growing up w. grier, ardynn, & annistyn: fleece da de da

Sunday, January 2

fleece da de da

Fleece da de da!!!!! (toddler talk for "Feliz Navidad!") .... I may be a little behind, but still wanted to take a second to wish you all a "Fleece da de da!".... Merry Christmas.... Happy Jesus's Birthday!!! What a fabulous time I had this year getting all excited for the bid day. I felt several times like the actual day would never come, but it did - IT DID!!! Finally.

We geared up for the festivities by baking for our neighbors... you can see the photos of Ardynn & me helping mommy. Ardynn's favorite part was to toss the entire vanilla bottle into the bowl. Don't worry sweet neighbors... we ALL washed our hands multiple times & here's to hoping that the oven killed whatever germies live on the vanilla bottle... ha!

In the couple of days leading up to Santa's arrival, we baked for Santa at Gingi's annual Christmas Cookie Fiesta.... we hung out with Sarah, Jon, & Hudson.... we spent a day with KK while mommy finished up a few last minute details... and hardly napped at all (what more could a couple of girls ask for???!!!)

On Christmas Eve, Ardo & I got to go to big church with the rest of the crew, where we rang bells, lit candles, & had a special Christmas Communion. I must say that we were pretty well behaved for munchkins in big church. It was a beautiful service that we got to experience with all of our grandmas, grandpas, aunts, & uncles! Happy Birthday to Jesus!!

At home on the night of Christmas Eve, I reminded Chuck (our little elf up on the shelf) that Ardynn & I both, had really been sweet, sweet little girls..... & that Santa should know one more time that I was hoping for a dollhouse to share with my sister, a ballerina baby, and "pauk-aly pens" (aka: sparkly pens). I put out some yummy cookies 'n' milk for the jolly guy and some home-made reindeer food for the magic ones..... read a coupe of books with daddy.... and hit the sack! (ok, ok.... I hit the sack after several million questions about how & when Santa would come into our house.... a couple of bathroom breaks.... and a little bit of syrup to help my nagging cough...ha!)

On Christmas morning, you better believe that mommy & daddy came into our rooms to find two happy baby girls... ready to see what was waiting. We scurried downstairs to find ABSOLUT

LEY EVERYTHING that we had asked for. Our families came over for some grub & coffee. We passed out our annual Grier & Ardynn showcase calendars... ha! It was a marvelous morning. After all of the bows had been untied at our house, we headed first to Gingi & Popi's for lunch and then to DooDah & KK's for dinner.

The next few days were again spent with our different families, ending up in Austin a couple of days after Christmas to celebrate Grandma Susie's 83rd birthday with Popi's family. How very, very blessed we are! I will let the photos speak for themselves, but let me just tell you.... we got so many wonderful gifts from all of the special people in our lives... we hardly know what to play with every day... it is like santa's toyland right in our very own house!

What a special year 2010 was. It will certainly be hard to top all of the wonderful memories that we made.... and it will be especially hard to top the arrival of our new little bean.... our lives were so much more full with her here this year!! Thanks be to our God for an amazing Holiday season! We're praying for another awesome year in 2011.... HaPpY nEw YeAr!!!

baking for our neighbors...

ardynn hit it pretty hard with the vanilla!