Highlight Reel and What I Thought about 2013!

2013

What a wonderful year you have been! There have been several years where I have been more than happy to wave goodbye and move on to a fresh year and new beginnings! Even though I love the new start and possibilities of what the year is going to bring I must say I will look back on 2013 with the fondest of memories!

 

I don't know if it is getting older or just our circumstances but Tex and I both feel so content with where we are in life. Sure there are things that we want to strive for career wise, personally, etc... but I guess we quit searching for our "next big move" or the "next big phase" in our lives and just started trying to live in the present and enjoy what we have.

 

We have amazing children, amazing families, amazing friends and an amazing God and when all is said and done that is all that matters in this life. Yep, 2013 has been a good year. We both have grown professionally and personally and can't wait to continue on our journey!

 

Here are just some of the highlights. Memories that when I think back to these days melt my heart and bring a smile to my face.

Chandler getting dedicated at church! Such a sweet and special day for our whole family!

Growing in my relationships with both my mom and dad. So blessed to have them both in my life. I think as we get older we appreciate our parents journeys more and more. I think we realize that they were just like how we are now. Parents just trying to do the best they could. They both loved us and still do unconditionally and I am so glad to have great relationships with them both now!

We also got to watch Annie grown up this year! She is still our spit fire and strong willed child but let me tell you... this girl has a confidence that I could have only dreamed about! I love it about her, I can't wait to see what she does with all of her passion!

Visits with forever friends, friends that have been in my life for 20 + years and making memories now with them and our kids. Priceless!

 

 

This picture just brings a smile to my face. It wasn't a hugely significant day but we took the big kids to an indoor water park and it was just a GREAT day. Just pure joy from all four of us. Days like these are such a blessing. 

 

Watching this guy blossom!!! He has grown up so much and has branched out and tried new adventures and I am so proud of him! He is so very smart, creative and intuitive. He is going to do some pretty awesome things!

 

This stinker turning 1! What a bright spot she is to our whole family! I can't imagine our lives without our Chan Chan!

 

Of course our family vacation to Destin has to rank in the top 10 highlights for the year! It was AWESOME!

 

One of the most fun moments of the year was getting to surprise my sister for her 30th birthday in Washington D.C.!!! It was one of the best weekends ever!

 

Getting to be with family and seeing Matt and Kellye from California! Christmas is always a special time for us and we enjoy being together so much!

 

2013 it might be over but it will be a year etched in my mind forever! Thanks for all of the blessings and memories!!! Here's to 2014!!!

Christmas 2013

Well, I am pretty sure I failed miserably at taking pictures over Christmas! You know what we win some we lose some, this year I lost at pics! Not to sound too Debbie Downer because we truly did have a wonderful Christmas based on the circumstances. First thing first.... my parents drove 9 hours to spend the whole weekend with us to do our Christmas. We have literally been counting down the days, everyone was healthy, happy and totally pumped about Neenie coming in. They were one hour away when I got the call from daycare that Ann Mason was running fever. An hour later my parents pull into town just as we were getting the positive flu results! I was crying, Ann Mason was crying and even the poor nurse started crying! This is the second year in a row that I didn't see my mom because of the flu :( We were pretty bummed to say the least but we really tried to make the best out of it. It was kind of a rough week in between really fun moments. Someone wasn't feeling good in our house pretty much every day but we still managed to get together and do some Christmas traditions!

The kids on Christmas Eve morning. They were super excited!

One of our traditions is we always go to Red Lobster. We LOVE it. No one has to cook, everyone loves their meals, we just think it is great! haha I eat Red Lobster once a year and it is always Christmas Eve!

Our annual family picture after Christmas Eve Service! So blesssed to have my husbands amazing family here in town. When my heart aches to see my sister and my mom it helps to know that they I am blessed with a second family here.

 

Oh these kiddos got way too much stuff! Santa changed his rules to 3 presents this year but that didn't stop all of the grandparents from out doing Santa :) haha That's what grandparents are for right? Well, one of the presents was a red rider bb gun! OMG! It is staying at mamaw and papaws but the boys thought it was the coolest thing ever!!

 

Even though there were moments when I had a pity party over sickness hitting our house and not seeing my family I couldn't help but look at my three amazing children and husband and not feel so blessed. We have so much more than we deserve!!

