Christmas 2007

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and really enjoyed spending time with family. Having an 18 month old during the holiday season is just the best. Ashley was so "into" everything that encompasses this wonderful time of the year. Every time we walk past the nativity in our house - Ashley just has to stop and point out baby Jesus. I love that even at this early age she knows that baby Jesus is special. She was also very fascinated with the lights, santa, snowmen, and trees this year. We had quite a busy Christmas schedule this year that started off with opening presents on Christmas Eve Eve at Nana & Pops house. We exchanged gifts with Tiff, Larry and the boys. We had a great time watching the kids play with their gifts and eating pizza. On Christmas Eve we went to our church, Prestonwood for the candlelight service. Ashley even went with us this year and got to go down front and listen to Dr. McKinley talk to all the kids. She absolutely loved it and kept waving to all the kids down there with her. She is so sweet. I love our church and love all the musical talent that our congregation is blessed with. There are several occassion throughout the year where I leave the service with tears welled up in my eyes - and the candlelight service is always one of them. After the service we headed over to Gigi and Granken's house for tamales and chicken enchilada casserole. We had a blast and got our annual night before Christmas present from Gigi and Granken (Christmas Pjammas). We said goodnight - went home - put Ashley in her new PJs set out some cookies and milk for santa and then tucked Ashley in for the night. Then it was time for us to go to sleep and for Mr. & Mrs. Claus to get busy on building a kitchen for Ashley.


We woke up the next morning bright and early to see what Santa had left for Ashley. She loved her kitchen and the play food that Santa had left in her stocking.

We had a blast playing with her new kitchen and then moved onto the living room to open presents by the tree.
After that we headed over to Gigi and Granken's for some sausage bread (YUMMMM!) and to open more presents.
Ashley got a Betty Butterfly from Memaw & Papaw and loved riding it!
We then headed to Nana & Pops house for lunch and back to Gigi & Granken's for dinner. Man were we stuffed after all this yummy eating! We had a wonderful Christmas!

Beautiful Day!

The weather today was absolutely gorgeous! Not a cloud in the sky and 70 degrees! Ashley and I went to the park and had a blast. Aunt Kristen met us up there and we had a great time watching Ashley on the swings and slides. I am so thankful for the weather today that allowed us to spend some time outside at the park. Ashley is getting so much more independent each and every day. I'm always right there behind her in case she falls - but as I've been watching other moms lately I've decided that maybe I'm right there behind her a little too much....so at the park today I let her have a little more freedom and climb up the playground equipment and go down the slides by herself....she loved it :) I snapped a few pictures of her loving smile today. What a sweet child I have.

Don't be jealous...

but all my Christmas shopping is finished. I'm super super excited about this as I think this is the earliest that I've ever before in my entire life been done with my shopping. All I have left to do is wrap everything.

Weekend Recap...

Friday we hosted Playgroup at our house. The kidos decorated Christmas cookies with icing and sprinkles and all had a blast playing together. Ashley wasn't too sure at first about having 25 kids in her house and playing with her toys and was extremely clingy to mommy - but after about 15 minutes she warmed up a little and jumped right in with all the other kids.

On Saturday Ashley, Daddy and Mommy braved the mall to finish up their Christmas shopping. I could not believe how crowded it was. Ashley had a good time and took a little nap in her stroller while Daddy and I continued to search for those last few perfect gifts. We then dropped Ashley off with Gigi and Granken and headed to our Bible Fellowship Class Christmas Party - we had a great time.

On Sunday we spent some time with Eric's family celebrating Tiffani's birthday.

The weekend was great and I for one cherished each second of it - time spent with friends and with family.

Ho Ho Ho

This weekend we went to the North Pole - also known as Willow Bend Mall so that Ashley could visit Santa. We ran into our good friends Shannon and Erik and their two cuties, Cole and Lane who were also there visiting Santa. After waiting oh so patiently in line Ashley got to sit on Santa's lap. She told him that she had been a darling little angel this year and that she would love to get a play kitchen for Christmas....pretty please. Santa said he'd try his best to find her a great play kitchen as long as she would bake his reindeer up some yummy cookies and leave him a big glass of milk. Ashley nodded yes!

Then Ashley posed for a quick pic with Santa and then politely said "bye bye Tantaaaa (santa)" and waived.

I just had to post her Santa picture from last year. WOW! She has grown from a sweet little baby into a beautiful little toddler. God is amazing!

Where did November go?

Wow...so where did the month of November go and did it take our camera with it? I can honestly say that I'm not quite sure. Here is a quick recap of our month (since there was an extreme lack of posting going on and lack of picture taking).




~~~~ Mommy turned 28 - Aunt Kristen and Uncle Matt threw Mommy a party with yummy food and lots of fun. (no pic - Kris/Gigi do you guys have any?)





~~~~ We visited Uncle Michael up at OU during parents weekend. We had a great time. Michael showed us around the campus and Ashley found some neat things along the way. The first two pics were taken in the front of Michael's house. We had a great BBQ lunch at the house and then toured campus, went to Campus Corner and then to the game - where I must say that our good old Baylor Bears held out and fought hard against OU...we were proud of them even though the Sooners ultimately won.

There must have been something interesting on her hand...hmmmm...cute though!

Ashley loves statues...I mean really loves them. Here she is by some sheep she found while walking through campus.

~~~~ Ashley had her first Oreo this month. I've been dreading this moment - imagining all the horror that could unfold and the chocolate fingerprints spread throughout the house. But Daddy gave her one - and I must say that she did quite well with it. No major messes. She LOVED it!

~~~~ Thanksgiving. We spent time with family and unfortunatley we have no pictures to post (Tiff, Nana, Kris, Gigi - send us some pics). We had a great day and ate way TOO much food - but that's what Thanksgiving is all about.