Countdown to Christmas

We've been counting down to Christmas in this house. With a VERY excited 3 year old and travel plans to finally go back to California and see so many loved ones, we're all really anxious for Christmas to get here!

Here are some of the fun things we've been doing, sprinkled in with some looks at our house all ready for Christmas.


This is what we're constantly finding these days... Ben about to climb up onto the table.


Max and I made links to count down to Christmas and have faithfully been tearing a link everyday.

 


There were 5 days left on this particular day.




Ben spent a few (consecutive) days in the same reindeer pjs. Mom fail, but festive.


Max shows off our new ottoman! More to come on that later!


Every year I try to make these... and every year they are really ugly. They're tasty though! Oh and Santa? Clearly I need new baking sheets - yikes!

All of the Christmas tree lots around here carry these reindeer made from cuts of the tree. They're adorable!!



Although we didn't take one home this year, next year Rudolph will be ours!































Then we went to the "fishy store" (Bass Pro) to see the festive truck and, of course, the fish. I do not recommend going there 2 days before Christmas. Madness.








The best I can get of the two of them. Ugh.









Ben's newest game:





Peek-a-boo!


Max is turning teenager on us already. Whenever he has a chance he's hooked up to the iPod listening to toddler radio with headphones.




There's been SO much of this going on lately. It's sweet, but my back is seriously thrown out due to carrying this heavy kid ALL THE LIVE LONG DAY. Teething? Separation anxiety? Spoiled? Your guess is as good as mine.

And, our house. Oh, our house. It's my favorite place that we've ever lived to date and dressing it up in our quirky way for the holidays has been so lovely.


Our 5th annual Charlie Brown tree.


I bought those reindeer after a ceramic snowman broke :( I figured they couldn't break wooden reindeer. I was wrong. I had to hot glue ALL of the legs back on.




So happy to have a fireplace mantle to decorate again. I love this whimsical feeling space.


We haven't done much with our Elf, but it's on the "to do" list for next year.


I do, however, love to write in chalk on every surface that chalk is accepted.


Yum, indeed.


The living room in all its festive glory. The toy room has a few more little odds and ends, but it was messier than I'd like in order to photograph. Can't have you guys thinking I don't keep a clean house, now can I?

Oh wait.....

Merry Christmas from the whole Lincoln clan!! 

Thanksgiving Weekend

Man, my poor little family blog has been neglected, huh? It's my new business. It has me feeling pretty tapped out on photographing my own kids and I need to get back on it! The reason I got into photography in the first place was to capture my own kids growing up. I've been lacking, so this long weekend I made up for it in spades!

I actually started on Saturday.... but have some fun instagram photos to share of our Thanksgiving and Friday after.

Our menu and some YUMMY food!









Ben really liked the pie:




This was the first year that I made the entire meal by myself! It was delicious, if I do say so myself!



We went on a few walks on Thanksgiving.





It was seriously such a lovely and relaxing day. I thought I'd be sad and feel lonely without my family near, but I realized that I had everything I truly needed that day because I DID have my family near.

On Friday, we went to the aquarium and on a little walk.





Colorado gets some CRAZY skies!



On Saturday we went and cut our Christmas tree. It PAINED me to not take pictures myself (like, I still am having anxiety over it) but we hired a photographer to capture us on our annual Christmas tree cut down adventure. I'm still awaiting them, but I'm sure they'll be awesome!

Anyway, since I wasn't taking pictures while we cut the tree, I tried to make up for it while we decorated it.

Max and Ritchie had a little mini tree cutting outside!















Meanwhile Ben snacked and watched some Christmas movies.



Let the tree trimming begin!








And my favorite one:



Today we went to Winter Park for a little day trip to let the boys explore outside and for us to avoid telling them to leave the tree alone all the live long day.

We found a great little playground (I guess we could have done that here, huh?)











Then we went for a little walk and found this gorgeous little tree lined path next to a frozen stream.





















Ben got pretty cold because he kept falling, poor thing!



How amazing is this?! This was our view for a good 30 minutes on the drive.





On the way back, we stopped for milkshakes (and a potty break!) at this adorable little place.















I hope you guys enjoyed your weekend as much as I did. The countdown is on! 4 weeks until Christmas Eve and I have a 3 year old who is over the moon excited! I'm anxious to see what our new state has to offer in the way of Christmas festivities and I'm dedicated to capturing the memories every step of the way!