Redneck Polar Express

We didn't do the traditional polar express with tickets, real trains, etc... let's be real money is tight this time of year and you have to improvise ;) In comes the mini-van, pjs, hot coco and Christmas music on the radio! The kids were super pumped last night and it was just such a nice night with just our sweet family really getting in to the Christmas spirit! There is one neighborhood where we live that just goes above and beyond on the decorations.We stop and get out and always look at everything, it is just amazing!

Palmer and Ann Mason by Santa and Ms. Clause

Palmer making his silly face at the north pole sign!

If you look closely Chandler, Me, Palmer and Ann Mason are standing at the entrance of "toyland"

They LOVE baby Jesus every year. We are really trying to keep the Christ in Christmas with really trying to talk about the true meaning of Christmas almost every night!

Sassy pants posing and SO happy! They loved it so much!

The best decorated house in our city! This doesn't do it justice!!! Chandler even loved the lights she just pointed the whole time!

 

I love these sweet  memories with the kids, it was just a great night and we are SO ready to see family and celebrate Christmas!!!

Breakfast with Santa and Ugly Santa

I don't know if we have had a lot of full moons lately, being cooped up in our house or the anticipation of Santa but my kids have been off the chain lately! Like balls to the walls CRAZY maniacs! It is almost like their little bodies are having out of body experiences and they can't stop! This weekend was NO exception. We made it thru though! First stop Saturday morning was breakfast with Santa. Let me just tell you that we had about 15 meltdowns and 10 threats of not even going but we pulled it together for a pic with the big guy! 

My buddy and I eating our free donuts.

Ann Mason and I trying to smile, we had a tough morning (just being real here folks)

Bad morning, what? Whose stressed? This girl is a HOOT! She is SO happy about EVERYTHING!

The best our family had to offer that morning! haha

Let's just say it was one of those mornings that after Breakfast with Santa was over our WHOLE (including me and Tex) were taking naps by 9:45 am!!!

 

After naps everyone seemed to be having a better day!

Annie got to go to her best friend Addy's birthday party and paint a hair brush, it was so fun!

Then Saturday we were off to our first Ugly Christmas Sweater Party! I made Oreo Balls. Let me tell you that pinterest lies! When they say easy it means disaster!~ These looked terrible, embarrassingly terrible like a five year old made them but they were SO tasty!

Can you believe I actually took these out in public?

 

 

This is what they were supposed to look like? Seriously, what is wrong with me that I can't make an oreo ball?



Here we are in our tackiest of Christmas wear. It was SO fun!

Some of the girls! We had a great time and enjoyed all of the good food and company!

 

My spirits are a little brighter. I got my hair cut and colored last night (which doesn't that always make a girl feel better) AND picked up the very last presents for Christmas! Even got some wrapped. I feel a little more prepared today!

12 MORE DAYS!

In a Nut Shell

Oh goodness! I have no excuse and a million excuses of why I haven't posted in 3 weeks! To be honest I am just feeling a little overwhelmed. Not necessarily in a bad way but more of just how did it get to be 13 days away from Christmas, where has the year gone, how did this happen, I have so much to do but not really that much to do kind of overwhelmed. Despite how over or under whelmed I am feeling from day to day life still goes on and I have three very spirited children that make sure that when my feet hit the ground I don't stop running....

 

So.... LONG over due here is what The Templeton's have been doing since our DC trip in a nut shell

Chandler tried cheese fries at Ritzy's and stinking loved them! A girl after my own heart. Carbs and Cheese!

 

I interviewed for a job for the first time in 10 years!! This is my old State Farm boss who is like family. I made it thru the first interview to possibly own my own State Farm agency one day!

 

This girl gets funnier and cuter every day. She learned how to "cheese" and this is what we get every time we take a pic!

 

My son is a Picasso! He seriously is in first grade and draws amazing with so much detail! He LOVES drawing, LOVES school and is just so awesome! haha He is a momma's boy!

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Well, let's see where to start here... Oh yeah, so first Ann Mason ran into the door knob (for the second time in her life) and gave herself a black eye (I can't make this stuff up!) THEN she CUT HER OWN HAIR at 5:50 am in the morning and looked like Joe Dirt. Business in the front, Party in the back! I was so asleep when she came in and confused by what was going on that I really didn't have a reaction. My lag time was way off!

In between the hair debacle I got to go eat Thanksgiving lunch with my buddy Palmer. This kid has my heart!

