A Texas Christmas

If I'm not careful, this could end up being an extremely long post. But I'll try and keep it reasonably short by using more pictures and less writing. And let me tell you I have A LOT of pictures! That's what we all want to see anyways, right? This post was three days in the making because there is only so much time I can spend in front of a computer before going crazy!

We were so excited to celebrate Christmas with Ainsley this year. Let's just say she got SPOILED by everyone in our families! This girl now has so many toys I don't know where I'm going to keep them all. But I'm happy for her because she needed toys and is at the age where she can play with them and enjoy them. A big thank you to everyone for your gifts to our family. We really appreciate everything and love you all!

We began our trip in Memphis Friday night. We usually make this our stopping point on our long trek to Texas. We are never there for very long, but it's always nice to get to see my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. Ainsley was not in the best of moods that night. We didn't get there until around 8:30, which is already past her bedtime, and also she had been in the car for a few hours, all of which added up to make one cranky girl. My grandparents, aunt, and cousins were anxious to give Ainsley her presents, but Ainsley, on the other hand, was not so anxious. She cried and fussed almost the entire time. I felt so bad. I guessed it was because she was ready for bed and in a different/new environment. Even though we had a little stinker on our hands, she made it through opening her (wonderful) gifts and we headed to bed. She got some really cute stuff! Thank you Grandma, Grandpa, Terry, Cindy, Callie, and Jonathan for the outfits and toys. We love them all!

The next morning, we continued on to Dallas. We went to our good friends, Neal and Cindy's to stay a couple of nights. It was great to spend time with them and to see baby Camden again after a couple of months. It felt like the whole 2 nights we were there flew by. I guess when you have an 8 month old and your friend has a 2 month old, you don't get much down time to just sit and talk like we used to. But at least the boys got to spend some time together and do what they love best: play Xbox! What little time we did have with them was nice and I can't wait to see them again! I can only imagine what our kiddos will be like next go around.

That Sunday we headed to Graham, TX for the day. This is where Brantley's Dad's parents live. We haven't seen them in over a year, so this was their first time to ever see Ainsley! It was nice catching up with them. Ainsley was a good sport on this mini trip. It definitely helps to have 8 hands around at all times (Pawpaw, Mimi, Brantley, and mine) to help out with Ainsley. It makes all the difference in the world, especially when traveling.

On Monday, after another 4 + hours in the car, we made it to our final destination: Houston (well really Magnolia, a small town just outside of Houston). Kenneth and Patty moved back there just a few months ago. We were so excited to see their new house and it's beautiful! We love it there and it will be great as Ainsley gets older because there is so much to do within their subdivision. Pawpaw is already talking about getting her a little fishing pole and taking her fishing some day. We were glad to be there and settled in one spot for a while. We were busy bees the first few days and then relaxed the last couple of days. One of the more "exciting" things we did was take Ainsley to finally meet Santa. Little did we know that 4 days before Christmas there would be a 3 hour wait! Ainsley must have really been wanting to meet this guy, because she did awesome for those 3 hours. Of course we did a lot of walking around while Mimi waited in line for us. Ainsley even took a cat nap the last 20 minutes of the line. I was amazed at how well she did that day because we were gone the entire day and she had to have been worn out! But it was fun and worth it!

Now for the pictures. I will tell you about some of them as I go to keep you up to speed.

~Baby's First Christmas~

Christmas in Memphis with great-grandparents and great aunt/cousins (to Ainsley):

This is one of two of her FAVORITE toys right now. This is what she immediately goes for when I put her in the floor to play.

~My cousins, Jonathan & Callie~

On our way to Dallas!

We hadn't realized Bella's bangs had gotten so long (to the point where she couldn't see), so my hair pin came in handy.

Brantley and Neal playing Kinect

~Sweet Camden~

Seeing Mimi & Pawpaw for the first time since October!

Meeting Great-Grandma Opal for the first time

There's no doubt Ainsley is my daughter. She loves her some pizza (crust)! She couldn't get enough!

Gotta keep a close eye on this one!

4 Generations

When all else fails (or mommy forgets a toy) a food bowl will do the trick!

(Eating at Fresco's with Neal, Cindy, Camden, Pawpaw, and Mimi)

Another great-grandmother (Patty's mom) getting some Ainsley lovin'

~Aunt Rachelle and Baby A~

Aunt Amanda giving Ainsley her present

We got to eat at Brantley's favorite restaurant, from when he was in high school. Since his parents have been in Dallas the last five years, this was our first trip back to Houston in a long time. To say he was excited to go to Del Pueblo is an understatement! I remember going here to eat when we were dating. It's yummy and we can never eat too much tex-mex when we are in Texas. We miss that stuff!

(Notice the short sleeves and Kenneth had on shorts. It was around 80 degrees that day!)

We went to visit Brantley's cousins, who just had their second baby, Max. It's been a couple of years since we've seen them. It was great getting to visit and meet Max, who was only 2 weeks old.

~Josh (B's cousin), Max, Mimi, and Ainsley~

Doing some work on her laptop after breakfast one morning.

We met Brantley's Aunt Karen and cousin, Sarah, for lunch at another one of Brantley's favorite places, P.O.'s. We also haven't seen them in over a year!

~Mimi and Ainsley~

Mmmmm.....Mum-Mums!

Silly face!

Just got to the line at the mall to see Santa and had no idea how long we would actually be there. So far so good...

We got there at 2:00. The session we were at started at 2:00. You can only imagine how long some of these people have already been waiting. We were at the very back of this line that wrapped around that whole area.

Finally getting a little cranky after a couple of hours. She did so good while we waited! We went on a pretty long walk outside to a bank Brantley's dad was needing to go to, so that helped. She loved going on the walk, but it finally came time for her afternoon nap about 30 minutes before we saw Santa. So we did what we could!

