Dallas

We spent Friday with Josh's parents. We opened more presents and had dinner. Alex got a tea set she LOVES! She will take tea to anyone, refill it and keep going. While playing with Josh, she handed him his tea cup and said, "here you go," twice! Each time we would tell her thank you, drink it, hand it back to her saying here you go and she would mumble something that sounded like thank you as she refilled it. Sooo cute!

Saturday I was up bright and early to meet my parents at Pier One for a little post-Christmas shopping. I got tons of adorable Christmas decorations for 50% off! (I may have come home and put everything out since we won't be taking down all the Christmas stuff for a few weeks!) When we finished shopping to picked up Josh and Alex then we headed to my grandparents house for breakfast and more presents. My parents met us there and we did our gift exchange with them over there. Alex got more clothes, toys and a super cute Pottery Barn Kids backpack with her name on it.

We then headed to my Dad's parents, Nanny and Paw Paw, to visit and exchange a few gifts. Alex got the Little People Carnival set which is one of her favorite toys!

As if that weren't enough, we dropped Alex off at Josh's parents while we ran to Southlake to hit Crate and Barrel. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted Christmas dishes to put out at Christmas time. I fell in love with the cardinal plates C&B had so between my parents, Josh's parents and grandparents I got 8 dinner plates and 8 appetizer plates along with red dinner plates that complete the set. I happened to get an email from C&B about their after Christmas sale and they had the red bowls and mugs that matched the set super cheap so I had to have them! I am so excited to finally have my Christmas plates!

I spent the rest of the evening going through everything we had to load up in the car, trying to consolidate into as few bags/boxes as possible. It didn't help that Alex had a ton of new toys and clothes, we had exchanged gifts 3 times in 2 days and I bought 4 bags of stuff from Pier One and had a whole new set of dishes. Thank goodness Cooper is staying with Josh's parents until we get back from California because there would not have been room for the poor pooch in the car!

After driving home we spent the rest of the afternoon unloading the car, opening and putting together toys, putting away gifts and trying to pick up the house!

Alex and Ito

goofy child hamming it up for the camera!!

opening presents at Nanny and Paw Paw's

4 generations (my Mom, Grandma, me and Alex)

Merry Merry Merry Christmas!

We had such an amazing Christmas! It all started Christmas Eve. We got to spend the whole day with Josh. We ran a few errands in the morning, the spent the rest of the day and night at home! We had a fabulous dinner and so much food that dessert was the last thing we wanted to fondue will have to happen at a later date. After Alex went to bed we got to work being Santa's little elves putting together toys. Josh and I were talking, he said when he was little he opened his present from Santa then waited for his dad to put them together. I said, "No way!!! They have to be put together so she can start playing as soon as she sees them!" Good thing we put the cozy coupe together because it took a while!

opening her Christmas Eve present

enjoying Daddy playing Christmas carols before bedtime
Cooper and me playing in the tent!

the crazy coupe and it's millions parts!

I literally woke up at 5am Christmas morning and dozed off and on until Alex woke up because I was so excited to see her little face light up when she saw her presents. We actually decided to not go overboard with her gifts because we had 5 more Christmases to celebrate and this kid already has a TON of toys. We got her a pink princess Cozy Coupe, a tent with a tunnel and the Little People Happy Homes house. She also got a Cookie Monster she goes crazy for every time we go to Target for on Christmas Eve. In addition to this stuff, she got stuff in her stocking. So I guess she did get quite a bit.

Josh brought her into the living room and set her down so she could walk in and see everything. She looked a little confused then couldn't figure out what she wanted to look at first. The Cozy Coupe was hands down her favorite gift. She spent most of the morning getting in and out of it. She wanted nothing to do with opening her stocking stuff so we opened it for her and showed it to her as she ran around.

love at first sight!

Josh and I exchanged gifts and Alex had some fun helping tear the paper. My hubby is the best. I got Cuisinart Food Processes from Williams Sonoma I have been eyeing forever! I can not wait to use it. I LOVE kitchen electrics and I am working on my collection. Last year was the professional series Kitchen Aid stand mixer, this year the food processor. I better get to cooking even more! I also got a netbook since my laptop went kaput several months ago! My sweet little girl also got me the mother's love necklace from James Avery.

After breakfast and a little relaxing we headed to Dallas!

Santa's Wonderland

Last night we met Nate and Mandi for dinner then we headed Santa's Wonderland. We've seen it since we moved to College Station and wanted to go each holiday season, but this is the first year we made it. The place is huge. You can drive through or do a hayride through it. I really wanted to do the hayride but we decided against it this year and thought next year Alex may enjoy it a little more and not be so squirmy. I'm sooo glad we decided to drive through since it started raining before we got to the end and the hay ride people got all wet! I made snicker doodles for us to snack on as we drove through. I was going to make hot chocolate, but it ended up being 70 degrees and I thought hot chocolate may be a little much! It is right off the highway not far from our house. As we headed that way we realized the huge line of cars in front of us were all waiting to go to Santa's Wonderland too. To pass the hour or so we were waiting in line we listened to Christmas music and picked our favorite songs. I have too many favorites to pick one. Nate and Mandi sat in the back with Alex and she thought Nate was the funniest thing ever!

When we finally got close we rolled the windows down...the only good part about it being warm out, and Alex pointed and ooohhh'ed and aaahhh'ed at the lights. There were millions of lights and they had some really cute displays.

The entrance from the highway

Tons of colored trees that line the frontage road

I don't know what the alligator had to do with Christmas, it kinda seemed out of place. Lots of the figures moved. The alligator's mouth opened and closed trying to snap the fish that jumped out of the water. A little morbid and scary for kids..at least he didn't catch the fish!

There were a lot of lighted archways you drive through.

True to College Station form, there was a whole Aggie themed section. We are not Aggies and moan and groan at the crazy Aggies and maroon explosion around this town.

The cute Reveille...who is no where near as cute as our own little collie, Cooper!

I loved these trees! They were much cuter in person.

these were really pretty too!

Over all we had a great time. Alex loved all the lights and stayed up for the entire ride. As soon as we got home she had some milk, I changed her clothes and she crashed!

We are soooo excited for Christmas. Josh has off tomorrow and Friday so we have a few little things to do then we are going to relax and have a big Christmas Eve dinner, just the three of us. I have been going to my grandparents house every Christmas Eve since I was born and this is the first year we are not going. I am kind of sad about it, but I am sooo excited to be starting our own family traditions. Our plan is to go pick out some great steaks at a local butcher shop, come home, relax and have a snacky lunch. (This is my idea. I can't have a Christmas with out snacky foods like summer sausage, cheese, crackers, queso and chips and so on so we are having all that plus little pigs in a blanket for lunch.) We will have steak, shrimp, twice baked potatoes and bacon wrapped asparagus for dinner followed by a fondue dessert! (The steak and shrimp is something Josh said his family used to do for Christmas when they weren't visiting family, so we will carry on his tradition.) We get to open one present on Christmas Eve. (In my house we opened EVERYTHING Christmas Eve, then Christmas morning we got our big gift from Santa and stockings.) After Alex goes to bed, we'll clean up the house and put together all of her gifts from Santa. Josh and I are super excited about this, really!!! We'll set up the living room with her present out in front of the tree unwrapped so she can see everything and she won't have to wait for us to open packages and assemble toys. After presents, we'll open our stocking stuff. Then I'm making arroz con leche for breakfast. (I remember having this growing up and haven't had it in years, so I am really excited about it!) After all the present and breakfast, we are loading up and headed to Dallas to do 3 more Christmases!

Tis the Season...

Tis the Season...to listen to Frosty the Snowman, over and over and over again!

Tis the Season to enjoy the Christmas decorations!

Tis the Season...to share Cheerios with your best friend!

Tis the Season...to go crazy with Daddy's American Express!

Tis the season to dance!

