New Traditions

Growing up, my family and I (Amanda) traveled to Alexandria, LA each year to spend Christmas. We adopted a tradition of letting Santa know that he needed to come a few days early to visit us in Dallas before we packed up the car and headed to LA to see family. So we would read the Christmas story from the bible and then go look at Christmas lights the night before our road trip. While we were gone, Santa would visit! Then we headed to Alexandria where there would eventually be 13 grandchildren (10 of them girls!). We have such fond memories playing together and sleeping like sardines on Memaw and Pawpaw’s living room floor. Now there are 16 great grandchildren (13 of which are girls!). Needless to say, I was super bummed when Hallie woke up with a fever the day before we were supposed to leave and I had to accept that we would not be able to travel to Alexandria this year for Christmas.

 

Instead of sulking all day about not being able to go, Jason inspired me to think positive and establish our own family traditions right here at home with just our little family J Here are four we came up with and we hope to add more in the future years!

 

New tradition #1: Playroom Clean-Up: We decided that since we were about to get plenty of new toys for Christmas, we should go through our playroom and identify every toy we rarely or no longer play with. That way we can save those toys for Caroline or give them away to a family that might need them. We evaluated the “fun-factor” of each toy and let the girls keep only their favorites. Now the playroom is clean, organized, and ready for some new toys!

New tradition #2: Acting out the Nativity: Thanks to my good friend Lindsay, we own a super cute nativity scene and a board book called “The Story of Christmas”. While mommy read the book aloud, the girls moved the figurines around to act out all the parts of the story of Jesus’ birth. It was super easy and a great way for the girls to realize the reason for the season and be a part of it!

 

New tradition #3: Build a Gingerbread House with Daddy the Architect: While mommy took care of Caroline, Hallie and Annabelle built a gingerbread house with daddy. They loved decorating their own parts of the house and taking ownership in them. Then daddy put the house together making sure it was nice and sturdy (and while telling Belle every 5 seconds to stop eating the candy pieces) and then they stood back to admire their work!

 

New tradition #4: Advent Calendar: We started this one on December 1^st. Each night (that we remembered to ;)) we sat around the living room as a family, read something from the daily readings (usually the Psalm) and then went to each person and said aloud what we were thankful for. Next, one girl would take baby Jesus out of one pocket and the other daughter would put him back in the next pocket. (what are we going to do when there are three girls to fight over Jesus!?)

New Sister

 Kathlyn Dragna Photography

What an adventure! Sweet Caroline joined our family on November 29^th 2012. We are delighted by our newest addition, Caroline Paige. So far, we think she is a mix of Hallie and Annabelle; maybe a “blue-eyed Hallie”. She was 7lbs 6oz (Hallie was 6lbs6oz and Annabelle was 8lbs6oz, right in the middle!) and 19.5 inches long at birth. So far we know that she loves being talked to (especially by her grandmas) and hates getting her diaper changed (or being cold in general, good thing you were born in Texas sweet one!). Her sisters are very excited that she is finally here (9 months is a long time in toddler world!). Both girls are very helpful with getting pacis, grabbing a blanket, or handing us wipes during a diaper change. Things are quite hectic with 3 kids under four (like just getting ready for and traveling on a 30 min car ride is a feat!) but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

Kathlyn Dragna Photography

Birth Story:

I have always wanted to go into labor on my own since I was induced with Hallie and Annabelle. But after going to the doctor on my due date and hearing I was still only 2cm dilated, I gave up hope and scheduled an appointment for induction the following morning at 7am. (My doctor only induces on Thursdays and I didn’t want to chance waiting till the next Thursday which would put me 8 days late) We all know that God has greater plans than ours and apparently He had already decided that Nov. 29^th would be the day! I woke up around 5am with what I thought were contractions. They were much more mild than pitocin induced contractions though so I thought it might be false labor. Nevertheless, since they were so mild, I laid in bed until it was time to get ready to be at our 7am appointment at the hospital. The contractions kept coming but they were 15-20 min apart and still very very mild. Jason and I arrived at the hospital at 6:45, checked in, changed into my hospital robe, and as soon as I sat down on the bed my water broke! I really was in labor and this day was meant to be Caroline’s birthday after all J 5 or so hours later after lots and lots of exhausting pushing (worse than the other two believe it or not) she was here and we were elated!

