Santa FAIL!

I decided that I had to take Avery to see Santa at the mall this year.  This is her second Christmas, but last year she was too little to take to the mall at Christmas.  I wanted to start a tradition of taking Avery to see the big man in red to start off the Christmas season!  We met up with my best friend Angie and her two kids to see Santa, have lunch, and do some Christmas shopping.

I 100% got a Santa FAIL picture!  Avery was terrified of Santa.  She was crying so hard and shaking and just gripping me for dear life!  The poor girl.  Angie was able to snap some pictures of us while we sat with Santa.

She was so sad.  One day she will be so excited to visit Santa and probably run up to him to tell him what she wants for Christmas!

We had such a great Santa at the Barton mall.  He was so nice and helped us get some decent pictures with him even if Avery wasn't sitting on his lap. 

You can't really see her top in any of the pictures, but it says "Too cute to be on the Naughty List".  I thought that was perfect for seeing Santa. 

After pictures, we all headed upstairs to the food court to eat some lunch and then get started on our shopping.  We stayed at the mall for a couple hours then headed home.  Once we got home, I decided to make another pan of oatmeal raisin bars.  I also made some hard boiled eggs, brown rice, and cilantro lime chicken.  I was a busy bee in the kitchen!  Once everything was at a stopping point, we went for a nice walk in the neighborhood.  The mornings have been freezing, but the afternoons have been in the 60s and beautiful.  When we picked up the mail this afternoon, Avery had a little package from her grandpa Rick and grandma Liz.  They got her a really cute t-shirt from Maui, Hawaii!  They just got home from a really nice Hawaiian vacation.  Maybe one day Eric and I can go on a tropical vacation to Hawaii :)

Well, I have TONS of cleaning up to do around the house tonight.  Tomorrow is December 1st, so the 25 day countdown to Christmas is starting!

pictureless update

Just wanted to post a little update.  The blog is going to be pretty boring for the next few days.  I had to order a few more SD cards for my camera because my others are finally full!  So I'm waiting on those to take some more pictures.  What fun is a blog post without pictures?

Today was a good day.  Eric was off today so we decided to head out to Town Lake for a walk once Avery woke up from her morning nap and had lunch.  We did the 3 mile loop.  The weather here was beautiful today!  Nice and crisp, but once you got moving you felt a little warm in the sun.  After our walk we had to stop at Target and Costco for groceries and a few Christmas items.  Eric made a delicious vegetable pasta for dinner and now we are relaxing for the evening. 

Hope you had a great Monday!

the holiday season has started!

Well it is officially the start of the 2011 holiday season.  I couldn't be happier.  I LOVE Christmas time.  I love having the house all decorated, shopping for Christmas presents, baking lots of yummy goodies, and having family visit for the big day.  I took Avery outside really early the other morning to take some holiday pictures of her.  My mom sent me a really pretty navy blue Christmas dress for her.  This is my favorite picture out of the bunch.  It was hard being the one behind the camera and also trying to keep her from crawling all over the place and eating mulch. 

I didn't get to go out shopping on Black Friday.  I did get to sit in my sweats, drinking coffee, ordering Christmas presents in the comfort of my own home though.  I got all of my Christmas gifts ordered and shipped for all of our family we won't be seeing on Christmas day.  Angie and I went out for lunch and shopping today.  I had so much fun!  It was great to be out KID FREE and really be able to look around and talk and enjoy a meal in peace.  I also found some great deals for a few more presents (and a lotion for myself!).  I'm 90% done my shopping for this year.  I even have my Christmas cards ordered.  I hate waiting until the last minute to get things bought and sent out. 

While I was out, Eric and Avery spent the day together.  They had a great time.  They went to the grocery store and the book store, then went on a nice long walk.  Avery was asleep when I got home.  I was only gone for a few hours but missed her!  I can't wait to see her in the morning. 

Have a good night!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we spent Thanksgiving with our good friends Doc and Angie and their two kids.  We got up to their house around 12:30pm.  Angie made tons of great food for dinner!  We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, deviled eggs, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, corn, stuffing, broccoli, and pumpkin muffins.  It was all so delicious!  We brought over some apple crisp with vanilla ice cream and some Christmas decorated cupcakes. 

Avery got stripped down and went to town on her Thanksgiving day feast!  She loved all of the food.  No surprise there.  My kid can eat. 

Kinley and her beautiful blue eyes.  She loved her cupcake!

Avery enjoying her cupcake!  I'm glad I baked those for the kids (and us too!). 

