Christmas with a 3-year-old

Ugh, I've been dragging my feet finishing up these holiday posts, but I'm determined to do it - AND I'm not changing my background 'til I do!  So...here I go.  Time to finish!


I've said it in a few other posts how much fun Kate was this holiday season, but there are a few things I want to remember specifically - so I know I better write them down!

--every time we got in the car with her she pointed out *ALL* the lights we passed by.  *ALL* - "Oh look Mommy! Lights!"  Every time it was like we had never seen them before.

--she learned a few Christmas songs including Jingle Bells and We Wish You A Merry Christmas, but our all time favorite was when she tried to sing Deck the Halls, and when she got to the part about joining the chorus, she sang about the "jolly walrus" over and over.  We laughed lots about this.

--just like with the lights, she was thrilled anytime we saw a tree out in public.  She pointed it out & wanted to make sure I saw it too

--When I first put up the tree, I had told her about how she couldn't touch it, so every time we saw a tree or lights that were within her reach she made sure everyone knew, "Don't touch the wights!"


I'm sure I've already forgotten some, so maybe I'll be back to post more.  So looking forward to having more kids get even older & more excited about the holidays.  Looking forward to her learning more and more about the real reason we celebrate & also watching her enjoy the fun/silly parts too!

Hangin' out at Nana & Poppa's

When we weren't at Sea World we had a great, relaxing week of hanging out at Nana & Poppa's while Daddy played in the snow.

Hannah got this play wagon from my grandmother for her baby dolls, but Kate thought it worked better for pulling Hannah around in.  Hannah thought it was a great idea too :-)

MUCH time was spent driving the car around the front yard.  Hannah wanted in so bad, we finally strapped an adjustable belt to the seat to create a little seat belt.

Let's just say we'll need a lot of practice before she's in a real car...

 Swinging...

Learning about jewelry...

Playing on the playground...

Learning to walk a little better

I need to take a new video...this is nothing compared to what she's doing now!  I love this age of them changing/learning every week!!

 On Saturday Nana & Poppa let me sleep in & Kate fully enjoyed getting to make pancakes with Poppa.

Thank you so much N & P for keeping us company while Daddy was gone!  We love being at your house

One Last Trip to Sea World

While David was being attacked by Chewbacca, my mom and I used our free season passes one last time to take the girls to see the Christmas shows at Sea World.  They were only open in the afternoon since it wasn't the summer, and we'd hoped for some car naps - but only got about 30 minutes out of Hannah!  We hoped for the best  - and got it!  The girls had a BLAST!

It was CRAZY crowded.  More than it ever has been!

Our first stop was Shamu.  There were no seats, so we had to sit on the steps to watch.

Kate loved showing us where he was during the show

Next we headed over to the Sesame Street Live show.  Kate has a big fear of dressed up characters, but these are far away.  You can get up and go dance/shake their hands, but she never does it.

This is how she spent the first few minutes of the show...

HAHAHA!  I know you're not supposed to get a kick out of your kid's fear, but it was so funny.  She didn't really cover her eyes, but left her fingers right there just in case!  HAHAHA!  After a few minutes she had them down & clapped and danced in her seat and loved the whole thing.


We went by the carousel, but Kate's also afraid of the moving horses, so she and I hung out on the bench, while my mom & Hannah rode the horses :-)

We had about 30 minutes until our next show, so we decided to take a few pictures in all the cute decorations...

On our way back up to the front of the park to take pictures by the big Christmas tree, we saw a short line and the lady said it was for a picture walk - I'm thinking big Christmas boxes, cardboard things you put your face through, etc.  We thought that'd be perfect since that's what we were wanting to do anyway.

Well, remember how I already got Mom of the Year for laughing at my kid for covering her eyes.  MmmHmm...They decided to really honor me after this one!  It was an entire walk-through of about 15 dressed up characters in every animal you can imagine from Sea World.  So, we we're walking through this tiny little sidewalk with these characters all along the way - Kate's worst nightmare!!

She stayed int he stroller only looking a little nervous & thought it was fun for Hannah to stand with them...

There was even a spot along the way that it "snowed", and she loved that!

And then, some animal made a move to say hi, and it was OVER!   We pushed as fast as we could to the end - no more pictures and got out of there!

but yes, I did laugh again.

After the trauma, we finally made it up to the front and got a few cute pictures.

they were done by the time it was my turn :-)

This is how she was still feeling after escaping the animals!!

A dolphin show....

...and a seal/walrus show.

Seriously?? can you see how big that walrus is?  I can never get over it!

We had so much fun!!  My mom and I talked about it being worth it to go back this time just for how excited Kate was.  She remembered it from before and just LOVED all the shows along the way.  So fun when your kid's having fun!

Mitchell Family Ski Trip

After our big sonogram, we headed over to the airport, David could join the rest of his family in Angel Fire to ski.  The girls and I decided to stay back in Austin since I couldn't ski, we'll be going again soon, and let's face it a 10-hour drive for just a long weekend doesn't really sound *that* fun with a 3 year old and 1 year old.  

I told David he should do a guest post for his trip - but he says he enjoys being the silent partner, so I'll do my best to retell the stories.  :-)

I got a text from one of my best college friends, Ashley, the day before David left saying that they were going to be in Angel Fire at the same time as David!  David was really excited to get to see them (Randy, Ashley, Scott & Alden) & spent the first two days skiing with them too!  I was only a little jealous that they got to spend all that time together!

