Christmas 2009

This year we were in Kansas from the 19th-23rd to celebrate Christmas with my family. We then returned to Texas and celebrated with T's family. We really had a fun time in Kansas. All of my sisters and their families (there are 5 cousins now!) and both of my Grandmas gathered at my parents house to enjoy a great meal, time together, and exchanging gifts. We made a trip to Manhattan while we were there and visited a pottery studio near my parents house. Travel was great and we were very glad to be heading south before the blizzard hit!

We spent Christmas Eve together- just our little family of 3. We went to our church's Christmas Eve service and then had our traditional meal of soup. Christmas morning we enjoyed homemade cinnamon rolls together and then watched/help Sunshine open her gifts. It was really fun to see her get so excited about her new baby that we gave her. Here are a few pics...

She kept saying "baby, baby, baby!"

Checking out her new baby.

Taking her baby shopping in her new shopping cart.

Mmmmm....cinnamon rolls!

We spent Christmas day with T's family. It was great to see our nephews, both who are currently serving our country in the Marines and were able to be home for Christmas. We had lots of great food and fun time together!

Pictures

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We made it back from KS just before the blizzard hit. We had a wonderful time and I will post pictures soon. In the meantime, here are pictures that we had taken in recently. It was lots of fun, but after 1.5 hours I must say our little one was ready to be done :)!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONOHYEmBURo

Like Mother Like Daughter?

It has been fun and amazing to watch Sunshine imitate us. Kids pick up words and actions so quickly! Here are a few examples from our home recently....

Due to the weather and scheduling I have been doing some runs on the treadmill. A few days ago Sunshine got on and ran in place. I said something like "Look you're running." So now she gets on, runs in place and says "running, running, running." I love it!

I do love working (if you call it that) in the kitchen and baking cookies is probably my favorite thing to do. So, I spend a fair amount of time looking at recipes- specifically cookie recipes. I guess Sunshine has picked up on that as she finds this years Taste of Home Christmas Cookie edition very intriguing. She probably spent 30 minutes looking at this little cookbook. I hope she enjoys baking as much as I do...it will be fun to spend time with her in the kitchen making yummy treats for Daddy.

Dressing Up!

Sunshine and her cousin T really enjoy playing together. Sunshine spent sometime at T's house recently, and they dressed up as princesses. Here are a few pictures from their time together. Enjoy!

Growing Roses (I hope)...

Last Friday, Sunshine and I took a trip to The Antique Rose Emporium. I must say this is one of my favorite places to go! It is beautiful and inspiring. We attended a class on rooting roses. Sunshine was quite through the most of the seminar- except for when she saw the puppy that someone had brought in and then she started barking :)! I guess barking is better than other sounds a young child could make. So back to the class, we all got to bring home three cuttings to try to root. The fun thing is, they didn't tell us what three roses were in our bag. I am hoping for at least one of them to work. Here is my little bag in my window sill. The picture is bad, but you get the idea.

After about 28 days, I should have rooted roses or dead stems. The hard part is being patient. I really want to open the bag and pull one of the cuttings up a little bit to see if any roots are forming. But, they warned us NOT to do this. So I'll just have to wait 3 more weeks.

The weather was great, so we enjoyed a picnic lunch in the gardens! Sunshine is a vetern rose shopper. The rose emporium was her very first day trip (3 weeks old) and we have been back several times!

You never know what you might find...

Yesterday was cleaning and laundry day at our house. I decided to give Sunshine a little more freedom while I cleaned. So instead of putting her in her crib with toys, I let her play in the living room. I even closed the bathroom door while I was scrubbing the floor so that she wouldn't come in and get her socks wet. There is nothing dangerous for her to get into, but I still wondered what I might find when I came out of the bathroom. Thankfully, she was just playing with her toys. She loves to help with laundry. She makes her own little piles while we are folding it...it's so cute! Last night I was finishing up the last load and I realized she was not in the room any more and it was REALLY quite. Oh boy, what could she be doing?!? Well when I found her she was trying on daddy's jeans. Here are a few pictures.

I know a spot that I love full well....

For those not familiar with Kansas State, the title to this post is the opening line of our Alma Mater song. I really enjoyed my trip to Kansas last week. One of our stops was Manhattan (of course!). It's always interesting to go back. I lived there 10 years. Six of those years I was a student and the other 4 I was part of the working world. I spent the first 7 years single and the last 3 married. I think I lived 9 different places if I remember right, 10 if you count moving within the dorms. I loved Manhattan and sometimes talk about how fun it would be to move back. However, my husband gently reminds me that it wouldn't be the same. And of course visiting always reminds me of that as well. I realize life has moved on in the last 3 years, and we wouldn't be returning to exactly what we had left.


I always feel very nostalgic when I visit. It's so fun to visit friends and to drive around and remember all the times we enjoyed there. I'm sure our kids will get tired of hearing the same stories every time we go, because I am sure we will tell them the same things over and over:). One of my favorite spots on campus is the KSU Gardens. When we lived in Jardine, T and I would go several times a week. I can remember taking a lot of pictures. I would take a picture of a flower I liked and then take a picture of the identification tag/sign. I still have them all! I also met my sisters there for lunch several times when I worked at the Vet School and they were in school. We would sit under the honeysuckle and enjoy conversation and our sack lunch.

Practicing her flower ID skills

I think she would have climbed in if I would have let her!

The best part about our trip was spending time with my family. My mom is so sweet and always makes some of my favorite foods when I am there. This time it was pumpkin pie and chili...yum! She also made an awesome apple pie for my Dad's birthday celebration. It was good to be with him on his actual birthday. I was able to spend quality time with each of my sisters and meet my newest niece. Sadly, I realize the only adult I took a picture of was my Grandma. I only took pictures of the kids- isn't that how it is!

Grandma with 3 of her great-grandchildren. She spoiled us with a great lunch and lots of snacks!

Sunshine and her cousin. They played so well together.