Momentous Occasion...

Never before have I had enough to share to require two posts in one day, but I had to document this rather momentous occasion...

Mollie's first haircut!
Before: Sporting the mullet :o)

She got to sit on Gigi's lap and play games on her phone while Sarah worked her magic

Such a big girl! And the final result! We went home, took a bath to get all the itchy hair off, and then she let me blowdry her hair for the first time. Such a sweet little do for a sweet little girl!

It took her nearly 23 months to grow enough hair to deserve a haircut, but it finally happened. It already looks much healthier and thicker, and there's still enough left for piggy tails! We had to trim the back because it was filling in way faster than the front (resulting in a mullet!), so I think it looks much better and will hopefully grow out better this way.

She did a great job, and only cried for a second. Getting to set in Gigi's lap was the key :o) She even got a sucker when she was done! Thanks, Gigi, for being there with Mollie, and thanks Sarah for fixing her hair and making this momentous occasion a success!

Christmas Season Continued....

We truly have had an exciting month of December! Here's where we left off last time...

The week before Christmas, we headed up to Red River, NM with the Livingstons for our traditional "Christmas Ski Fest". Sadly, the snow was lacking this year (only one lift open and very few runs), but we had a blast nonetheless. This was Mollie's first experience with snow, so it took her a day or so to get used to it (or really to get used to the big jacket, hat, gloves, boots, etc). But once she did, she had so much fun! She made snow angels, ate snow, went sledding, liked to slide down slopes on her bottom, met a few snowmen, and liked to walk in it (once she figured out how to!).

For the most part she hung out with her Momma Shelly and they played and played and played in the snow while the rest of us skied. (Thanks, Mom, for letting me ski!!) Since I was skiing with the boys, I was actually thankful for the lack of runs open...that meant they had to hang with me! (Luckily the only runs that were open were blues and greens, which is where I like to stay. The boys typically hit up all the craziest black diamonds they can find!)

We stayed in a quaint little A-frame cabin accross the street from the lift (convenient!!), brought a Christmas tree, all our stockings, and made sure Santa knew where to find us :o) Mollie also got to decorate gingerbread ornaments to adorn the Christmas Tree! Here are some pictures from the trip...there were so many that I thought it may be easier to upload it in the form of a collage. Click on it and you should be able to see the pics enlarged.

Also, while we were in Red River, Mollie decided she liked to "shake her booty". I have no idea where this came from, but she would just stop what she was doing and start dancing. I got it on video...it's not the best shot of it but funny anyway!

Just before we left for RR, we had the opportunity to celebrate as a family of 3! Santa came to our house, too, and we had fun watching our groggy, bed-head-ridden toddler wake up to find treasures in her stocking and under the tree! We then had a special Christmas Breakfast of cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. It's fun to start traditions of our own, and I'm sure there will be more as the years go by. Here are some pics of our little celebration:
Merry Christmas, sleepyhead!
Santa brought Mollie an easel, and stocking full of goodies! Placing her new ornament on the tree"Ooooh yeah!" as she always saysCinnamon rolls and hot chocolate (in a special mug from the Polar Express!)

We had a wild and crazy December, full of Christmas cheer! It was a blessing to spend time with all our families, and I hope yours was as joyful.

Let the Celebrations Begin!

Here's a look back at our month-long Christmas celebration! That's right, all month long. I think Jesus' birthday deserves more celebration that one day, anyways :o)

First of all, we started off the celebration with a trip to the North Pole. We boarded the Polar Express (kids in their pajamas, of course), drank hot chocolate, sang Christmas songs...

Maddox and Lacye!

Momma Shelly, Mollie, and Me

Mollie loved sporting Maddox's Santa hat...

...but did NOT love Santa!
She immediately started crying and clung to me for dear life. So much for a successful picture with Santa this year!

We continued the celebration at Gigi and PaPa's house...

Santa came!

Fun with Gigi and PaPa

Crazy Cousins :o)

Showing Aunt Cici some love

Remote-controlled cars for the kiddos!
Yep, that's Mollie holding her naked baby while riding her tricycle.

Then we headed over to Nanny and Pop Pop's house for even more celebrating!

We opened presents, played with toys, had a wonderful meal together, then went out and played on the playground near their house!

It was a beautiful day for playing outside! Not like December at all...

Even little Paxton got in on the fun!

I've thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Christmas all month long. We have too many family members to squeeze it in all one day. This way, we get to spend quality time with each family, aren't rushed, and the kids get time to play and soak in all the memories and traditions.

