Happy New Year!

Happy 2011 from our family (jazz hands and all!) to you and yours!

Four Christmases

Merry Christmas, family and friends!

Hold onto your hats, folks, this is a long one! We are blessed to have a huge family, and thus celebrated Christmas four times. First, with my Dad and Amy, then with my Mom's family, then with just the three of us, and last but not least, with Robby's family!

We had so much fun watching Kate soak it all in! She is in awe of the lights and Christmas trees, loves opening presents and likes to play with the boxes as much as her toys, played with her favorite four legged friends, and mostly enjoyed all of the extra attention.

Christmas One in Raleigh:

Kate and her Granddaddy

On this trip, Kate discovered that she has quite a bit in common with Dad and Amy's new puppy, Charlie! She likes his "house"...

And he likes her pacifier... he even knows how to hold it the right way (what talent!)

Kate's new pony from her Granddaddy and Amy.

Christmas Two: Gigi and Family on Christmas Eve

Gigi cooked an incredible meal for us all. Kate is giving the master chef a little advice! ;)

After all, Gigi gave her a kitchen of her own, so this girl is becoming a pro! She LOVES it!

After dinner picture of the girls (Aunt Cam, me and Gigi)

A Christmas high five for Great Granddaddy Jack

Christmas Three: Christmas morning with our little family

A hug for Kate's new baby and a pile of presents from Santa!

This is so fun!

And Funny!

Me and my girl

A kiss for Ivy

And a hug too!

What Christmas celebration would be complete without a little song by the piano?

Christmas Four: Christmas afternoon and dinner with Robby's Family

Life is good when you get to eat a delicious lunch, see your family, and snuggle your lovey at the same time (the girl's got talent)!

Opening presents with Dada

Happy girl!

Fun time with Aunt Veronica

What a beautiful tree!

Whew! What a day!

SNOW!

Today, we had our first real snow of the season in Charlottesville.

All day long, Kate has been pointing to the window and saying "Snow" (sounds like "nos"). Robby came home from work early, and we took her outside to experience the "nos" for herself! We did a little sledding, touched the snow and Kate even tasted it! She LOVED it, and we loved watching her take it all in!

Ready to go!

Walking was a little tough but she managed

Sledding is so fun! Look at her grin!

Sledding with Mama!

Our little snow dog had almost as much fun as Kate!

We like the white stuff!

Tasting snow for the first time...what a face!

Our girl sledding all by herself!

Christmas Cookies!

This week, we decided to make Christmas cookies. Kate's friends, Turner and Colin (and their mama, Katherine!), came over to join in the fun. And let me just say that we had FUN! After all, what could be more fun than sugar, cookies and more sugar!?!

And while we baked a lot of cookies, we do not have very many decorated cookies to show for our efforts. Most were licked, broken, fed to Ivy, etc! :)

A few pictures from our Christmas cookie party are below:

Getting the cookies ready for our little cookie monsters...

The master decorators! They were not too sure about the icing on their hands!

It turns out that these cookies are pretty delicious!

This might be the best one... look at that icing!

Delicious!

Ivy got her fair share of cookies too!

This one cracks me up..look at how far Kate's feet are from the ground! Please note, that she also has Turner's snack cup (her first priority whenever she sees Turner is to take that cup). Sorry, Turner!

Colin watched over the Kate and Turner's sippy cups--a very important task indeed!

The only two cookies that we have to show for our efforts! :)

A goodbye kiss...

And one more, for good measure!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Decorations are up, and I could not be more excited!

For those of you who don't know, Christmas is my VERY favorite time of year! I used to beg my mom to decorate for Christmas in October.

Well, some things never change... the first chance I got (and the first time I could get Robby to agree to it!), we put the decorations up, and we are ready to celebrate!

Stockings are hung, the tree is lit, Kate is in awe of the lights and decorations, and even Ivy is "dressed" to impress! :)

View from the outside (that garland was a lot harder to put up than it looks!)

Oh Christmas Tree!

First gift of the year, a nativity scene for Kate!

Kate, admiring her nativity scene

It turns out that our girl likes presents!

"Rocking" the baby Jesus! So sweet!

Ivy and her Christmas collar

Our little rascal!