Christmas Candy

Every year we all go out to Mommer's house right around her birthday to make Christmas candy. This year was fun having Holland there and watching her dance with the dancing Santa. :) We made rum balls, rice krispies, ritz bit sandwiches dipped in white chocolate, peanut butter balls, and indoors smores. Mommer made her date loaf before we all got there. Tomorrow the fudge and divinity will be made. We have so much fun making candy and enjoying the time together.



Clayton even wanted to help Kristy with the indoors smores!

The candy! We split it between everyone and went home to rest.

Elf on the Shelf

I had heard about this from a cousin and wanted to go ahead and start this Christmas tradition this year with Holland. It's such a wonderful tradition to teach children that someone is always watching them and that they need to behave. Our little elf has fair skin, brown hair, and blue eyes! Too cute! I'm thinking we might let Holland name him next year or whenever she can come up with a name. We will see. Holland absolutely loved the book and couldn't wait to get her hands on it. She immediately laid down and started looking through all the pages.

Our little reader

Holland loves to read anything and everything. Granted she isn't really reading, but she enjoys looking at everything, turning pages, and looking like an adult reading. Here she is chilling out on the couch in her pajamas the other night before bed time. Just love the crossed feet!

Holland's Nativity Advent Calendar

We got Holland a really neat Advent calendar that she can use every year. It has an individual piece of the Nativity scene in each day pouch. Every day, Holland will pull out that day's piece and place it on the Nativity scene above the pouches. So cute! It hangs up, but we got it down on the floor for Holland to place today's piece. We are explaining what each piece is, which probably won't sink in just yet, but we are still trying to teach her. Here is Holland pulling out today's piece and placing it on the Nativity scene.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning Kirk and I asked Holland to say "Happy Turkey Day," and she did it on the first try! She would also say, "gobble gobble" a couple of times for us. We hung out at home and then went over to my Mom's for supper. We had a good time and Holland loved pumpkin pie, or as she would call it, "punkie pie".

After we ate, it was time to watch Texas A&M play Univ of Texas. Go Aggies! Here's Holland with her second cousin, Teagan, both rooting for their favorite teams. :)

Touchdown Aggies!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our little elf

This holiday season has been so much fun with Holland. She wants to help and is so curious. I wanted to decorate the weekend before Thanksgiving this year to get the tree up and done with early. Holland was a little apprehensive at first when we just had the tree up. She was scared to walk by it without us, so she would crawl to get by it. It was so cute. The next day we started putting ornaments on the tree and Holland loved it! She would pull out an ornament, bring it to us, and then go get another one. Once the ornaments were on the tree, she was mesmerized and wanted to point out every Santa and ball.

I think my Mom has the most beautiful tree, and I know my tree will never be as pretty. But here is the finished product. I'm missing the tree skirt because our cat will lay on it and tear it up if we put it down.

Fall portraits

We met up with Dixie yesterday for our family fall portraits. It was fun until Holland got cranky because it was nap time. We fed the ducks and geese, and Holland had a fun time watching them. Here are a couple of Dixie's shots she got.

These were so much fun! Thanks Dixie - you are the best!

Happy Halloween!

Today was a very busy day. We met up with Dixie for our Fall Portraits at Lucy Park. Afterwards, we had Trunk-or-Treat at our church. Holland had a lot of fun there trick-or-treating for the first time. She can only say "tre tre" for trick or treat. :) Once we left the church, we went over to Mommer's house and then to 2 neighbors and that was it. We were pooped! Holland dressed up as a tulip this year. She was a cutie!

Happy Halloween!!!

1st time to pumpkin patch

Kirk and I took Holland to a pumpkin patch in town today. She had so much fun that she got a little fussy when we had to leave. She would pat each pumpkin and call it "punkie". It was hard to get pictures of her because she was running around everywhere, would punkie pat each pumpkin, and try to carry several of the pumpkins away. After we left the pumpkin patch, we went and looked at some new bedroom furniture and ate lunch at Olive Garden. It was a fun day in town.

Holland picked out her own pumpkin and helped carry it to the car.

16 months old

Holland turned 16 months on the 19th. She is still doing great. Holland is saying more and more words. She picks items out of pictures and books. One cute thing she does is when we are at home, she will go pick up the cordless phone and say, "hi gaga" like she is talking to Grannie. And, she will pick up Kirk's cell phone, and say, "hi mama". Too sweet! We started a magazine/book subscription for Holland and she loves it. The first book came in this week and she can say and point to every animal in it. She can even pick out a moose out of the book. Holland has 4 top front teeth, 2 bottom front teeth, and 2 bottom molers. I didn't even know those came in until Kirk was feeding her this week and saw those pearly whites in the back of her mouth. She is growing so fast and learning so much every day.