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Potty Time

I've been wanting to get Alex a potty for a while. I was potty trained really early (I think my mom said around 14 months, but I was obsessed with taking my diaper off)...I don't want to push Alex too early, but I want her to be familiar and have all the tools necessary when she is ready. I finally got her one on Friday. When we got home from running errands, it was her nap time so I let her sit on it to get the feel for it! She sat on it for a bit, then got up and wanted to play with it. Typical Alex! When I was about to put her diaper on her, I sat her on it again and she tinkled! I actually didn't realize because as soon as she was done, she stood up and tinkled on the rug. I was too caught up with making sure she didn't step in it to notice she actually went a little in the potty! Since then, she just prefers to play with the frog, take it apart and try to step in it. After the new year, I'm going to make an effort to put her on it at each diaper change and just kinda go from there.

First Real Haircut!

**This was actually Saturday, I'm just getting around to posting it!

Today we took Alex for her first real hair cut! I decided I wanted her hair cuts to be something exciting she could look forward to as she got older. While we were in Southlake a few weeks ago I saw a kids salon and decided I wanted to find something like that for Alex. No such luck in College Station so I looked up the salon and they had one in The Woodlands. We love The Woodlands and still had some Christmas shopping to do so I figured we could make a day out of it.

We got up this morning, got ready and headed out. We got to the Market about half an hour before her appointment so we took our time browsing the stores. We stopped in Baby Gap, which I love, if there was one here, all of Alex's clothes would be from there. We found the cutest dress for her to wear to a wedding we are going to next month. Anyway, while we were there she started throwing a FIT and wanted out of the stroller, as soon ad we got her out, she headed for the door and tried to open it. I realized it was snack time so I gave her some cheerios and she was a happy camper again...kinda. She still wanted out of the stroller and was just a squirm worm trying to get down from our arms and refused to hold our hands while she walked. I was worried how she's do for the hair cut. As soon as we walked into Sweet and Sassy, it was like sensory overload. She wanted to be down getting into everything. When it was actually time for the hair cut, she was good, as long as she could hold her snack cup and stuff her face with cheerios. She just got a trim to clean up her hair that was starting to look a little gnarly! When we was done, she got a little spray of glitter in her hair and a sucker. It was her first sucker and she LOVED it! We headed to the mall and did a little shopping then went to PF Chang's for lunch. It was a great day with my family!

Here Comes Santa Claus

Saturday we had so much fun! We had plans with the family on Saturday and Sunday so we headed up to Grapevine Saturday. We spent some time with Grandma and Grandpa Stafin, went to dinner, then headed over my Aunt Martha's. My Aunt Martha has a holiday party for her grandkids and their friends every year and this is the first time we were able to make it. There were a ton of people there and a ton of kids! My poor pumpkin wasn't feeling so hot, she's had some tummy issues so was getting a horrible diaper rash. She had on tights that were irritating her rash and it had started to spread down the back of her legs so we had to take off her tights for the rest of the night. She was very laid back just walking around taking everything in. All the big kids ate and decorated cookies and cupcakes. Alex just hung out with us on the couch then tried to get anyone to take her to play on the stairs. When the kids were done with the cookies and cupcakes, we got a very special visit from Santa Claus! All the kids sat around while Santa pulled a present out of his bag for each kid and they got their turn to sit on his lap for pictures. I was worried how Alex would be since she was fussy and hurting, but she did great. She just looked at him for the longest time then decided she wanted down. At that point, it was past her bedtime so we headed back to Josh's parents for the night. Alex stayed up until after 9 playing with her new toy.

Alex wandering around looking for someone to take her to the stairs

All the kiddos listening to Santa

Alex checking out Santa

over it!

Sunday we saw my family again! My grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary so we all got together for lunch at Mi Cocina in Southlake Towne Square. There were 31 aunts, uncles, cousins and cousins kids there and we were still missing 8! I know it meant so much to my grandma to be surrounded by family and it was great to be there to celebrate with them!

my adorable grandparents (Ito and Ita)

she's still crazy!

Happy 60th Anniversary Grandma and Grandpa!