Christmas 2012

Whew!  What a Christmas!  We were so blessed to be able to spend it both here in Amarillo with tons of family and then head down to Dallas to continue the fun with my family!  As of this year, we have started the tradition of waking up in our own house every Christmas morning so we can make memories with our own little family and the kids can wake up to Santa at home and I. love. it.  I love it!  I love that I got to start some of my very own traditions that will continue as our kids grow up at home.  I want them to have the same warm fuzzies and wonderful memories that our parents gave to us with Christmas morning!

Oh, did I mention we had a WHITE Christmas??  It was super exciting and made the day celebrating the birth of Jesus that much more special!!

Just waking up and coming out of his room.

He ran over to the window to see the Christmas snow!  So cute.

Then it was time for stockings!

The BEST picture of the whole day...opening his very own Thomas the Train set!  He was excited to say the least!!!

A new train

Loving on his new soccer ball!  The whole morning was magical because he was SO into every single present!

Posing with mommy and her bright new RED purse from daddy!!

Christmas breakfast!

At lunch time it was off to Nana and Geefather's house for Christmas with them and Luke's family.

Faith and Adelynn opening stockings.

Blake and Parker got harmonicas in their stockings...we were serenaded quite a bit while opening stockings.

While lunch was being prepared, these two characters found the dress up box in a closet and had some major fun!

Last Christmas as a family of three!  

On the 26th we drove down to Neesie and Grandad's for more family fun!

Ty (almost 2), Parker (31/2), and Leah (almost 4)

Opening gifts with Leah and Ty!

New Sperry's from Aunt Lindsey, very stylish!!

He finally got a football, the boy has wanted one for a while now!

Our time in Dallas was packed with shopping, eating out with friends, and great family time, it went by too fast!  It was a blessed Christmas and we are so grateful to have families that we love being around and enjoy!  I hope you had a Merry Christmas too!  :) 

A boy and his hot chocolate!

Enjoying hot chocolate on a cold night!

In full swing

The Christmas season is my favorite time of year and it's also the busiest!  I try to always remember and want to instill in Parker that all of these "things" we go to are all part of the big celebration at hand...and that is the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
I apologize in advance for the quality of all these pictures, they were taken with my iPhone!

James's law firm had a family Christmas party with a photographer there for family pics!

My friend Lindsay, who owns Sweet Emotion Cookies here in town, invited Parker and some buddies to a cookie decorating party!

Clay, Parker and Jack

Concentrating on the icing!

The best part was the sprinkles!

Parker's finished cookie!

This past Sunday, Parker and I flew down to Dallas for our annual girl's night out to the Michael W. Smith Christmas concert at the Meyerson.  It's definitely a highlight of the season!

While we were there we did some shopping!

My lovely sister! 

The concert was amazing and it was fun being there with my mom and sister and the girls on James's side as well!  Wish I had gotten a group shot.

Of course there have been many, many more parties and things going on, but I've just tried to enjoy each and every one which means my camera just didn't get taken to them all!  :)

22 weeks!

I thought it was time to update a little on the bump!  I am 22 weeks today and feeling great!  It's so fun feeling the baby move around and kick!  Parker is still very into the baby "that is in mommy's tummy". He frequently asks to kiss or hug it and asks me if it is kicking, so sweet!  I currently have no food aversions and don't really crave anything either, but sometimes a craving will just hit out of no where.  Like the other day I couldn't stop thinking about hot donuts.  Maybe it's because I had just watched an episode of Duck Dynasty and they had a hot donut eating contest, ha! (I did NOT feed the craving by the way).   I'm still working out 5 days a week and teaching spin class, I might slow down at some point, but not anytime soon!  ;)
Anyway, all is going well...praise the LORD!  Just enjoying this wonderful season and the reason for it!!

The 21 week bump with the 20 week sticker posted on week 22...how's that for keeping up??

We've had some COLD days up here in the panhandle, so we've been doing some fun Christmas projects!  (I may throw that fleece I'm wearing into the trash can...it makes me look like a puffed up marshmallow or something, sorry you had to see this)!

Parker really got into making his gingerbread house!

