Christmas Cards

I can't say how much I love getting Christmas cards in the mail!  It's so fun to see how everyone has grown/changed.  I love seeing all the outfits, the different backgrounds and the cute poses.  Of all the Christmas cards Gordon and I have mailed out, this years was my favorite!  Alison did a great job.  She was even able to capture a few smiles....from a little boy who really dislikes the camera.  It was quick, easy and they turned out perfect. 

I loved that the Merry Christmas was in foil!  #myfavoritecardyet

William's face is priceless!

Can you tell I like these two guys?!?!

William dusted his hands off, stood up and said, "BYE!" to Alison.  When you're done, you're done.

Thanks BFF for the precious memories!  * let me know if you live in the Katy/Houston area and need a photographer.  She's super! *  

Preparing for Christmas

I hate how quickly Christmas came and went this year!!  The first week/weekend after Thanksgiving I had my "favorite things" bunco night followed by Gordon's company Christmas dinner.  That weekend was spent putting Christmas decorations up and going to visit Santa!!!  Over the next week I got our Christmas cards mailed out, wrapped up our Christmas shopping and spent extra time loving on baby boy during his double ear infection sickness.  That following weekend (with 2 days of antibiotics under our belt) William and I made our way up to Dallas to meet my parents.  We went to see ICE! at the Gaylord and had a surprise visit from two of my aunts.  AND the last weekend before Christmas we attended a couples Christmas party, I helped host an ornament exchange party and we got all packed up to head to West Texas.  Whewwww.  It was a crazy, but fun, month!

Christmas Cards are my Favorite!

Lunch Date After Shopping

Bunco Babes

Our annual Ornament Decorating Party had to be canceled due to the yucky flu and I couldn't squeeze gingerbread house making into our tight schedule.  :(   There really needs to be 4 weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas!  Regardless, the holidays were wonderful. 

This was our first year to not get a real Christmas tree.  A part of me was really sad.  But, I will admit that a pre-lit tree is pretty awesome.  I have such fun and happy memories of Christmas as a child. A big part of that is decorating the Christmas tree!  All the ornaments were so fun and most of them had a memory attached to them.  As much as I appreciate a "fancy" tree....our home will always have a fun tree that hold lots of meaning and memories.  William was a great helper this year when it came to tree decorating.  Mommy and daddy even bought some festive Christmas beer to get us in the spirit.  :)

{Mama's helper}  {Christmas shopping.  Love this shirt by Tea from Mimi}  {Lunch date}  {He loves oatmeal}  {Love this face}  {Getting so big}  {Decorating cookies while mama makes his friends treat bags}  {Happy}  {Oh, wow!}  {Ho, Ho, Ho is coming to my house?!?!?}  

Our visit to see Santa went as expected....not so good.  This year, William started to understand that Santa brings you a present if you behave and mind the rules.  We'd ask him what he wanted for Christmas and he'd say, "A BIG truck!"  When we got to Bering's to visit Santa William immediately started saying, "No ho, ho, ho!"  Translation = I don't want to see Santa, he scares me.   When it was almost our turn to talk to Santa William was clinging onto me for dear life.  He wouldn't even look in the direction of Santa.  I told him all he had to do was tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.  As I put him onto Santa's lap (while he was crying) he started yelling, "I wannnnaaaa BIG truck!" on repeat.  He calmed down long enough to snap a picture (obviously he wasn't smiling for that one!).  When I went to pick him back up he whispered one more time, "I wanna big truck." to Santa.  I got a little teary eyed because he's just so darn sweet....and I felt a little bad for torturing our poor child.  Hopefully he'll laugh when I tell him these stories years from now!

Santa 2014

     

Christmas Cards and a New Year

It's hard to believe that 2012 is gone.  Time has never flown by so quickly!  Thanksgiving and Christmas are the best part of the year.....well, honestly I love something about every part of the year but the holidays are filled with family time, Christmas lights, yummy food, cooler weather and Christmas cards....and nothing makes me happier!  Although I'm sad to see it go I am glad to have a calmer calendar ahead of us.  Having something scheduled every weekend makes the normal day to day life even more hectic! 



William has been a busy bee!  He gets his creativity from his daddy. :)

As you can see in the picture above we have a little artist on our hands.  HAHA.  I don't think I'll ever be able to throw this stuff away!  When I opened the card from William I cried.  Yep, I sure did (motherhood has turned me into an even bigger softy than I already was).  His teachers got us an ornament with a picture of him and this home made card.  It's the best gift I got all year.  Seriously.  That little boy couldn't make us any happier!  We're also so glad and grateful he's able to go to a school where they love him and take such good care of him while we are working. 


Moving forward....here's a little recap of our New Years and getting Christmas cards in the mail....

I'll start with our first family Christmas card.  We had pictures taken while we were in Texarkana over Thanksgiving and really loved how they turned out!  I ordered the cards a couple of weeks before Christmas but encountered a little bit of drama trying to get them delivered to our house.  FexEx said they had been delivered to our house but we never received them.  :(  I called TinyPrints to let them know and was surprised when they said they would give me a refund.  Long story short FexEx discovered the cards had been delivered to the wrong house so I went by and got them (by then it was only a few days before Christmas)!  The cards went out a little late but I figured it was better than never.  When we got back in town from Midland I called TinyPrints to let them know we ended up finding the cards and to please recharge me.  The lady was a little surprised and ended up only charging me half of the original price.  The story gets better.....yesterday I got a handwritten letter in the mail from TinyPrints! 
Here's what it said:
It was an absolute pleasure assisting you today.  Thank you so much for calling us after receiving your order and letting us know.  Your honesty is commendable and truly appreciated.  Thanks again for the reminder that there are still good, honest, upstanding people in the world.
I will forever order from TinyPrints!!  Not only were they willing to refund me for a mistake they didn't make but they sat down and took the time to hand write a note thanking me for calling.  Great company in my opinion!!!

Gordon and I got to have a night out together on New Years Eve.  It was our 5th year to go to dinner at Sonoma Wine Bar on NYE.  2009 we went with Whitney and Chris, 2010 we got engaged that night!, 2011 was our first married NYE, 2012 we went with my parents and I was preggo, and 2013 our 8 month old baby was at home!  After a yummy dinner and some delicious Cakebread we went to a new bar in our neighborhood.  I had some champagne and G had a beer, we ran into some old friends and at 10:00 we headed home to see our sweet baby boy....who was surprisingly still awake!!  I guess he knew it was a party night.  Don't worry, after snapping a few pictures on an iPhone, William and I were off to bed and asleep by 10:30.  haha

"Guys, what is on my head?"

 

Most days he drives me crazy but I couldn't love him any more!

We had a relaxing New Years day.  I slowed cooked some black eyed peas, we lounged around in our PJs and William made a new year's resolution to sleep through the night!  :)

YEAH for 2013!!!