Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas, and it was even more fun this year with Jocelyn's age.  She kind of understood what to do with the gifts.  With a little bit of prompting, she was able to unwrap her gifts....and she definitely enjoyed them all!

Santa's workshop opened on Christmas Eve during "nap time".  Holy Cow, kids toys have A LOT of decals on them.  That was the most time consuming part. 

On Christmas Eve, we went to Derek's parents house for dinner and church.  Grandpa finished the last two chairs for Jocelyn's table that she got for her first birthday!

(click on table link for story behind the table)

Great Grandpa Freese drove down from Illinois for Christmas.  It is so sweet to see him with play with her.

 Jocelyn did very well opening her gifts.  She would give each gift a little tug, and we would help her with the rest. 

So sweet! Jocelyn's Christmas Eve church dress.

Daddy read The Night Before Christmas

And Mommy didn't want to be left out, so we read The Christmas Story. 

Posing in our Christmas PJ's before bed. 

Jocelyn's loot from us and Santa.  Kinda looks like a pink Christmas.

Yes, we got her a barbie jeep!  Toby approves, as he took it for a test drive.

Jocelyn coming downstairs on Christmas morning. 

That little stinker walked into the room, and got right into her jeep?!?  No prompting at all.  It was like she knew that was what she was supposed to do....

The Jeep was a BIG hit!

Jocelyn and Poppy in their matching PJ's .  Looks like Poppy has learned his lesson and got them on right! (click on PJ link for story behind the PJ's)

Jocelyn even got her own kitchen.

We had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed spending time with family.  I think Jocelyn enjoyed it too...

This is totally normal right? 

All I want for Christmas is Mom's Tupperware!

Last Friday, I took a vacation day and hung out with Miss Jocelyn.  At about 3pm, I grew kind of bored but was pleased to see that Jocelyn had found her own way of entertaining herself. 

 This resulted in literally 45 minutes of uninterrupted playtime.  You might ask where I was during all of this....I was at the kitchen table enjoying a glass of wine!  :) 

Another fun activity of pushing around the barstools!

We also like to take dish towels off of where they belong and carry them around....which is kind of weird?

On Sunday, we had some friends over to watch football.  Ryan and Nathan are BIG Jocelyn fans and are so sweet to her. 

 As you can see, they love to hold her and take care of her.  It is so sweet to watch. 

And here again, they love to hold her, especially her head? (see 1st picture).  Also pictured is our neighbor Carter.  FYI... I think we won the neighbor lottery!  They are like the nicest people ever!  AND, they have a sweet little boy that I am sure will become a fun play buddy.

Family Photos 2011

By now, hopefully everyone has received their Christmas card from us!  Hope you all like it!  I wanted to share the rest of the photos from our session.  My very talented friend Kristin Dunn Photography took our photos, and of course did a fabulous job.  It seems as though every time we get together to take pictures, something crazy is going on with the weather??  For Jocelyn's 9 month photos, the sky looked like the world was coming to an end; for her 12 month photos, it was 1,000 degrees outside and finally for these photos, it was probably -2 degrees outside.  Well, maybe not that cold, but for this Texas family....it was pretty darn cold!  Miss J did a great job despite the cold weather, and I think the photos turned out great! 

Enjoy!

 so sweet!

 I will now attempt to draw your attention to my color coordination skills.  Please notice the crochet flower on Jocelyn's sweater....it matches my sweater and Derek's undershirt.  I amaze myself sometimes!  Love it!

It was on this day that we created a monster!  We were trying to get her to smile, and tried "swinging" her.  Boy, did she love that!  Now, every time you hold her hand she thinks you are going to "swing".  Can be dangerous at time because she just kicks up her feet and thinks you are going to catch her!  Geez!

Love the belly!

I swear, Derek missed his calling....he should be in the JC Penney catalog

Home Sweet Home!

We are officially moved into the new house!  We took off this past week and utilized every minute to move into the house, unpack and decorate.  We still have a lot to do, but for the most part I am pleased with our progress! 

Of course with any move, things get scratched and broken.  My poor washer of (7 + years) died on us.  So, we fought the black Friday crowds and got a new washing machine.  I think it may have been the easiest sale of the day for ole Carlos at Lowe's.  I pretty much told him to show me what was on sale, and only models that were in stock.  Five minutes later, we were the new owners of the below washing machine.  I have a confession, I am kind of obsessed with it?!?  I have done literally 15 loads of laundry ever since we got it.  Derek keeps asking me why I am washing this or that, and it is simply because I am obsessed with the machine. 

Last night he found me standing over the washing machine looking through the glass top at the load I had running.  What has my life come to?  That was my Saturday night.....watching my laundry through the lid...LOOSER!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving at my Aunt and Uncle's house.  Then everyone came back to our place to watch some football. 

It was fun this year to let Jocelyn try out all of the yummy Thanksgiving food.  She loved ALL of it!

The home stretch

This post has no pictures(sorry, I kept forgetting the camera)BUT.....we close on our new house next week! This has been a fun but stressful process. We are very excited and cant wait to get settled in. Will post pictures of the house all complete very soon. If anyone has nothing to do next Tuesday, we need "movers". :)

My little cupcake!

 Jocelyn had a Fall Festival at school the Friday before Halloween.  Derek and I met up there to partake in the festivities. 

 My little cupcake was NOT into her cherry hat.  I quickly took it off after this picture.

 Jocelyn and her best buddy at school, Chase.  He is such a sweet little boy.  He was a monster for Halloween.

 Jocelyn's teacher...Miss Alex

 Jocelyn's teacher from her old infant room, Miss Shaela.  We love her!

 My little cupcake trying to escape from her classroom.  She was not into the party, and wanted to leave ASAP.

 Daddy did a great job taking these photos out in front of Poppy and Lynna's house on Halloween!

 All of us took Miss Jocelyn out for trick or treating!

 We stopped by the neighborhood party to meet all of Poppy and Lynna's neighbors.

 She totally had this trick or treating thing down!  She would walk up to each house with her pumpkin purse and stand there looking cute. 

A little family photo after all of our trick or treating.  We had a great time.  Jocelyn was so well behaved and just rode around in her little red wagon and was such a good sport.  We only went to like 4 or 5 houses, but she was definitely a hit in her cupcake outfit!