(Ohhh, what parents will do just for one picture and a memory...)

Almost there!

She woke up just in time. It was good she got a little cat nap in!

Looking for Santa Clause (actually she's probably just watching the crazy interesting people in front of us just like we were)...

She was very curious. She stared at him the entire time.

Shopping at Baby Gap with Mimi and was in a giggly mood!

Pawpaw's hat doesn't quite fit yet...

We let her open one of her gifts early. We had gotten her a pop-up toy and figured she'd like to play with it some while we were there. She started this thing where she would close the lid to her "laptop" toy every time we'd open it. I knew she liked these pop-up toys because my mom has one she plays with at her house. I went ahead and gave it to her because she likes to close the little doors on it when we pop them open. So this was her first gift to open from Mommy and Daddy.

Our Christmas morning (actually Christmas Eve). I think she knew because she was very happy when I went to get her out of her bed that morning!

I look at this picture and can't believe how much my baby has grown!

We, I mean Santa, got her a rocking horse for Christmas. I got it at our church consignment sale because I thought it was so cute, but it needed some work. So, it tagged along with us to Magnolia where Brantley, Pawpaw, and Mimi could fix it up! Kenneth and Patty are great at doing things like this, so I knew it would turn out just perfect. I forgot to take a before picture, but it had an old worn out red rope reign, small torn brown leather ears, and a really dirty mane and tail that was supposed to be white, but had turned brown. So this next picture is in the process of cleaning it up. At this point they had already sanded it and put a finish on it to make shinier, and a bit darker, and much cleaner!

After soaking it in cleaner, the mane looks brand new! Now to glue it back on...

The finished product. I LOVE it! I couldn't have imagined it looking any better. New ears, eyes, reign, clean "hair", and to top it off a pink bow (which is the only thing I provided during the whole process).

The finishing touch was the "P" brand

It was a beautiful day to go outside and play! Ainsley loves it out there.

One of her favorite new toys. I've noticed this week she only wants to play with these adorable little cars and the stacking rings from my grandparents and aunt.

Beautiful girl. I love you.

Sweet toes...

Bella kisses

I love my family!

Flying with Daddy

Brantley just HAD to test out his dad's new John Deer

~Mimi, Ainsley, and Pawpaw~

While Brantley and I made a quick run to Target, Ainsley helped Mimi and Pawpaw fix dinner!

Santa thought Ainsley was such a good girl this year...

The Stockings

We had Christmas dinner late that night and this was the yummy dessert!

Bella watching us open gifts.

Alyssa hasn't seen Ainsley since she was 5 weeks old and still only 5 pounds! I think Ainsley has changed a little since then...

~Aunt Alyssa and Ainsley~

Time to open Ainsley's gifts! It was hilarious watching her. She was so into it! She would bounce up and down, flail her arms, and kick her legs. She really like the paper (of course), but was also interested in the toy or object after it had been opened. We were wondering what she was thinking when we kept giving her the toy she'd open and then take it right away to move onto the next gift. I will always remember this Christmas. It was so fun to see her light up and be so excited!

LOVE this ornament Pawpaw and Mimi gave her. Too cute!

Whats on my head!?!

Her stocking had a few bells attached to the bottom and she was very determined to get them. We were trying to take a picture of her with her stocking, but couldn't get her attention because she kept going after them!

"Hello?"

Trying out her rocking horse in the cute little cowgirl outfit Aunt Alyssa got her. This didn't last long. She was about over it all at this point. Look at those chunky legs!

Brantley and I wanted to get Ainsley something special. We decided to get her a charm bracelet from James Avery, one of our favorite stores. I have a bracelet just like this one. We chose the "2010" charm because it represents the year she was born, her first Christmas, and also the year we started the bracelet. We plan on adding a charm to the bracelet each Christmas and by the time we fill it up she might be able to actually wear it! I think it will be a lot of fun each Christmas to pick out a charm that represents her, to us, from that year.

Kenneth and Patty looking through the iPhoto book we made them. It was of Ainsley from birth until now. We love these books.

Kenneth was really excited about the table saw he had picked out himself! He said next year we are all getting gifts that he can build with his saw. So we need to send him a list of what we want! Well, we've already come up with a couple of things, so he better be careful!

Kenneth got Patty a Red Ryder bb gun. This was too funny!

(Don't worry, she also got some really nice jewelry.)

These two are hilarious! I was laughing so hard. Patty had gotten Kenneth a John Deer hat to go with his new tractor/lawn mower and Kenneth got Patty a camo hat to go with her bb gun! Haha. You know you live in a small town when.....

I was a little sad we missed the snow on Christmas day back home :( I couldn't believe it happened and we weren't there to enjoy it! But at least we got to catch some of it the day after Christmas, as we headed back, because it was still snowing a lot of the way between Memphis and Nashville. It stayed on the ground for a couple of days.

We came home to more gifts. Brantley's mom's family (out in Midland, TX) mailed Ainsley some packages. I was very excited to see what the got her because they always do such a great job! Ainsley loved the black and white wrapping paper. And I loved the adorable outfits inside! However, you'll have to wait to see them in later posts....

Opening gifts from Uncle Bryan, Aunt Terri, and family

This family loves schnauzers and they found Ainsley her very own! This thing is SO soft and has a little bark when you press it.

Opening her gift from (Great) Nanny and Grandad

Again, thank you EVERYONE for all of your gifts. We appreciate you and everything you've done for us. We hope your Christmas was as special as ours and you have a wonderful New Years.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Patty/Mimi (12/29)!

WE LOVE YOU!