A Little Christmas (& Cheer) Spirit

This is our first time getting to put lights up on our house and we were excited to say the least:)

Here is Carl being the man and braving the cold and the roof to put up our old school lights.

He's pretty cute up there.

And here are the results! You might notice that we are about 4 feet short of a strand. Oh well, it still looks good! We also have a big street lamp in front of our house, but that makes us feel safe, so we don't mind:)

Yea, so we got some reindeer to add some cuteness. We love them but apparently other people love to mess with them while we are asleep. The first few nights we had them out we would bring them in before we went to bed. The first night we decided to leave them out all night, some funny guys decided they would have fun with them and place them in inappropriate positions. Try explaining that to your almost 3 year old. Plus, it's a mommy and a baby deer....just wrong. Anyway, I'm happy to report that nothing since then has happened and our deer our innocent once again.

I thought this was a cool shot . So there you go.

In this shot we have the Christmas village making an appearance(on the left), our big beautiful tree and some other Christmas decor. Also, Carl put up some shelves in the front hall (Thanks for the help, Jethro!). See them? I love them!

On the tree is a letter to Santa from Hayden. She told him all she wants for Christmas is a pink present. I hope he doesn't disappoint. I have a feeling he won't ;)

This little video needs no introduction, but I'll give you one anyway. Let's just say Hayden really likes going to cheer practices with me.

Untitled from Devin McCain on Vimeo.

For My Guy

I'm a little late with this, but this guy had a birthday the end of November:

Why do I love this man, you ask?
Because he is amazing, smart, and so hot. He makes me laugh ALL the time and he is my best friend.
Plus, Hayden LOVES him more than anything and I love watching them hang out together more than anything, so in my eyes that makes him a keeper.
Also, he is still in his 20's, even if it is only for 1 more year. Therefore, that makes me feel like I am still in my 20's, even though we all know I'm not.
Thanks for keeping me young, Carl.
Hayden and I both LOVE you so much!


HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY!

Ahhhhhh.....

I love everything about this picture.
This is what it looks like after having spent 30+ hours in a car(thanks to ice on the highway) to visit Gmas and Gpas for Thanksgiving.
Exhausting!

(PS-Hayden's new favorite song at the moment is Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Can you guess why?)

But was it worth it to see said Gmas and Gpas?
Absolutely.
Especially when Hayden travels like a champ. For real. I think of those 30+ hours in the car, maybe 30 minutes of it was spent fussing.
She wins for being the best kid in the world.
I am so thankful for a wonderful family. I'm thankful for a husband who drove the entire trip to Washington and back and drove very carefully so to not endanger any of us in the car. I'm thankful for a brother and his girlfriend who braved the very small and crowded back seat of our car with Hayden and never once complained. I'm thankful for my wonderful in-laws to let our traveling group stay in a warm house so we could regroup. And I am thankful for my parents for all their love and hospitality so we could all be together for Thanksgiving. I love you all!
Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. Crazy, I know. I'll just have to swipe some good material from my folks of all the festivities.
Now, time to get ready for Christmas!
Happy Holidays!

Break Out Your Galoshes!

It's a snowin' 'round here!
I don't know why I made that sentence sound hick, but I did, and it was fun.

Guess what we got to do tonight?
And by "we" I mean Carl and Hayden.

"We" shoveled snow from the driveway and had fun doing it.

Such troopers.
Check out the stink eye Hayden is giving me in this picture. She really was having fun...I swear.

She LOVES the snow!

When we came back in to warm up and get ready for bed, something was a little strange. Can you tell?

Maybe this is a better picture. No? You don't see it?

It must just be me then. :)

Now Put Your Hands Up

We had our first cup of hot chocolate of the season. On Sunday night it started snowing. We went for a little drive around our neighborhood to see who has their Christmas stuff out already and remind Hayden that even though Christmas is grand, we shouldn't forget Thanksgiving. :) I do love seeing Christmas lights, but rest assured (and according to Carl), ours will not be going up until after Thanksgiving. And I totally agree with him. Even though I think it would be nice to get them up while the weather is cooperating and not turn them ON until after Thanksgiving. But hopefully the weather will be nice then, too. Moving on...so we went for a drive while it was snowing, so when we got home we heated ourselves up some hot chocolate and indulged.

Hayden really likes to play hide and seek. However, she still hasn't grasped the concept. When I count and look for her, she ALWAYS gives herself away, usually by yelling or laughing. Sometimes she just doesn't hide her whole body, like in this case:

See what is sticking out from under the door? That would be her foot. Nice try, Hayden but you aren't fooling anyone!

This next picture makes me laugh. Hayden likes to run around without much clothing on sometimes. We try to teach her to be modest, but it's in one ear and out the other, apparently.

In this instance, we made an exception because of her tights. How could we cover up the cute little bear on her bottom?

I know how. Put on some music and Hayden is quick to find any kind of dress so she can DANCE! She HAS to be wearing a dress or skirt to dance. She will have it no other way. In this video, it's her denim skirt and her McCain family reunion t-shirt. She's got style!

I realize the Beyonce song "Single Ladies" is a bit overused, but we couldn't resist. We like to be cliche:)

Untitled from Devin McCain on Vimeo.

Is It Too Early to be Excited for Spring?

Today we planted tulips and hyacinths. I'm so excited that we got it done. I was really beginning to think we wouldn't. Now I have to wait about 6 months or so to fully appreciate the work. It's probably going to be a looooong winter, but at least there will be a prize at the end!
Hopefully our garden will look something like this (with additional pink tulips and pink hyacinths):

Aren't they so pretty!?

We planted a total of 60 tulips and 16 hyacinths. I really hope all of them bloom, but what are the chances of every single one blooming? I really don't know because I have never planted that many before. It will be fun to see how it goes.
Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for some snow. You know, the good powdery kind. But when I'm over the snow, this will be a nice surprise. Can't wait :)

She's Done It Again!

Robyn took some pretty sweet and awesome pictures of Hayden last week. We have discovered that Hayden is no model child, meaning she can't sit still long enough to count to 5 and pose or even smile during photo shoots, much less get a good shot.(Like most kids, right? right???) However, Robyn has somehow managed to capture some of her greatest smiles! That's saying something ;)
These are just a few of the many, many great shots she got.

Check Robyn out at her blog Catching Moments .

Thanks so much, Robyn. I love them!