White Christmas 2009!

Christmas Eve we left Gran's house in Richardson at 4:45pm and made it home around 6pm. The snow that had started to fall upon arriving at Gran's at 1pm was sticking to the grass and roads, and about the time we reached Lewisville the roads were officially very bad. It got worse the farther north we went and when we exited Garden Ridge the car behind us couldn't make a turn and went straight into a ditch. As we approached the bridge, we saw a few cars going over but also a couple that were stalled. The stupid truck in front of us decided to stop on the incline and put on his four-wheel drive, so we had to make a quick decision to go into the oncoming lane to go around him so we could keep our momentum and not stall out. Fortunately, we made it over the bridge and onto Highland Village road without incident. HV Road was getting very slippery, and we slid a little down some hills getting to our house, but we managed to make it to our driveway and park in our normal spot. The snow was beautiful, a fine powder that stuck to everything.

The ranch truck, covered in snow on Christmas Eve.

Back deck
Gracie eating a cup of snow while Bandit begs for some. She was fascinated by the unlimited supply and ate several cups sitting by the fire.

The next morning we opened the front door and this is what we saw: four full inches of perfect, powdered snow!

Gracie woke up and came upstairs to find that Santa had brought her a beautiful bouncy horse and a stable for her Breyer horses!

Gracie had not forgotten the snow outside, and snacked on a snowball for breakfast.

Sherrie's (Nanny's) apron with hand and footprints from Gracie and Gunner, with plenty of room for more grandchildren! =)

A happily zonked out little girl, snuggled into her new Dora blanket.

A very fun Dora tent!

Holiday Lull

Here we are in the lull between Gracie's birthday and Christmas! We've just been busy shopping around and getting our Christmas plans figured out. Here are a few pictures of us over the last week:

French braid #4. Stayed in all day, so pretty!

Gracie and Gunner

Gunner, 8 weeks old

Uncle David showing Gunner how to play XBOX

Aunt Sara with her favorite nephew!

Gracie's very first gingerbread house! We made it together last night. She keeps wanting to eat everything on it, and insisted on the green frosting and fruit loops. Such a silly girl.

Gracie's 2nd Birthday!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful darling Gracie Jane! At 12:25 this morning I went into her room and gave her a kiss to mark the exact moment I saw her face. What a precious child. Thank you, God, for my little miracle.

Yesterday afternoon we had a little playdate birthday party for Gracie at a place called Going Bonkers in Lewisville. It is a huge indoor playground, with slides and ramps and bouncy things and did I mention it's huge? The best thing about it is that Gracie is confident enough to go through every single part of it, so she's not restricted to a small toddler section. Adults are also allowed in every part of the labyrinth of fun, so David and I were obviously worn out long before Gracie was! We didn't take any pictures, as we were too busy crawling all over the place with her, but we'll definitely take her back. We enjoyed visiting with the friends and family who stopped by to wish Gracie a happy birthday!

The original plan this morning was to go to the Highland Village Santa Day Parade, but then we decided that Gracie would have more fun walking around somewhere and interacting with her surroundings than sitting in a car watching a few floats go by. So we went to the ICE show at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine. David and I went with his family three years ago when we were dating, and it was pretty much the same, aside from the new Grinch theme this year. Gracie was interested, but a bit put out by the constricting parkas we had to wear over our coats and all the people. I think we'll wait a few years to take her again, when she's old enough to move around easier and interact more.

Then we came home and tried to get her to take a nap, but it wasn't happening. Around 3 o'clock her cousins came over and they just played and played non-stop for almost three hours! They left around 6-ish, and Gracie was so tired! She's finally snoozing away, cuddled up with all of her "babies" and with a smile on her face. It was a very tiring birthday! We're looking forward to a final party at her Grandad and Grangi's house tomorrow afternoon! Hopefully we stay awake!

Enjoy some pictures from today:

Daddy, it's snowing!

Me, you, and Cindy Lou Who!

