End of 2011

The day after Christmas, we drove to Lampasas to celebrate with Jason, Charlotte and the boys. I'm ashamed to say I have zero pictures to show for it! I will definitely do better next time. While we were there though, we did go out to Goldthwaite to look at some land that we were interested in purchasing in conjunction with Grammy and Papaw. We all ended up really liking it, and we now officially own land in central Texas :)

Once we got back home, Sam and Daddy decided to do some work on our other land :) Lots of leaves waiting for us at home, ready to be raked. Sam was sad to see them go though...he really enjoyed playing and jumping in the heaping piles!

Meanwhile, Mama and Stella stayed in the house where it was warm and cozy :)

Christmas 2011

It's amazing how much more fun Christmas is when you have kids. It's like reliving the excitement from your childhood all over again through them, but even better :) It was such a fun day spent with our family....my only regret is that I didn't take more pictures! But at least I got a few...

Nonno and Nonna came into town on Christmas Eve, and Papaw & Grammy and Auntie April & Uncle Mike came over on Christmas Day. We had a yummy lunch...lobster, shrimp, tiramisu, cannoli and more! A fun day with some of my favorite people :)

Here's what Christmas morning looked like before Sam bug woke up!

Alex and Dianna had gotten him a Dinosaur Train train set for his birthday, and we had not had a chance to set it up for Sam yet. So, daddy set it up on Christmas Eve once Sam was asleep. That way it would be up and running under the tree on Christmas morning. Sam was SO excited to see it when he woke up...so much so that he didn't even care about opening his other presents. At least not for a while :)

Stella and Nonna hanging out and watching Sam open his presents...

Stella checking out her present...looks like she's not sure what to think about it :)

Nonna's turn...

Ready for lunch!

Cheers to yet another wonderful Christmas!

My handsome bug playing with his new bike.

Grammy and Miss Stella bella :)

Sam turns 2!!

I can't even believe I am writing a post about Sam turning 2...these two years have just flown by! My baby boy is not a baby any more...though to me, he always will be. We decided to do a dinosaur themed party for him, since he's been really into "big roars" (as he calls them) lately. I think he loved it...between all the dinosaur decorations and cake and the bounce house we set up outside, he was all smiles!

We even had some dinosaur tails made for the kiddos to wear around their waist. Of course, they didn't last very long and I couldn't get a picture of Sam in one (although I did get one of Atley).

We bought him a bounce house for his birthday and had it set up in the back yard. We weren't sure what he'd think of it, since he's never been in one. But he absolutely loved it, and spent most of the party jumping and playing in there.

Stella with Auntie April...

The birthday boy!

Atley giving his buddy some birthday love :)

The boys...love them so much!

Sam wasn't sure what to think when everyone was staring at him and singing to him...

But once everyone started clapping, he realized it was fun and he clapped along :)

Blowing out his candle...

Todd giving him his first bite of his birthday cake

Stella and Nonno..

Inappropriate, yet funny, picture taken by daddy!

Sam bug opening his presents

Stella taking a ride on Tow Mater :)

The party was so much fun...we have amazing family and friends that made Sam's day so special. We did miss Grammy and Papaw (Papaw was sick), but we got to see them the following week for Christmas!

And here's a couple more of Sam enjoying a cup cake on his actual birthday :)

Polar Express Oopsie!

So, we may not get mommy and daddy of the year award for this one! We bought tickets (online, in advance) for this Polar Express train ride in Grapevine for us and the kids. We thought Sam would love the train ride with Santa, and all of the activities they had for the kids prior to boarding the train. Unfortunately, we didn't make it in time for the ride...even though we left our house an hour prior to departure time :( We thought they'd just let us board the next one, which was an hour later...but it was sold out. Thank goodness Sam bug didn't seem to care at all, as he was distracted by all the other activities going on around him!

It was cold outside, so we bundled Miss Stella up in her little reindeer costume (actually, this is Ben or Bryce's little outfit that we borrowed :) ). It is just so cute!

Here we are after realizing we missed the train :(

Funnel cakes can fix anything...

Such a sweet picture...Stella just kept staring at Todd and touching his face. So sweet :)

Our attempt at a family picture...as usual, we can not get everyone to look (and smile) at the same time! Oh well, this will have to do :)

We may have redeemed ourselves when we took Sam across the street to get a pony ride. Saying he loved it would be an understatement. He was grinning from ear to ear the entire ride. The sweet man running it let Sam ride for about 20 minutes, and Sam still cried when he had to get off the pony. He talked about the "horse" the entire way home.

Little Miss Stella sitting on a pony :)

All smiles...

Snuggling with my baby girl once we made it home. It was a fun day, despite the little "hiccup" :)