Photos from the newborn photoshoot with Kathlyn Dragna:

 

Our First Family Photo  

Visit to Santa at the Mall

Chillin with Caroline at Ian and Christy's Christmas Party

The Day the Girls Met Caroline (Nov 30th)

 

Trick Or Treat

Big Girl Room

We are officially sharing a room now :) I moved into Annabelle's room a few weeks ago to make room for Caroline. At first it was hard to fall asleep because all we wanted to do was play and giggle and wreak havoc in our room, but we are getting better about going to sleep within an hour of the time mommy and daddy tuck us in. We love our new beds and decor and are almost done, just need the perfect tall white dresser to complete the look!

 

 

Pumpkin Patch!

 

 

Dallas, Backyard and Aggie Football

100 degrees, with mosquitoes galore, we don't care, we love to swing!

 

Spending quality time with Great-Grandma in Dallas.



Our trip to Bass Pro Shop. We had fun running around, looking at the fish, climbing into boats, "shooting guns", and "riding horses"!

 





 

 

Showing our Aggie Spirit with new shirts from Aunt Christy! Win or lose, we love our Aggies!

1st Day of Preschool

Here we are on our first day of preschool! Our faces display our sentiments perfectly. I am super excited for our new adventure and Annabelle is not at all excited to be separated from mommy all day. Regardless, we both had a GREAT day and would not stop talking about it when mommy picked us up. My favorite part was playing on the playgroud and Annabelle's favorite part was playing kitchen during center time. We are super excited to make new friends and learn new things at our preschool :)

Galveston

We have been talking about going to the beach all summer. Annabelle and I could not wait to build sand castles, jump in the waves, and fly a kite while running along the surf. Grana, Granddad and Uncle Blake came to our house to spend the night and then head out to Galveston the next day. That night I played my first game of chickenfoot! I played all 13 rounds and didn't come in last, hooray!

Here is a picture of Annabelle and I talking with Grana about how much fun we are going to have at the beach.

The Beach from Annabelle's perspective:
    We are here! Sand toys, sunscreen, beach towels, crashing waves, shovels, snacks, I love it all! My favorite part is plopping down in the sand next to Uncle Blake and playing in the sand for hours. I also enjoy a quick trip to the ocean to fill my bucket with water to pour on mommy's sand castles. Every now and then I enjoy a quick dip in the ocean to cool off. I don't mind the salt water once I get used to it and I tell mommy to bring me deeper and deeper.

Beach from Hallie's Perspective:
We are here! Sand toys, sunscreen, beach towels, crashing waves... mommy, what's all that black stuff? Why is the sand dirty? Mommy wash all the dirt off me! Ok, ok, I guess I can handle the dirt. Just don't think about it. Now for some swimming! Ahh, feel the water on my legs, nice and refreshing. Here comes a wave, splash! Ahhhhh! Salt in my mouth! Spit, spit spit. Cry. Yuck! I need juice! Run back to our spot to drink water, spit and repeat until all the salt is gone. Ok, maybe I don't like this ocean thing so much. Where is the swimming pool? And don't even get me started on my reaction to when salt got in my EYES!!! Needless to say, I spent a lot of time building sand castles and watching Uncle Blake dig deep holes. I still had a blast but for the rest of the trip, ocean water was not permitted to touch any part of my face and if it did, insert screams.

Loved loved flying a kite with Granddad!

The beach!

Sisters with matching pants (Gap ad!), boys playing Risk, girls playing twister!

Family Picture before heading out to dinner.

Days Go By

Summer is a precious gift. We get to sleep in, play with mommy all day, go to the pool every day that there is a glimpse of sun, eat creative snacks, go to the park on a whim, and have fun adventures with baby Jacob :) Some days in the summer drag on a bit though. Today, for example, we played pretend mommy (Annabelle and I taking turns), colored with chalk outsite, watered the plants, completed a puzzle, made up a domino game with mom, had a country radio dance party, busied ourselves while mommy showered, had a lunch hot off the grill, watched super why, and read 5 library books all before noon! Needless to say mommy has to have a lot of tricks in her back pocket for when we have exhausted everything to do in the playroom. Today, we were treated to maicures and pedicures in mommy's bathroom! It was fun and neither of us smudged a single nail!!!

Painting a masterpiece! It started out as a rainbow... then morphed into a... picasso!