a sad end to a great Christmas break

This year we spent Christmas with Neal's family in Little Rock. This year was really fun because even though Reese doesn't fully understand she is more into opening presents and gets really excited about certain things. Below are some pictures of some fun memories of a great Christmas. Visiting Santa (the amazing elves convinced her that it was okay):

Christmas jammies:

Papa & Reese:

Mimi & Ella:

My sweet family:

Papa & Ella:

I LOVE this one:

Sweet Sisters:

Her reaction when 1st seeing Santa:

Fun with cousins:

We have always alternated each Christmas between my family and Neal's. Although it wears us out to travel for every single Thanksgiving and Christmas it has worked well. We have always known that once we have kids we wanted to spend some holidays at our own house. Next year is the year that we start this and we are going to do both Thanksgiving and Christmas at home. I am hoping that my family will come up for Christmas some years, maybe every other which would make it every 6 years for them. I know that Neal's family will come to our house for Christmas since he is an only child. Even if my family decides not to come, I will miss them greatly, but I am so looking forward to getting to stay home. Traveling with kids is tough and it will be nice not to have to use up so much of our vacation time.

On to the sad part. Baxter bit Reese pretty bad the day that we got home from Christmas. Maybe he was mad at us for being gone? We have always wondered if this day would come since he is a pretty moody guy. He has done so great the past 20 months and avoided so many fights. He got so good at just walking away when she tried to bother him. BUT we know that we are going to have to find him a new home now that this has happened. We don't want to constantly live in fear of what might happen as we know that it could be worse next time, that would make us bad parents. He is making it harder on us and being ultra sweet the past couple of days. He's given me lots of kisses and been extra cuddly. We are so sad and have cried many tears in the past few days while trying to find him a home. Let me know if you know of a good kid free home!

2 month shot comparison

I dread taking my girls to get shots. It is terrible to see them in pain. I took a photo of each of them just after getting their 2 month shots. It is interesting to see the similarities. I really think they look alike but Reese is a bit fuller, see below.

Reese:

Ella:

an overdue update

Many things have happenend in the past couple of months and I am going to do my best to recap below. I have been so bad about keeping up with the blog lately, although I do have a pretty good excuse. I am going to try to commit to updating the blog bi-weekly to avoid such long posts. I don't want to miss capturing any of our sweet memories because I know how fuzzy it gets just months later.

House: Biggest news is that our house is well under way. It has a foundation, a frame, raw plumbing, most of the electrical, windows, insulation, a roof, soffet and facia and I suspect we will have brick any day now, I am very excited to see it with brick because that will give me a good idea of how it is all going to come together. They have laid tile and installed cabinets. Today they were starting on trim and templating for the granite. It sounds like we may be able to move in sometime in March, at best February. Below are some pictures along the way (I will update with interior soon!).

Halloween: Reese had a fun 2nd Halloween. She was a ballerina this year. She went to a baby Halloween party the day before Halloween (which was so fun, one of our friends throws amazing parties), a school Halloween party and she trick or treated at a handful of houses on the street where we are renting. One of my very good friends came by to meet Ella on Halloween and it was good to visit with her and catch up while Reese was out trick or treating with Neal and Gigi.

Thanksgiving: We had a great time in Houston over Thanksgiving. Parts of it were bittersweet as we recently lost my Uncle John, which has been extremley painful for many in our family, but overall we had a great time. 10 days away from home may be too long but it was a great visit. Reese got her 1st pedicure, Neal, Chelsea, Carrie, Alex and myself got to go out to dinner and a movie, we got to hang out with an old Walmart friend and her 2 year old one morning, we got to spend lots of good time with my Mom and my Sisters and the highlight for Reese was Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

Ella: Ella is growing like a weed. I cannot believe that she will be 3 months old soon. I am having such a good time at home with her right now and am dreading the end of my maternity leave in less than 2 weeks now. She is such a pleasant, content and somewhat easy baby. I love both of my girls so much and am looking forward to moving in to our fun new house with two children. Below are some great pictures of my sweet baby girl.