more december fun

what a crazy month!  i feel like so much is jam packed into 24 days. so much shopping, wrapping, baking, mailing, dropping off presents, parties, setting up for parties, cleaning for the parties, cleaning after the parties. it's craziness.  one thing i have tried to do is slow down a little bit.  i didn't do that great of a job.  some days i felt like we were never even home. but, i made a conscious effort to have more low key days.  and since the weather has been so beautiful, we've spent a lot of afternoons just playing outside.

izzy will just sit and watch mae play outside for hours.  and lucky for us, it's been perfect weather for that.

my mom sent this picture, pop's gravestone is up, and it's perfect.  there were also wreaths put on all of the graves in the Quantico National Cemetery.  I'm grateful for those that made that possible.  

mae's favorite any time of the year that i can find a cookie cutter tradition is making sugar cookies.  she has become the master decorator.  she pretty much did all of the cookies by herself this year.  one of my favorite traditions growing up, so i'm so glad i get to share it with her.

mae has been asking for ages to take a dance class.  so, we finally signed her up for a ballet/tap class that starts in january.  her ballet shoes came in the mail yesterday and she was so pumped.  she was ready to put them on and get dancing.

 i had to hide them so she wouldn't wear them all the time. 

love these girls.  and i love how much they love each other.  mae has become quite the little mother.  she is very concerned about izzy.  and is always saying "you okay izzy, i right here izzy".  

izzy is a mama's girl.  whenever i'm around she wants to be near me.  and if she can see me and i'm not sitting by her or holding her, she can get pretty upset.  her fourth tooth is finally starting to break through.  she crawls all over the place, and is starting to pull herself up. she eats more than i do.  and has the brightest smile of any person i know.

winter break

if you can call it winter.  we've been running around in shorts and flip flops.  and i love it.  although, it sure doesn't feel like christmas.  but, it's a lot of fun to go on walks to look at lights in the evenings and not have to bundle up!

cody took this week and next week off, so we've enjoyed some much needed daddy time.  yesterday we took a fun trip to the cameron park zoo in waco.  mae was a little more timid than i thought she would be at first, but when we were walking out of the zoo she said i want to see more animals.  so, i'm pretty sure she had a good time.

the thing i love most about this zoo is that it's not too big.  mae was able to walk the whole time.  we were there close to 2 hours, and she had a blast the whole time.

she liked the parrots that said hello and her name.

  there were hardly any other people there, so we were able to walk right up to the animals without having to wait at all.

and she loved the elephant.  

we ended up having a little picnic in front of the elephant, and he squirted some water out of his trunk, and made some great noises which mae loved.

another thing i love about this zoo is there is a playground in the shade!  so we were able to sit and mae could run around for a bit.  they had these cute cut outs to stand behind.

 mae loved being a butterfly, and izzy loved eating the wood.

Ho-Ho-Ho

mae's new favorite phrase.  that and "you're driving me nuts!"  clearly i've said that way too much the past few days! 

st nick also came to gram's house, and she sent what he left to us.  this awesome tree was in that package.  this tree has already received many an hour of playtime...thank you st nick!

there are a lot of people in our neighborhood this year with lights, and even if they aren't amazing, they are to this little 3 year old.  it's been so warm, we've been able to go on a few walks after dinner to see all of the lights.  never gets old

santa last year was a disaster:

 

this year was much better!  i had to stand there with her, but she went up there, and she even told him what she wanted for christmas...a stage.  yes that's right.  this kiddo wants a stage in her room so she can sing and dance on it. oh boy.

zilker park downtown does a trail of lights every year.  we didn't go last year, but i thought this would be the year to go.  and i was right.  this kid absolutely loved it.  

 it was really amazing.  tons of lights, displays, christmas trees, santa, a ferris wheel, santa's workshop.  it was kind of crazy with the amount of people that were there.  but i would definitely go back again next year.

 and of course in texas santa doesn't use a reindeer, he uses a jackrabbit.

 this was mae's favorite part.  you can't tell here, but they had a snow machine that was blowing fake snow. 

 and on our walk back this happened...