So I hope you've enjoyed a peek into what Christmas is like in our family...but there's more to come! We're headed to Red River this week to celebrate with the Livingston's! I'll post pictures next time.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, too!

Tis the Season to be Jolly!

Tis the season, indeed. We are jolly around our house right now, and here are a few reasons why...

1. Christmas music is playing on all the radio stations

2. Our decorations are up and Mollie loves the "Kismas Treat" (Christmas Tree)

3. Mollie walks around singing "Jingle Quack", a version of Jingle Bells sung in the book "Jingle Duck", one of her current favorites.

4. She loves her Baby Jesus figurine in her Little People nativity scene

5. We got to enjoy a lovely Christmas dinner at Church last night and then watched our youth kids put on an awesome little musical. Mollie sat through the whole thing just mesmerized; she loved hearing the kids singing! And we're SO PROUD of how well she sat quietly and listened!

6. We started the "Elf on the Shelf" tradition; Mollie thinks it's so funny that the Elf is watching her. She likes to look for it each day!

7. We're all anticipating our ski trip to Red River here in a few weeks!

8. Mollie says "Oooh Yeah!" when she sees Christmas lights on houses

9. We're loving starting our own Christmas traditions as a family

10. I'm jolly because I'm in my last week of course work for my teaching certification!! Whew hoo!

11. Jason's jolly because Mollie is in a "I want my Daddy!" kind of mood...these opportunities are rare but cherished :o)

12. We're both jolly because our little smarty pants can sing her ABC's! Not sure if we've posted it yet, but I'll do it again anyway. Super cute.

13. I'm loving the colder weather...just with there was some snow with it!

I'm sure I could go on and on about what makes us jolly this time of year. Most of all, we're super blessed and excited about getting to celebrate the Birth of Christ with our families!

A Season of Thankfulness

Although Thanksgiving has passed, we're still thankful for many things this season. Here's some of them, and some of the things we've been up to lately!

- I'm thankful for my little family

- I'm thankful for my bigger family
- I'm thankful for such a wonderful husband, that he's such a wonderful Daddy, and that he takes such good care of us....like by providing for us with years worth of deer meat :o)

Good job, Jason! He's making his own jerky as we speak!

- I'm thankful that I'm a mommy to such a sweet, smart, silly little lady

- I'm thankful that my sweet, smart, silly little lady has a great school to attend while her Daddy and I go to work...one where she obviously learns a lot, has a great time, and asks when she can go back!

Mollie and Daddy at her Thanksgiving meal at school!

- I'm thankful for my in-laws and all the fun times that we have together...especially my two sis-in-laws!

- I'm thankful that Mollie has precious cousins to grow up with

Maddox being so sweet to Mollie and helping her with her necklace

Pilgrim Maddox on Thanksgiving!

- I'm thankful that Mollie is learning to speak so well; "Can I have some more, please?" "Need to go potty again!"

- I'm thankful that she still struggles with some words...it sure makes us giggle when she attempts to say some things (like the work SPARKLY...it sounds like the word f***ing...hahaha)

- I'm thankful that Mollie knows who Jesus is, likes to learn more about Him, and likes to pray. She sings her prayer song to us every night and loves to read books about Him!

- I'm thankful Mollie is a Red Raider fan, can get her Guns Up, and likes to watch football with her daddy. She says, "Watch a football game!" when we turn on the TV.

Mollie's got her Guns Up at the TTU vs. Weber State game!

- I'm thankful that Mollie is a toddler...it's so much fun all the things she can do and say now. She's learning to be independent ("Mollie do it!") and likes to do things herself, but also is getting frustrated, sometimes throws fits, and tries to press her boundaries. (Wait, did I say I was thankful for her being a toddler?? :o)

- I'm thankful that we had the opportunity to spend the day together today as a family. We accomplished a lot and had fun doing it.

- I'm thankful that it's Christmas season...my favorite time of the year! We got to put up the tree today and Mollie got to help. I'm so excited that she'll get to take more of it in this year...last year she was a little too young to care. We're loving getting to teach her about the meaning of Christmas and hearing her say "ooohhhh!" as we decorate!

Helping decorate the Christmas tree for the first time!

We really do have so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to.

Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
1 Thess. 5:18

YEE HAW!

