Alright! Let's pick right up where I left off. In mid December we took a trip to see Lights of Tejas! It was the first time I have been back to the place I worked, lived and met my husband in about 5 years. It was Jane, Atlas and Ellis's first time to visit Tejas! They are all Tejas babies! ;) Meaning pretty much the reason they exist is because of Tejas. Scott and Anna met while we all worked at Camp Tejas too. I love that my mom grabbed a picture of us eating in the dining hall together. (minus Sam of course, he was slammed with work that week) I've been going to Tejas since I was Jane's age. There are so many memories in that dining hall. It's pretty fun to get to make new ones there with my own kids now.
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| Running through the front field, like I have so many times! |
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| Jane and me in our matching red dresses and Christmas leggings |
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| A real construction truck! |
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| Near where the old diving board used to be. |
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| My first time at Camp Tejas with my cousins. Just a few feet from where Jane is standing in the previous photo. |
When we first got there we parked in what was known to me while I worked at Tejas as the front field. It's right inside the front gate, hence the name. It was our sports field when we worked there. I played and led many, many ultimate frisbee games and other various games on that field. Before any of us were dating, Scott, Anna, Sam and I all played Ultimate together at one point there. So to me, it was really fun to watch Jane and Atlas run through that field giggling all the while.
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| Jane had a blast on this slide! |
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They were shaking the snowman's hand and saying,
"Nice to meet you!" |
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| Marmee is such a good sport. :D |
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| Priceless |
Before we went to see the lights we decided to eat dinner in the dining hall. There are only a few full time staff members we used to work with that are still working at Tejas. Each of them happened to come in to eat dinner while we were there. It was really fun to see them and catch up! Filled up and ready to go we headed off to the kids play section of the event. Jane loved the inflatable slide and bouncy houses. There was a kids zip line too that she loved! It was only a couple feet off the ground and about a hundred feet long. When you got to the end you would run the rope tied to the zip line back to the beginning for the next person to go. I only have video of that zip line. It was really fun to watch Jane "run ropes" for the zip line. It was one of my favorite jobs to do for the big wall zip my first summer working at Tejas. We found a fun cut out picture op place and ended up with some great shots. One of my very favorite pictures is of Atlas and Jane in the cut out. It's just too perfect!
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| Atlas would not stop to take a picture with me! |
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| I used to swing on this swing when I was their age! |
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| I got a picture with my boy! |
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| Haha, it was impossible to get a picture with both of them. |
Atlas was on the run the whole time we were there. I tried to get him to stop and take a picture with me in front of my old apartment and he was upset as soon as I picked him up. There was just too much to see! Probably my favorite part of Lights of Tejas is the Tunnel of Lights. It's so pretty and so bright that it almost seems like daytime in there! I succeeded in getting a picture with Atlas this time around! But it was pretty much impossible to get a picture with both of them in the tunnel without it being blurry. Jane loved the hay on the ground and kept throwing it up and saying surprise! So the picture with the hay in front of my face is the best picture I got with the two of them in that area. ;) I did get them to sit and swing with me for a minute and that allowed us a moment for a picture.
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| Beautiful little family! |
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| I tried to decided which of these pictures to add. But they are both too great! |
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| In the old SMT room. Birthday Party for Jesus! |
Scott and Anna had a mostly stationary child at that point that allowed them to get some great shots of their beautiful little family. I mean seriously! How cute are they?! Another fun picture we got was of all of us in the old Summer Ministry Team room. We spent a lot of time in there together. Lots of meetings and hanging out too. Just a few feet away from where I am sitting in that picture was where Sam announced to the staff that he was leaving the camp in order to pursue a serious relationship with me. It was such a strange and uncertain time in our lives, but I sure am glad it happened to lead us to where we are now! We have so much to give God thanks for. A solid marriage of 7 years, a house that we own and love, great jobs and two (almost 3) beautiful children. I couldn't ask for more. But knowing God, he'll keep pouring it on as we strive to be obedient to His word.
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| Christmas Eve lights walk |
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| Tamales and chili con queso! |
Christmas is finally here!! :D We have a few traditions on Christmas Eve now that we have a few Christmas's with kids under our belts. We try to take a walk to see the lights on Christmas Eve as long as the weather is good. It was a little cold and we got sprinkled on a little while we walked this year. We made sure to stop by the house that had the most inflatables. The kids thought it was really fun. For dinner we have some sort of Mexican food and make sure to include some chili con queso. It's a tradition started in Sam's family. The last two years we've had tamales. We'll see if it stays that way. I might switch it up some years with enchiladas or tacos. ;)
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| Waiting for her stocking |
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| Stocking time!! |
Sam started the tradition of going through his stocking on Christmas Eve even before we had kids. I've been doing a stocking of candy for Sam since we got married. Doing stockings on Christmas Eve is fun because it stretches out the excitement another day. This is the first year they both understood what was going on. It was extra fun! I went to the dollar store for their stockings and it ended up great! Jane went through hers pretty quick. Atlas took his time with each item before digging in the stocking again. Very much according to their personalities.
