Christmas 2011

This is going to be a long post with no pictures. All of my pictures are on facebook ( I can't load pics when I'm at work)
We had a great Christmas!
We started our Christmas vacation on December 13th and didn't go back to work until the 26th. We had fun being able to spend almost two weeks together without having to worry about work.
We celebrated Christmas six times!
We started by opening gifts at our house the Sunday before Christmas. Santa couldn't wait to give Kylie her gifts so he made an early stop by our house. Kylie was so excited! She got a a baby doll, shopping cart, tons of play food (Santa went a little overboard), a puzzle, books, a coloring book, and a little zoo set. She wanted to open everything as soon as she unwrapped it.
The Thursday before Christmas, we celebrated with my mom, brother, and his fiance. Kylie got Melissa and Doug play food (a cookie set and a sandwich making set), new rain boots, and books from mom, and a Kylie-size pop up castle from her unkie Ryan and Elyse. She didn't know what to play with first. We of course had to set up the castle and open the food. After yummy breakfast casserole, sausage balls, and helping mom make roll ups for Christmas Eve, we headed home with Kylie's loot. After we got home, we had to set up her castle in her room. We had to do a few changes so it would fit. Sadly we had to move the glider out of her room. Her room doesn't look like a baby room anymore. It made mommy and daddy a little sad, but she loves it.
Christmas Eve morning we had Joe's brother, parents, sister, niece and nephew over. We opened gifts and then ate lunch. I made lasagna and we enjoyed a yummy desert made by his sister. After his family went home, we hung out and took naps.
After naps, we got ready for church. It was Kylie's first Christmas program. We sat in the second row at church and waited for her time to sing. She got up and a nice little boy escorted her up to the stage. The music teacher's helper put her on stage and then it was time to sing. She didn't sing or do the motions, but she sure looked cute up there. She did a good job standing there! We were proud of her for just getting up there and not crying (like the five year old next to her). Next year she will do great! After church we were driving in the car, and she started singing and doing the motions...silly girl :).
Christmas Eve we went to my aunt and uncle's house in Axtell. We normally spend it at my Grammy's house, but she had hip surgery earlier this year and she has been staying with them. It was raining and cold which equals not a fun drive to Axtell. Their driveway is long and only has gravel (not paved). It was very muddy and then we had to walk to the house after parking on the driveway (so that we wouldn't get stuck in the muddy grass). Once inside, the celebration started. It was very crowded, which is not unusual when you have a huge family (and we were missing a few people). We started the night with my cousin Matt's annual reading. He writes the funniest stories which sometimes include family members. After story time, it was time for presents. The gifts were passed out and everyone started opening. Kylie got tons of stuff. She got a three foot sock money (thanks :) to my godmother), clothes, toys, a puzzle, and a day pass to the zoo. She had a blast hanging out with all of her family and did not want to leave.
Christmas morning we got up and headed to my dad's house. We opened gifts and hung out for a little while. Kylie got even more play food, bubble bath (she loves to take bubble baths), and books (she loves to read).
After leaving Dad's, we went to my Grandma and PaPa's (my mom's parents). Kylie got another shopping cart (which is for YaYa's house), a baby doll, a word learning puzzle, and a pink princess windsuit. We hung out the rest of the day and then headed home for dinner.

The next day we went back at work. :(. It was a nice vacation, but like other vacations, it didn't last long enough.


New Year's Eve was uneventful for our little family. We both had to go to work Sunday morning so we stayed home. We spent the night putting away Christmas decorations, eating homemade chicken and dumplings (thanks to pinterest), watching Toy Story 3, and reading books. We watched the ball drop (at 11p our time) and went to sleep.


We are ready for 2012!
Some things we are looking forward to this year:
Joe turns 30 (he is not really excited about this)
Kylie turns 3
We are planning another vacation.

Praying

As a police dispatcher and wife of a police officer my prayers go out to the family, friends, and co-workers of the police officer killed in the line of duty at Virginia Tech today.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/08/justice/virginia-tech-incident/index.html
Police officers put their lives on the line everyday to keep everyone safe. I am grateful to my husband, co-workers and all law enforcement officials that put themselves in the line of danger.

