December Rewind #3: SA and Waco Christmas

This will be the last December post (finally!), but I wanted to include some of these cute pictures...more for me than for anyone. We had a fun Christmas celebration in both San Antonio and Waco this year. We were first in SA with my family. One of the highlights was Santa showing up. Anna Lee understood it much more this year and was very excited to see him. He even brought her a Veggie Tales Moses DVD she had asked for.

This was how Anna Lee felt about Santa...

And this was how J.D. felt...poor guy. He didn't know what to think. His lip quivered the whole time he sat in Santa's lap.

Thanks Grandad!



Opening presents can be tiring!

We got to see our sweet Ninnie while we were there. She has loved the three of us since we were little girls.

Gotta love making the gingerbread house...especially when you get to make it with Mom-Mom and Aunt Kasey! (Notice Mom-Mom's necklace in the background. I wonder who made her wear that??)

My friend Abbe let me borrow some of her little boy, Avery's clothes recently. In the stack was this awesome Santa suit. I loved it! We got J.D. all dressed up one morning before Anna Lee got up and had fun taking pictures with my dad.

It was so good to get to be all together with my family, since Kara is living so far away now. We loved having her home! It was a fun Christmas celebration at the Wilsons.

After San Antonio, we got to celebrate Christmas with Jim's family during New Year's. It was so much fun! It is always crazy and so much fun to have all of the kids together.

The oldest 4...

J.D. showing off his new Christmas pj's...and two new teeth!

Jim's parents gave J.D. this basketball toy box. It was so special because it used to be Jim's when he was a baby. Jim's mom is so good about stuff like that. I hope I can keep up with things the way she has over the years, so I can pass them down later like she does. It is so neat to have special things for J.D. that used to belong to Jim.

One of Anna Lee's main presents this year was a HUGE collection of princess costumes, high heels, crowns, jewelry, etc. The girl could not have asked for anything better! She was sooo excited. Anna Lee changed her costumes and coordinating accessories numerous times throughout each day. They are still consistently worn here at home. She was (and still is) very particular about which crown would be worn with which dress, which shoes match, etc.

I loved this picture of her sifting through the goodies...in a Belle gown.

So many high heels. The girl has way more than me! We have a pier and beam house, so when she wears her heels at home, they are super loud. We have adopted a new rule that they aren't allowed to be worn during J.D.'s naps. As soon as he wakes up, those things go right back on! No reminder is ever needed. Brynlee helping to dress the princess

Boxes are always the most fun!

Opening stockings together

Jim's mom has an almost identical picture of Jim like this. Love it.

The Wii is always a hit...even for the older siblings...

Christmas 2009

December Rewind #2: Christmas at Home

Although it is well into January, I am going to continue the Christmas posts. We had such a fun and very filled Christmas. We are so blessed with wonderful family. We celebrated Christmas here with our little immediate family on Christmas Eve. These two cuties were excited for Santa to come. Anna Lee and I made Christmas cookies the night before and left them for Santa. J.D. watched from the sidelines.

Anna Lee loves for us to wear aprons when she helps me in the kitchen. For some reason, while we were making cookies, she decided she didn't want to wear a shirt. Apron only.

The loot

J.D. opened a few presents and then slept for the rest of the morning.

Anna Lee got a Cinderella book that came with a veil and gloves. This is regularly worn at our house now.

Anna Lee's big present was a Disney princess Power Wheel. She wasn't quite sure about it at first, but then realized she could actually drive it and she was a FAN! The only problem: she's not a very good driver. We should have also given her a helmet. She drove the car straight into our garage, the house, and the fence. Jim was chasing after her the whole time. I could barely take pictures, I was laughing so hard.

Look at that smile!

This is a much more accurate picture of the event. She thought it was great!

She also got a pink scooter. Still working on figuring that one out.

As we were getting packed up to leave for San Antonio, a huge winter storm blew in and it started snowing. Anna Lee had a blast playing outside.

This was what our street looked like as we got ready to leave for San Antonio. It was so pretty and fun to have snow on Christmas Eve.