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| Christmas Jammies! Penguins and snowmen! |
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| Traditional Christmas Eve Selfie with Jane |
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| Last look at the Tree before bed. |
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| Picking out their favorite ornaments. |
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| Christmas Eve Magic |
Our last little tradition on Christmas Eve is that I always take a Christmas Eve selfie with Jane right before bed. We've done it 4 years running now! It's really fun to watch her grow and still see her personality shine through in each picture. Don't worry, Atlas isn't left out. He gets a Christmas morning selfie with me. ;) I'm not sure what I'll do with Alexandria, but I'll figure something out that will be special for us too. They looked around the Christmas Tree one more time before bed and told me their favorite ornaments. They both liked the ornaments that make noise. Our signing guitar ornament and the star wars cantina ornament.
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| Christmas Morning Selfie with Atlas. |
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| Making Waffles together. |
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| Jane let me do her hair that morning! So cute! |
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| Somehow I managed to get a clear smiling picture of busy Atlas! |
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| A couple of Christmas presents at Marmee's house! |
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| Jane loved her new 3D book! |
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| Post Christmas crash! |
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| So sleepy!! |
After Jane watched some of her movie and they got to play with their toys for a little bit we headed over to Marmee and Pappaw's for lunch. My mom had a couple of books wrapped up for them to open when we got there. They have to wait until New Years Day for Daugherty Christmas to open the rest of their presents from Marmee and Pappaw. My grandpa came and had lunch with us too. We all visited for a while after lunch and then it was time to head home to try and catch a nap. They crashed pretty hard. :)
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| Yay for hand-me-downs!! |
My mom always had us take a picture of us with all our Christmas presents each year growing up. I've decided to carry on the tradition. It is quite difficult at this age to get all the toys together and have them both sitting and looking at me and not trying to play with the toys! But hey we got a picture! Mission accomplished. It was a wonderful Christmas!! The best part is that it wasn't over for us yet! We have Merry New Christmas Day with the Daugherty side just a week later!
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| Yay Sparklers! |
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| The wonder! |
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| Helping Pappaw light the fireworks. |
New Years weekend is one of my favorite times of the year! Scott and Anna come into town for the weekend and the kids and I stay the weekend at my parents house too even though we're just 5 minutes away. It's a really fun time! I love having the whole family all in one place for a whole weekend. I was so sad I had to miss out on a day and a half of fun because I had just caught a cold a couple days before and we were trying to make sure I didn't make little Ellis sick. We made it over in time for the New Years Eve festivities! Jane LOVES fireworks! She really enjoyed the sparklers. They were my personal favorite growing up. She is not scared by the loudness. She seems to like it even more the louder they are. ;) She was brave enough to light some of the fireworks with Pappaw and run back to me before it went off. Atlas on the other hand is not a fan... He does not like how loud and startling they are. He can only handle a certain amount of excitement. He wanted to stay inside most of the time. Marmee stayed inside with him and Ellis and they all watched from the window.
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| Ellis's first sparkler! |
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| Smoke bomb! |
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| Fun games with family! |
It was a very cold New Years Eve! But Jane always says she loves the cold and was outside with us the whole time we were shooting fireworks. Once we were done it was time for bed for the little cousins! One of my favorite things about staying the night together is getting to play games together after the kids are in bed. We tried a new game that is often played on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon called The Whisper Challenge! It was hilarious!! You have to read lips while wearing noise canceling headphones. It's pretty hard, but really fun and super funny to watch. Some of our other favorite games to play together are Say Anything, Apples to Apples, Scattergories, Buzzword and Texas Hold 'em. It's always a good time!
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| Ready for New Christmas! I just realized there's a little Atlas foot in Papa's lap in this picture. Haha! |
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| Yay for 2nd Christmas morning! |
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| Ellis was adorable in her little Santa hat! |
New Year's Day is our 2nd Christmas morning! I love having Christmas again a week after Christmas day. It spreads it out just enough and let's that holiday cheer last a little longer. By the time New Years is over I'm not burnt out or anything, but I am ready to get back to normal. ;) Great Mama and Papa come to New Christmas Day every year, but this year Mama had a fever and had to stay home. :( We were able to FaceTime her during gifts and it was so fun to still have her there! I was taking some video on my iPod Touch right next to where we had iPad set up for her and when I watch the video back and I listen to her talking it sounds like she's there! Sometimes technology is really cool.
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| First present of the morning! |
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| Atlas doesn't need much help anymore. |
They didn't need much encouragement to get started! Atlas was the opposite from Christmas Day this time around. He wanted to go too fast and was trying to open all the presents!! Jane was waiting patiently for her gifts and she passed out all the gifts when Pappaw told her who they belonged to. She had only a few gifts under the tree because she got one big gift from Marmee and Pappaw this year! More on that in just a minute.
