Our Little Rebel and I'm not talkin' about our camera!

I'm posting these pics, against my better judgement, only because Daddy wanted me to because it's a prime example of our 16 month old acting like she is approaching The Terrible Two rapidly, I think so! We were at some friends' home so we thought we'd take some pics. I really don't like these pics at all. For one, the jacket made me look like I'm 10 pounds heavier on film if you know what I mean! And, well my lovely child decided to do her own thing. Shocking I know!

We asked nicely for her to smile

Instead, we got this "who me?" look

Then it escalated to this! I may of been smiling but wasn't having happy thoughts!

And then she regressed to thumb sucking! The End...'nuff said

Caris and Singing Mouse

So one morning I woke up and Caris is fascinated with this early Christmas present from our family friend, Wilma. It's a singing mouse to the tune of Twas The Night Before Christmas. She is in love with this thing and kept carrying it around with her all day long!

There are worse things to be attached to I guess

Paint Love

My dear hubby took it upon himself a major undertaking by painting three interior roms of our new house. But he really did enjoyed it and did a wonderful job! We discovered our new favorite paint was the Behr Premium Plus Ultra with paint and primer in one. If anyone needs recommendation on a paint to try, this is it! Hubby said we could of gotten away with one coat because it was that good! I also must give a shout out to Home Depot because in the process we changed our minds regarding the finish of one of the colors (we actually wanted an eggshell finish but originally asked for flat finish instead) after they mixed two gallons of paint for us BUT they didn't give us any hassle and let us returned it when it was obviously our mistake! You live and you learn...

Our new paint love

Thank goodness for samples!

I must of stared at this sample swatch of red paint forever before deciding!

Oh, how I love this man for getting the job done!

Breakfast area and kitchen

I finally decided on Red Pepper for the kitchen. Word on the street is the color Red means "increase appetite"...appropriate for the kitchen! The original color was kind of dark red so the paint department lightened the color 50% for us. Didn't know they could??? The magic of paint mixing I tell ya...

Discovering Khaki in the Dining Room

Truly my favorite paint job was in Caris' bedroom! I wanted a little more than a pink room so we did one accent wall of stripes. The fantastic part was it was all one color but we did alternating stripes of the same color in semi- gloss in 75% lighter shade and voila! I didn't do such a good job in taking this pic. It really looks better in person.

Christmas Card 09

Here is our Christmas card this year. We were so happy with the pictures and the card design. Thank you for your wonderful work, Shannon and Rebecca!!

Front

Back

Cozy coupe play date

One of the moms I met from my bible study lives just down the street from us so she and her kiddos invited us over for a play date recently. Caris and I had a blast so we definitely will have to do it again!

A coupe seater for three

This one is so funny if you have been to Vietnam...a family will all pile on top of each other on one scooter!

I'm guessing by Caris' face that she wanted to be in the driver's seat?

But I don't have my driver's license yet...

Getting the hang of it.

Christopher trying out his gymnastic skills

Our wonderful hosts, My-An and Kelsey

Snow Day

So last Friday Houstonians woke up to SNOW! Well, it really didn't snow very much where we were but it earned us a story segment on Good Morning America that morning! Not bad for a city that ever hardly sees snow except it has for the past 2 years in a row now, our one snow day! Of course, all our Yankee friends will laugh in our faces since to them it's hardly snow until you scrape snow off your car window or dig your tires out from the layers of white fluffy stuff! But hey, this is Houston and we'll take what we can get.

My Lil' Snow Baby checking out the scene

It was coincidence that I got her these jammies but the news were predicting snow all week so of course we had to do the honor!

Snow belly

What does one do on snow day...we made hot coco with Snowmanmallows of course!

My little sous baker

We baked & decorated sugar cookies...

We also did the Snow Dance...

Ironically, the very next day Clay's Restaurant had their Annual Snow Day so we went to check it out.

I think introducing her to snow cones would go well!

She loved the horsey in children's area

So it's common knowledge that hubby and I talked about not incorporating Santa in Christmas with the daughter but I think in this society it's getting harder to avoid the fat man in the red suit who steals the limelight out of the real meaning of CHRISTmas. Just like it's politically correct nowadays to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. Instead, we should focus on celebrating the birth of Jesus but no one wants to talk about that! So I've decided that when she starts asking questions I will tell her he's like any other fictional characters you read in books and see on TV like Dora, Disney Princesses, etc...But really, why should he take credit for gift giving and be used as a tool to bribe children into doing the right thing??? I was just glad she didn't cry because I've heard some stories of first time being on Santa's lap. From her body language she was probably thinking you kinda look like my Pappaw but why are you here and wearing a funny looking suit? So there you have it, Caris' first time on Santa's lap.