Christmas highlights

We went to Little Rock for Christmas. It took us longer to get there than it usually does because of flooding in the region. The interstate was closed and we had to take the long way around the flood into Little Rock. We even drove through a sizable puddle at one point!

Christmas morning was spent at my mom's house. We had a nice big breakfast and then we opened gifts around her tree. The camera was left in the car overnight (it was freezing) and we could not take pictures that morning because of the fogged lens. So we opened presents anyway and just snapped pics with the iPhones. After I sync, I will try to share some of those pictures later this week.

Christmas #2 was at Lee's mom's house. We had a Christmas lunch and then opened gifts. By that time, the lens was unfogged, so I did get some pics there. Analese absolutely loved hanging out with her cousins, Gabe and Matthew. She now refers to them as "her boys."




Mariele was even introduced to playing with cars, and I think she was really having a good time.





She discovered that cars are also very tasty.



Isn't she cute?



On Saturday the girls' aunts and Grandma watched them while I went for another birthday lunch with my mom and Lee. Mom's birthday was Dec. 22nd and mine was the 24th, so we were still celebrating. Analese and her Grandma made me a chocolate zucchini cake while I was gone. This cake is the exact cake that wooed me into Lee's family - seriously! We all enjoyed my birthday cake.



Then that afternoon and evening was spent doing Christmas #3 at Lee's Dad's house. Analese's favorite present there was the tea set. Her boy cousins also enjoyed playing with the tea set.




Snack time!



Mariele and Grandpa.



Analese enjoyed playing more cars with the cousins.




The group photo. We took about 80 trillion, and there was not a single good one of Analese grrrr!

The Eve of Christmas Eve

We kicked off the official Christmas on Dec. 23rd with a Christmas Eve service following a birthday lunch for me at Cheesecake Factory. Following the church service at our friends' church, they had several characters walking around (a little like Disney). There was also a Santa, but since I am not inclined to stand in line for a mall Santa, I opted out of the church Santa line also. They trucked in snow so that the kids could play. Analese found out that snow is actually a bit cold, especially when one is wearing only ballet slippers on the feet.







This is my favorite shot of that day:

Merry Christmas to all!

We are leaving town early early tomorrow morning. The sleigh is packed with gifts and we are heading to Arkansas. I had a nice early birthday lunch with friends today, followed by a Christmas Eve Eve (is that what you call Dec. 23rd?) church service. Tomorrow is my birthday! Just wanted to wish all of my bloggy friends a very merry Christmas. I love you all and I'm glad that you are all in my life.

Mariele's 11 month birthday and the battle of the bow...

Today my baby girl is 11 months old. As is my tradition in the first year of my babies' lives, I took the monthly photos. I had to snap fast to get pictures of her wearing the adorable Prissy Miss bow. GRRRRR.....She is NOT a bow-compliant child at all! But luckily, she is pretty cute even without a bow. I finally just gave up!

Gingerbread House and Princesses & Knights Birthday Party...

Friday night was spent with my beautiful firstborn constructing the pre-fab gingerbread house. A few "Piggly Wiggly's" and "Frick on a Stick with a Brick's" escaped my lips as I wrestled with the stupid pastry bag. But once the house was glued together with the icing (which I am sure is half Elmer's glue) and the icing was piped onto the house, I let Analese have a hay-day decorating with the little candies (or sugar coated rocks, whatever they were). She is so extremely proud of this little house! And she is dressed in her Princess get-up for a Princesses & Knights birthday party that we attended yesterday. I snapped a quick pic of Mariele right before we left for the birthday party:

Phone Photo Friday

We took Analese ice-skating one night this week. I needed my DSLR camera, but left it at home. So I attempted to take iPhone pictures in the low light conditions. This is the best I got. Analese used the walker for skating, but Mariele was totally cute walking with the walker!






Oh, and one more for the fun of it - our vegetarian Christmas feast from last weekend!

Random Tuesday

The exciting news at my house is Mariele getting ready to walk! Every fiber of her being is just quivering with excitement over her new skill. She pulls up on something, then will let go and just stand there with a big grin on her face! She likes to get our reactions also. Of course we clap our hands and give her lots of praise. Last night she even took a couple of steps forward. Any day now she will be walking! And visions of chasing big sister around the room are dancing in her head.




We FINALLY got our exercise room usable. And by usable, I mean it has a TV hooked up to a TiVo up there. Because we all know you can't use a treadmill unless you are watching an interesting television program. We have a plan to really fix up this exercise room over the next 6 months to a year. The plan includes carpeting and painting the wall where we had the cabinets ripped out. We also plan to get rid of the monster TV on the very elegant ice-chest and replace it with a small plasma TV on a nice console. Here is the ULTRA-before pic. This is how the room looked when we bought the house (this photo was actually how the room looked when the seller was SHOWING the house). The room has the nice high ceiling, making it a perfect exercise room. We have the office downstairs, so we really did not need this built in desk and cabinetry:



This is how the room looks now. These are also before pics, remember. The ice cooler is not in the long-term decor plan:





It has a nice walk-in closet for storage:



Analese is such a princess. She would wear that darn Cinderella dress every day if I would let her. She wore it yesterday. The tiara too. She was so good all day yesterday, because she was told by Daddy that if she was good, he would do her magic rocks with her. She managed to stay on my nice list all day, so here she is doing the magic rocks with Daddy:






Christmas shopping is 99.5% done. We are thinking about taking Analese ice-skating later.

I have been eating too much Pioneer Woman chocolate sheet cake. It is so good, it just needs to be gone!

9 days until my birthday. 35th birthday too. My birthday is going to be a sucky travel day. Boo! Lee even asked me what I want, and I can't think of a single thing. 8 hours of continual sleep, but IDK how that is going to happen.