Christmas Wrap-Up

Christmas Day was spent very low-key, hanging out, eating more food, opening more gifts and enjoying family time. We loved having Mama Judy, Mama Leslie and Grandpappy here with us. Grandma Gloria even joined us later on Christmas day to spend a few days with our family and finally meet baby Elise.

Bethany and Elise in all their cuteness on Christmas day.

Mama Judy, Mama Leslie and baby Elise

Mama Leslie getting in grandma time with the girls.

Grandpappy with Bethany . . . She so loves him very much but won't really go near him until now. Much of Christmas day was spent with Bethany on his lap getting in some good snuggle time.

Bethany didn't much care for the snowman up close but frequently checked on him from inside the house.

Bethany watched as her daddy put together her first Christmas snowman on Christmas morning. She kept saying " Hi, Snowman" after that.

Ryan was hard at work making our fun snowman. He lived on our back porch for 5 days until the warmth took him.

It was a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A REAL TX White Christmas

So, north TX & Dallas do get ice and snow occasionally during winter but hardly ever ON CHRISTMAS!! Christmas Eve it starting snowing in early afternoon and kept going for about 9 hours! It really picked up in the evening and starting coming down blizzard style - no lie. We live next to a vast, open field of nothingness so the wind was really blowing hard against our house. We actually had snow drifts in the yard.

It was AMAZING to have a real white Christmas. It stuck around for Christmas day too and since our house is positioned out of direct sun we got to "keep" our snow for many days . . . it took 5 days for all the snow (and our snowman) to melt completely.

Our backyard

A street view

The front yard before it really started coming down

Late evening on Christmas Eve - our back porch was covered!

A Very Merry Christmas

We really had a very wonderful Christmas! There was just so much love, fun, family, food and greatness! We hosted our family Christmas party in our home on Christmas Eve (during the BLIZZARD, which I will get to later). All the Dyer gang plus more Dyers came along with Grandpappy, Mama Leslie and Mama Judy! We ate, ate and ate some more and then played our fun family tradition of our gift exchange (or gift stealing). We had some great laughs with it all!

Here is Bethany on Christmas morning playing with her new train set. Yes, she loves trains.

Silly Bethany . . . she looks like a toy solider, don't you think? She's a funny kid, that one.

Miss Elise just soaking it all in. Her first Christmas was definitely one to remember!

Getting ready for our family Christmas party. Bethany was great 'help' with getting presents unwrapped for everyone.

The Decked Halls of our home . . . it was really fun having all our decorations up. I loved to have the lights on everyday. Bethany would say "pretty lights" when they were turned on. Again, I love how the picture of the Savior is the center focus on the mantel. It just makes things right.

A side note . . . my uber-talented sister DeAnna hand-sewed the sockings for Bethany and Elise . . . aren't they BEAUTIFUL! I love them so much! Now we'll need her make matching ones for any future children we may have. :-)

The Christmas Tree

Dressing Christmas

This year was so fun having TWO beautiful girls to dress up for Christmas. Many thanks to Aunt Deanna and Grandma Gloria for providing all the Christmas threads. We had them all decked out the Sunday before Christmas. Aren't they both just too adorable for words?

The Nativity - Remembering Our Savior's Birth

Our church (which you can learn more about HERE) puts on a beautiful annual Nativity each Christmas season. I love that it is at the very beginning of December so that we can start off the right way in remembering what Christmas is really all about anyway. We love to go each year and this year Bethany really enjoyed looking at all the amazing Nativities and decorations too!

I love this picture of Ryan & I. We were going out that night so I got my sister to snap a quick shot. It is great that she got us with the tree and the picture of Jesus behind us. It's perfect!

This is one of my favorites . . . I just love the painting of this beautiful mother, Mary holding her new born son - the Savior of the World, in those first tender moments. Wow!

Our little family taking it all in.

Stats for the Girls

Both girls had there 2 yr checkup and 2 month check up on the same day. It just happened to be on Bethany's birthday - Nov. 24th.

Bethany - 2 years old

Weight = 28 lbs - 80%
Height = 35 inches - 93%

Bethany is a little ray of sunshine! Current favorites include Dora the Explorer, The Wonder Pets and her absolute favorite is The Backyardigans. She loves to eat chicken nuggets, fries, pizza, cheese, yogurt and bananas. She is currently learning to ride a tricycle and can name her shapes & some colors. She LOVES to color and draw. Bethany has a very large vocabulary and will talk your ear off. She is such a fun toddler! We love this kid!

Elise @ 2 months old

(she's actually already 3 months old!)

Weight = 11 lbs - 60%
Height = 22 inches - 50%


Oh.My.Goodness!! This baby is an ANGEL! Seriously. She is so sweet and is just about the most perfect baby I could have EVER imagined! Hardly ever cries, just fusses sometimes. Really. I am not making this up.

Elise is now sleeping through the night. We put her down around 7:30 pm , get her up around 10:30 for a last feeding (which she just about sleeps through anyway) and then she sleeps peacefully until about 6:00 or 6:30 AM! Ahhh . . . life is good. Baby Wise will forever be my life-line to raising babies!!

She coos & ooos all the time and has the most beautiful, sweet smile. She is very smiley actually. We love it!! She is grabbing things up left and right and is figuring out that she has hands. Elise is a beacon of light in our home and we are so blessed that she joined our family this year!!

Thanksgiving Rewind

I am trying to get as much done as possible here at the end of 2009! Life has been too busy with everything else that blogging got put aside. Now it's back!

For Thanksgiving we spent our time down on the Williamson Farm with the Dyer's & Grandpappy & Mama Leslie! We had a wonderful time with all the cousins. The food was great as always and we were able to stop to see Mama Judy on the way.

Mama Judy & Elise

Eating yummy Thanksgiving food! Seriously, my grandmother's southern style cornbread dressing recipe is my FAVORITE! No one else can match it.
It's delightful!

Bethany with "the girls" - her Dyer cousins. She LOVES them beyond words! Here they are curled up on Thanksgiving night watching a movie.

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

My name is Bethany and I am only two years old. A little young to really understand what Christmas is all about or who Santa is. There is one thing I totally get and it's that you are SCARY to me!

Maybe next year will better.

Love,

Bethany

P.S. I hope you still come visit our home on Christmas even though I am afraid of you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We Need A Little Christmas

Life is BUSY! So much so that I rarely get to update the blog it seems . . . so next week when I have off work for the holidays I will be posting up pics and updates like crazy! Stay tuned. Until then here is a cute preview of our two sweeties! I LOVE CHRISTMAS-TIME!

Elise's Baby Blessing

We had Elise blessed in church on her 2 month mark - Nov.22nd. Her daddy gave her the most beautiful father's blessing. Both Grandpa's and Uncle Greg also participated in the blessing circle. As the time unfolded during sacrament meeting, I was asked to give my testimony due to a lack of speakers. The spirit was strong and it was a fantastic Sabbath! Baby Elise was perfect, tiny and beautiful in her white dress and again, Ryan gave a blessing that was meant only for our special daughter.

After the blessing we all gathered back at our house for some good ole' Texas BBQ and more family time. Ahhh - a perfect weekend!