Christmas Morning at Grammie & PawPaw's

{Sorry for double-posts, but this scheduled post never posted :(}

*i got way too excited about my new camera, so i forgot to take gift pictures. oops!*

*also, these are all straight out of my camera. no editing, not even cropping. i know these are probably the worst pictures a rebel has ever shot, but whatever!*

After we opened gifts at my mom's, we headed to Josh's parent's house to open gifts.

That is where Josh gave me my new love, by the way.

I was super excited to test out my camera, and some little girl was happy to volunteer.

We went out to the porch and I took a ton of pictures of her.

And, yes, she looks like a ragga muffin because she had been snacking non-stop all morning!

I also didn't get any pictures of our little family on Christmas, but I did get one of my sweeties.

Never mind the fact that the little is not even looking and was probably throwing a fit because we wouldn't let her eat summer sausage in plastic! 

My brother-in-law Justin snapped these 2 pictures of Josh's dad.

They are hilarious and priceless!

And, I'm sure he is super happy to make the blog with these-ha! :)

We got KK all dolled-up and while we waited Uncle Aaron flew his new airplane.

Kaidence was in love 

While we were opening gifts it started to rain. BOO!

But, we still got all dressed and headed to stop #3 for the day. 

Thankful Thursday

I hate to interrupt our Christmas posting extravaganza, but I felt the need to thank my precious husband.

We had decided to get each other a small $20 or less gift "from Kaidence" this year.

That was it.
Nothing else.

On Christmas morning I opened the canister set she "bought" us and just tossed it aside to open my other goodies.

Josh got it back out to look at them. I should have known something was up, because he is who picked them out.

He opened the box, pulled out a canister and said "Look these are nice."
I just nodded and kept opening. I mean, I knew they were nice..but nothing special!

He pulled out a smaller item and said "Ash, check out this one."
I glanced over and said "Yeah. They're nice!"
Once I registered that the canister had "REBEL" written on it..I FLIPPED!
He had surprised me and put my new camera in the canister box and it had been under our tree the entire time.

I have been wanting a DSLR camera for a while, but he definitely went beyond my expectations and got me a super nice camera.

{a canon rebel t2i}

I am really excited to learn more things about it.

So, if you know of anywhere in the Mobile/Baldwin County area that has classes - let me know! :)

Christmas Morning at Nana's

We decided to spend the night at my mom's on Christmas Eve.
Josh & I have done Christmas morning with our families since we've been married because we haven't started "Santa" yet.

We have been talking, and have decided we are probably going to start doing our house next year since Kaidence will be older.

We got K up early that morning to start opening all her gifts.

It didn't take her long to figure out what was inside and how to get to them-ha!

Her Aunt Heather & Uncle Blakeley got her this baby doll.

She loved it! She was saying "AWWW!", so that's why she looks drunk.

Christmas is always a mess with paper, bags, and boxes everywhere.

But, as you can tell, Kaidence did not mind!
She loves playing with the "mess" just as much as her toys.

She got hungry during gift time, so she had some sausage..which is why her shirt is dirty.

Her Aunt Amy got her this toy box, and we are so glad because our house has been over-taken by toys!

And, the vacuum cleaner is her favorite thing. Her Nana got it for her, and she "vacuums" everything in our house.

*Lots more Christmas posts coming up this week!*



Christmas Eve 2010

For as long as I can remember, my mom's family has done Christmas on Christmas Eve night at my Granny Meredith's.

This year was a little different because we had this little feisty girl with us!

She enjoyed opening lots of presents.. 

And, loving on her baby cousin Ansley 

I wish I could have got more pictures, but it was a packed house and K was feeling extra energetic-ha!



Merry Christmas!

{my little drummer girl trying to be just like her daddy!}



15 Months

Sweet KK, you are now 15 months old!

You finally started walking December 5th, and haven't crawled much since then!
You are officially a "toddler" now! :) 

You have also started identifying things a lot more.

When you see a dog you "bark", a duck you say "cack-cack", a sucker you say "sugg-err", and you love to look at pictures of Mommy & Daddy and then point at us.

You are the queen of making faces! You are quite talented-haha!

You still wear all the same sizes, but you seem to have finally got taller!

You go for your 15 month well visit, with you new doctor, January 5th. 

We love you, Sweet Girl!



Tacky Sweater Christmas Party

This year Josh & I decided to host a tacky sweater party at our house.

It was tons of fun, and I see it becoming a tradition!

We definitely had some tacky guests...

{Savannah & Wendy}

{Savannah, me, & Wendy} 

{MJ & Lindsey} 

{Mom, Heather, Kaidence, & Amy} 

{Josh & I} 

{Amy & Jeremy}

We gave gift cards to the top 3 tacky sweaters.

Josh - 1st

MJ - 2nd

Me - 3rd!

We had lots of yummy food and played Dirty Santa.

I forgot to take pictures, but we had lots of funny gifts.

This, by far, was the funniest! 

{Underwear soaked in Mello Yello and melted chocolate}



K's 1st Trip to the Dentist.

I wasn't sure when kids should first go to the dentist.

I had heard 6 months after first tooth, 2 years old, or when they have all their teeth.

K got her first tooth around 6 months ago, and I was worried she had cavities in her lower molars.

So.. I scheduled her very first dentist appointment.

I wanted to take pictures to remember this day, but I left it in Josh's truck.

But, ol' faithful cellphone was there to pick up the slack-ha!:)

The lobby had some games set up, K was too small for them..but she didn't think so!

The dentist said she didn't have any cavities-woohoo!
He said her teeth spacing is perfect, she had good size teeth, and the only issue is a piece of gum between her front 2 teeth, but he said it wasn't that big of a deal.