Here are a few reasons we're saying YEE HAW today:

First, we welcomed Jason back home from his week-long hunting trip! Jason, his step-dad Paul, and bro-in-law Brad have been traveling to Montana for the last few years to hunt. They drove 24+ hours in the camper to spend the week under the beautiful Montana sky. Although their trip wasn't fruitful as far as birds/deer were concerned, I think they all returned home refreshed after having some time away. I'm glad they had a good time, but we're SO GLAD to have our Jason/Daddy back!!! YEE HAW!!! (I'd post some pics of their trip but nobody has shown me any yet!?!)

Second, Mollie is saying YEE HAW because she was a cowgirl for Halloween!! We were originally going for Jessie from Toy Story, but this is what we came up with. I think she turned out even cuter than Jessie :o) It was fun putting together her outfit using a few things she already had plus a cowboy hat from a consignment store. Also, we just needed an excuse to get her some boots...what girl doesn't need a pair of boots!? (Thank you, Target, for having affordable ones!) She got to wear her costume to school for their little festivities, to her friend Laney's birthday party on Friday night, and again on Sunday for the Trunk-or-Treat at church. We had a blast, and that girl sure does love to dress up. We had NO problems getting her to keep her hat, boots, and bandana on! Now if we could only have been able to get her to ride a stick horse around...hehe!

Scoping out the festivities...

That's one tough cowgirl with that sucker and "princess" flashlight!

Riding a horsey...aka Daddy's knee

Whew! After a few rounds of trunk-or-treating, a bowl of chili, and lots of "Ring-around-the-rosies", we were beat!

Twenty-Something

Well, another birthday has come and gone (on Wednesday to be exact). I'm not real sure what to think about birthdays anymore...I'm not real sure what I think about getting older... not real sure how I feel about receiving gifts...not real sure how I feel about bringing extra attention to myself (thanks to Facebook, everyone knew it was my birthday!) It's definitely not the same as it was when I was a kid. However, I have come to realize that it's a day to feel loved and to be thankful to my Creator! I realized that I am so blessed and have more and more to be thankful for each year of my life. So...looking at it that way...each year brings on more blessings, so bring on the birthdays!! Haha :o)

Here is how I did celebrate my day:

On Monday (we actually celebrated early), Jason and I were off of work so we took the kid to the Apple Orchard in Idalou! We enjoyed a lovely morning picking apples, pumpkins, walking around in the beautiful sunshine, and just being in God's creation. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather, and a great way to spend some much needed time together.

On Wednesday, I ended up not having to work, so I wandered around Target for a while by myself (I can't tell you how much fun that was!!!), had lunch with my wonderful Mom-in-law, went for a walk with Mollie, worked in the garden, then had a relaxing dinner at home with my two favorite people! It was a great day and I went to bed feeling blessed.

To continue the celebration, we partied at our tailgate before the TTU vs. OSU game (thank you to all the 60,000+ people that celebrated my special day with us...because they certainly didn't have anything to celebrate about that game!) And I believe we have a fun afternoon planned tomorrow as well.

Two sweet Red Raider fans: Mollie and cousin Maddox!

So, it's been a great birthday, a great week, and great times spent with my family! Yay!

20 Months!

Yesterday we celebrated Mollie's 20th Month by enjoying a morning at church and having a lazy, fun afternoon at the house. We sure are enjoying this kid! It's crazy to watch her become less and less of a baby and more of a toddler. Kinda makes me sad, but at the same time excited to see her grow. Here's what this kid is up to this month:

Our 20 month old lovin' on her daddy! (notice the chocolate drool coming out of her mouth and her wild hair...haha!)

- Up to 25 lbs! Even though she's gaining weight, she's also growing taller and thinner. There are some clothes that she grew out of that she can now wear again because of how the shape of her body is changing.

- Improving her fine motor skills...she can drink out of a glass without a lid (we don't do this very often!!), is getting more efficient using her eating utensils, likes to pretend like she's putting a screwdriver in a hole and turns it, can stack her blocks higher and higher, etc...

- She can recognize most or all of her ABC's, colors, and numbers 1-10. Just yesterday she counted to 10 with us! With a little prompting, she's got it.

- TALKING! She's definitely going through the "language explosion" most toddlers go through about this age. She picks up words at an alarming rate, and is now speaking in 2-3 word sentences. Some of the things she's been saying include, "Mommy's here!", "Daddy's home!", "Done with plate.", "I love you", "Apples and pumpkins!" (referring to our little field trip today...I'll post about that later), "Go to school", and my favorite, "I'm poopin'." Hahaha!

