Christmas 2015

We were lucky enough to spend Christmas and New Year up in North Dakota with my in laws and we had the best time ever! We had a beautiful white Christmas!! We decorated cookies, had a Star Wars marathon and even had a private showing of the new Star Wars, had a gift wrapping party, a Christmas dinner with over 20 people, and so many other fun things! It was a real busy couple of weeks but isn't that what makes the holidays fun? Because we did so much I'll break this down into two maybe even three posts. But for now, here's a glimpse at our Christmas! A lot of these were just taken off my instagram, so no judgments!

 She just can't control her excitement that Santa's coming!

And there you have it! Our first week of Christmas vacation in a nutshell! Pt 2 coming up next!

Cornbelly's

While we were in Utah for my grandpa's funeral last October, we decided we needed a fun night our with friends. We took the kids to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point and had the best time! I don't get to see my best friend, since the 3rd grade, nearly as often as I'd like so I was really excited to meet up with her! The whole night was basically just chasing the kids around all night. It was freezing cold (for us Texan's anyways!) but we didn't really care that much because we were having too much fun! Kyson played soccer almost half the time we were there. Ha! He tried his hardest to make a goal and ended up only making a single goal. Poor kid! Thank you Christa and Thad for joining us!

Air Force Ball 2015

I'm so behind on my blogging that I have to scroll through all my pictures to remember what all we did last year. I can't remember off the top of my head! Sorry if things are out of order and all over the place but with packing, moving, selling the house, and unpacking I've been a little distracted. But now that I've settled into my new temporary home I have more time to play catch up! Hooray! So, last October Dave and I attended the Air Force Ball. They held it a few weeks late for who knows why. It's usually held on the AF's birthday. It was perfect weather for a ball, since it's always held in a giant hangar, so it's partly outside. I was obsessed with my dress and my shoes and my hair haha. It's become so much fun searching for the perfect dress every year. Although the pictures kind of suck because, phone's just don't have the best picture quality!

 By the time we got around to eating, all the good food was already gone. So we ditched the last half of the ball and ate at Olive Garden instead. We got a lot of funny looks from people wondering why the heck we were so dressed up. But it was kind of fun going out on a date all fancied up! And seriously, have you ever had Olive Garden's donuts (can't remember what they're really called!) with raspberry sauce? To. Die. For. Dave always looks so handsome in his blues and I love being able to dance the night away with him. I look forward to the ball every year and I'm already looking forward to the next one :)

the Gaylord Texan Resort - Dallas

We spent a weekend relaxing at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Dallas and holy moly! It was amazing! It's huuuuge and so nice! We spent most of the time poolside at their little private water park and the rest of the time exploring everything the resort had to offer. We watched an artist create a freaking masterpiece with spray paint in front of our eyes! It was insane! This resort has so much to offer and everything is so nice and relaxing. I seriously can't explain how much we enjoyed ourselves!

Oh I can't wait for summer now! And I definitely can't wait for the next getaway with my little family!

mommy and me birthday photo's

Here are photo's I had done of Presley and me! The boys had zero interest in pictures so I took my best girl and some done of just us!

All photo's done by The Dawn of Time Photography

my grandpa's funeral

The day before Presley's birthday my sweet grandpa passed away. I was extremely close to him and it was so hard on me. His passing was the first one that really affected me the much. I spent my whole childhood just minutes away from my grandparents and I went to their house every day after school. I love all my grandparents but my grandpa and I had a special relationship that I will never forget.

 We traveled back to Utah to attend his funeral and I'm so glad I was able to make it. I got to see family members that I haven't seen in years! My grandpa was a WW2 vet and he really bonded with Dave about the military over the last few years. They would talk about it for hours every time they saw each other. I could listen to his stories forever! So once he passed we were able to inherit a lot of his old military items and things that meant the world to my grandpa, which now means the world to me. We brought home a lot of priceless items that I'm so excited about!

Because he was a WW2 vet he had a military style funeral and Dave was able to be a part of it. It was such a neat experience and I'm so glad he did it!

 Pictures of all the grand kids. My grandpa left behind 41 grand kids and 102 great grand kids. Amazing!

I can't wait to see my grandparents again someday!

Presley turned TWO

Has it really been since July since I last blogged? Oh dear, I have SO much to update on! To be honest I can't remember everything we've done since July so I'll just start with Presley's birthday in October. Can you believe my baby girl turned two?  I had some mommy and me photo's taken and I just love them, but I'll share those another time. We kept her birthday pretty low key. In fact we didn't even invite anyone over to celebrate! I made her some cupcakes and we opened gifts etc. Ya know, the normal birthday activities! She was spoiled rotten and she knew it!

She's a;ready changed so much since her birthday just a few months ago. Time is going way too fast and my momma heart just can't take it. I'm so happy she's apart of our family, these last two years have been the best two years of my life! Kyson and Presley are my world!

So a few of my New Years Resolutions for the year have been to blog/instagram more. Dave is deploying soon and it's my way of keeping him more involved. I'm off to a bad start ha! BUt I promise I'll do better. So if you'd like to follow along with my instagram, @denise_madsen, I'd love that. I''m always looking for more people to follow!