David with Scott & Alden

At the end of the first day, David told me that this guy had plowed him over that day.  He sent me a picture of the guy....

...SERIOUSLY?!? THEY LET HIM SKI LIKE THAT???  Apparently so!  David said you could even hear him making the little throaty Chewbacca sounds!  David said they hit so hard that it knocked off the other guy's costume head, and the helmet he had on underneath!  David was sure that one of them had to be hurt, but somehow they both escaped fine!  He saw him the next day to get this picture & apparently Chewy was still pretty sore!

The last day David spent the day skiing with the rest of his family that had been in ski school at the beginning of the week...

David & his littlest sister - Emily

Dan, Emily, David & Bethany

David loved getting to spend time with his family - playing lots of games, visiting, and enjoying his mom's good cooking!  Someday...just someday I won't be pregnant during ski season!

Christmas Eve

We had a really great Christmas Eve, the girls & I hung out with Nana on the couch until close to 10 when my dad finally emerged from his room, and I'm pretty sure David didn't make an appearance from ours til 11!

After that it was filled with lots of fun!

Birthday cake baking with Nana

piano playing with cousins

 David & I had to do some last minute shopping at some stores that are only in Austin - so we braved the craziness only to find that it wasn't bad at all.  As usual, it was great to get out - have lunch, shop, and laugh a lot together.


That evening, we got all dressed up & headed to the Christmas Eve service at my parents church.  Couldn't pass up an opportunity for pictures of these sweet girls!

i think she gets cuter every year :-)

When we got home, we had yummy gumbo & my grandmother, uncle & aunt joined us!  They had already all gotten together a few weeks ago to have Christmas together, so the girls got to open some gifts.

 They got this ball pit from Grandmommy & it was a hit!

 Daddy even got in on the fun!

 So did Bubba!

opening presents with my Aunt Jeanne

We now interrupt...

Interrupting our Christmas updates to let you in our latest news on Baby #3.

We had a sonogram today & were thrilled to find out that everything measures perfectly on track and she appears to be completely healthy.  I was telling David on the way there, that right before I always feel a little nervous that I haven't seen the baby in awhile & I always wonder what the "news" will be.  I always know we'll be fine & be able to handle whatever we hear, but it is refreshing for this mommy to be able to hear that everything looks "perfect"!

We also found out that we are having ANOTHER GIRL!  Neither one of us were surprised.  We hadn't really had any feeling either way, but last night all of the sudden, I just sort of to only think of it as a girl &  David told me this morning he felt the same!

As with anything that you have "hopes" for, there was a little disappointment, since we'd love to have the experience of adding a little boy to our family, but not the kind of disappointment that lasts.  And, it's not like we plan on being done having kids!  I know it may sound weird to say that I'm "disappointed".  It's not like I'm disappointed to be having a girl or that I'll always wish she was a boy.  Just having to adjust to what I thought would be "best".

I think most people assume David would be the one to really be disappointed - you know a "man & his son", and I think he does feel some of that, but strangely, I'm really the one who has to think/deal.  He is SUCH a good "girl dad".  He's so good at dressing up, justifying their feelings, holding them while they cry, and has even mastered putting on tights & putting in bows!  My girls are blessed.

We are looking forward to seeing how this little girl adds to our family & what the bigger plans are that we don't know about yet.

Christmas Fun

I'm trying to finish getting all of our fun activities from this holiday season up before I get our actual Christmas celebrations on here.  I had a lot of good intentions of creating memories & having a daily fun activity.  I didn't quite pull off a daily activity, but I wasn't stressed & just enjoyed my time with a little girl who really got into celebrating this year.  So, overall, I'm thrilled with how our month ended up.

Decorating the Tree

Christmas Movies - post coming soon!

Christmas Cookies

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Some other fun things that we did this year that I want to be sure to remember to do next year - drove through neighborhoods to look at lights (and really - every time we went out Kate made sure we didn't miss any that we happened to drive by!), sang lots of Christmas songs, talked a lot about Jesus's birthday & the nativity, read lots of Christmas books, shopping for family from Kate, wrapping presents, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something too!  I LOVED having a kid who understood so much more this year & can't wait for next year!

Christmas Day

I still have a lot of "kid" in me when it comes to holidays - I LOVE the festivities & it has been so much fun to have Kate get into all of it this year - finally someone to play with! ha!


Santa paid us a little visit...

yes, those are bacon flavored candy canes

yes, they're both already eating candy at 9am

 Somehow, David & I always get each other the exact same candy!  It changes from year to year too!  We love each other :-)

 After stockings & the kids opened gifts from David & I we had a little breakfast...

 ...and played with new toys.

she was a pretty big fan of herself in that Minnie Mouse outfit!

That afternoon my brother & his family came over.  The kids got to open their gifts from each other & Nana & Poppa.

Kate got a bike!

The "big" gift this year was a motorized Gator for Nana & Poppa's house!  Kate got to open it & drive for awhile in the morning, then Connor was nice enough to let her come along for his ride too!  They are SO FUNNY on this thing.  Kate has no idea that turning the wheel turns the car.  She's completely content to run into things or let us chase her around to turn it for her.

Connor totally gets it, but for some reason the whole time they were driving, Kate was pushing the gas!

they didn't stop smiling!

Hannah talking with Toby

Hannah got her own Pottery Barn chair!  She's in love!

Such a fun Christmas day.  I am really trying to soak this up - family time, the excitement of a child, and reminders of how blessed I am by the birth of a Savior.