Unpacking

May I give you some friendly advice? Do not move right before Christmas!!! What a crazy time we are having. I don't think I've ever been so thankful to get a 2 week break. I am loving my relaxing garden tub baths, though, and I sure am happy to wake up in this beautiful house every morning. And we are about to make it even more beautiful. Monday our landscapers are coming out to lay sod in our back yard. Our poor little muddy dogs will be so happy. What a perfect home we have!

Unofficial Christmas pictures

Christmas Tree Night 2009 was a little bit low key. Of course, sweet Jamie came with us, because she always helps us pick our Christmas tree. Since we got one so late, there wasn't much of a selection in the budget-friendly section. So we just got a tiny fiber-optic one! It's so tacky! It can be Alice's Christmas tree for her room next year. But this year we displayed it proudly in our front window for all our brand new neighbors to see.

Owlice's Bathroom

I love, love, LOVE this shower curtain that we got for Alice's bathroom! I have been dreaming about it for months. Thanks to a very sweet student who gave me a Target gift card, I was finally able to get it! As you can see, Alice loves it just as much. Can't wait to paint the bathroom a pretty color to match.

Abbey and Matt just flew in to Austin today. Thank goodness they escaped the northeast right before the big snowstorm hit. (I think, we haven't heard their story yet.) We can't wait to see them-I have some mints waiting on their pillows!

A Different Kind of Thanksgiving

We had our Thanksgiving celebration this weekend with Mim, Abbey and Matt. It wasn't quite how I had dreamed it would be, but we were thankful just to be together. We had our Thanksgiving dinner here in our apartment. We had planned to be all settled in to our new house by now, but our mortgage loan has delayed way longer than anyone expected. So long in fact, that we thought we were going to have to move out of the apartment yesterday because our lease was up. Fortunately (and I am so very, very thankful), we were able to talk some people into letting us stay until Dec. 9th. I guess we'll have the whole panic again then if we still haven't closed on the house. After all that, we are very happy that we still have a place to live-no matter where it is.
We had a lovely time with the fam, even though we were sad that daddy couldn't come down because he was on call. We are going to go up and see him in Amarillo tomorrow, though, since we have the week off and no moving to do.
It was so much fun to watch Matt and Abbey entertain Alice. Abbey loved snuggling her and playing with her hair, and Matt wrote her a special Christmas song: "Vladimir Chernokov, the Russian Christmas Pig" inspired by "Dominic, the Italian Christmas Donkey" that he taught her last year. Needless to say, we laughed all weekend.

Alice's antannae

How 'bout those cute little pig tails on top of her head? I figured out that it is much easier to fix her hair when she is strapped into her high chair and happily eating breakfast.
I think Grammy California will love the picture of Alice reading her little baby bible in her pink shoes. She loves those pink shoes. She brought them up to me Saturday morning and wanted to wear them all day.
She has been a little sick this weekend. Runny nose, low grade fever yesterday morning, and what might be a rash or just precious sensitive baby skin. We'll see what the doctor says about that tomorrow. Poor baby. We just can't seem to stay healthy for very long this fall between the flu, ear and sinus infections, teething on molars, and now a cold. She's a good sport, though. She is sweet even when she feels yucky.

All the things Alice can do at almost 15 months old

1. Say "bubble"
2. Stomp around really hard while she is wearing her puppy slippers with the jingle bells in them.
3. Wear pigtails or a pony tail!
4. Kiss her daddy and mommy on the lips
5. Use sign language when she wants another bite of mommy's cookie for breakfast
6. Play happily in her crib for 30 minutes to let her parents have a happy Halloween sleep in
7. Put cheerios from one cup to another to make sure they are even
8. Sit on a pink suitcase
9. Say "Boo!"
10. Blow kisses
11. Stick her finger in her mommy's nose
12. Climb up into the big rocking chair
13. Play the guitar
14. Smear squash puree all over her face and put scrambled eggs up her nose
15. Wave her little hand like a band director when she likes the music

Ewok and Yoda

This is Nolen, Alice's little school buddy. Can you hear the pure joy in her laugh for him? They have known each other since they were just a few weeks old. In fact, they are only 2 weeks apart. He is the cutest little thing, and I love him like he was my own boy!
After Alice's little Star Wars romp with Nolen, we took her to Booda-fest in Buda. It was cute. We saw lots of cute kids dressed up in costumes, and said hi to many students. The little Ewok was totally worn out after that. When I got her out of her car seat, she didn't even wake up. I carried her upstairs, got her out of her costume, and put her pajamas on without her waking up. So sweet.

Zoo Boo!

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