- Singing...she LOVES to sing songs. Her favorite at the moment is the little prayer song they sing at school before snack and lunch. It's to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?" and the words are "God our Father, God our Father, once again, once again, we will ask your blessing, in the name of Jesus, Amen. Amen." She folds her little hands and sings it over and over. So sweet!

- Still doing a great job with the potty training! Has the occasional accident, but does great the majority of the time.

- Climbing! She's learning how to climb, and now climbs on everything! This has been a good thing because she can now climb up on the couch and some chairs with out help. But she's also been climbing on things she shouldn't be and I imagine we're going to have our first busted lip or something like that pretty soon :o)

- In true toddler fashion, she's testing her boundaries! She's started throwing mini-fits by whining and sitting herself down on the floor. She sometimes tries to pull away when she KNOWS she's supposed to be holding your hand (at the store), screaming MINE when she wants something, and basically just screaming :o) Mollie's cries usually turn into a scream (they've always been like that), but now they can really get quite loud. I know all parents have to go through this little phase, but I'm praying it goes as quickly as it came. So far, this has been the least fun part of parenting. However, we've had to remind ourselves to remain consistent and it'll work itself out!

-However, the BEST part is that she's showing more affection towards us, is being very friendly, and her sweet personality is becoming more evident. We sure do LOVE this little stinker! Here's a little video of Mollie doing push-ups with her Daddy...she also enjoys doing leg lifts, stretching, and playing football :o)

Also...We all had the day off today, so we ventured out to the Apple Orchard in Idalou! I'll blog about it later...so much fun !

Rain, Roadtrip, Romance, and Roseola

So, this is a bit of a random post about a few random things we experienced lately...

1) Rain! Oh how I love a little bit of rain. We had the opportunity to enjoy some several days ago and play in it just a bit...after I got caught in a soaking downpour without an umbrella :o) Here's Mollie enjoying it in her rain gear:

2) Road trip! We had the opportunity to make a quick trip to Denton to see some of Jason's family. We left eaaaaaarrrrly Saturday morning and made the drive to spend some time with the Johnson's and the Stubblefields. We had a great time visiting with everyone and Mollie had a great time playing with cousins Kayley and Raegan! She LOVED playing with the older girls and we're so thankful they loved on her so much! We had a blast and miss you guys already! Also, Mollie did SO WELL in the car, thanks to some audio books (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Give a Mouse A Cookie, Skippy John Jones to name a few) and a little travel potty. She loves listening to her stories in the car and it made the trip SO easy for her. Thanks mom for letting us borrow them :o)

Being silly with Kayley!

Pretty ladies! Raegan, Kayley, and Mollie

3) Why did we leave so early Saturday morning for the trip? Because Friday night I was in New Home celebrating the "romance" of my forever (like since the age of 4 or so!) friend Lexi and her fiance Brad! He was super sly and planned a romantic proposal for her that night and was sneaky enough to include her family and close friends in the fun. We're SO excited for you two, and can't wait for you to join the old married people's club :o) So sad I don't have a pic of the happy couple, though!

4) We've had a bit of sickness going around this week which ended in a diagnosis of Roseola for poor Mollie. We've all had a bit of allergy-type symptoms for a few weeks, then on Tuesday I finally got "sick" of it, went to the dr, and was treated for a sinus infection. Yuck. Then just a few hours later, got a call from Mollie's school that she was running a fever. So I took her to the dr. and discovered she had an ear infection. Yuck. We were both on antibiotics and doing good. However, about the time Mollie's fever went down and her ears got better, the fever came back. In fact, it spiked to 105.6! Yikes! We got it down with ibuprofen and cool rags (it was in the middle of the night, of course), but headed back to the dr. the next day. They could not find anything else wrong with her (ears were perfect), but told us to watch for a rash. Sure enough, on Friday, after having a fever for 4ish days, it went away and a rash emerged all over her torso. Roseola! It's such a weird virus; it's only diagnosable after the fact when the rash emerges. I've never even heard of it until this week, but you should Google it; it's very interesting. The best part is that once you get it, you can't get it again! Most of us had it as kids. But luckily it's not serious and goes away as quickly as it comes. Here are some shots of Mollie after it spread to her legs:

Oh and here's another one...those Red Raiders! Did you see that game this weekend?? Ugh. Sometimes it's hard to be a Tech fan.....

So, we're now healthy, home, in better spirits, and looking forward to a great week! Long live the Matadors!