She did not like him "digging" in her mouth, but she did let him check all 12 of her teeth.

Since she was "good", they gave her a Snoopy sticker a new purple toothbrush! :)

She goes back in 6 months for another check-up.

{she barked the entire.way.home. thanks to the "ooog" sticker}

Verbal Diarrhea

Um, yeah.

That's not a very classy title, I know, but neither were the offenders of the verbal diarrhea!

Case #1 -

K was a wee-little baby and we were shopping in JcPenney's. People were ohh-ing and awe-ing about her. That's just life with a baby! The next thing that took place, I couldn't make up...

We were checking out and there were 2 cashiers. They told us how cute she was and then asked her name.

"Kaidence"
"What?!"

"Kaidence!"

"Spell that..."

"K-a-i-d-e-n-c-e...!!!!"

...look of disgust and utter confusion.

Josh felt the need for further explanation and says, "It's like cadence which means beat, we just spell it different"

"What's her middle name?""Ashlen."

"Oh, GOOD! That's what y'all need to call her!"...silence from all Thames parties.

"When she grows up she is going to want to be called Ashlen, and she is going to hate y'all for naming her Kaidence.""WOW!"

*italics were the offenders, non-italics were innocent victims*

Case #2 -

Yesterday K & I had to go to the mall to pick up some things. We were minding our own business and I hear these two girls behind me talking...

"Oh.My.God! That bow looks ridiculous. I hate when women dress their babies like that...Only "white girls" put them ugly outfits on their babies. I would never dress my child like that. She looks ridiculous."
I looked at them and gave them the ugliest stank-eye I could.

{the outfit she was wearing..}

In both cases they were "talking about" K, but really talking about us.

We are the ones who named Kaidence, and the ones who buy her clothes/dress her.

It was seriously 2 of the most uncomfortable situations I have ever been in!

And, a little nugget..

"If you don't have something nice to say,

DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL!"

 

Santa Take-2

Saturday we took K to see Santa at Bass Pro.

We went last year when she was a wee-little baby, so we wanted to start a yearly tradition.

This year the wait time was ridiculous.

We got there at 11, but our pass wasn't until 1:30!

So, we shopped around Bass Pro and then went to Bob Baumhower's for lunch.

While we were waiting we also let K "try out" a four wheeler.

It looked so funny to see her on a camouflage four wheeler in her girly smocked dress.

When we were standing in line waiting, K was waving and telling Santa "hey!"

I thought this time was going to be different.

But... 

I was wrong!

They told Josh & I to come up there so she would calm down, and that we could do a family portrait.

They went a lot better! 

Maybe next year! :)



Brain Dump.

I blog to have "record" of things in our life.

A lot has been going on, so I'm going to just dump it all into 1 post just for my memory.

• After many, many months of begging Josh..he finally let K get her ears pierced. She got them done 11/20 {her 14th Month Day} at Claire's in the mall! She did not like getting held down, but she didn't cry for too long.
• K has started to walk more. PRAISE THE LORD! She took about 10 steps last night, all for a cracker! ha! I think she needs a shirt "Will walk for food!"
• She doesn't talk too much, mainly just jibbers. But, she has started saying "Jesus" when she sees our manger scene. It is the most precious thing I have ever witnessed!

I'm sure there is a ton more things, but I can't think and some little lady just woke up from her nap and is now banging the crib.ha! She is such a mess!

{and a picture, because I don't usually do picture-less posts.
K this morning waving "HI!" before going to the mall}



Santa Take-1

A few weeks ago, we went downtown to see the Christmas tree lighting and of course Santa was there for pictures.

While waiting for all the action, K got to "pet" a few horses.

She was okay with Josh petting them, but she did not want to get too close.

Us girls took a picture while waiting.

Please notice what K is doing...

staring at everybody else-ha! 

The tree is lit! 

Then, it was time for the big man in red...

I wasn't sure how K would do because sometimes she loves older men, sometimes she doesn't.

In this case, she.did.not!

Check back tomorrow for our Santa retry..and to see if K grew to love the Jolly Ole' Fellow.



Shutterfly Christmas Card 2010

I wanted to wait and post our Christmas card after we had mailed them to all of our family and friends.

I love the card for a lot of reasons.

1 - it has multiple pictures of my little cutie

2 - it has our monogram

3 - it says "MERRY CHRISTMAS", instead of "Happy Holidays"

4 - it was free! :)

So, here's the card we decided on...

 



With Love Chartreuse Christmas Card

Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Thank you, Shutterfly for the awesome opportunity for 50 free cards, your excellent customer service, fast shipping, and great products!

*Bloggers, if you got the 50 free card promotion don't forget to blog about your card and submit it for other free goodies!*





Bellingrath Gardens 2010

This is our third trip going to Bellingrath during the Holidays to see the lights.

This year we went with Shane, Whitney, & KB.

We had tons of fun, and the babies loved it.

This year they added something new, a gorgeous fountain.

It would be a perfect place for pictures or a spring wedding!

Kaidence absolutely loved all the lights and said "HEY!" no less than one-thousand times-ha!

Her favorite was the lights above her head.

She was in awe! 

Of course, we had to stop for bestie pictures. 

The proud Dads 

The presh Starnes family. 

The two cuties.

We told them to "give kisses" and KB would lean in, but K would lean back..then, K would lean in, but KB would lean back.

It was too funny! 

The whole gang! 

..I asked a random stranger to take this picture, and Josh was freaking out-ha!
"That's so weird. People are going to think you are a weird-o! What if they run off with your camera"

Needless to say, the woman heard him and told me her husband said the same things!