Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Magical Moments

Our Family would like to share with you some of our very merry moments from this Christmas season.

Julia's love for the Silver Dollar City Princess

During the SDC parade, you are not suppossed to pass the white line where the dancers and floats are. The sweet SDC princess made an exception for my exuberant princess.
Christmas Pictures at First Baptist from a sweet friend in Sunday School

 Can you find the fifth member of our little family?

Christmas tree decorating


Sugar Cookie Baking on Christmas Eve
Lydia- she is more "floured" than she looks
Julia with her silly expression
 
Candle Light Service at First Baptist Church on December 24, 2011


Cookies for Santa are out and ready to be eaten by Jolly Old St. Nick. Some excited girls with their reindeers are also pictured here.

Julia and Papa with Julia's Christmas Gift.

 Julia LOVES her "ka-tar" from Mimi and Papa! (Dear Julia, please don't be a rockstar just yet.)

Marshmallow everywhere
 We had a good ol' camp fire at my parents house. The girls loved the mallows. Lydia loved hers so much that it ended up covering her and her new jacket. She decided that she didn't want anymore after she was finally cleaned up and unstuck.

The girls and their Aunt Aubrey and Uncle Andy
We are so blessed to have been able to experience so much love and laughter this holiday season. Our families are a blesssing from the Lord and every moment we get to share with them is precious.
(To my nephew, Josiah. You are precious too, and I am sorry I didn't get any good pictures of you to share. I'll do better next time. Alex and Mom, the same goes for you! )


To: Mimi, Papa, Granny Ruth, Papa Don, Grandma Christie, Grandpa Dan, Aunt Aubrey, Uncle Andy, Uncle Alex, Uncle Daniel, Aunt Xiaolan, and all of our other wonderful family members, we hope you had the merriest of Christmases! To all of our friends, co-workers, and blog readers, we hope the season was filled with joy and love for you as well!
Happy New Year! -Amber

Some of the yum


Sunday, December 18, 2011

Visiting Santa

We visited Santa today. We go to an unconvential place to visit him because the lines are short, and because they have a letter writing station and a lot of other things to see. We go to Bass Pro Shops. The girls call it "the fishy store".
Before church this morning

Watching the fish and eating some cookies from church

Santa!
 Lydia decided she didn't want to smile for the picture. I have no idea why. The girls told Santa they want baby princesses for Christmas. (Duh! I already knew that.) Santa told the girls he has a bag of them, so he'll be bringing them one. --Good thing they didn't request ponies.


Making Papa Proud

Making Papa Proud - 2

The girls told me that the Santa they visited today was the real Santa.-- I only wish I'd taken a turn on his lap. How on earth is going to know what I want?
Merry Christmas, Amber

Saturday, December 17, 2011

It's Finished!

Dave started painting the girls bedrooms several weeks ago! Due to our busy schedules and some painting mishaps, the girls have been sleeping in the nursery for quite a while. (Which needs painting as well.) So, Dave finally finished yesterday, and I painted the "ribbon" on the walls this morning. Then, we moved all of their furniture back against the walls instead of in the middle of the room, and voila! their room is back. :) Here are some pictures of the finished product:





The girls love it, and I am so glad they are back in their own room. Now we just need to paint the office, kitchen, two bathrooms, the game room, and as I mentioned, the nursery. We'll get there soon enough, I guess. :) Thanks for stopping by, Amber

