can we all just take a pause for the fact that christmas is just a few days away? it really snuck up on me this year...as did getting our cards in the mail. i had them ordered in plenty of time...but there's something about getting them stamped and in the mailbox that apparently was just too taxing.

but christmas cards are in the mail. our house is decorated. all presents have been delivered...and they are now patiently waiting to be wrapped. wrapping...ugh. i have no fewer than 20398420 presents waiting to be wrapped (actually...probably closer to 20 presents). wrapping is not my forte.

i don't wrap them because i'm the person that doesn't put any presents under the tree before christmas so that when the girls walk up stairs on christmas morning and see all the gifts their minds are blown. boom. is that weird? the hard part has been keeping them away from our closet...

i've threatened them within an inch of their lives if they go anywhere near our closet. they have no clue why. i'd say there are lots of places to hide the presents...but they've taken over every other space in our house, so...closet it is.

regardless...i'm terribly excited to celebrate the holidays with this crew. kaye and sawyer are at the very best age...and i may have snuck a thing or two past my farmer's nose that he'll really be surprised by. 

so now...bear with me. when i say i'm excited to celebrate with my crew...i'm talking about these guys. the people i force to take family pictures with me because i need proof that their mine...all mine. (heart eyes)
can we talk about sawyer's little face? she just kills me. 
and in this picture i'm nearly positive sawyer is trying to hurt kaye's hand. she's a sweetie like that.

see...a total sweetheart!


but then there's our farmer. our girls have all the heart eyes in the world for our farmer. i'm sure they'll let elli tag along when she gets old enough...but mom can go ahead and kick rocks if it were up to them.


unless i totally beg them to take a picture with me. here kaye was doing all sorts of awkward faces (she's going through a weird smile, weird hands phase)...so i gave her ticklish booty a few pinches.

and in this one - sawyer just licked our farmer's face. she's super amused with herself.

but can we take a moment to admire this sweet girl? this sweet girl who i'd swear doesn't have ears because the idea of listening to anything her farmer or i have to say is out of the question. kaye knows best.

i'd say the real win this year was sawyer. last year she quite literally wouldn't let me touch her, hold her, pick her up, feed her an m&m for smiling...nada. it was out of the question. this year? this year!
i kissed her. she hugged me. we love each other.

and if you're curious as to where these were taken...no, not on our farm. i talked our farmer into heading to the boise. we hit two locations. one stop at the botanical gardens where the sun was blazing hot and i was sweating out my light blue, pirate shirt. and if we know anything about light blue...it's not the best color to sweat in.

and after a sweaty experience there i begged my farmer to head down to a little ice cream shop that serves both ice cream AND beer. what? it's called the stil...and if you're local, you need to go to there. you're welcome.

plus they let us take some pictures there...not that we asked. 
 
and should you ever been on the hunt for a wonderful boise photographer - stephanie mballo is your gal! trust me! there is no reason these pictures should have turned out, but she manages something behind the lens that makes me happy every time!