Christmas in Tennessee!

Saturday before Christmas, we headed back to to Tennessee to meet Steve and Sarra at our house who were driving from Indiana. Mom R. came with us and it made the drive go by so much faster having annother person there to talk with and help with Ivy. Steve and Sarra came down from Notre Dame, where Steve has been working on his MBA. They actually had a baby just 2.5 weeks before they came down! So brave! It was so fun to see them and their girls, who we haven't seen in over a year. Ivy was just a couple months old last time we saw them. She had so much fun with her cousins!

Making cookies on Christmas Eve with Grandma:

Right pic, Ivy was pretty fascinated by Baby Lucas. She thought it was so fun to say "hello baby" and look for him whenever we asked her where the baby was. 

 Christmas Eve. We just love early bedtime in our house! Santa had plenty of time to wrap and set up gifts, hehe:

Christmas morning! Please excuse the lame phone pics.. I could not seem to get my hands on my better camera for any of these moments! In fact, for the entire Holiday break for some reason.. At least I have these.. Here is Ivy enjoying her new (to us) rocking chair and ball popper toys. She loved the chair, even though I don't have a very good pic to show, lol..

Left pic- Ivy and her cousins, Stephanie and Lizzy, were showing off some of their Christmas goodies. Those two girls were so funny! I can't believe how much they've grown up since we've seen them last:

My Christmas goodies! The long awaited new OBB cookbook and some good running clothes for wintertime. yeah!  (Not pictured, Sam got me a nice new puffy white coat and I love it! And Sam got an external hardrive for all our media. Fun stuff):

Brothers. This was their Christmas "card" to the other brothers in Colorado, lol:

 These two sat like this and kept making funny noises and laughing at each other for a good 30 mins. It was hilarious:

 A day or two later we finally got our first little snowfall! Hooray! (Little did we know we'd get a heck of a lot more where that came from! The other day we had a major snowstorm blow through. It was awesome):

I've never actually hosted Christmas at my own house before and I'd have to say it was a success. It was so nice and relaxing to just sit and chill every day without having to be anywhere in particular. It was also so fun to have family here to celebrate with. Steve, Sarra, Mom R, Sam and I (and baby lucas, hehe) stayed up late and played games together every single night. If any of you are looking for some fun new games, these are our new favorites: "Pass the Popcorn,"and "Wits and Wagers." Both were so fun!! We miss having our live-in game buddies. ;)

December Texas Visit

I guess I can't really call the post "Christmas in Texas" because we actually came back to Tennessee a few days before actual Christmas. Sam had his last test of the semester on the 12th and we started our drive down right after he finished. Stayed the night at Tyson and Valerie's in Biloxi, then got to Houston the next afternoon. Ivy actually did pretty well. She generally does ok when she has snacks and toys to preoccupy her and the laptop or ipad when she gets stressed out. 

For some reason, this trip was way less stressful than our trip for thanksgiving. In November, Ivy was out of sorts when we got there and was pretty cranky for most of the week. I think she was either teething or had a cold or something.. This time around, She was super happy and for the most part, slept pretty well (except for one or two tough nights but that's life). While we were in Houston, we actually still did quite a bit of traveling.. We started in Pearland with Jeff and Mom R., then I went up with my parents to my sister Kelli's for a night, the next day Sam joined us for church and a nice dinner with my family, then we went up to spend some days with Dad R., and finally back to Pearland for the last few days. It was sort of hectic but we are so glad we got to see everyone! I was actually pretty sad to leave. We had a good 8 or 9 days there in Texas but this time around, it did not feel like nearly enough time. Well, here's till next time! Miss all of you, family and friends! Disclaimer: These pics aren't really up to par with what I normally do around holidays. For some reason, I couldn't ever find time to get out my better camera so I'm left with practically all phone pics. Therefore, I didn't get pics of everyone we visited but I just blame it on the fact that we were having too much fun.  :)

Finally in Houston and so happy! 

Visiting Santa at the mall with Mema, Grandpa, and cousins:

I just have to say, (for all you Houston friends for next year) Memorial City Mall was awesome for visiting Santa. They had this system where you type in your phone number and it texts you with your place in line and how much longer you have to wait. So instead of standing in one place for an hour and a half, you can shop and eat until it's your turn! Genius, I tell you. Ivy wasn't too sure about Santa. He was verrry sweet. She was just frozen, haha. BUT she didn't scream. I thought she might. I think she just didn't know what to think of all of it. 

Here are a few pics of our visit to Dad R.'s house. Sam enjoyed some golf with his dad while I went shopping and had fun with Patricia and Jessica. We went to Old Town Spring which was super cute (sry, no pics of that for some reason). Lots of fun shops and little boutiques to check out. In all my years of living in Houston, I had never been before. I'm sure I will go again in the future bc it was pretty fun. Ivy also enjoyed Grandpa's big, warm pool too while we were up there. It was a lot of fun to be able to go swimming in December. Gotta love Houston. :)

After we went back to Pearland, we were able to stop by Tiffany and Matt's new house in Friendswood! So exciting! And so fun to see these little girls growing up.. They didn't quite know what to think of each other at first but quickly became best buds. Such cuties:

Love my BFF! I so wish we had more time together. I always wish that, lol...

Back in Pearland, festivities included cookie decorating, games, and a nice Christmas dinner before people parted ways over the next few days for actual Christmas Eve/day (Some were headed up to Colorado to meet more fam at Dad R.'s cabin and Sam and I were headed back to TN with Mom R. to meet Steve and Sarra).

So fancy!

Ivy with her favorite cousin of the trip, Sydney.. Ivy had so much fun with her! They are gonna be pals forever. :)

Somehow we were lucky enough to stay an extra day than originally planned because of car troubles (nothing to serious and it was all on warranty) but we were able to get back safe and sound for our next round of family in TN. Stay tuned for more pics! 

Family Pics 2012

While down in Houston over Thanksgiving, Jeff was able to take our family pictures for us, with Michelle's assistance, of course. We woke up at the butt crack of dawn in order to get to the park before sunrise and it was worth it! They turned out great. As the sun rose, the lighting just kept getting better and better. It was cool. Jeff is so talented and we are super grateful he could take these for us. And we are grateful for Michelle's help too.. It was warm all week long until this exact morning when it was freezing and so windy! She held the reflector forever in that wind. Such a rockstar. And they both kept bribing Ivy with mini marshmallows, haha. It was awesome... 

Jeff waved the bag of marshmallows to get Ivy to smile and I guess she got desperate because she headed right up the hill after them haha:

Here you can see just how cold this little girl was getting.. She was a trooper. Her little nose was running like crazy but she still smiled and laughed most of the time.. Oh, and note the marshmallow in hand in this pic. hehe: