Christmas Tree Hunt

One of my favorite parts of Christmas, is hunting for our perfect tree and this year did not disappoint!

We always go to Jack Lake Road out past Sisters and we find the best trees!

The boys had a blast traipsing being carried through the woods.  It was cold & windy so we tried to speed the process up as much as possible.  Luckily we didn't have to walk to far and we had lots of help chopping our tree down.  Cade could not wait to get his hands on the saw & he did a great job! (supervised of course)

Not only did we get a tree, we also got some Christmas card worthy pictures.  I was starting to think that cards weren't going to happen for us this year.  The thought of getting everyone dressed, situated and smiling for a photo was just daunting to me.  But I lucked out and the good ol' self timer pulled through for a family shot & the boys hammed it up for some brother love picts.  

While I can't disclose the pictures for the card, I do have some fun ones that weren't quite right 

for the card but are still absolutely adorable! 

Blake couldn't figure out why we were walking in the woods & still can't figure out why we have a tree in our living room!!

What more could a girl ask for?

Such a tired boy

Our lovely tree

Takes lots of concentration ie. tong hanging out

Over Social media

I am so over social media! 

I feel like it is taking over my life.  My conversations with people can't not include something we saw on Facebook or what so and so twittered or Instagramed.  To me it feels like a fashion show or a big brag session and my life doesn't need that right now.  What my life needs is less pressure, more real close friends and simplicity, and I am not getting that from any of the social media out there.

    

 For several months now I have wavered back and forth about doing away with my Facebook account and I think I am closer now than ever.  I have been holding on to it because it is the only way I stay connected with a lot of friends.  So I came to a resolution, in the past several weeks I have been weeding through my peeps.  I have removed several people that I don't need and some of those people that it is nice to see whats going on every once in a while, but I don't need them clogging up my news feed; I have hidden them.  It's nothing personal against anyone I just need to do it for my own well being.  If it's in my feed I usually read it and I don't want my days consumed like that.  

All of this then brings me to this hear blog.  My goal for my blog in the next year is to be more of a "status update" or a journal of whats going on with the Mackesons and I still plan to update the Mackeson Moment FB page when a new post goes up.

So you will be seeing less of me on Facebook & more of me on here!

Feeling more simplistic already,

Trick or Treat

 Despite the rain we had an awesome time trick or treating last night.   

It was such a blast for the boys to trick or treat with their cousins!  

We met up with some friends and started the evening off with some trick or treating at Tylers office.  We then moved on to Scotts office where the guys had set up a fun little scavenger hunt for the kids.  Then we braved the Old Mill and only lasted about 20 min.  When you have a pirate who refused to wear a coat and a parrot who wanted to eat every piece of candy he got and threw a fit when he couldn't ... trick or treating time got cut short.  So we took a break and headed over to our good friends the Beairds house for some tasty food and fun. 

 Once our tummies were full we headed out again to trick or treat the neighborhood.  

This time was much more successful.  We brought a coat for the pirate and tried as best we could to hide the parrots candy :)  

Blake had a blast for his first real time trick or treating.  He literally had the time of his little 18 month life.  Running, flapping his wings, jumping and going crazy in the dark as we went from 1 house to another.  One house we trick or treated at liked him so much they thought he needed 2 full sized candy bars!!  He loved the candy and actually learned and said the word for the first time "canny"  fitting for the occasion I suppose.  

Enjoy a few pictures of our cutie pies 

  

Pirate Cade

Pirate Cades little parrot flapping his wings

Our crew of cousins

Trick or treat!

B's little tale feathers 

This morning Cade gave me a little message "mom you have to ask me if you want a piece of my candy!  If you take it without asking me that's stealing!"  Ok Cade I will make sure to ask..... bbuahhhhh, right!

New Years Resolution

Wow it's not even December yet and I already have my new years resolution in mind. 

I'm usually not one to make them, or if I do it's something simple I know I can keep.  

This one is a MUST!  

To slow down!!

to stop and enjoy my life, to not have weekend after weekend booked with plans, to relax!

I know with the Holiday season coming up things always get super busy and we always blame it on the Holidays... but this is how I feel like our entire life is.  One weekend after another of plans.  Don't get me wrong, we are SO blessed to have such amazing friends and family to spend time with.  But I feel like I am always anticipating the next event or the next thing on our agenda that I forget and loose sight of the day to day things.  Like playing on the floor with the boys in our PJ's, reading books, going for walks, doing NOTHING!!  

So my goal for next year and the rest of this year, as busy as it is, is to chill out, slow down and enjoy the here and now!  

Party Like a Rock Star

Someone I know turned 4 on Monday, or was it Sunday?  or Tuesday?  

With all of the parties it was hard to keep track of what day was his actual day of birth.  

September 10, 2009!  How could I ever forget that day & the previous night?  It was hell at the time but looking back it was one of my favorite moments.  A pure miracle!  

