munchkin's merry christmas

a few weeks ago mae started to rip the paper off the wrapped presents under my parents tree.  So christmas morning we found a few presents that had wrapping paper missing from the corners.

this girl had a great christmas.  it was so much fun to see how excited she was about opening gifts, and playing with all of her new toys.  i had a blast just watching her.  i didn't get very many pictures of christmas eve, but munchkin looked pretty cute in her christmas dress.

 with our little early bird, we were able to have our own little christmas before everyone in my family woke up.  she figured out pretty quickly the idea of ripping the presents open.

 then we headed upstairs for christmas with my family

 first up...some new kicks. 

 and a scooter!!

 a new rain coat for texas.

 and another pair of shoes that she did not want to take off!

afterwards, we headed over to cody's parents and had christmas with them.  the best part was that we got to skype with his sister kasee on her mission in mozambique!  it was so fun to be able to see her! modern technology is awesome.
needless to say, this girl got way too much for christmas.  we are so blessed!

new tricks

mae has recently discovered her love for climbing.  and at gram and gramp's house there is much to climb.  i was lucky enough to capture her most recent conquest...the bench and kitchen table

i'm so glad i got these, hilarious.  at least she amuses me while she wreaks havoc.

the move

well, if you haven't heard these baldwins are headed to austin.  cody received an awesome job offer from HP, he told me if i didn't want to move he wouldn't accept the offer, but i knew right away that this was something we had to do. overnight our little world was turned upside down.  i'm so excited for cody, and what a wonderful opportunity this is for him.
however, the last two weeks have pretty much been chaos for us. i'd like to just forget them, but they were pretty life changing for us. because cody is starting so soon, we've had to quickly meet with our realtor to get our house on the market.  and trying to pack, clean and get a house ready to sell with a 15 month old was not easy.  sometimes it seemed like everything that could go wrong did...but, we made it!

we have totally purged.  we got rid of a lot of stuff.  so it left our house quite empty.  mae looks so lonely eating all by herself...

 her new favorite activity was climbing into her little stroller.  and having us push her all around the house. 

 if you can't tell, homegirl is not always fond of clothes.  she's learned to unzip stuff, and is always trying to pull her clothes off...wonderful.

with all of the packing going on, little lady had a ball climbing on top of all of the boxes and bins that were all over the place.

 girlfriend is always putting on a show for us...

 amidst the packing she discovered old toys...and learned how to climb in them.  i'm pretty sure she likes this bouncer more now than she did when she actually fit into it.

 

we've had some abnormally warm weather the past few days, so we took advantage of it and headed to the park. 

now that our house is clean and on the market, we are staying with my parents.  cody's headed to austin soon, and as soon as the house sells and we find a place mae and i will join him. 

mae's first snow day

yesterday we got a pretty good amount of snow.  it was so beautiful to watch!  i don't know what it is, but i don't mind snow in december, but other than that i really could do without it.

with all the snow, church was cancelled so we spent the day inside...which if you know me was pretty hard!  after the snow stopped, we ventured out to clean the sidewalk and cars, and for mae to experience the snow.

needless to say we don't really have snow clothes for mae...so we made do with what we had.  there are pictures of erich and i with bags on our feet when we're little, and we used to give our parents a really hard time about that.  what goes around comes around i guess...

 i'm pretty sure it took longer to get her dressed than the amount of time we actually spent outside.  but it was worth it.  she loved it!  she wasn't quite sure at first what to do.  so she just stood in this spot for a while.  then she took off to explore.  i've said it a million times, but i love to experience new things with her!

we thought we would just keep a gate around the tree this year, and that would keep her out...i seriously underestimate this lady sometimes.

she figured out how to get in there multiple times.  so, i gave in and moved all the ornaments to the top half of the tree, after she broke a few of course.

we also have figured out how to get onto the chairs at the table.

and from there onto the table...

mornings are hard when we're stuck inside!  this little girl likes to get out as much as i do. 

Turkey Day

we had a great thanksgiving this year.  with bre, joseph, and lucy in town, we spent lots of time over the break with the baldwins.  we had a blast.  it was fun to visit with them, and also to see mae interact with lucy.  she loved her...but definitely doesn't understand to be soft with her!

while cody went to play in the turkey bowl, mae and i watched some of the parade.  she loved it.

 this year i brought the stuffing for dinner.  the gardineer family stuffing is legendary...you think i'm joking.  well, in our family the stuffing is a bigger deal than the turkey.  as in, some people don't even go near the turkey because it's all about the stuffing.  so, i was a little nervous to venture out on my own and make it.  but, i must say it turned out delicious!

 my mom got mae a turkey bib for thanksgiving...

 karen bought lucy and mae matching outfits for thanksgiving. we tried to get a picture of the two of them...but neither of them was too excited about that. this was the only picture we got of them together...their faces crack me up in this picture.

 bryan is amazing with the camera!  and got this fantastic shot of mae during an impromptu photo sesh.  which is pretty much the only way we can take pictures anymore.  we got all dressed up to do our family pictures again, and she was not having it.  so, we'll see what shot makes the cut on our christmas card this year!

 

prepping for black friday...