Ready for Christmas

The tree is up, decorated, and has presents underneath. We still need to decorate the outside of our house, but the rest is done. We put our tree up the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I have been wrapping presents for the past three weeks so once the tree was up, the presents went under it. We found out one thing this year...Kylie loves Christmas. She loves all of the ornaments and decorations. Her favorite ornaments are a shopping cart (from my days at HEB) and a police car. She wants the tree on anytime we are at home. She also loves Christmas music. She has even requested Christmas music instead of cartoons. We like to take her out about once a week and look at Christmas lights around town. We started the tradition last year, but she can really enjoy it now. She loves Christmas as much as I do.

Dining table with my jars filled with Christmas ornaments



Our Christmas stockings (left to right: Kylie's, Joe's, mine)





Coffee table with decorations




Kylie and the tree



Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I was able to take off from work. I have worked the past five years and figured it was time to take off and enjoy the whole day with my family. We had Thanksgiving at my godmother's house. I think Kylie is a fan of Thanksgiving. She loved everything she ate. She even had three helpings of macaroni and cheese and two helpings of mashed potatoes (loves them just like her momma does). She enjoyed being with what family was there and didn't want to leave when it was time for her naptime. After Kylie and I took a nap, Joe and I decided where to go shopping for Black Friday. We knew we wanted to go to Toys 'R' Us to get a few things for Kylie. They opened at 9pm on Thanksgiving night. We dropped Kylie off with my mom and headed to the store. When we got there, the line didn't look very long. That was until we got out of the car and started walking around the store. The line was wrapped from the front door to the side of the building. We were on the side, almost at the backside of the building. The doors opened at 9, but the line didn't move. We found out that the store was only allowing twenty people in the store at a time. At 9:45, we finally made it into the store. We found what we were looking for and headed for the checkout. Thanks to the store for only letting in twenty people, we were able to check out in less than five minutes. After Toys 'R' Us, we thought we would drive by Wal-Mart just to see if it was busy. It wasn't busy...it was a mad house. All we could see were the lights from cars driving through the parking lot. Every space in the parking lot was filled and there were still people trying to find somewhere to park. We thought we had enough for the night, so we picked up Kylie and headed home. The next day we did a little bit more shopping and found a few good deals.

Halloween 2011

Kylie went trick or treating for the 2nd time last night. After the first house, she remembered what to do. She went as a ballerina. She wore her tutu that my mom and I made her for her 2nd birthday. She had a blast! She went trick or treating with her friend Cameron. We told her to say trick or treat, but all she would say was "a treat". She was so excited. After she got her candy, she would run down the sidewalk and yell "Candy".

Here she is in her costume. The second picture shows her new smile when you ask her to smile for a picture. Cheesy!!!

Halloween 2011

Halloween 2010

My sweet little ladybug!

Kylie's First Halloween (2009)

My cute pink leopard!

Pictures from phone

Just wanted to post two pictures I took this past week with my phone.

The picture is blurry, her eyes are closed, and she is tilting her head, but I thought she looked cute in her new outfit.  She loves her boots and jeans, just like her momma. 

A picture after one of her favorite activities...BATH TIME

Anniversary

October 14, 2006 I married my best friend. Hard to believe that was five years ago. Since then we have moved twice and had a precious little girl.
 Joe and I met when I started at BUPD in August 2005. I was his dispatcher on Sunday mornings. October 20, 2005 I called him and asked if he wanted to go running with me. After running/walking we spent the next four hours talking. We talked about everything. We hadn't known each other very long, but after that night we both knew we were perfect for each other.

We got engaged February 14, 2006 and were married exactly eight months later.
Our wedding day was perfect. We got married at the church I have attended since I was born. The pastor that married us, also baptized and confirmed me. One of the songs played during the ceremony was also used at my Grammy and Grampy's (my dad's parents) wedding. After the wedding and pictures, we headed to our reception which was held at Elk Hall in Elk, Texas. All of the food was prepared my aunts, uncles, and Grammy. One of my aunts made Joe's groom cake...a police badge of course. My cake was made one of my mom's best friend. I couldn't thank everyone enough for all the work they did to make our day special. I love my family!!!
The day after the wedding we headed to Galveston for our honeymoon. It rained most of the time, but when it didn't we had a great time. We went on a dolphin tour, shopping, and to the aquarium. We had to make our honeymoon a little short because Joe had to get back to work the BU Homecoming game.
We spent the next year enjoying our new life together.
We bought our home in February 2008, and July 1, 2009 we welcomed Kylie Jo into the world.

It has been a great five years!
Five down...FOREVER to go :)

One of our engagement pictures

 A few pictures from our wedding day