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| Is this really for me?? |
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| It's big enough to ride in!! |
As you can see Atlas was in love with all of the big trucks he got for Christmas. I asked for a stuffed teddy bear for Atlas because he didn't have one of his own and seemed interested in having one. When he opened the present he threw out the teddy bear and kept looking in the bag for something else! Haha! When we tried to show him that the bear was the present he pushed it away and wanted nothing to do with it. Mom fail! :D I guess trucks are way more exciting. In the end it was what he wanted though. Just this morning he walked into my room after he woke up in the morning holding his teddy bear by the arm. He always wants it to sleep with now.
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| Uncovering the biggest gift! |
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| A big girl bike!! |
That's right, Jane's big present is a beautiful Frozen themed bike! She had been asking for a Frozen bike for a couple months by then. It's the only thing she told Santa she wanted. The funny thing about it is that about 2 days after my mom had ordered the bike my neighbor walked over with a Frozen bike and asked if we wanted it! :o I was like, "That's crazy. We just ordered one for Christmas! But I won't turn it down!" The one from our neighbor is a 12" bike and just the right size for her right now. The one she got for Christmas is a 16" bike and a tad big. It worked out pretty perfect actually. We're keeping the 12" one at our house and the 16" one at Marmee and Pappaw's to practice on until she really grows into it. The only thing is that it lessened the excitement of getting the bike as a Christmas present a little. But not by much! She was still pretty excited.
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| First ride on the new bike! |
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| This girl LOVES the holidays! |
She wanted to take it out for a ride right away! It was really cold that day though! We only stayed out for a few minutes before we were frozen. ;) She was excited that there was a little seat on the back for her favorite friend, lamb, to sit and ride with her. Jane loves the holidays. It seems her very favorite part of the season is being with so much family. One day when we were having lunch at home after everything was over Jane said, "I miss my family!" I asked her, "What do you mean? You're with your family." She clarified and said she missed all her family. She just loves everyone being together at once. Me too kid, me too.
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| Let's grab a family photo! |
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| Easier said than done. Haha!! |
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| Daugherty Family Christmas Crew 2017 |
I asked my mom to take a family photo of us since we hadn't taken one in a while. We caught a pretty good one, but I have no idea why they both have their hands in their mouths. Then we lost them completely! Silly kids! I think they had some post Christmas jitters and couldn't stay still. I love how the outtake represents us juggling our kids pretty accurately. It's crazy, but so fun. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm interested to see what a family photo looks like once we've added our littlest girl to the mix! We grabbed a big family photo too! Somehow the kids were more cooperative for that one. Little Ellis was trying to look at her daddy. So cute!
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| Atlas wanted to read with Great Papa |
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| Then he asked Pappaw |
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| And then Uncle Scott! |
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| Jane wanted in on the reading action too. |
Atlas got a book series for Christmas from Mama and Papa called The Adventures of Otto. They are 6 very early readers about a little robot and his animal friends. We borrowed them from the library a couple of times and Atlas loved them. So I figured he would love to have access to them all the time. I was not mistaken. He found each of the Daugherty men throughout the day and had them read a book or two to him. Eventually Jane learned something special was happening and had to jump in on the reading too. It was so sweet!
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| Play time! |
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| Just a couple of girls hangin out. :) |
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| A warm fire for some s'mores! |
It is so much fun to watch the cousins having fun together! Especially the little girl cousins. Jane is so gentle and kind with Ellis. Which gives me hope that Jane will do very well with her little newborn sister when she comes. We ended our New Years festivities with a warm fire. We roasted salami, smokies and made some s'mores. It was a perfect way to end the evening.
We asked each other our New Years questions again. It was fun to go back and read my answers from last year, so I wanted to make sure to record them here to read for next year!
1. What are you grateful for in 2017
2. What was your favorite moment in 20173. What are you looking forward to in 2018
4. What goal would you like to accomplish in 2018
My answers
1. I am grateful for new friends, Cambria and my new job at ChurchBiz.
2. One of my favorite moments of 2017 was telling Jane she was going to have another sibling. Then finding out it was a girl and telling Sam he would get to name her Alexandria.
3. This one is a little too easy, of course I'm looking forward to meeting Alexandria! Learning to do life with 3 kids!
4. Doing everything in my power to have a healthy birth and recovery, preferably at home. Hopefully saving enough for a family van and losing the majority of the baby weight by the end of the year.
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| 2nd Christmas haul. |
It was such a wonderful holiday season this year! It was filled with family and fun. Every year seems to be even more special than the last. I'm looking forward to next year! But I'm ok with waiting a year to do it all again. As much fun as it is, it can be pretty tiring too! So long for now holiday season. We love ya!
Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Luke 1:30-33
Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