Cute little monkey after I picked him up from preschool today!  We always head straight to Sonic for a treat!  :)

It got quiet

Those of you who are mothers of young children...you know that moment when you realize that it's just too quiet in your house?  Good things NEVER come from that realization, never.  Last night as I was in my bathroom trying to get ready for my mother-in-law's birthday dinner, I realized that Curious George was no longer playing on the t.v. and that the house was just, well, quiet.  In my mind I innocently thought, "he's just playing with his blocks", but deep in my heart I knew that was not the case.  So I went over to his hall and noticed the bathroom door cracked, heard water running and found this...

He was standing on his stool...

with a huge glob of blue toothpaste in his hair...

telling me he was getting handsome.  Notice the slight part in his hair, he had been combing his hair with toothpaste.  This was all funny at first until I realized that not only had he squirted toothpaste in his hair, but  he had emptied his tube of hair gel all over the floor and counter.  Good times.

*Side note: that huge red thing in the middle of his forehead and on his nose (you can't see it in the pic) is what I call road rash.  It happens when your three year old finds your husband's skate board and goes sailing down the driveway and then crashes face first onto the pavement, and skids a little. 

**Don't ask me why my husband has a skate board (it's actually a long board)!  :)

Yes...we have family portraits tonight at James's law firm party.  Good timing!  I love being a boy mom!!    All my friends tell me that this is a rite of passage of being a boy mom...I'll go with it!

20 week sono! IT'S A...

GOTCHA!  Did you really think I cratered?  Well let me tell you, I almost did about a hundred times this week as today approached, but we held strong and are waiting for that big surprise on delivery day!!  It was funny, after the sono was over, James asked our sonographer if she knew the gender and she said no, because the baby was in a position to where she just couldn't tell!  :)
Anyway, our baby is just perfect so far, praise the LORD!  Everything measured just how it should and  we had a blast watching how active he/she was on the screen.  We even caught a big yawn!  The best was watching Parker get so into watching the baby.  He was so sweet and seriously talked the entire time about what he was seeing.  We are so very thankful for good news today!!

Sweet baby profile!

Parker sat on his very own stool and watched his sibling on the screen.  He kept telling me "good job, mom...lay real still"!  Such a little encourager!

After it was over, the sonographer, Kim, gave Parker two of his very own pictures of the baby to have.

He was so proud!

Asking questions

We went home to eat lunch and notice what is lying next to his plate...he wanted the 

baby pictures right next to him.

I was sitting at the computer and he came in and told me he was giving the baby a hug and he also insisted taking his nap with the pictures. He is already in love.

Melt. me.

Thanksgiving 2012

I'm back!!  Thanks to Kaki for cluing me in on a great place to store all my blog photos for FREE!  If you haven't heard of photobucket...check it out!!
I am so thankful for the time we got to spend down in Dallas for Thanksgiving this year!  Parker and I spent the whole week there last week and James flew in to meet us on Tuesday.  We had fun from the moment we got there...of course there was lots of shopping involved (thank you mom for all the maternity clothes you bought for me!!!), lots of eating, playing outside, visiting old friends, date night and just being together.  So very thankful for the blessings the Lord has given us!

To help get us ready for Thanksgiving, Parker and I made this cute pumpkin turkey.  The little kit came from Hobby Lobby and we just poked the feathers and face into the pumpkin!

After the long drive to Dallas, it was time to get out and play!!

The weather was perfect all week, we even made a trip to the Ft. Worth Zoo!

Cute cousins!

These two have some major fun together!

They had the coolest bird place where you could buy a stick with bird seed on it and the birds would seriously come and land on it and eat!

Leah watching her bird eat.

Getting a little help from Uncle Ryan!

The big kids thought it was cool too!  :)

Aunt Lindsey and sweet Ty

Aunt Lindsey gives good piggy back rides!!

Family pics on Thanksgiving day!

Parker with his Aunt Lindsey

Sistas!

A big favorite of mine is going to the Galleria and seeing that huge tree in the middle of the ice rink!  Love it, love the shopping too! ;)

And what Thanksgiving weekend could end without a letter to Santa from a darling little 3 year old boy??