Santa = Fail

I was really excited to take Charlotte to sit on Santa's lap for her first Christmas and get a cute photo. Doug was skeptical. Well, the pictures speak for themselves (yes, we had that child screaming loudly).

Oh, and she was a happy girl before and a happy girl after (and I mean immediately after), just not while sitting on Santa's lap.

We'll try again next year & hopefully get a better result.

only 1 more month - really?!

yes, really...Charlotte's 11 months old! Only 1 more month until she's 1 whole year old! wow! She's making it harder and harder for me to snap a good picture with the fun sign, but at least I tried, huh? ok, ok, she might* have a mullet
*delete "might" from that sentence and don't tell, she gets embarrassed

Our First Texas Thanksgiving (and Charlotte's first Thanksgiving)

Since we were unable to come home for Thanksgiving this year, we had to do it right here in Texas. Afterall, it was Charlotte's first Turkey Day and I decided the time had come to cook my first turkey. We were also lucky enough to have Megan here with us, so it made it feel a little more like a holiday with family. We're so happy she was here to hang out and celebrate with us (I know if she wasn't here, I'd have been missing home much more - thanks Meg!)! We even broke out 2 bottles of the waiting-for-a-special-time-to-drink-wine we bought on our honeymoon.

We also got to see and talk to both of our families on Skype - it was great to see everyone together and chat a little.

THE MEAL:

So my first stab at cooking a turkey turned out amazingly wonderful (especially considering that I only spent $4 on my 12lb Jennie O turkey)! It was super tasty, juicy and seriously just sooo good! Additional menu items included: Susan's stuffing, Donna's greenbean casserole, my specialty sweet potatoes and some cranberry sauce/jello stuff that I forgot to put on the table - whoops. That was actually the only dinner mishap and nobody seemed to mind. Oh yeah, and of course we had gravy too, which was terrific thanks to Megan. For dessert: homemade pumpkin cheesecake. My first cheesecake too, which was also super yummy (can't go wrong with a Paula Dean recipe I guess). I'm thinking everyone enjoyed the meal because unfortunately for us, we only had about 3-4 servings of everything leftover.

Oh, and I pulled out our china of course since we were certainly celebrating the holiday and had to do it right : )

Precooked items:

The Finished Turkey - Success!CHARLOTTE'S FIRST THANKSGIVING:
It was a year for "firsts" all around: Charlotte's First Thanksgiving, I cooked my first Turkey-Day meal and Doug carved his first turkey. Charlotte LOVED having guests here to entertain her (the girl loves attention). And the food? Well, she thoroughly enjoyed her first Thanksgiving meal! She chowed down on green beans, sweet potatoes, and even stuffing and some turkey. There was a fight in our house over leftovers the next few days.

THE GUESTS:

Besides Doug, Charlotte & me, Megan was here to celebrate with us and Tony (our old realtor and friend from high school) and his girlfriend, Liz joined us for dinner. Meghan & Mark (our neighbors & good friends) joined us for the after-dinner party and dessert. It was the perfect number of guests and we all had a great time. Unfortunately, after being picture-happy as we started cooking, I kinda forgot when everyone was there.

It was certainly hard to be away from home, missing our families for Thanskgiving, but with all of the cooking, eating, drinking, eating, cleaning, eating and simply hanging out at home, we managed to have a great holiday here in Texas. We are very thankful for our friends here for celebrating with us and especially to Megan for coming down for the holiday.

One last picture...the food must've been pretty good because we had very little leftover:

Our Halloween Trip Home

Since it's just about Thanksgiving, I am feeling like quite the slacker since I haven't blogged since before Halloween. So instead of writing out a nice little story about our wonderful trip home to nky for Halloween, I'll just post our photos. Needless to say, Charlotte had a great time being a cowgirl and hanging out with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins! And yes, it was wonderful to be home.