Back to the hair debacle! Mr. Steve our hair guy came to the rescue. Ann Mason got a bob and her bangs evened out. I guess you could say we may the best out of a bad situation. I keep hearing it could be so much worse and how great she did cutting her own hair!

 

 

After Joe Dirt she looked a whole lot like Julia Roberts from Pretty Women! Can you tell I had fun with this whole ordeal? Laugh or Cry I will choose humour 99% of the time!

We went to the annual Christmas Parade and literally froze our booties off!

Chandler was crowned princess of her Sunday School Nursery class and frankly I couldn't agree more! haha

 

Ann Mason and I had a date night and went to see the Nutcracker. Yes, apparently I am the only person in the WORLD that didn't realize they don't talk in the nutcracker! Oops! Luckily she loved it and it kept her entertained even without dialogue :)

We kept the tradition alive of decorating Mamaw's tree. See how it works is Mamaw feeds us a big free meal, the boys put up the tree and we yell GO and all of the kids put up all of the ornaments!~ I must say it is the most efficient decorating I have ever witnessed. Mamaw is such a good sport she even leaves the ornaments exactly where they put them even if that means 10 are on one branch!

 

This poor sweet girl literally has been the sickest I have ever seen her. Sunday she started running a fever of 104 and we got an antibiotic thinking it was just the winter time crud. Well, whatever she had was viral and it was brutal. I am pretty sure she had some kind of version of hand, foot and mouth but just in her mouth. Her fever broke yesterday and now she is covered in the viral infection rash but the worst is behind us, thank goodness!!

 

13 days till Christmas, every time I say that I get light headed!

The big SURPRISE!!!

Better late than never! A few weeks ago Tex and I got to do something that we haven't done for 3 years!!! We got to travel by ourselves, no kids, no kid friendly restaurants just adult time! The best reason we got to travel was because we surprised my sister for her 30th birthday in Washington DC! I was like a kid in a candy store! I had only been to DC once on my senior year trip and Tex had never been so we were so super excited!



 

Here we are on the plane! There is no other person that I would like to travel with more than this guy. He calms my nerves, we have a blast together, we enjoy doing the same things, he is just my best friend! Good thing I married him! haha

 

Unfortunately I lost my nice camera. That was a TOTAL bummer but luckily I think I had uploaded almost everything on there except for this trip. So these pictures are going to make it look like all we did was eat and go out! haha We definitely did that but Tex and I went site seeing all day Friday and Saturday too!

 

So Ashley is NOT an easy girl to surprise let's just say that. I know she was hoping we would be there but I was trying everything in my power to make her think otherwise. We met at the hotel lounge and the other couple that was with us met them first (they weren't a surprise just Tex and I! haha) so they said hello and then I popped out from around the corner and screamed surprise!

 

I even managed to get a few tears from the birthday princess. I miss her so much and I was SO happy to be with her for the whole weekend!

We are two REALLY happy husband and wife right now! A whole weekend to ourselves (disclaimer we love our kids dearly but this was a huge special treat)

Ashley, Leslie and I. John and Leslie have been wonderful friends to Joe and Ashley and the minute we met them we fell in love with them. They are so fun and easy to be around and we just all really clicked and had a blast!

First stop was an upscale Mexican restaurant and yes this guy is making homemade guacamole for our table, yes I did almost pass out! Total heaven!

The group! We had so much fun. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It was such a great night!

Here we are being silly. We haven't been out that late in forever and the next morning this is how Tex felt :) We got up and out though by 9 am and hit the streets!

First stop was Fords Theatre.

Where Lincoln was shot.

Then of course we had to do lunch at possibly one of the best pizza places I have ever eaten. SO good!

Of course we did the obligatory pic of the White House. Like I said most of our "touristy" pics were on my camera. We got to go to the Capital, Lincoln Memorial, Holocaust Museum, etc... No joke we probably walked 12 to 13 miles that day around DC. We didn't take a cab anywhere we just kept walking!

That night we got to go to the W hotel and hang out at the roof top bar. This was just the lobby. So beautiful!

The rooftop bar was amazing. We got to watch three helicopters bring the President over the river and the middle one land at the White House, pretty cool!

The group hanging out and having fun!

The girls!

The Merritt's and the Ballard's

Ashley making her wish! I hope everything she wished for comes true! It was one of the best weekends of my life. I was with my husband and sister who could ask for more! It was amazing! Tex and I definitely want to make it a point to do this at least once a year, just us!