It's the most wonderful time of the year!

As the holidays come to an end, I must say we had many wonderful "end of the year" celebrations with family and friends!

We carved pumpkins at Luke Totte's house for Halloween, and we also had our annual cookout at our house with family and friends. So fun to gather before trick-or-treating to see everyone! 

Allie Kate and I painted FROZEN pumpkins and had a little FROZEN dessert bar at the cookout :)

Allie Kate looked through the Chasing Fireflies magazine and found their Elsa dress. So, like most little girls in America, Allie Kate was Elsa. I will say, it was a beautiful dress and she loved it! Since AK was Elsa, that left only one choice for little sister...ANNA! We even took a trip down to Gordon Photography and had pictures taken with her "unicorn." Allie Kate loved it (even though she was pretty sure it was just a horse) and Clayre was terrified. We made up for it with pictures at home of them together :)

For Thanksgiving, we traveled to Missouri (right outside of Ozark) to celebrate with my mother's side of the family. It is BEAUTIFUL there!

Our church, NewHaven, recently purchased land to build on in the near future. In November, we did a big push to completely pay off our land. To no surprise, we did just that!!! I love that we are part of a church that is so giving and kind. Christ shines so brightly through NewHaven. I am excited to see what our future holds!

For my birthday, I mentioned doing a "paint party" with a few friends. Next thing I knew Taylor had a room reserved at Pinot's Palette in Bricktown! It was so cute and fun. So many of my dear friends came! Afterwards, we walked over to Chelino's and there I found my sweet husband and girls along with MANY friends and family!!! Clay was so sweet to think of me and include everyone to celebrate with us. It was quite the team effort...my sister and mom helped Clay plan and Doug and Kay helped with the girls. Allie Kate went home with TayTay and NaeNae and Doug and Gammaw took Clayre back home...Clay and I stayed in Bricktown for the night!

Taa-daa!!! So many masterpieces! :)

Our baby Clayre was 18 months December 14! I feel like she is such a "baby" still, but she is growing so quickly. She absolutely loves her daddy and usually prefers to sleep by him all night :) She is very interested in the potty, but we are no where near potty trained. I'm looking forward to "no more diapers"...but I have promised the girls a new puppy when that day comes (so secretly I am in NO RUSH). She loves cheese, fruit and chocolate (shhhh....don't tell her Daddy that Mommy lets her have a piece or two during the day). I took the chocolate picture after she ate only HALF of ONE Hershey kiss from her advent calendar! I think it's safe to say not much chocolate made it into her mouth!!!

Our Santa baby :) If only she would have been awake...there would be no cookie :)

Allie Kate has asked for a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party for about 10 months. We have been to a few birthday parties there and the "ticket blaster" just looked like too much fun for her to pass up. Chuck E. Cheese has a "rock star" theme for their parties, so I asked Allie Kate if she wanted to use it as her theme. She said that was fine as long as she could have a huge chocolate (Grandma Ann) cake with princesses on it, so that became the theme... "ROCK STAR PRINCESS." On our way to take these pictures AK looked down at Clayre and says, "Come on Clayre! Let's go rock out for momma!"

We LOVE Bianca Hannah Face Painting. We discovered her through a ballet friend. When we have time, we try and make it to Atlanta Bread to see her :) She is so talented and great with the kids. She did a great job as usual! 

NaeNae also invited us over to celebrate at her house on Allie Kate's actual birthday. To no surprise, my mom went all out and we "let go" of the 4's FROZEN style.

Before I knew it, I was mailing out Christmas cards and running around like crazy trying to finish my Christmas shopping. I never mind it though... I love Christmas time! Such a fun time to spend with those you love and celebrate the greatest GIFT given to us...JESUS!!! This was probably Allie Kate's favorite Christmas so far. She is understanding WHY we celebrate but also young enough to engulf herself in all the "Christmas magic" with Santa and Elf on the Shelf. She did not have a super long Christmas list, but she did ask for a nativity set. 

"Can you get me one of those manger sets? That's why we celebrate! It's Jesus' birthday! Santa just brings us gifts to help us celebrate for fun!" -Allie Kate (age 4) 

Christmas Card 2014

Once I started getting cards in the mail, I realized how many of my pictures were on others cards! It was so fun to see! XOXO

Allie Kate was an angel in her school play. She told me "Did you know I'm an angel in my program?! I'm going to flutter my wings for baby Jesus!" And that's exactly what she did! She sang and did all the motions. She did great! Our prayer is that she ALWAYS flutters her wings for HIM! 

Our children's ministry at NewHaven church decided to host "Cookies With Santa." We iced cookies, face painted, made ornaments and Santa came to visit. It went great and we are looking forward to many more in the future. Our NewKids also put together "blessing bags" for those in need this Christmas. We collected items from our church and filled gallon baggies full of things brought. It was fun to see the kids working together to give to others! We sure hope those bags touched someone in need this Christmas season!