Oh yes, and we took her 10 month birthday pictures in the airport (she wasn't in the mood to sit still):

Our little Cowgirl (and a fall craft)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
I have been working on my first sewing project: Charlotte's Cowgirl Halloween costume. I made a vest and skirt, both complete with cowprint and fringe. Well, I finished it this week!! She already has a pink cowgirl hat from grandma and I was going to just get a simple pink onesie for underneath, but...while driving to Carter's, I noticed Shetland's Western Wear store and I quickly changed my driving destination and ran inside. I found the BEST and CUTEST cowgirl gear: a pink collared, button-down, hanky-print onesie and pink boots (and the boots were on sale!). It surely completes her outfit. I was so excited with my finds and Charlotte and I had to play dress-up today.

So here's our little Cowgirl (I had to put the second picture in so you could see her skirt and the detail of her adorable shirt): Besides Charlotte's costume, I haven't done any crafts in what seems like forever. Meghan, my great new friend and neighbor, had said she wanted a fall wreath. I quickly convinced her we could make them prettier and cheaper than she could buy one. Last Saturday night, that's just what we did. Both of our wreaths turned out great and I may have turned Meghan into a crafter :)

Happy Fall!

The Pumpkin Patch

The weather was beautiful this past weekend so we decided it was the perfect time to make our first family pumpkin patch trip. We headed to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch (it's about 45 min south east of our house) http://www.flowermoundpumpkinpatch.com/ ~ This place is wonderful!! They have thousands of pumpkins of all sizes, hay mazes, hayrides, a little tractor ride, bounce houses, tons of cartoon character cut-outs to take your picture with, food, and endless spots for perfect pumpkin and fall photos. And the best part? Free admission & parking! We seriously took over 250 photos (thank goodness for digital cameras) and we ended up with some great shots.
Charlotte obviously had a blast at her first pumpkin patch and so did mom & dad.
Enjoy!!

A tid-bit O Charlotte

It's been a little while since I posted solely about Charlotte, what she's doing, saying, eating etc. So here goes:

• TEETH: I noticed Tuesday morning that she has another tooth! That makes 5: 3 on botton & 2 on top. I'm thinking that may help explain her snotty nose and waking up during the night
• SLEEP: How come this little girl slept great between 2 & 5 months, but now at 9 months old she doesn't sleep through the night and hasn't since 5 months or so?? We're convinced J'Adore Yogurt is magic bc whenever she has some she sleeps all night long. My mom is convinced she's hungry and needs more to eat. Which leads to the next category....
• EAT: Charlotte is so funny, she loves to eat and will seriously eat anything we give her. Her list of current favorites: anything she can finger pinch & feed herself (bread, puffs, mum mums, crackers, black eyed peas), staple favs: sweet potatoes is still a fav, bananas, applesauce, peaches, avacadoes, pumpkin, potatoes, peas, lima beans, carrots, edamame, I could keep going bc the child eats is all. The big new one is yogurt. I swear, she can eat a full dinner and act like she's done, then I pull the yogurt out of the fridge & she'll down a cupful in what seems like seconds. She loves the stuff! J'Adore Yogurt is our new family favorite. It's a self-serve frozen yogurt place and Charlotte gets the 'no sugar added strawberry banana' - she screams for more and draws a crowd in that place, it's pretty histerical. What's also histerical is giving her a lemon or a lime when we're out to dinner. She has the perfect, classic "sour puss" face, but still goes back for more, it's good entertainment for mommy & daddy.
• PLAY: I went to a consignment sale & scored on a few new toys. They were definitely good buys! One has a mirror and plays music - I cannot stress how much Charlotte LOVES mirrors (she immediately smiles when she sees her cute face), the other is an Elmo guitar. Other than those, she loves books (especially her new Halloween ones from Grandma Millay), her nasal spray bottles, tupperware (especially at Meghan's house) and dog toys (but we do our best to keep her from chewing on those).
MOCK: The imitating has begun! She's started mocking noises, faces and things we do. She's getting good at the indian-like mouth/hand "aww", the "bliber, bliber" noise you make moving your tongue on your lips, "na, na, na" meaning no & shaking her head, saying "ma ma ma" and "da da da" and "ba ba ba". I guess it's time for mom & dad to start watching what they say and do : )
• STATS: The standing from her most recent doctor visit are as follows: weight 17lbs 6 oz (22%) height 27 1/2" (35%), head circ. not sure of the exact #, but it's 90% ---Lots of brains in that big ol head! Current high-school projections are 5'3" and 110lbs and very smart :)
• PHOTOS: enjoy! PS: I'm totally slacking on the "official" 9 month photo...I'll hopefully upload tomorrow.

