It has been a whirlwind of a holiday season!  WHEW!  I feel like Dylan and I haven’t gotten to slow down to breathe since we got back from our anniversary trip to Fredericksburg.  I haven’t even had a chance to blog about that trip, yet, so that reminds me just how behind I am right now.  Ok, I’m not REALLY behind, just not way ahead of schedule like I LOVE to be.

When we got back from our trip, we added another member to our family.  I still have yet to introduce him on the blog (which I was planning on doing last week), but you can get a glimpse of his cuteness in this shot.  He’s still small enough to hold, but grows about 3-5 pounds a week!  He’s going to be a big boy, but I’m not quite ready to let him be “too big” to hold just yet.

We took this family photo at my aunt’s house two weekends ago when we were there to celebrate her college graduation.  While the family was already gathered in one place, we took advantage of the opportunity to celebrate Christmas early (hence, the tree headband).  The family all wore Christmas attire of some sort: sweaters (ugly and cute and funny), vests, and hats.  Dylan and I didn’t have a chance to pull ours out of our Christmas boxes, yet, so my niece let me borrow her headband!  She’s such a sweetie!

My cousin gave me a second headband with bells to try to capture the attention of the little ones, who we put in one shot (all 11 of them!!!) for my grandma.  I used it, instead, to try to rally my parents (in the left shot below) into a photo.  My dad, of course, said something like: “This ain’t one of your engagement sessions, Mylah.”  HAHA!  So what if I try to get my parents to take romantic portraits?  Their anniversary is next week after all!    :D  The shot on the right is just a funny bonus shot my sister captured!

After lots of great food, we all took turns taking the little ones out on the four-wheelers.  That was pretty fun!  Nolan, though, my oldest nephew who I used to “nanny” for, decided that I would get lost and didn’t want me to take him…  I think he was trying to say I’m not very good with directions.

Since they were already going to be in Christmas attire, my mom requested a Christmas card photo of all her grandkids to mail out.  This top photo was what she got, even though 39 of the 40 shots I took looked like the second one.  Yes, I did cheat and made ONE head swap in the first shot.  I’m pretty proud of only needing one!!

This past weekend, my sisters hosted a “North Pole Breakfast” for the cuties above.  In case you don’t follow me on Instagram, these are the fun ideas they presented for breakfast: 

That is a candy cane Cherry pastry, a snowman cheese-ball, Rudolph the red-nose reindeer donuts, and Grinch fruit k-bobs.  After everyone had their fill for breakfast, they went on a North Pole Flyer train ride!  The little ones, dressed in pajamas, got to listen to the North Pole Express story, meet Santa, and got their own train whistles!  I would have gone with them, but I shot the very last wedding of the year, making 26 weddings for 2014!  WOW!

After having Christmas time with my immediate family the next day, I had the privilege of helping with the Christmas service at my church.  The planning committee has been putting our brains together since about September for this service, so it was pretty awesome to see it all come together.  You can see that special night service here.

Dylan and I officially put up our Christmas tree this past weekend, as well.  We usually have that thing and garlands up immediately after Thanksgiving, but we are doing good to have it up at all this year!  It really does make our home feel more like Christmas, especially with the wreath on the door and Pandora playing Christmas music and our favorite wine in the crockpot!  I think we’re officially ready for Christmas!

I’m so very thankful for all the family time I’ve had this holiday season and sincerely hope you’re able to say the same!  May you have a very Merry Christmas filled with treasured memories!

XOXO,

Mylah Renae

www.Eureka-Photography.com