Friday, December 16, 2011

Party Animals

I promise I'm not already taking maternity leave from my blog...I just have so much going on. :)
The first Christmas we were here in Houston, I was very sad because we only had one Christmas party to attend--after Christmas. But, God has definitely multiplied our blessings! We've already been to 3 Christmas Parties, and we have one on this Saturday. We even missed one of the Christmas parties because of our crazy schedule. :( We were sad to miss.
The first year we moved here, Julia didn't have a birthday party because we still didn't really no one. This year, while Julia had a very low key party, I still planned one. And, when it comes to any five-year-old's birthday party's, there is never a lack of things to do- no matter how low key you desire to keep it.
The girls also got to party for Christmas at school. Their party was Thursday. When I picked the girls up from their classes, Lydia said, "Mommy, I got a cookie today!", and Julia said in a dreamy voice, "Oh, I had the BEST day." What uplifting comments! (Especially when a majority of the comments coming from my 5 and 3 year-old these days are anything but uplifting.)
I also got to attend a fun little party with my co-workers where we exchanged gifts and ate goodies.
Dave's office decided to stop having parties. (Which isn't too dissapointing. This was the party that we attended 2 years ago and it was very strange.)
Anyway, the moral of this story is: I am so, so thankful that God blessed us with opportunity to know wonderful people and party with them. (Even when my party animal ways is another thing that keeps me from writing on my blog.) Happy Christmas parties to all of you! Merry Christmas! -Amber

Monday, December 5, 2011

F-I-V-E

Julia turned FIVE yesterday! She is getting so big. Every stage is so fun, and I am so proud of her. I am so amazed that it has already been five years since Dave and I went to the hospital to have our first kiddo.

We had a small birthday party for Julia at Chick-fil-a. Dave and I decided to invite a smaller number of kids than we usually invite because December is such a crazy time of year, and we are especially busy right now. Julia loved her party, and hopefully all the kids had a great time! Of course the kids played, ate chicken, drank lemonade, and wore party hats. They also decorated cupcakes, sang happy birthday to Julia and watched as she opened presents.
The partiers

Julia and her cupcake

Julia was about to open gifts.
The celebratory squeals from the little girls as they watched Julia open her gifts were truly sweet. We did have to quiet them down, though. Look at the people in the behind the girls, trying to see what on earth we were letting our kids get away with!

Lydia, Julia's friend and their cupcakes

Family photo at Chick-fil-a. (Thanks Heather.)
After Julia's party on Saturday, Dave went to tutor, and I brought the girls home so the three of us could nap. That evening, Dave and I went to my work Christmas party, and had tons of fun. I was very soar the next day from dancing the night away. When we got home, Dave blew up balloons and filled the girls' room with them (as is our family tradition before a little one's birthday), and then we both hit the sack!

Sunday morning came early. Julia had to be to church early to sing with the little 4 and 5 year old choir. It was so precious! Julia was excited to get to wear a brand new birthday dress and sing on her birthday. (Thank you, Granny Ruth for the birthday dress.)
Our Birthday Girl
After church on Sunday, Dave and took Julia to a restaurant. Her only request was that we go to a place that had ice cream. So Dave and I drove to a Mexican restaurant that had ice cream the last time we were there. But, low and behold, the machine was broken, and there was no ice cream. Julia got to have sopapillas with whip cream instead. It almost, kinda, sorta made up for her lack of ice cream. She also got to wear a sombrero as the waiters sang happy birthday to her. After the waiter left, Julia told me she did NOT like wearing that hat. I had no idea that even 5-year-olds would have an aversion to wearing a huge hat while being sang to.

Can you find her? Julia is on the bottom right.
On Sunday evening, Julia got to open her gift from Dave and I. She got a few small things and a kids pump style ice cream maker. She has been begging to make ice cream, but I still haven't gone to the store to buy the cream. I should really get with it! --My only excuse: I guess I thought it could be made with regular milk....

Julia and her princess cup

Julia, blowing out her birthday candle.
This last weekend was crazy and overwhelming, but tons of fun. I am so grateful for our sweet girls and our little one on the way. God has richly blessed us our family with each other! Thank you for reading my blog. -Amber


Thursday, December 1, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

As we packed up to leave our home for the week of Thanksgiving, I at least wanted to get our Christmas tree partially put up.

--This week, as is all the other weeks in our lives, has been crazy. Because I had an inkling into the future and this week's craziness, Dave, the girls and I took a break from doing laundry and packing our suitcases to get out this old faithful:

This is our crooked, half-lit tree. It looks a little better now.
Since we've come home from our trip, I've done a little better about Christmas decorating, but I haven't quite finished yet. I'll get some information up on this here blog when I finish.

