Snow in Texas!

Texas had record snowfall this past week - I think the total was 11.4" (which was a single-day snowfall record). We thoroughly enjoyed it, made it feel more like the February weather we've known our whole lives. It looked so so pretty, especially on the trees. The first picture is looking out our front door (you can see how heavy the snow was weighing down the tree branches), then a tree in our yard and one kind of looking at the right front side of our yard/house (the truck & garage door are the neighbors).

Of course we had to head out so Charlotte could experience her first snow (and maybe only snow in TX). As my cousin commented on facebook "don't they have coats in texas?" and I responded: "no coats, no snow boots, no kids snow gear, no sleds." Doug had the great idea to use the botton of the exersaucer as a sled (i was going to put her in a dishpan). We pulled her up to Mark & Meghan's and used their slight-incline of a yard as our "hill". Charlotte didn't like it so much, but I'm going to say it was because she had on 15 layers of clothes and could barely move, it was dinner time, it was cold and still snowing pretty hard (and I didn't think until the next day to put socks on her hands).

She's had ENUF!

Oh what a year!

FINE PRINT: pretend you're reading this and it's the beginning of Jan, not almost the middle of Feb

I've been thinking over the past few weeks how crazy it is to look back over the past year. A year is a good amount of time, but each one seems to go faster than the one before - so essentially, it's often a short amount of time. I cannot believe so much has taken place in our lives over the past year - wow! I don't know that we'll ever have a year where so much changes in our lives. It has surely been filled with excitement, fear, happiness, a little sadness, apprehension...It's kind of amazing to think about and honestly makes me daydream a bit when I start thinking about it.

So here's a few vintage Charlotte pictures:

I realized they're all of her sleeping, oh well

Charlotte's First Birthday Party

It was so fun to Celebrate Charlotte's First Birthday with everyone while we were home. She loved all the presents and above all her cake (mainly the pink icing).

Charlotte's First Christmas!

The first portion of our big trip home of course was Christmas! We had a blast celebrating the holiday this year at home with all of our family and friends and the best part was celebrating this year with Charlotte!

I could write a novel here about the fun we had, the memories we made, and all of the stuff we did while we were home for the holiday - but I'm SURE you'd all be bored after the first sentence and start scanning for the pictures. So...I'll list a few of the Christmas highlights:

• The Plane Ride - Charlotte was so adorable walking through the airport saying "hi" to everyone she saw.
• Gifts - Charlotte received such wonderful presents - thanks everyone! Among her favorites: Elmo, her cell phone, her Bitty Baby, the sound puzzles, Tad, of course books, and her adorable new clothes. I do have to add though that she had just about as much fun ripping up tissue paper as she did playing with her new toys
• Santa (or my mom & dad) brought me a sewing machine! I'm so excited and currently working on my first project - stay tuned, I'll be posting lots about my beginner sewing projects & adventures
• Family - Charlotte had a blast playing with her cousins. We don't get the chance to see her interact with other kids very often, it was so fun to watch her having fun and interacting with her cousins

A Belated Merry Christmas to all and we feel so blessed. It was really an amazing year to look back on. Thanks to everyone & enjoy our photos!

Call me a "Slacker"

Please accept this as my formal apology to our followers and fans for my lack of posting (I've recently found out about many people who love reading about Charlotte and our lives in Texas - I had no clue so many people were following us). Last month was absolutely crazy with work, holiday happenings and traveling. I have so so many things to blog about and so many fun Charlotte pictures to share. I'm going to work hard this week to get Christmas, First Birthday and some fun start of 2010 stuff posted.
Stay tuned...and thanks for not being mean to me about my lack of posts :)

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