Aunt Allie & (soon-to-be) Uncle Bo Come to Visit!

So Allie and Bo made their first trip to Dallas this past weekend. We've been anxiously counting down the days until their visit. We missed them so much and it was so so so good to spend time with them!
Charlotte immediately warmed up to both Al & Bo. She was constantly laughing at Bo and loved searching the web for wedding stuff (and Elmo videos) with Allie. She even got to play hookie from school to stay home and play and shop with her aunt and soon-to-be uncle. She admired Allie's BEEEEAAAAUTIFUL sparkly new ring constantly - it's obvious she already loves diamonds : )

So what did we do? Well, not too much. We hit the state Fair (see next post for details & photos) and ate our fair share of fried stuff, did some shopping, ate some yummy food and basically hung out. Us girls had fun wedding dress shopping on Sunday (not sure who draws more attention: Allie, the bride-to-be, or Charlotte with her huge smile, loud voice, and wearing the cutest outfit complete with a flower in her hair) and the boys hit up a sports bar for the Bengal's game (another win!). Allie and Bo even caught a concert at the House of Blues in Dallas.
The 4 days absolutely FLEW by and we miss them already. Thanks for visiting guys, we had so much fun and can't wait til the next time we get to see you!!
Pictures...

Big Tex

So we made it to The State Fair of Texas this past weekend and we saw Big Tex (the "mascot" of the fair). For those of you who don't know, well most of you reading this, you have no clue the extent to which Texans go to fry stuff. The State Fair is also known as the Fried Food Capitol of Texas. I will say that it did prove that anything can be fried and can be delicious. After indulging a bit, Allie decided she needs to open up her own restaurant named "You buy it, we fry it" where people can bring whatever food they want to be fried...haha.

Some things we chowed down on:
1. Sweet Jalepeno Corn Dog Shrimp (yes, it's fried)
2. Corny Dog (that's what they call 'em here)
3. Fried S'mores - yum yum!!
4. Fried PBJ&B Sandwich (B=banana) - super yum yum!
5. Fried Butter - yes, I typed it correctly. This was the new 'hit' item this year and we just had to do it. And yes, it was Deeeelicious; tasted pretty much like you think fried butter would
6. Turkey Leg - you know, the kind you usually only see at the Renaissance Festival that's as big as your head?
7. Beer - of course
The Beer & Turkey Leg were the only non fried items. If you wanna check out more of the ridiculous, artery-clogging menu items go to: http://www.bigtex.com/foodlocator/

So what else does the fair have besides fried stuff? Lots of stuff! Shows (we saw part of the pig races, but missed all the others), Animals (I'm not sure if Doug or Charlotte liked the petting zoo better), a 1,500 lb pig, rides, carny games, car show, and of course shopping. Let me tell you about the shopping. Allie and I were expecting the traditional "craft tent"...well, the craft tent in Texas is different than the ones in Kentucky. They're pretty much all full of "As Seen on TV" crap. Half of the vendors are wearing mics and pitching their products. It was an experience, but unfortunately, none of them got a sale from our party.

