Christmas Trees and Santa Claus!

We are having a great Christmas holiday this year! There is nothing better than enjoying Christmas through the eyes of a child. Kayla is at a precious age in the world of holidays. Tyson is enjoying it just like he enjoys everything. :)

Since a fireplace is practically worthless down here in hottest place in the country, we lit the delightful fire provided by Netflix for our tree decorating time. 

She loved all the ornaments! I had the five ornaments needing repairs to prove it. Its a good thing my glue gun works well! Happy to report all the ornaments are repaired and the bottom half of our tree is basically bare. 

Tyson was very helpful. He slept through the entire experience. I wanted to snap this photo of me hanging the Texas ornament so he feels involved. 

The man of the house putting our star on the tree. 

Kayla was a big helper to her daddy putting up the outside lights. She held the ladder down. 

A few days later, we headed to Bass Pro Shop to see the big guy himself! We had quite a traumatic experience last year so I decided to talk up Santa for a couple weeks in advance. I even showed her all sorts of youtube videos of Santa. She loves seeing pictures of him and singing songs about him. 

We stopped on the way to get Chick-Fil-A peppermint milkshakes. Brett lives for these yummy, seasonal treats. We hardly ever get ice cream out but we make up for it in December. Kayla is following in his footsteps and can't get enough either!

That cheesy grin says it all!

 We got to Bass Pro Shop a little early and Kayla got a little personal time with the jolly old man. She seemed to be alright with him and we had high hopes of the actual lap sitting!

They have the best set up for Santa and its all free (my favorite part). The carousel was a much loved part that was enjoyed at least three times by Kayla. 

Tyson had a blast too!

Petting the moving reindeer!

Round #2

Round #3!

Everything was going great! Santa even gave Brett tips to make the encounter successful. He told Brett to back up to him so Kayla didn't see him until after the picture was snapped and then she could decide whether she'd sit on his lap or not. We tried that but she saw him too soon and the picture that follows was the result. Pretty much identical to last years. :)

We had another chance to meet Santa this year at Brett's work party this weekend. When he came walking in the door, Kayla FREAKED OUT! She was screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs. We didn't even try putting her on his lap. She was shaking in fear. It was actually sad. Needless to say we won't be going to Disneyland or any place like that anytime soon. 

Tyson got a good photo though. :) Merry Christmas everyone!

Grandma Jean Came to Town

Two days after my mom left in November, Brett's mom came for a nice long visit. I can't imagine how much more stressed I would have been without both of these ladies being with us for over a month total. It was seriously such a blessing! 

RaeJean specializes in food and service! I can learn a lot from her and always do when I'm with her. We made a lot of delicious food and she waited on us hand and foot. We tried some great new recipes from Brett's sister's blog Garnish and Glaze. We also made some things I've always wanted to learn but haven't tried. 

We made this amazing key lime pie!

We checked out the flea market in search of hair bows and whatever other treasures we might stumble upon!

We made German pancakes in our muffie tins! They make adorable mini personal treats!

On a rainy and cold (for the RGV), we headed to the outlet malls and the Island. We did some shopping and decided to hit up the sea turtle refuge. Kayla loved it. Tyson, not so much. ;)

Tyson's face! haha!

We ate at our very very favorite place at the Island, Burger Fi. Their burgers, fries and custard concretes are to die for. We haven't eaten at any other place since we discovered this one! 

What's cuter than a baby in a tiny ball cap!? 

Ever since I met RaeJean, I have wanted to have a Thanksgiving dinner with her. I know that she goes above and beyond and food and presentation and since she was here in November, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving with her. I was so excited to have some of her homemade holiday goodness! We made stuffing from scratch that we prepared days in advance. We had turkey, sweet potatoe casserole, mashed potatoes, my favorite rolls, jello pretzel salad, and tollhouse cookie pie! Trust me, it was all amazing! We had Brett's old roommate from college Jason who was temporarily living here over to join us for the evening. We played games after and all had a great 'Thanksgiving' day! 

She's a little turkey! Check out that cute dress from Grandma Jean!

Me and my kiddos!

Love this handsome little man! He's about 3 weeks old here. 

Trying to get a family photo is.....interesting! Haha!

Our delicious spread and the lady of the hour!

Kayla loved her yummy dinner!

My adorable little babies!

Bath time for this kiddo!

He's got the chubbiest cheeks! I swear they grow every day! :)

We went shopping at the mall with Grandma. Kayla and I had fun making her look like a robber. :)

The weather was pretty up and down while Rae Jean visited! We had sunny weather and heat a couple days and really cold rainy weather for most of the days. We did get a pool day in though one last time before the pool closed in late November. I really love our pool!

Tyson's one and only time out enjoying the pool. No, he didn't get in, but he got a little sunshine.

Grandma and her grandkids!

Brett got his diploma in the mail finally! We are sure proud of our daddy!

Here's another delicious meal. Homemade pizza that looks much prettier than mine ever do. 

It's even been cool enough to need our warm jammies!

RaeJean also taught me to make homemade egg noodles. They are delicious and a lot of work, but we had fun making them. Kayla kept snatching them off the counter while they dried. 

Tyson got some good snuggles in with Grandma Jean. Kayla did too! Ever since Tyson was born, Kayla started waking up really early. Both our mom's were good to get up with her so we could sleep in. Thankfully we got her sleeping longer again. 

We loved having Grandma Jean here! I really loved getting to know her better and we bonded a lot while she was here, watching Gilmore Girls while Brett was at work and the kids were asleep. We were all sad to see her go and miss her!

Its hard living so far from family especially when we don't know when we'll see anyone again. Having our moms here was wonderful but having them leave is so sad!

Kayla showing Tyson the ropes on how the playmat works. 

Kayla in her Christmas jammies!

Tyson turned 1 month old right after Grandma left. He weighed in at a whopping 12# 6oz! He gained 2 lbs in 2 weeks! Nothing wrong with his eating!

We had a really nice day on the real Thanksgiving too and even though RaeJean had gone home, I'm including that here since we had already celebrated with her. 

We had the Merino's over for apple crisp the night before. They brought their daughter Chloe in her turkey dress and we took photos. Unfortunately, we didn't get a great one of the dresses but the girls are so cute together! 

On Thanksgiving morning, Kayla took on the important task of looking for deals with us. :)

We decorated the tree and listened to Christmas music and relaxed since we didn't have a big meal to make. 

Kayla entertained Tyson while we made our Mexican Thanksgiving dinner. We decided to have fajitas with some delicious meat from a local meat market we just found. 

To keep the Thanksgiving spirit alive, we decided to make Thankful Turkeys with Kayla. She loved playing in the paint and we had fun asking her what she's thankful for.  She really sad everything on her list when we talked about what it means to be thankful for things. It is basically all the things she loves. 

Her list includes mommy, daddy, tyson, grandpas (which is what she calls grandma and grandpa), cousins, princesses, baby Jesus, church, friends, the playgroud, the pool, candy, popcorn, Elmo, hugs, ponytails (or horsies as she calls them), music, and dancing. We love our happy little toddler!

Here's our little family during our not so festive but yummy meal. 

We have lots to be thankful for this year! Especially having our mom's here to take care of us. We're so very blessed!