Digging into her cake

Goofing off with her cousin Lilly

Watching a movie

Feeding her new baby monkey (it's mouth actually moves to "eat" the banana, and it cries when you take the banana away, until you hug it to make it stop). Gracie LOVES it, and is so sweet to it!

Kisses

"Does the banana really taste that good?"

"Haha, it got my finger!"

Lots happening in December!

A quick update:

-I am officially no longer a full-time employee at Bankston Honda, but they were very eager to keep me on at a part-time status. I'm pretty much on-call, a back-up for the two full-time cashiers when they are sick, going on vacation, etc. I also am in charge of keeping our filing room on track, and expect to spend about 8-12 hours per week doing that. The good thing is, aside from backing up the other girls when needed, I can go in to do filing work whenever I want, so that flexibility is very nice. It is a win-win solution for myself and my boss, and we're both very happy with the arrangement.

-David just got back from spending four days in Houston, training for his new job as a contract installer for Houston Shutter. He'll do some more training on job sites, but whenever Home Depot decides to move forward with setting out the shutter displays in their stores in the DFW area, he will get to work full-time! We're hoping that will be soon after the holidays. We're thankful that he has a job to look forward to and pray that it will be lucrative enough to catch us up on the bills we've been neglecting this year due to his unemployment.

-Gracie is definitely loving potty-training! She has potties in both bathrooms, as well as a travel one we take with us everywhere. She knows what to do and where and how to do it, and is getting better everyday at telling us when she needs to go. We're still operating at her pace right now, but after her birthday next week we're going to start taking her potty every hour, no matter where we are. Hopefully that gets this going on a faster-track! Although I realize that it could go on forever, and if she ever gets too frustrated with it we'll back off for awhile. I don't want her to hate going potty just because we made her when she didn't want to. But we're doing good not to reward her with food, just stickers, praise and lots and lots of love. It's a journey, that's for sure!

Well, that's it for now. We have some exciting plans coming up next week for her birthday! I can't believe she's almost TWO YEARS OLD! My beautiful darling girl. =)

Family Christmas Pictures

We took our pictures early this year, to avoid the crowds. Let me know if you want some, I can email them to you.

Slow November

Not much happening this month (so far). David went to Houston for one day this week to meet the company he's going to contract with. I got my hair cut short to make life easier, and to just try something new (I had the same long hairstyle for ten years and I was sick of it). I decided to quit working full-time, to make sure Gracie is getting a structured day at home. I'm going to see if my boss will consider keeping me on as a part-time cashier. We're looking forward to Thanksgiving and seeing family in a couple of weeks! Here are a few pictures of Gracie on Halloween as a purple fairy princess, my new haircut, Gracie playing on the deck in her Cowboys jersey, and playing her piano in her pajamas one silly morning. =)

Fall is here!

First of all, let me introduce you all to our beautiful nephew Gunner Lee Holley, born today, October 19th, 2009 at 4:54pm, weighing 7 pounds 7 ounces, measuring 20.5 inches long. He is such a pretty baby! Mom Brandi and Daddy Jeff are thrilled!

Gracie would have watched him forever, we think. After she saw him the first time through the window, she kept asking everyone for the "baby". She'll be a great big cousin.

This was a visit to Calloway's Nursery's Pumpkin Festival earlier this month. Gracie wanted all of them, LOL.

And this one, too.

Posing for Mommy in the pumpkin window

Coloring on a pumpkin

Gracie's masterpiece!

French braid #3. Pigtails this time, which held up much better than before. Mommy's getting very excited with all this hair to play with!

Playing at her friend Logan's birthday party. A beautiful day at the park!

Finally, a visit to the State Fair on its last day. Gracie was very good; there were so many people!

She loves the Auto Show, just like her Mommy!

Standing on a MONSTER truck tire!

Hugging on Daddy

Checking out the animals in the Barnyard petting zoo

Pretty picture with tired Mama!