Christmas 2009

Click here to see more pictures of us hanging out with family, the kids opening and playing with gifts and mine and Landon's fun in the snow.

Christmas was a little different this year. Greg's Grandfather fell and broke his leg on the beginning of the week of Christmas so Greg's parents needed to leave Christmas morning to go help him out. My uncle Donald passed away on Decebmer 23rd so my parents went to West Columbia to be with family and help out. Usually we have Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas day with Greg's. This year we celebrated with my parents on Dec 23rd with Tacos for dinner and Greg's parents on Dec 24th to open gifts, and then we had lunch with Greg's sister and Grandmother at our house on Christmas day. We had a good time with everyone, but it was definitely different.

Celebrating with Grammy and Gramps on Dec 23rd

Hanging out with Grandma and Pops on Dec 24th

Christmas Eve we had to put out cookies and milk for Santa. We had a couple cookies left over that Landon had made that week. He wanted to add some sprinkles to them, and then leave some milk. He wanted to leave regular milk and not Soy milk for Santa.

Christmas morning, Landon came in our room about 7:45am and told us that he got something really cool and wanted to know if I wanted to come see it. Kasey and daddy stayed in bed for a little while as Landon and I checked out what Santa brought. Landon had asked Santa to bring him a small Christmas tree because the one we had (I've had it for many years) broke and couldn't be used. He said it was different than the one we had but liked it. Landon got a fire truck that turns into a city where a very small fire truck, ambulance, police car and a few other cars can do different things like fall into a bridge and someone comes help them. The parts on it are very small and some things broke pretty quick. Mom and dad weren't overly thrilled with Santa's choice this year :). Landon also got a cool Cars book that had a flashlight. The book hasn't been read much, but the flashlight and sounds it makes has been used a lot. Santa brought Kasey a little caterpillar rocker that sings songs and says shapes when you press them. She loves it. She also got a little soft barn that plays music and has animal pages on it that are touch and feel.

Landon playing with his cool toy from Santa

Kasey playing on her new rocker from Santa

We did have a white Christmas though. It snowed Christmas Eve. From an article in Dallas Morning News, "The 3 inches recorded Thursday at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport was the first measurable Christmas Eve snowfall since the National Weather Service began keeping records in 1898." Landon and I decided to go outside and play in the snow Christmas morning - good thing because it melted soon there after. We enjoyed throwing snowballs, making snow angels, running in the snow, and pretending to follow maps that were made of ice.

Landon and I playing in the snow

Lunch with Nanny and Aunt Cindy on Christmas day

Napa Trip

Greg and I took a pre Christmas trip just to two of us. We went to Napa Valley for a long weekend to celebrate our 9 year wedding anniversary and to have some time for us. We went December 16th through 20th. We stayed at the Glass Mountain Inn which was our favorite bed and breakfast of the 3 we've stayed in there. We enjoyed some wonderful food at various restaurants, and of course we enjoyed the wine. We spent the first 2 days visiting wineries that we had gone to before and enjoyed, and then Saturday we visited wineries that were recommended by the caretaker at the B&B plus another one close to the B&B that we had tried in Dallas and liked. Each time we've gone we've found a winery that we've really liked. The first time it was Frank Family (still a favorite), the second time was Stonestreet, and this time was a small winery called Allora in St Helena. We missed the kids and even watched some kids movies in our down time, but it was nice to get away and have some time just for us. Thanks to the grandparents for keeping the kids.


Click here for some pictures from the trip - Greg also posted more pictures on facebook from most of the restaurants and wineries.

At Allora winery

At Bottega for lunch

Kasey's First Haircut

Since Kasey has decided that bows and basically anything in her hair is not something she wants a part of, I decided it was time to get her hair cut. Gil who cuts my hair offered to do it when I came in for my haircut. So on December 22nd, I went to get my hair cut and took Kasey to get her first haircut. Grammy came with us to help with Kasey while I was getting my hair cut and to take pictures. There are several pictures that turned out cute. Kasey seems to look older with her haircut and doesn't have as much hair in her eyes anymore.

Overall she was really good. Gil gave her a little stick that kept her interest while he cut her hair. He did a try cut, and basically trimmed the hair.

She really liked the shiny smock

Gil has a little girl of his own so he was really good with Kasey

The little stick kept her interested while Gil cut her hair.

Kasey's New Room

We finally made the move to get Kasey to her own room on December 25th. She's been sleeping in her crib in our room since she was about 1 or 2 months old. We have some of her room decorated, but are still working on it. I have decorated it in maroon and pink butterflies and just love it. I sit in her room looking around while feeding her and really enjoy being in there. The first night she was really fussy when we tried to get her to bed. Of course she threw up all over place for unknown reasons. Since then she has been pretty good. We now bath the kids in Kasey's bathroom upstairs.

Kasey in her bed in her room for the first time.

The Kasey Leigh that my friend Beth made for Kasey's shower that was my inspiration for the room.

Kind of a weird picture, but was trying to get the rug and the nightlight in it

Bath fun

Welcoming Santa to Willow Bend Mall

I was looking through pictures some and found these. This was from 11/6/09. Grammy and I took the kids to welcome Santa at Willow Bend Mall. It was a small parade - ended up being an add for Lexus and Dance studios, but then Santa came and it was fun. The guy MCing the event was supposed to be the conductor from Polar Express. They also had a few other characters that were cool.

Santa walked through everyone - you can see from the pictures how close he got and then he walked into the mall to his post for pictures for the season.

Landon got a whistle & Lollipop

The conductor guy

Family Portraits

We had family pictures, 1 year pictures of Kasey and pictures of the kids together at JC Penney's in Plano just before Thanksgiving. Here are some of my favorites.