Did I forget to mention that it was raining most of the night? Thank goodness for Charlotte's stroller's rainguard. That thing's AMAZING! She was in her little dry, germ-free cocoon and even slept the whole ride home. Oh, the ride home...the one part I haven't even mentioned yet is our transportation...we took the Dart (the train). Charlotte's first commuter rail experience (and probably her last for a long time). It actually wasn't too bad, we're lucky we fit that stroller in though and really lucky Charlotte slept the whole ride. All the other riders were way jealous of her dry, quite, comfy seat on the train.

So altogether, our first trip to the State Fair of Texas was a great time. We're really happy that Allie & Bo were here to experience it and chow down on some fried stuff with us!

Ok...here's the photos:

First Day of Fall!

So yes...it's fall now and surprisingly enough we've had some great cool fall weather the past few days. I love it!! I did have to run out and buy Charlotte some clothes to cover her arms & legs, since all she has is hot weather stuff. Here are a few pictures to document...Charlotte helped me plant a mum ~ we finally have a color other than green in our front yard! It was chilly & she needed some covering. The pictures look cute, but in actuality she was wearing: a green striped summer romper, pink baby legs, purple socks, and a pink jacket - such a little ragamuffin : )

And to prove that one of Charlotte's favorite times is when she's eating (finally a picture where you can see her top 2 teeth too!)...

Weekend Fun

Football Season has begun...WHO DEY!! We were able to watch the first game at home (thanks Direct TV for 1 free week of NFL Ticket), but this past Sunday we hit up a sports bar. Charlotte is ready to go in her Bengal's gear. She'll be sporting her jersey/onesie at sports bars across Dallas for the remainder of the season (we'll certainly have to add a bow when we go out). Check out the helmet & football on the butt, so cute!

We hit up Grapefest (a huge wine festival) in Grapevine this past weekend. Our new good friends & neighbors Mark & Meghan joined us - Mark's a great stroller-pusher & diaper-bag-carrier and Meghan and I had a great time people watching and hitting up the shops. I must say that Charlotte is a great people-watcher too, she certainly comes by it honestly. It was crazy packed and more like a big carnival/festival than a wine tasting event. Daddy took Charlotte on her first carnival ride, the Carousel (I know, I know, swine flu, grossness germ carnie ride...why did I let her touch that nasty thing? of course I thoroughly cleaned her hands as soon as she got off). But she did have a great time riding the zebra and looking at all the lights (not sure if she or daddy had more fun though) and she looked awfully cute too.

After a few hours of festival fun including wine of course, some worth-the-hour-wait fajitas, a funnel cake, death by kennel corn and cotton candy (wait, did anyone but me steal some of Mark's cotton candy?) we were ready to head back home. Mark happily took care of Charlotte's stuff (well, after an entertaining lesson in stroller-folding), daddy kept her happy in the carrier and mommy & Meghan snuck behind snapping photos of "my two dad's" -- it was very cute...and entertaining. We warned Mark & Meghan that Charlotte was going to scream in the car the whole way home, but to our surprise, no screaming! A happy baby in the backseat with mommy & Meghan provided a pleasant ride home. A fun night was had by all!

8 months old!

WHAT?! Charlotte's 8 months old already?!??!

I'm a few days late in posting these pictures...oh well, better late than never huh? As you can see, someone had a lot of fun at her 8 month photo shoot (it was hard to pick just a few to post here):

The Splash Park

There is a really cute splash park and playground in our neighborhood. We can actually see it from our backyard, but we have to walk around the block to get there. We've gone a few times and Charlotte absolutely loves it. When we get in eye-sight of it she starts kicking her legs and making noises...it's really cute how excited she gets. She doesn't mind the water splashing in her eyes or the rough ground (it's softer than concrete, but not soft enuf for baby knees). She crawls around like crazy and just loves the water. There's usually other kids there that she loves to watch (and they usually want to play with her too). Here are some pictures from a couple of weeks ago. As you can see, daddy & Charlotte had a great time!