Austin giving me a great big smile! 

After we had Thanksgiving dinner and the kids had cupcakes, we headed outside to take some pictures.  I played photographer and took some family shots for Angie to use for Christmas cards.  The pictures came out alright, but I wish I knew more of what I was doing with my camera.  I'm thinking more and more that I would really enjoy taking some photography classes.

We got a family shot too. 

Once we finished up outside, we came inside and the adults had some apple crisp and vanilla ice cream while the kids played.  It got pretty warm today so the girls played in their diapers!  Here are both girls sitting with Eric and looking at a book. 

The girls playing.  Avery had a blast playing all afternoon.  Austin chased her all over the place and she had the biggest smile on her face!  Austin shared his cars with her.  Kinley was being a little love bug with me all afternoon.  She is such a sweetheart!  Eric and Austin had fun rough housing around. 

Now it was Doc's turn to have all the kids with him looking at books! 

We had such a wonderful day with our friends!  I always miss family during the holidays, but spending today with some of our best friends was just as fun.  I'm happy to say it is officially the start of the Christmas season.  I just love this time of year.  I'm hoping to get out at some point this weekend to go shopping with the rest of the crazies. 

I hope you and yours had a very happy Thanksgiving!!!

I'm thankful for...

1.  My amazing husband Eric.  He is my best friend.   He is so loyal, caring, loving, patient, hard working, kind, funny, and supportive.  I am so blessed to have him as my partner for life.  I love you so much Forrest. 

2. My sweet baby girl Avery.  You really don't know what love is until you look down in your arms at your own child.  I am in absolute love with my beautiful blue eyed red headed daughter.  She makes me laugh daily.  I have so much fun spending my days at home with her and watching her grow, learn new things, and have fun playing. 

3.  My wonderful family.  I am so happy to have such great relationships with my dad, my mom, my brother, and my in-laws.  They all mean the world to me.  It is such a great feeling to know that I have a family of open arms to go to at any time.

4.  My big brown dog.  I love my Rolo Brown to pieces.  Even though I have to sweep my floors daily so we aren't kicking up balls of dog hair.  You are a good boy bean. 

5.  My awesome friends.  I know many people, but I call few my best and close friends.  As you grow older, it is really hard to make new friends and maintain the friendships you have.  I am one lucky girl to still have some best friends at the age of 30.  I don't have to name names, you lovely ladies know who you are and I love you like sisters. 

I have a sweet life and I am so thankful that it is the life that has been handed to me.

I hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!!  

a day out and about in Austin

We got the spend the day with some friends from Colorado.  Mike, Nicole, and Josh are here this week and spent the day in Austin with us.  We started with an awesome lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Red's Porch.  We shared the chips and queso and all got delicious lunch entrees.  Everyone loved their food.

After lunch, we drove over to Mount Bonnell to see the sights.  The view is so beautiful. 

The view of the Pennybacker Bridge from Mount Bonnell. 

The boys taking in the view. 

Another pretty view.

Eric and Avery.

After checking out Mount Bonnell, we drove downtown to check out the state capitol building.  I had to post a picture of my parallel parking job.  HA!  I hate parallel parking and had to do it today while driving around downtown. 

Here we are minus Mike in front of the Texas state capitol building.  Yes, I know I'm rolling around in lounge clothes but it was just that kind of day. 

Avery happy and excited to be walking around the capitol building.  I just love her t-shirt!  It has her name on it.  My best friend Angie got it for her as a birthday present.  It is a kids size, so it is big right now.  I had her wear it as a t-shirt dress with some leggings. 

Just crawling around and checking things out.  She had a ball. 

Sitting in the grass people watching. 

Eric with Avery sitting on a big cannon. 

The inside of the capitol building.  It is so cool to stand in the middle and look up and see this view.  Once again, I was kicking myself for not dragging my nice camera along today to take some good shots. 

After all our running around town, we had to make a stop at Hey Cupcake.  We picked up vanilla, pumpkin, and red velvet cupcakes.  The perfect end to a fun day!

We had SUCH a fun day day today with our friends!  Now I'm starting to get really excited about celebrating Thanksgiving with our good friends The Barron's.  I need to start preparing our goodies that we are bringing over to share tomorrow.  I'm so happy to have a wonderful friend to celebrate holidays with when neither of us have family close by. 