Gotta Love the Love

December Rewind #1: A Princess Birthday

Anna Lee's birthday is December 21st. It is always crazy trying to fit a fun birthday celebration into the midst of the holiday craziness. This year was no exception. We had a really fun birthday for Anna Lee on the Saturday before Christmas. To no one's surprise, she wanted a princess party. Since she has so many boy friends, we decided to make it a costume party with princess accents. Anna Lee was of course dressed as Cinderella...dress, crown, shoes, necklaces, etc. She is SOOO girly!

We had all sorts of activities at the party...a princess bounce house, pin the princess on the castle, basketball, cars to ride in, bean bag tosses, lots of food, and even a costume parade.

I was crazy this year and decided I wanted to make the cake. I found a bakery that would make what I wanted...for $200! Crazy! (After I made it, I think I understood why it was so expensive!) My mom and I worked for hours to get the cake just right. I thought I was going to lose my mind. But my mom kept me sane and helped me, even after I made several recipe errors. The finished productThe night of Anna Lee's birthday, we took her to the Magic Time Machine for dinner. One of their waiters was Ariel that night. It was sorely disappointing...the food, the costumes, the acting, you name it. Not going to be a birthday tradition. But Anna Lee did have a blast getting her picture painted. They had a cartoonist there would would paint your picture and Anna Lee was so excited to do this. She waited in line for a while and then sat very still for him to paint a picture of her. He made her look like Tinkerbell, and she thought it was the greatest thing ever.

These pictures are in the wrong order...
The afternoon of Anna Lee's birthday, my mom and sisters and I took Anna Lee to get one of her favorite foods...potato soup at La Madelines. She eats an enormous amount! And she isn't a big eater.


While we were there, per Anna Lee's request, we all had a tea party. We had brought our own tea set for the occasion. There was another large table of women in the room and we got all of them to sing Happy Birthday with us. Anna Lee seemed to love it. She got her own fruit tart with three candles in it.

Some facts about our new 3 year old:

• As I have said before, and it warrants being repeated, Anna Lee is GIRLY. She loves all things pink and princess. There is not a Disney princess that she does not know everything about and love dearly. Her favorite is Sleeping Beauty. She is mesmerized by crowns, jewels, purses, high heels, and most recently lipstick. She has not seen every Disney princess movie yet, because we think some of them are still too scary for her, but she knows every story and character by heart. She can spot a Disney princess item from a million miles away. I think she honestly wishes she was a Disney princess. We are taking her to Disney World soon. I am worried she might actually have a heart attack.
• She is extremely talkative. Anna Lee says more words during a day than most people say during a week. She has long, grown-up conversations and says very funny things. She talks much more adult than she actually is.
• Anna Lee LOVES movies. She has since she was born. J.D. can take them or leave them, but Anna Lee is extremely drawn to them. Jim says she would make a great movie critic someday. She would watch movies all day if I let her. She remembers very specific details about them and is very opinionated about why she does and doesn't like certain shows. She will watch her favorites over and over.
• Anna Lee has a very sweet and busy spirit. She is a ball of energy, but is also very sweet and tender hearted. She is extremely kind and sweet and is one of the happiest kids I have ever met.
• Anna Lee does not like to sleep. She needs it more than anyone I have ever seen, but she hates to have to waste any time in the day or night getting it.
• Anna Lee is a very picky eater and does not like cheese. She loves fruits and vegetables and at times has been known to pick eating tomatoes over eating ice cream.
• Anna Lee (sadly) cannot carry a tune. I used to think it was just because she was young, but as she has gotten older, I have come to grips with the fact that she just can't sing a tune. She loves music, dancing, and singing...but it honestly isn't her strong suit. But oh how I love to listen to that sweet voice sing...in or out of tune.
• Anna Lee loves her brother. And she loves our family. She has shown nothing but pure joy and love for J.D. since the day he was born. She talks about how happy she is that we have him and how he is so cute. She tells everyone she sees that he is her little brother. I told her a few nights ago that maybe someday (no day soon!) we would have another little baby in our family. She got the biggest smile on her face and said "Yay!"
• Did I say She LOVES Disney princesses???

What a sweet joy Anna Lee is to us!