A First Birthday for Baxter!

Our littlest fur baby turned one year old today! He's such a good dog. He lets the girls lay on him and never tries to get away, haha. He loves to lay in front of the fire and he loves to play fetch. He wants more than anything for Hammer the cat to be his pet friend, but she wants no part of him. He's pretty determined though, still chases her all the time.

Happy Birthday sweet Booka Boy!

Some Days...

Some days are better than others...Today is not one of those great days that you want to have. Both my girls, and I, have these annoying coughs that just give you a really fun headache and get your throat nice and sore.

I think I was out of the bed more than in it last night. Both little ones were coughing a bunch and between getting Motrin for one, Tylenol for the other, juice for one, and water for the other, I was pretty much wide awake at that point. Once they'd drift off, I'd still lay awake waiting for a cough to come out of someone's room, and it always did. I gave up at 3:45 am and turned on the TV to watch the early news.

I'm SO grateful that my other half is coming home from traveling today, yay for reinforcements!

Off to take a nap. Ok, really, I don't see it happening, just wishful thinking!

Pretty Cripper Tree!

I can just hear little Lane saying that, love it!

This year we have one of the most beautiful Christmas trees we've ever had! It's 12 ft tall and makes quite the statement...It's actually still a work in progress as we haven't finished putting all the ornaments on it. Wonder if we'll finish just in time to take it down?!

The girls love it, and each morning I never get tired of turning on the tree, a beautiful sight!

The Elf on the Shelf

Do you have kids? Do they love Christmas and anything Santa? Than Elf on the Shelf is for you! Ok, that totally just sounded like a commercial.....

Anyway, I wanted to get this little guy for the girls last holiday season but never got around to it. This year it was one of the first things I did just after Thanksgiving. Can't believe I forgot about him until today, oops!

Tonight just after dinner I explained to Addyson what he's all about and the look on her little face was priceless. Her eyes were so wide as I read the story that goes along with the Elf, she loved it! Ryan was even getting into it too, haha

Basically, Santa sends one of his elves to watch over your family and house, then at night while everyone is sleeping, he flies back to The North Pole and reports to St. Nick if anyone was bad, what someone did that was good, etc. In the morning when everyone is awake they must go and find the Elf and he'll be in a different place each morning. Also, no one is allowed to touch the elf because if they do, he looses all magical powers and can no longer report back to Santa.

The first thing you have to do is name your elf and Addyson named ours Twinkle Toes, cute!

I think this will be a fun tradition for our family, and one that can be passed down to many generations.

A Lover of Naps

Now that I'm openly admitting that Lane loves her naps, she'll start protesting them, isn't that the way is always works?? Anyway, she's always been a good little sleeper, and she goes down for naps pretty easily. Today she took an over three hour nap, and I had to go in and wake her because I don't really want her up until 10:00 tonight. When I went in and got her this is what I found. A sweet angel surrounded by all of her sleeping necessities; her pink and white blanket, the binkie, Ohlo(her Build a Bear that sister Addy gave her the day she was born)and Oopsie Bear, her favorite Care Bear. Quite an arsenal of sleep essentials!

I sure hope this one naps at least for another year. Addyson stopped napping just after she turned three, we'll see what Lane does!

Snow Day!

Yes, it's true...An actual snow day in Katy, TX. The weather man warned us, but obviously no one bought it until we saw it with our own eyes.

The schools let out early today even though there was really no need. Snow is like rain to drive in, pretty painless. I think they let the kids out early just to play. And I'm glad they did, we had a ball making a snowman, having snowball fights, warming up by the fire with hot chocolate, then doing it all over again!

Luckily Ryan was in town so he got to join in on the fun. Addyson was so thrilled when I picked her up from school, and that was the heaviest it snowed all day, hence the snow covered Tahoe! She couldn't wait to get home to "have a snowball fight", that seemed to be all she wanted to do! Sweet Baxter Boy wasn't sure what to think of the stuff, he had some new found energy today for sure. And Laney just wanted to eat the snow. When she woke up from her nap to a ground covered in white, she looked out the window and said, "Yummy, Mama, have some!" I guess she thought it was icing or something.

The last time it snowed was December 2004 when Addyson was 3 months old. I'd say we were past due for some more of the white stuff!

My Christmas Babies

Two sweet angel's in front of the fire just after they woke up...Pop Tarts in hand, of course!