A smattering of pics....

As I mentioned in the last post about Christmas, it snowed about 1-2 inches on Christmas Day- SO FUN! We took Lucy outside to see the snow after she woke up from her nap that afternoon- she thought it was so much fun!  To this day, she will look out the breakfast window and say, "All done snow." 

Here's some pics from that afternoon:

looking at the Christmas trees (my Pinterest Christmas project-
wrap tomato cages with Christmas lights- they look really cute at night!)

Walking with Oma

Here we are at Sprouts a couple of weeks ago- she will occasionally reach behind her in the grocery cart and pull out some sort of veggie and chow down (which slightly grosses me out because they haven't been washed yet, but, not much you can do, right?!). This particular trip was bell pepper. Neither Mike or I like bell peppers much (except when they're finely chopped and sauteed), so we aren't sure how or why she likes them. But at least it's a veggie! 

Busted!

We've tried to take every opportunity to play outside when the weather is even mildly reasonable. Even bundled up, she has a blast!

Had to take this pic this morning- I realized before she got up this morning that she had found a plastic lemon in her play food set and had added it to my lime/lemon display in the kitchen all by herself sometime yesterday afternoon/evening when I wasn't looking. What a clever girl! Another little Martha Stewart?!

Can I tell you how excited I was to find this at Sprouts?! I don't have the dedication to make my own pie crust and I hate buying the refrigerated dough from the store because it always has terrible ingredients, like partially-hydrogenated oils, bleached flour, etc. I LOVE Immaculate Baking Company products (their cinnamon rolls are amazing!)- so when I saw that they started to sell pie crusts, I bought some and made a chicken pot pie. The difference is AMAZING. It smelled better baking and tasted so, so yummy. It costs more than buying the regular kind, but to me, it's worth it. 

That's all the randomness for now....

Christmas!

We had a fabulous Christmas this year! It started early on the 22nd with Mike's side of the family at Oma and PapPap's house. We were sad that Carolyn and Daniel and their kids had to miss due to being sick!! 

The rest of the cousins did well playing together and had fun opening presents. 

Lucy was actually napping during the present-opening part, but when she woke up, she got to open up her big present made by PapPap and Oma....her first rocking horse!! When she first opened it, she wasn't in a great mood and wasn't too sure of things, but later she got on and rode it, thought it was so much fun! 

What a sweet gift for our family! They did an amazing job with the horse- it looks so good!!

She spent some time in Uncle Sergei's lap playing on the iPad....

On Christmas Eve, Mom and Papi hosted the annual Mexican Christmas celebration for my dad's side of the family. Imagine 27 people, including 3 small children, in one house- it was a little nuts, but fun to see everyone. Unfortunately, Mike caught the stomach bug and was out for the day/evening and had to miss out. Bogus. 

But, my lovely family surprised me with a baby shower before Mexican Christmas, complete with a diaper Christmas tree and margarita cupcakes (Delicious!!! )

Mom and my sisters, who hosted the baby shower! (plus Lucy and cousin Alyssa)

During the "program" part of the evening, where we read the Christmas story and sing hymns/carols, Lucy tried to entertain everyone by running back and forth of the den and getting in and out of Uncle Steve's lap. 

Best pic I could get of her that night- she was constantly on the go!

Not quite sure about Uncle Alex's beard....

(This was our Christmas card pic for the year)

On Christmas Day, we woke up around 7:30 am, got our coffee (quite important!) and then opened our stockings and Lucy opened some of her presents. She was really interested in opening the presents that were wrapped, not the ones in gift bags (too easy, I guess).

We got her a book about going to the potty (hence the last page that says, "undies!")

But by far, her most favorite gift was the baby doll and stroller we gave her as her big present. She had a look of sheer joy as she saw it for the first time and started strolling her baby all around the house. She would literally go in laps with the stroller through the living room, around and around. The 1000-watt smile on her face was so, so sweet- the pic doesn't do it justice. It was one of those moments where you see the verse come to life, "if your earthly father likes to give good gifts, how much more does your Heavenly Father desire to give you good gifts,"- how much more does our Heavenly Father love us?! 

After we opened gifts at home, we headed back to my parents' house to open presents with my side of the family. It was so fun- 3 kids under the age of 3, lots of wrapping paper and little toys all over the place, with the adults all still in our PJs. Greatness. Sadly, I have no pics to document, but you can take my word that we had a blast!

We headed home after lunch time so Lucy could nap, and while she napped, it started to snow! And snow, and snow and snow! It was AWESOME! One of my favorite memories of the day was being able to lie down on the couch for a nap in the living room, with the fire place on, Christmas tree lit, with snow falling outside through the window....quite idyllic. Another post to come on this...

Mike's parents headed over later that afternoon once Lucy woke up from her nap and we enjoyed going outside in the snow and watching A Christmas Story on TV- generally just relaxing and hanging out. 

pre-Christmas activities

I was so excited to be able to make Christmas cookies with Lucy this year- one of those things I've always wanted to do once I had kids. So this year, I pulled out the cookie press and we went to town making all sorts of shaped cookies. She LOVED covering them in sprinkles and typically one side of the baking sheet had more sprinkles than the other.

Here she is in shaking action:

Yummy!

The finished product

That evening we went to the City of Richardson's Santa's Village. We went last year with her, and she had fun, but obviously didn't get it (and was sick with RSV at the time, but we didn't know it yet!). This year, though, she had fun seeing all the lights! She DID NOT want to have her picture taken with Mrs. Claus (I didn't even attempt the Santa Claus line because I had a sneaking suspicion that she would not like him either). She gingerly took the cookie that Mrs. Claus gave her, but would not get close to her, would not pose for a pic.....generally not a fan. 

She did, however, love sitting in the fire truck and standing on the front of the engine!

Mom watched Lucy one morning while I went to the OB and she enjoyed a candy cane at GG's house...

We also went to go see the Trains at NorthPark with Aunt Elena. She loved the "shoo-shoos" and thought it was so much fun! Definitely worth the $6!