You Are My SONshine!

"So there's this boy...
He kind of stole my heart...
He calls me mommy."
Author Unknown

"I'll be...
HIS FIRST KISS
HIS FIRST LOVE
HIS FIRST FRIEND.
I am his mommy and he is my whole world.
He is my little boy."
Author Unknown

New Year's Eve 2012

Two of my very best friends from college, Shae and Kelly, happened to be in Dallas on New Year's Eve this year. So they came over for a night of fun. Charlie (Shae's husband) was on-call and couldn't join us...we missed him! We spent the evening eating, laughing, playing games, and watching the ball drop. We couldn't believe we stayed up until midnight. The next day, my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. I love friends who make you laugh until you cry!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

We finally got the chance to play outside/in the snow the day after Christmas after it had warmed up a bit.
This would have been a good picture if it wasn't for the yucky stuff coming out of Caroline's nose. Sheesh.
Matthew begged me to wear his sister's girly hand-me-down winter clothes (kidding)

Running in the field behind our house:
Matthew pretty much hated the snow and wanted me to hold him the whole time: 

Caroline and I had a seriously intense snowball fight. I think she beat me.
Snow angels!! 

 

 

 

 

 

Playset = Happy Happy Happy 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas 2012: Part 2

We headed over to my mom's house around noon on Christmas Day for celebration #2.
This is what happens when I try to take a picture of my kids. Caroline poses nicely and "tries" to hold Matthew down, and Matthew screams and tries to get away:

Caroline wanted to wear her new "rainbow" dress instead of her dress that matched Matthew. I couldn't put up a fight about it on Christmas day. Man, I really need to work on that whole "expectations" thing!
I love my handsome hubby so much!!
Me & my Nannie!!! Best grandma in the whole wide world!!!
Santa came to my mom's house too:

Shortly after arriving at my mom's house, it started to sleet and snow. We had a white Christmas! In Dallas! On Christmas Day! Nothing better than that.
We spent the rest of Christmas day opening gifts, eating a DELICIOUS lunch my mom made, playing games, and enjoying our time together.
Caroline received her FIRST American Girl Doll from my mom:
Funny story...if you know me, you konw I tend to get a "little" excited about everything stuff. Well, I was so excited about Caroline getting her first AG doll. I had one (Kirsten) and remember how much I loved her. So for it to be my daughter's turn, well, that was just really fun for me. So I might have been jumping up and down while yelling and taking pictures. And if you know Caroline, you know she has more of her daddy's personality and is more even-keel about everything. She was excited but shows it differently than me. Later, she told me "mommy, you were even more excited than me when I opened up Caroline". I thought that was funny. Anyway, meet the newest member of our family:
Caroline Abbott

And this is how Caroline shows her excitement :-) My precious, sweet-natured, calm girl:
My aunt gave me this sign for our playroom and I LOVED it!!
So pretty: 

 

Matthew, quickly checking to see if I'm still there with my camera. Little adorable stinker! 

 

 

One of my favorite parts of Christmas happened when we got home on Christmas night. We put the very tired kids to bed, put on our "cozies", and had timed races against each other on the Plasma Cars. It was hilarious!!! Matt, his parents, and I were laughing so hard we were practially rolling on the floor. We have some awesome video of this competition: 

 

Merry Christmas 2012 to all!!!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas 2012: Part 1

Christmas was a blast this year! Caroline gets the true meaning of Christmas like never before and understands that the reason we receive gifts is because God gave us His greatest gift on Christmas Day. Caroline was excited to celebrate Jesus' birthday and so pumped to open presents on Christmas morning. We "do" Santa in our house. That's what Matt and I did growing up and it was such a magical part of childhood for us! We tell our kids that Santa is fun, Jesus is real. We also tell them that there is a surprise about Santa they have to figure out. Eventually, the surprise will be that it is us :-)Matthew understood everything this year as much as a 2 year old can, ha. Needless to say, it was a very magical Christmas!!

Caroline and Matthew discovering their gifts from Santa:

This year, I hid a piece of wrapping paper in the bottom of the kids' stockings to reveal which gifts were theirs. Caroline loved it!

 First outfit change of the morning...into a nightgown she received as a gift with a matching one for her dolls:

 Matthew LOVED this firetruck from Mimi and PoP Pop and played with it most of Christmas morning:

In Caroline's mind, there is NOTHING better than PRINCESS Candyland ;-)

Daddy's turn!

Mimi and PopPop, hamming it up as usual:

Opening their big gift from Mimi and PopPop...plasma cars! Also a huge hit. The adults loved them too. (notice Caroline is in outfit number 3...some random dress that "twirls")

Reading a fun, interactive Wheels on the Bus book:

Finally! Time to open the special present that said "Open Me Last" on it. Inside was a special letter from Santa with a riddle on it which lead the kids to the backyard:

Santa brought a new playset!! Unfortunately, it was POURING down rain so this is how it was revealed to the kids:

 

Major bummer and NOT how I wanted/expected it to go!!

We spent the rest of the morning playing with new toys, singing "Happy Birthday to Jesus" and eating his birthday cake (coffee cake), and enjoying time together before heading over to my mom's house for Christmas #2.