New Year's celebrations

Some friends of ours from church just bought a new house so they had a pre-new year's/housewarming party on Sunday night.  Lots of couples from our Sunday school class came, but we didn't start taking pictures later into the night.

Don't ask men to pose for a picture!

 The Hokies were playing in their bowl game to we went to our neighbors house for pizza, football and drinks.  

The original BelJackLock ladies!

The original beljacklock baby.  She surely isn't a baby anymore, but we sure are loving having new babies in the neighborhood.

The original Beljacklock crew! 

Tonight we headed over the the Shipley's for our annual NYE celebration. 

Emmy was in heaven playing with the big kids.

Sports!  It's all he knows!  If it's not baseball, it's football.

They all took a break and watched a New Year's Charlie Brown.

It's not New Year's until you toast with sparkling grape juice.  Cheers!

We didn't stay until midnight, and the kids were in bed by 10, and I barely woke up at midnight, but it was a fun NYE!

Happy 2019!

boys and girls days

Jason and Bryce went on a fishing trip about a month ago and had so much fun and success, that they went again today! 

They didn't have as many in their party this time so they couldn't bring home as many fish, but they caught lots of keepers.

Bryce is in his element when he's holding a fishing pole and a fish!

Since the boys were going to be gone most of the day, we planned a girls trip with my mom and Nanny.  We went shopping and had lunch.  The lady at the Clinique counter at Macy's asked us if were four generations and insisted on taking a picture of us!  So nice of her to capture this moment!

high school friends

We had a solid group of high school friends that we hung out with and stayed close with through college.  As we've gotten married and had kids, it has become increasingly harder to get together as much as we'd like.  Most of us still live pretty close by, and some hang out on occasion, but we try at least once a year to get our core group together.  We were missing a few couples, but we still had such a great time!

a haircut and roller skating

Emmy is always telling me she wants short hair like me.  I just love her hair long and it makes putting it up for gymnastics so much easier.  However, recently it always looks like a mess.  Even though she brushes it, it always looks like it needs brushing.  I finally made an appointment and took her today to get it cut.

TWINS!

The kids have been asking to go skating forever.  They've been a few times and enjoy it even though they can't really get the hang of it.  I had promised them we'd go during Christmas break and tonight was the perfect night to go because they play Christian music on Thursday nights.

Some of our friends met us there, but I never got a picture of all of them.  Oops!

christmas day

Christmas morning is so pretty!

The kids found lots of things they asked for and some things they didn't even know they wanted!

Cousins at MeMa's!

Sadly, those are the only three pictures I have to show for today!  We had a fun day visiting with family though.  We had breakfast at Jason's parent's, lunch at Jason's grandmama's, we got stockings at my mom's and then ended the day with dinner at Jason's grandma's house.  It was s full, but fun day!

christmas eve

We started the day making cookies for Santa.

They look yummy!

We went over to Nana's for lunch and presents!

After our celebration at Nana's we headed to church for the Christmas Eve service.

Our family lit the advent candle to start the service.

I got Emmy this cute little dress and managed to only put it on her this once all Christmas season.

Remembering the reason for the season.

We went home and the kids had fun playing with their new things from Nana's. 

Then it was off to bed so Santa could come!

more festive fun and christmas parties

Monday was pajama day for Bryce's themed holiday dress day!

Emmy's team gave their gymnastics coach a gift from the team.  She was excited!

Tuesday was tacky tie day in Bryce's class so he wore his coat and tie!

His teacher sent me this picture of him and his best friend Thomas.

Emmy had her class party on Tuesday.  I popped in for lunch and her book exchange. 

I just love that she has made some of the sweetest friends.  They are just too cute.

Wednesday was the last day of school before break.  The whole school had ugly sweater spirit day.  Bryce wore his, but Emmy's teacher opted for pajama day because they were having a  Polar Express themed day.

This was the last day of school and work for all of us so we all got festive for the occasion.  

I helped with Bryce's party so I only managed to get a few pictures, but they had fun eating breakfast, making ornaments and playing Bingo!

We had our annual neighbor Christmas party on Friday night.  The Adams who moved in last year couldn't make it, but we welcomed another couple who moved in this summer.  It' always a good time at the Beljacklock Christmas party.

Bryce's baseball team had a family party on Saturday.  We enjoyed the company, good food and they boys did a fun gift exchange.

These cute cousins dressed alike for church this morning.

It sure has been fun celebrating this Christmas season with family and friends.  I truly feel like we enjoyed the season and didn't rush through it in a flurry of panic!

christmas lights

We had family dinner night on Wednesday with my mom and Nanny.  After dinner we went through the Chick Fil A drive through for milkshakes and then we drove through the Illuminate Light Show.

I think I take the same pictures every year of my favorite lights!

The light tunnels are always fun.

I don't know if we got there later this year or if we waited later in the season, but there were lots of people there which made for a slower drive this year.

We went out for an early dinner tonight and then went to see one last house we hadn't been to this year.

I heard that the Great Light Flight show filmed this house this year for next season.  

A Christmas Story has always been my favorite.  The leg lamp gets me every time!

After the lights we came home and ate popcorn and watched The Star.

We have had so much fun doing all the things this Christmas season!

national harbor

Today was our first day of Christmas break and we had a fun day planned!

We drove up to National Harbor for the day and found some fun things to do until our main event!  We started off at the Peep store and bought lots of fun stuff!

We saw Air Force One as we drove in and Bryce and Jason were immediately attracted to it so we checked it out.

This plane has been retired and a portion of it has been turned into a museum.  

It was a self guided tour that you could listen to, but Jason just read us the highlights as we went to each station.

I was surprised how dated the decor was and it wasn't as fancy as I would have expected.  I can imagine the newer Air Force One is a little more updated than this once since it is retired.  

We paid for the overpriced souvenir picture! 

We had a yummy lunch at Succotash and then headed to the Gaylord for our scheduled tour of ICE! 

I have always seen fun pictures of friends who have gone to see ICE so we decided to check it out this year.

Peanuts was the theme this year.

All of the ice sculptures were so cool.

We knew it was going to be a cold 9 degrees so we dressed warmly.  Even with the parkas they provide, it was down right cold!

The kids enjoyed going down the ice slide.  It was not crowded at all when we went so the kids were able to slide as much as they wanted.

I just lolved all the ice sculptures.  

This was a great way to start our Christmas break!