 we were walking on a really busy street with tons of noise, and nothing woke her up.  she was out cold!

also, grandma baldwin's birthday was last week, and in honor of her we went to mcdonalds and each got a special drink, because that is grandma's favorite place to get one.  she's a special lady, and we love her!

tis the season

christmas has been more exciting this year than ever before.  mae really gets it this year, and is psyched.  i don't know if everyone's children are like this...but it's like a switch is flipped the minute december starts.  she is completely nuts.  i'm talking off the walls excitement, not sleeping well, poopy pants, wetting the bed, meltdowns when she can't open packages, utter chaos.  i'm assuming every child is like this...sorry mom.  i think that's my initial feeling whenever mae does something ridiculous.  to say sorry to my mom. 

moving on.  decorating the tree was lots of fun (don't mock our tree, it's sad.  this year is the year we're getting a bigger one after christmas!)

we've received many a package (hello amazon, why do i ever shop anywhere else?).  and a few have been able to be opened.  and it's pure joy.  and the others that can't be opened up, devastation.  hey, she's gotta learn about disappointment sometime right? 

pflugerville does a christmas parade and a pfestival of lights.  i figured this was the year to take mae.  and boy was i right.  we met up with some friends while we were there, and they all had a blast.

 first up were some princesses...this was my favorite shot of the night.

 so glad that mae has such sweet, fun friends to share these experiences with.  it makes them that much better for her!  these girls are adorable.

 little miss iz all bundled up.  she did really well during the parade too! 

 

st. nick comes the night of the 5th, and boy was mae excited to celebrate.  you're supposed to put out your shoes, and he will leave you treats.  she lined all of our shoes up.

 and he came!  girlies had a good morning.

i love this season.  and this year, we've wanted to teach mae the importance of giving, and the joy it can bring.  so she helped me go through clothes and toys.  and she had to pick 2 toys to give away this year.  one of them was her little kitchen.  she gave it to her friend tommy.  she was so excited to clean it and get it all ready for him.  and she picked a few other things.  then we hauled all our loot over to a garage sale that our ward had to benefit the refugees.  she also came and helped me volunteer there.  what a wonderful way to start the season (even if she has been a nut case).

Thanksgiving

this year we stuck around for thanksgiving, and lucky for us all our family in houston was staying here as well.  and kasee and seth were coming into town!  so we headed down to houston

lucky for me brittany is good at taking pictures, because i am not.

i was in charge of rolls, so i got out my great aunt audrey's roll recipe.  and my first attempt wasn't so great (darn yeast and i do not get along).  but, the second time they turned out pretty good.  even if they were totally malformed.

 mae had a rough night while we were there, she was up a lot, and she wet the bed (seriously?! this girl never wets the bed).  i figured out the next day that she had an ear infection.  lucky for us, noah had an ear infection too...so we borrowed some ear drops!
despite not feeling well, she had a great day.  that morning the guys went to play basketball and took the kiddos with them.  a win for mama and for mae!  she had a blast with all of her cousins. and i got to go for a nice long run (i still had izzy, but pushing izzy feels like pushing nothing compared to pushing her and a 40 pound 3 year old).

later we headed over to the park.  where brittany got some great pictures.

these girls had a blast

i know this picture is blurry, but i just love the look of joy on her face.

again, i wish i had taken more pictures!  like of matt trying to figure out the turkey! (which by the by, he did an awesome job on!!) or uncle seth on the trampoline chasing around all of the kids.  or lucy, mae and tessa all running around together.  i'm hoping that just me writing down those things will spark memories someday.  because we absolutely love getting together with cody's family.  and i love how much fun the kids have together.  

some of the merriment

these two.  they were amazing with all of the kids.  so much fun.  they are going to be awesome parents one day!

i love thanksgiving.  not only for all the delicious food.  but it's such a wonderful start to the christmas season.  to remember all that we are grateful for, and go into the christmas season with a grateful heart.
i'm so grateful for family.  i'm grateful that cody's family doesn't feel like his family, but my family too.  and i'm so glad that i have such wonderful relationships with all of them.