Have a great night everyone! 

the last of our Colorado pictures

We spent one of our days in Colorado with Eric's dad Rick and his wife Liz, along with Liz's daughters Ashley and Emily, and Eric's brother Brian.  Ashley's boyfriend Mark joined as too.  We had a really fun day!  We all had lunch at Colorado Mountain Brewery.  That place has the BEST ever cheese fries.  I wish I would have taken a picture of them.  I could have eaten the entire plate myself. 

After lunch out and a quick stop to King Sooper's (I needed to get Avery A&D Ointment because she was SO dry and pacifiers because I forgot to toss some in the diaper bag), we headed back over to grandpa Rick and grandma Liz's house. 

As soon as we got to the house, Avery was pretty excited to see some new toys to play with.  Grandpa Rick and grandma Liz borrowed some baby toys from a close friend so Avery would have some fun stuff to play with.  She really loved that pink Little People airplane! 

Ashley's boyfriend Mark took a great picture of the entire family together!  It turned out great and Avery's hair sure does stand out!

We spent the afternoon hanging out and talking.  We made some delicious brownies to snack on, the guys had some beers, and Avery played and visited with everyone. 

Before heading out for the day to grandpa Rick and grandma Liz's house, I snapped this really nice shot of Avery and her grandma Charlene.  I think it turned out pretty well, I just need to touch it up a little.  This was the only picture I used my nice camera with the entire time in Colorado! 

I've shared all of our Colorado pictures!  Hope you've enjoyed reading about our trip!  I'll be back to my regular daily blogging tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to having Angie and her kiddos over tomorrow for a play date.  We are going to eat lunch at Chili's and then spend the afternoon at our house so the kids can play and we can hang out and talk.  And eat brownies. 

Good night!

playing and Christmas decor

Avery and I had a nice morning at home.  We had breakfast (and I had coffee) and did lots of playing.  I enjoy spending my days with Avery more and more.  She has the best little personality and just makes me laugh all the time. 

Captured a little grin.

Bringing me her Care Bear Cousins book to look at.  Look at all those teeth!

My sweet mini best friend.  Her top says Smile and Laugh. 

Avery checking out Rolo who is checking out something outside. 

I decided to put our Christmas tree up this evening.  I already decorated the rest of the house a few days ago.  I had to run out to Super Target after lunch to get new Christmas lights.  All our lights from last year ended up being dead.  Here is our tree!  It has colored lights and a mix of random ornaments.  It took awhile for me to assemble the tree, string the lights, and get all the ornaments opened and hung up. 

Since we don't have a fireplace mantel, I hung our stockings on the shelf that divides the family room and dining area.  I think it looks pretty cute. 

Here is our play room bulletin board all ready for Christmas.  I put a few of Avery's first Christmas photos up and one of her cards (I seriously don't know what happened to all of her other first Christmas cards!).  I'll be adding cards and photos during the holiday season. 

Now that the house is all decorated and clean, I'm hanging out watching Gilmore Girls and enjoying my night.  Happy Saturday!

A Colorado (early) Thanksgiving

Here is a view from above one of our mornings relaxing at grandma Charlene's house.  Eric is watching Sports Center and Avery is playing with all her toys.  I loved having the fireplace going.  It made it so nice and cozy! 

Avery playing with one of her books.  I love this hooded fleece animal print outfit!  It was nice and warm for her.  It got VERY windy this day on vacation and it was cold. 

Grandma Charlene had an awesome set up in her kitchen.  She has a huge pull out drawer full of plastic bowls and lids that Avery could play with.  It kept her occupied for awhile! 

Avery did lots of playing while we prepared some food for our early Thanksgiving dinner.  We all decided we felt like having a turkey and some yummy sides for dinner one night.  We worked on preparing food in the morning, then went out and did some shopping at the mall for a little while in the afternoon.  We picked up Avery a few new outfits at JCPenney and a pretty Christmas dress at Dillard's.  We stopped for lunch at Chickfila.

Here is our delicious turkey!  It turned out great, and I'm not usually big on eating the bird during holidays.  I'm more of a sides girl! 

Our little dinner set up.  The turkey, corn bread, stuffing (or dressing... whatever you call it!), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy.  We also had some apple crisp and vanilla ice cream for dessert. 

After dinner, Charlene and I ran over to Jo-Ann Fabrics.  We had picked up three long sleeve bodysuits for Avery earlier in the day to do some Christmas appliques on them.  We picked out the Christmas fabric and thread.  I got to do a practice applique, but Charlene is going to do the real deal and send them to us soon!  I'm so excited!  Christmas is the best time of year!