Now 4 years later its hard to imagine him at 7lbs 3oz!  We had a great time celebrating him.  We had a family party at my parents over the weekend, then Monday (his actual bday) he picked where we went for dinner and did presents as our family of 4.  Then on Tues was his big friends party at our house.  

Needless to say he had a lot of fun and was feeling super special and grown up.

Having cake at grandpa & grammie's house.  Check out the spit that came with blowing out the candles!!  

Opening presents at home.  Dad got him this special balloon to take to dinner with us.

A BEAVER JERSEY!!  He is in heaven

He picked a bike party for when his friends came over.  We had stuff for all the kids to decorated there bikes &; then we did a parade down the street

Cade's birthday invitations

Now he is already talking about what he wants for the 5 year old party, asking me what he will wear when he is 5 and telling Blake is he SO much bigger than him now!  

It's so cute how important age is when your a kid!! 

Love you Cade!!

Trip of A Lifetime Part 6

Day 7:  Cannes


On Thursday of our trip we found ourselves in Cannes.  The Beverly Hills of France!  Unbelievable cars, high end shopping, celebrities & home of the Cannes Film Festival.

At this stop there wasn't an actual port for the boat to dock at.  Instead they set anchor out in the ocean and we got to take the life boats in to the little docks.  We had an excursion booked for this day, however we were SO tired and really just wanted to relax on the beach.  So we had a relaxing morning and just took our time getting off the boat.

Once we made it to land we hopped on a bus to a locals beach where we just laid in the sun, swam in the ocean and had a great time relaxing and pretending to be a local :)  After we got got tired of the sun we grabbed some gelato and walked around.

The yachts of the rich

 Life boats

 Our ship from the life boat

 Awesome cars like this everywhere!

Locals beach (don't look to long you may see some topless old ladies)

Fun in the sun

Day 8:

Our final stop was in Marseille.  The stop here was very short as we had to be back on the ship by 3pm to set sail back to Barcelona.  Tyler and I opped to stay on the boat this day.  I don't have any fun pictures :(  we just laid out, went to the spa and took a nap.  It's a vacation right your supposed to do that!

The travel back home was brutal!  With an early morning flight, delays and a 9 hour time difference we  were traveling for a total of 24 hours by the time we made it to my parents house!  So tired but so worth it.

It definitely was a trip of a lifetime and we are so thankful to have gone and seen/experiences the things we did.  It was such a blessing to have my sister as well as my parents to watch our boys.  They did so good while we were gone.  We called every morning & they were usually too busy having fun playing to talk to us!  That made it much easier to be away from them.

I hope you enjoyed the re cap of our trip!!

Spain airport treat (Mc Donals icecream cones come with a kit kat!)

And they have beer!

Can't believe ...

That in a week...

I will have dropped my boys off in Dallas and won't see them for 8 days!

My sister agreed to watch them for SO long

I will have flown across the ocean SCARY! 

Be having breakfast in Barcelona Spain!!

Boarding the Norwegian Epic and cruising the Mediterranean for 5 days

Stopping in Barcelona, Naples, Rome, Florence, Cannes and Provence

Spending a week with my hubby

SO nervous but SO excited!! 

Campout with Grandpa Don

My dad is so amazing with his 4 grandboys.  They all just adore him and it's easy to see why.  He  reads, wrestles, plays jail, gives pony rides, cuddles... pretty much anything those boys want to do he will do it.  Last year he did a campout in the back yard with them and they had a blast!  So this summer he had to keep it going.  

It all started out great.  They helped set up the tent, got the sleeping bags spread out and made a fire to roast marshmallows.  Everyone was settled in and grandpa told some stories before bed.... and thats about as far as it got.  After story time the boys decided they didn't want to sleep in the tent and they all piled inside.  Grandpa is such a great sport, he didn't care how much work it took or that he busted his foot really bad on a stake getting the tent set up, he just packed everyone up and brought them inside. 

Even thought they didn't last it was still a great time and the boys had a blast! 

Sun River Fun

This last week we packed up and took the long drive to Sun River, haha long.. ya right.  Try 15 minutes!  AMAZING!

We met my sister and her family for 4 days of sun, laughs, water, bikes, laughs, good food and did I say laughs?  We had a fantastic time and the boys were in cousin heaven!  I mean what little boy wouldn't be in heaven here?!  

Some highlights of our trip were defiantly the bike rides and the SHARC.  We rented 2 bikes with trailers so we could all cruise around together.  The boys loved riding to visit the horses riding to the pool and to pizza.  The SHARC is Sun Rivers new aquatic center.  Water slides, lazy river, activity pool, giant sand area and kiddy pool.  3 days spent outside makes for some tan little men! 

Sun River may be a new annual must do.

What to do when my 3.5 yr old is at Grandmas

Dinner out with my hubby & Blake

Curling my hair

Painting my nails

Catching up on gossip mags & watching some tv

Overhauling Cade's room

And lots of play time..

 Stories & snuggles with this man.

Enjoying our time but missing Caders!