Our Thanksgiving festivities included time in Bartlesville with Dave's Mom, Ruth, and Step-dad, Don, and time in Branson with Dave's Dad, Dan, and Step-mom, Christie . We had a fun and wonderful time in both places, and have been sorry to come back to reality and leave the vacation life. (What's not to love about enjoying time with family while other people do the majority of the cooking? It's delightful.)

We got to Bartlesville late Friday night, and got to hang out with our dear family and friends on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. On Sunday we got to visit the church we used to attend in Bartlesville, and then we got to go to lunch with Dave's family. We also got to see our spectacular and fun friends, Jared and Lela and have a play date with our wonderful Bartlesville church friends and their kiddos. (My, how our families have grown!) We loved every minute of down time with Dave's family and our friends!

We had two Thanksgiving dinners- one in Bartlesville on Wednesday, and one in Branson on Thanksgiving day. (We are lucky ducks!) Both turkey dinners were delicious, and I enjoyed every minute of them. On Wednesday, we got to see Ruth, Don, Dave's step-sisters, and neices and nephew, and on Thursday, we had lunch with Dan and Christie. Poor little Lydia didn't join us for our second holiday meal, though, because she had come down with a cough and a fever. She asked me right before dinner if she could lay down and take a nap (with tiredest little eyes and face anyone has ever seen). We gave her some Tylenol, and granted her her wish. She was a little under the weather on Friday and Saturday, but she wasn't feverish anymore and seemed to be doing better.

 Daniel, Dave's brother, and our sister in law, Xiaolan were suppossed to fly in the evening of Thanksgiving, but the parking lot at the airport had no free spots, and so they couldn't board their plane and fly to see us all for the weekend. They plan to go to Dan and Christie's later this month. This was one of the only sad parts of our vacation.
On Friday, after Thanksgiving, we got to go one of my favorite places on earth, Silver Dollar City! We had a great time, but it was so crowded! Every time I go to SDC, I can't wait to go back. Dave got to ride a bunch of the roller coasters by himself (since I am with child) and the girls got to ride on some "big girl rides" for the first time. We also watched the Christmas parade, and Santa looked right at Julia and Lydia, smiled and said, "Be good! I'm coming to town." The girls were in awe. Just today, Julia said, "Santa is watching us, and he wants us to be good. I'm so glad I have been."

On Saturday, we celebrated Stewart Christmas. We usually wait until after the new year, but, we celebrated a little early this year, and got to count the Stewart Christmas event as our first Christmas of the season rather than our last. We got to see almost all of Dave's Aunts, Uncles, and beautiful cousins on his Dad's side. The kiddos exchange gifts, and the adults play a game to earn theirs. Lydia got a Snow White doll, and Julia got a glowing art dome thing. They both LOVE their gifts. Dave and I also got some great stuff playing "Dirty Santa". --Yeah for Christmas games that cause you to steal from others! (It's the true Christmas spirit, after all.) It was so fun! :)

Well, on Sunday we headed home again, so, I guess that just about sums up our fun holiday trip. Here are some pictures from our adventures in random order:

Christie, Dan, Dave and the girls walking behind Christie and Dan's house.

Dave and Lydia down on the walking trails behind Dan and Christie's house

Christie and the girlies making desserts for Stewart Christmas

Bundled babies in Bartlesville

Happy Julia on trails

Lydia, playing in the backyard
Stewart family

Jaycee got a poker set...just what she wanted.

Lydia, talking to her cousin Daisy. Lyd is 3, and Daisy is 2.

Cousins- staying in a room separate from parents
On Saturday night, Dave and his Dad had to pull out the old chess set.
Thanks for reading about our family happenings! (I may try and add some more pictures at another time, but I was having camera issues and will have to steal some pictures.) Anyway, I hope your Turkey day was as gobblecious as ours! Love, Amber