Tour of Texas Christmas '10

Over the holidays our little family traveled a total of 16 hours from one location to the next.  Living away from our family is defintely hard on us, especially over Christmas.  So instead of missing out on family time, we hit the road and traveled across Texas.  Our first destination was to Lindale, TX to stay with Grammy, Chief (Shawn's mom and dad), and Uncle Kris.

Can you believe Santa had a secret workshop set up in Lindale?

Lots of presents were exchanged... best of all was a chest full of dress up clothes, hats, and jewelry!

After spending a few days in Lindale, we traveled to Dallas/Denton to visit more friends and family.  

We spent an afternoon with good friends, Mandy and Cody, who just had this bundle of joy!

Then, we spent the evening in Denton visiting friends from college. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because I was very busy trying to keep my two beautiful, yet cranky girls happy in a restaurant full of old friends. We loved seeing everyone and I hope we can all get together again soon! 

The next day, after getting our car towed from Uncle Kris's apartment, we visited the Dallas Aquarium.

After a very quick trip to the aquarium (partly due to Abby's extreme fear of heights and not having a stroller to trap Mia) we headed over to visit with my Gram-pa and Sharla!

After our visit, we headed out of Dallas and on to Wichita Falls (where the weather was warm) to spend New Years with Me-maw and Pepaw, my two sisters and their families.

The handsome boys

The sweet girls...

Aunt Angie made all the girls cute hats! 

New Years came and went, then it was off to Oklahoma to stay one night at Me-maws and Pe-paws before heading home. To the girls surprise, they had one more present waiting under Me-maw and Pe-paw's tree!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Beautiful Christmas Chaos!

Abby's pre-k class performed the Birth of Jesus today on stage in front of the entire school.  They stole the show from all the other grades.  Abby played one of the three Wise Men and she did great!  I was super excited that Shawn was able to take the day off and come enjoy/help out with the party that was after the play.  

We had a wonderful, chaotic morning!

Goodbye Fall... Hello Winter!

Before we left for Thanksgiving in Oklahoma, Abby's pre-k class learned about Native Americans and the Pilgrims.  When I went to pick her up from school, this is what she came out wearing.

She never poses for pictures but this time I think she knew how cute she was, so she struck a pose!  

We also did a little bit of baking to celebrate turkey day!

Perhaps Shawn and I should have been watching her a little closer!

When we arrived back home from Oklahoma after Thanksgiving, the temperature in our town had begun to drop.  We decided to go outside and say goodbye to fall before breaking out our winter coats.

It took me a while to get into winter mode so instead of putting up the tree, I forced Shawn to help me hang our new curtains in the dinning room and office. 

Behold my early Christmas present! 

The next day we put up the tree.  Abby had a bit of trouble getting Santa to stay on the top.

Attempt number one!

Attempt number two!

Attempt number three!

Finally! But now Mia wanted a turn.

Now that the tree is up and presents are bought (at least most of them anyway), we have been spending a lot of time doing holiday crafts....

(Abby and Mia's sweet friends)

and playing dress up!