Lilypie Third Birthday tickers

Saturday, December 31, 2011

December 2011

Charlie in his new Christmas jammies going to look at Christmas lights... with a cute chocolate milk mustache!
Reindeer antlers - check. Snowman mug - check. Happy boy - check. We're ready for Christmas!
These new Christmas Thomas jammies resulted in a big crying fit the next morning. He refused to take them off for Daddy so Daddy gave in and let him wear them to school. Thanks Gigi!
I gathered a few sweet friends and attended one of my favorite events of the Christmas season... Cookies and Castles!! Jillian & Esther
Elizabeth & Frances
Katie, me & Natalie (We missed you Hilary!!)
My final product
My mom was in town so we took Charlie to his first movie in the theater. So Gigi, Mommy, Daddy and Charlie went to see The Polar Express at the FW Omni!! He lasted through the entire movie with no potty breaks and was mesmerized every single minute!!!
Our tickets
The next night I had my work Christmas party. Tracey, her best friend Nese (her date) and me
My sweet friend Amy and me. That anesthesia group can really party!! Carson and I left about 11pm and apparently the party didn't end until about 3am!
Natalie and I took Wyatt and Charlie to Bass Pro Shops for some free Christmas fun. They loved the electric trains.
Then we rode the carousel
Charlie on Comet
I have a feeling this is a foresight into our future with these two boys
Charlie playing in the tents
Second year in a row that he was not a fan of Santa
We converted Charlie's crib to a toddler "big boy" bed in December. He climbs into it every night all by himself and the kid loves it but still won't get out of it on his own.... Shhh!! Let's keep that a secret.
I left the room for about 10 seconds and came back to this.... yes, he's a climber just like his father! Got up there, by himself, to get a book. Priorities :)
Vivian and Charlie
My work puts on big holiday fireworks show every year. Our family of three.
Charlie and Daddy enjoying the show
He liked the pretty Christmas lights but went bananas over the firetrucks!
We loved feeding the ducks this winter too
I love this little bear hat. (I had to get use out of it this year because I think he'll be to big for it next winter.)
I took this picture of his monitor with my cell phone so it's not very clear... but if you look closely he's sleeping with his arm over his eyes! Guess somebody was tired.
Picture of our awesome small group having Christmas dinner together. We are truly blessed with sweet friends!! Top row: Carson, Joyelle, Matt, Koy, Tracy, Molly & Jonathan. Bottom row: me, Matt, Katie, Hilary & Bryan.
Charlie's artwork from Thanksgiving
Our mom's group had a Christmas party with the husbands and kids. Here we are with our growing group. I love going through this stage of our lives with sweet friends. I treasure my friendships with each of them. Our leader Cindy and her husband stopped by too. Top row: Jillian (pregnant with Owen), Finn, Luke, Hilary (pregnant with Hudson), Stephanie (pregnant with Jude), Drew, Charlie, me, Molly (pregnant with Max) & Hank. Bottom row: Esther, Emery, Kate, William, Wyatt, Natalie, Joyelle (not pictured Henry), Vivian, Emme Cate & Katie (pregnant with baby boy). Whew!! That's a lot of cute little munchkins!! If you didn't do the math, that's 9 moms, 8 boys, 5 boys on the way, and 4 girls. Those girls are a little outnumbered!!
After some pizza we decorated Christmas cookies and trees (ice cream cones)
One night Charlie and I baked Christmas cookies! He loved every minute. How cute is that apron?? Natalie and I made those for our mom's group for Christmas.
I asked Charlie to bring me the powdered sugar from the pantry and he brought me green chilies. I just laughed!
Not the prettiest cookies but they are definitely colorful and tasted great! I had to quickly ice them because someone's little fingers were quick to decorate.
I enjoyed this note from his school (12/15/11) because he is slowly learning how to share. :)
Natalie and Wyatt gave us these cool glasses to wear while you look at Christmas lights. They make the lights appear as shiny snowflakes!! As you can tell, Charlie loved them.
I tried to copy the picture below of Carson wearing his dad's boots. Charlie just cried and gave me this sad face.
Carson wearing the same boots when he was about 2 years old.
Charlie's sweet Christmas ornament artwork
His picture on the otherside
Artwork & then I made a book of all of Charlie's artwork from 2011 (see below)

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NYC 2011

I went on a quick 4 day/3 night vacation to NYC in December with some girlfriends from work. I hadn't been to NYC since I was 15 so we went as many places as possible. Here is the photobook I made of our trip:

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Christmas 2011

We headed to my parents' for Christmas. Picture is a little blurry but has all of us around the table before the awesome beef tenderloin that Carson prepared!!
Carson's grandparents live about 45 minutes from where I grew up so we stopped by to visit. Carson's aunt, uncle and cousin were all in town too! Parker helping Mom A make some chocolate pie!!! I wish I could make it like she does. I think she secretly puts in some magic fairy dust or something because her's is always better than mine.
Parker and Lyn
Charlie and Parker riding the horse! YEE HAW!!
Shannon, Parker, Caleb, Carson, Charlie (picking his nose with style) and me
We went to the Marshall historic square for dinner and to see the Christmas lights. Papa Jess and Charlie with the reindeer!
Papa Jess and Charlie with the courthouse
Train ride... it was probably the best 5 minutes of Charlie's day
He's happy
Granny sent us all satin sheets! Snazzy!
Josh, Izzie, Charlie, Laura and Ava opening gifts on Christmas Eve
Our family
(the ladder in the background is because like a something off of "Griswold Christmas" our electricity went out in the living room right before we read the Christmas story... oh well)
Charlie is the best present!
Gigi
Charlie and Izzie playing with the dog lights that Papa Jess got for Christmas
Ava got her first American Girl doll! Quote "it's what I've wanted my whole life!"
Izzie and Jordan
This picture cracks me up. My brother and sister-in-law have been potty training Izzie with bribery of Cinnamon Altoids!! Here she is desiring the Altoids. She sneaked some at one point and I asked her to open her mouth... to my surprise she had 7 in her mouth at one time!! (Sorry Izzie, you can be upset with me one day for posting this, but I thought it was just too funny to pass up.)
Joshua and me on Christmas Eve

Video of Charlie talking about Santa coming...
Kiss the cook
Wearing cookie cutters at accessories
Happy to make cookies for Santa
Setting cookies and milk out for Santa, wearing his new Thomas Christmas jammies
We were hoping for a grand entrance down the stairs Christmas morning.... but instead, this happened:
Do you think he's happy about his tricycle from Santa?
Our attempt at a Christmas photo before church
So we settled for one of just us
Gigi and Papa Jess
We headed back to FW for two days and then went to Kerrville to see Carson's family for New Year's. Noni with her Thomas artwork on Charlie's Christmas presents.
Charlie got a train from Boppa (imagine that) and it has batteries!
Andrew and Kelsie
Carson and me
Boppa reading Charlie his new book
Caroline and Justus with their first registry present! It was like their first born child :) So excited for their wedding in 2012!!
Caroline, me and Kelsie
Charlie and Blake being silly
Sweet Caroline even liked the trains
Charlie, Nathan, Boppa & Blake playing trains
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!!!!

December iPhone videos 2011

Here are a few videos from my phone in December. Out of order, as usual, but all too cute to pass up!

At Christmas we went to the square in Marshall to see the Christmas lights, ride the train and eat dinner. Here's a video of Charlie with Papa Jess looking at the lights (sorry it's fuzzy):
We continued to ask Charlie what he wanted for Christmas and he never waivered from "tricycle". Carson took this little video of Charlie when I was in NYC (you can hear Noni in the background):
Charlie and I sing songs together all the time. I LOVE music and hope I can instill that same love in Charlie. Here's his first attempt at "Jesus Loves Me" (kinda). He's singing more and more of the words now:
This is his adorable attempt at his ABCs. E-F-G all runs together and he forgets a few letters. This is when he's 25 months old:
Right after Thanksgiving we packed up some chocolate milk, put on our Christmas jammies and took Charlie to see Christmas lights. My friends laugh that Charlie has similar expressions as his mommy... like "amazing" and "awesome". This house is hands down the best Christmas lights in FW. You'll have to see if you agree: