed up to Patti's to see the lights. It was a super cold night, but it made it feel very
Christmas-y.

Trying to get a family picture. The boys (specifically Grayson) would have none of it.

Driving the sleigh

Me and Chris

Cousins (minus Jack)

On one of our many trips to Wal-Mart, Santa Claus made an appearance! I was so surprised that he wasn't afraid of him!

Jackson with Santa. He was a bit squirmy (Jack, not Santa) so this is the best picture I got.

Happy Holidays!

Just some here and there

I'm a bad momma! I didn't get any pictures of my two doll-babies on Thanksgiving. Oops.  Things have been a little more crazy and hectic than normal this year.  My pepaw had major surgery on Nov. 19th and was expected to be home by Thanksgiving.  He had some complications and he is still currently in ICU.  So, we had one of our dinners in the waiting room at the hospital.

Thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law, she had the right mind to actually take some pictures at their dinner.

Here's Grayson sporting a hat that I honestly don't know where it came from.

Wearing Uncle B's fedora

Singing Happy Birthday to Grayson - even though it wasn't his birthday. He sees cake and thinks there should be candles in it.

Jack with Uncle B and Uncle Boo.

We're having our pictures made for our free Christmas Cards (thanks Shutterfly!) tomorrow, so I'm eager for that!

Grayson's 3rd Birthday!

Grayson turned the big 3 this year. This year we had the party at our house.  The theme was a farm theme. We had goats and a pig from my work, a hayride, and our neighbor saddled up one of his horses and brought over for the kids to ride!

We had a great, but exhausting day! Thanks to everyone who came out!

Grayson's favorite place is on a tractor!

Playing in his new sandbox from Meme and E-Pa

Riding the horse

The goats and the pig

On the hayride

He loved everyone singing him Happy Birthday!

Running around in his "3" shirt I made him

Some of the food. This is Grayson's Garden. We also had Pigs in a Blanket, Jezebel Sauce over cream cheese, warm spiced cider, and of course cake!

Jackson and Logan hanging out on some haybales. Jack is 8 days older than Logan.

Daddy and Jackson

Happy Halloween!

Since our only neighbors are my parents and there is nowhere within walking distance to trick or treat, we suited the boys up to make our rounds to the family.We went next door to see my mom and stepdad first.  

Grayson was not in a very good mood as he had not napped at all. We gave him a pixie stick to intentionally sugar him up! Jack could care less about what was going on.

Jackson the Ham Lion

What? A shark in a tree!?

We ended up trick or treating in my dad's neighborhood. This was taken at the house across the street from my dad. These people go all out for Halloween, even putting up a haunted house in the front yard. Grayson was none too fond of this guy on stilts.

Dad and Jack before the long night of trick-or-treating. I have never seen so many trick or treaters in my life. We handed out over 2500 pieces of candy! There was a constant stream of people for a good 2 hours! It was crazy!

Wurth Farms 2010

Fall Family Hayride 2010

Ma and Pa had their annual hayride and bonfire at their farm in Southern IL this past weekend. Unfortunately, Chris and I were unable to go - he had to work and I was running an Chili Cook-Off Fundraiser that I had organized at work.

I deemed it best that Jack stay with my dad, but Grayson got to go with Meme and E-Pa. It looks like he had such a fun time! And, yes, he has had his hair cut!

Playing in the straw

He loves his Uncle Boo. (I think Uncle Boo is a bit fond of him, too, although he wouldn't admit it!)

I think this is hilarious. He had doritos and a container of cherry tomatoes for dinner.

Off to school!

Grayson attends a Mother's Day Out Early Learning program on Thursdays.  It was a real challenge to get him to go for a while. Every week I would struggle with dropping him off and him crying. I stuck with it, and I'm so glad I did.

He absolutely loves going to school now!  He's excited, he's smiling, he is an eager beaver to go. 

Here is he this morning with his backpack and lunchbox all ready for school!

Playing in the leaves

Grayson and I spent some of the afternoon playing in a big pile of leaves.

I love this time of year.

King of the Leaves!

Leaf fight!

In Jack news, the past two weeks have been crazy for him.He is crawling, pulling himself up on everything, is getting TWO teeth, and has started saying "mama." Whew!