We celebrated Christmas a little early with Papa Phil...Clayre had these glasses on the majority of the evening :)

My favorite Christmas picture :) I told the girls to "look for Santa" and then photoshopped in the moon. When Allie Kate saw it she LOVED it! My mom and I have decided we each need a large canvas of this picture :)

We went to my parent's house for Christmas Eve and Santa came to visit! 

Santa came! Watch out Wyatt Acres...Elsa and Anna are on the loose!

Christmas morning breakfast and gifts at Uncle Todd's and Aunt Liz's house 

and Christmas day we went to Gammaw's! 

Christmas dinner was at JJ and Buddy's house. We thought it would be fun to read "Santa's Favorite Story" (where Santa tells the real meaning of Christmas and Jesus' birth in Bethlehem). We also found "happy birthday Jesus" plates! Each little one had a cupcake and a candle and we sang "Happy Birthday Jesus!" So fun! 

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones! 

Wishing everyone a blessed 2015!

XOXO,

The Andersons

So long Summer!

Our crazy busy summer has finally come to an end. We did so many fun things...Allie Kate had mentioned lots of things she wanted to do and if Clayre could talk, I can't imagine what else we would have added to our "summer to-do list". We enjoyed our time away from our school schedule, but we are all looking forward to school starting in a few days!

Memorial weekend, Allie Kate went with her Nae Nae and Pop Pop to a family reunion in Missouri (This is where Grandma Ann and Papaw are from). Allie Kate got to see the old farm where Papaw's parents lived and tends to cattle. I can remember LOTS of Christmas Eve's in this old farm house. My great granny made the BEST mashed potatoes and apple pies. 

Early June, my sister and I took IKE middle school and high school to NCA cheer camp. Allie Kate could not understand why she was not in the routine or pictured in the paper with the "ikings"... I have no idea why she would think that :)

Allie Kate was the flower girl in a good family friends wedding. She thought this was AWESOME. She was mesmerized by the bride and danced the night away at the reception. She told me afterwards, 

"I just really really like weddings mom." -Allie Kate (age 4)

...I think daddy is in trouble!

We SAIL-ebrated Clayre's 1st birthday at Nae Nae and Pop Pop's house! What a precious joy she has been for us. She is the sweetest, most cuddly little thing and is ALWAYS smiling. Big sister, being held, ice cream, Duece Dog, and her grandparents are just a few of her favorite things.

The day after Clayre's party we went to Florida. We stayed at the Trachte's cottage in Rosemary. The town is pretty much PERFECT. It was a great week away with family, and Clay and I celebrated our 8th anniversary there!

We went to Great Wolf Lodge with Cooper and Emmy!

Both Allie Kate and Clayre went Tuesdays and Thursdays to play at Christa Bear's house...We LOVE Christa. She is wonderful to my girls and they are always so excited to go stay with her. This was a huge treat for AK. We usually are just dropping and picking up Clayre and she is always wanting to "stay and play."  Christa also invited the girls to Vacation Bible School. I don't have a picture to share, but Allie Kate was excited to go each day. Such a blessing! 

In July, Allie Kate went to Ms. Sherri's dance camp. She had a great time and loved dancing for all of us the last day! Thanks Ms. Sherri!

We played LOTS with friends...one of Allie Kate's most favorite things!

Tai brought down her boys right after Luke turned a year old. We had such a FUN day playing, taking pictures and laughing.

We celebrated the 4th of July with family.

We spent as much time as we could with Aunt Tay Tay. The girls are totally obsessed with her, but I can't really blame them...she's pretty awesome. She recently just started LAW SCHOOL in OKC. Good luck Aunt Tay Tay! We love you and hope to see you before Christmas break (hehe).

We helped babysit Duece Dog while my parents went to Greece :)

Allie Kate thought it would be a great idea to have a Daisy Duck party, so we invited over a few neighborhood friends. They swam, ate pizza and had Grandma Ann's chocolate cake! 

We celebrated Graham's 1st birthday in Norman!

In July, our "Clayre Bear" was 13 months!

Allie Kate has asked since about April to go ride horses. I think in her mind she thought she was going to climb on up and ride off into the sunset :) BUT she was just as thrilled having the nice lady lead her around the farm. We also invited Colston and they had a blast! Clayre absolutely LOVED the dogs. They were so good with her too! My girls would love nothing more than a new puppy...but this momma just doesn't have it in her yet....someday :)

We decided to take a large group pic with Gammaw and Nana...it was a group effort and lots of photoshopping, but we got it done! Pictures are so important! Such a treasure...everyone should take a million!

Everyone knows that when school starts...so does football! We are ready! BOOMER SOONER!

Allie Kate is ready to start Pre-K with Ms. Tammy! We are looking forward to a great year!

Hope everyone had a great summer and has a great school year!!! 

Love,

The Andersons