christmas, birthdays, snow (in dallas!), family, FUN!

WHITE CHRISTMAS! reese wins!!!

i don't even know where to begin! but i want to do a a quick recap here so that reese can hear all about her first christmas someday. :) 

we have had so much fun this last week. of course this is our little reese's first christmas, and it's also the first year that link was TOTALLY on board and into the whole idea of it all. jesus birthday, santa, the excitement of the season - which just meant it was the best christmas ever for jay and me. :) the tiny wonder of our sweet new baby girl and the excitement in our three year old's eyes were just enough to make my heart bubble over every single day of this wonderful season.

so we started out last friday night with my brothers' families, my parents, and us. we went up to see my brother jarrod's new house (or as link calls it, carson's castle - carson is my youngest nephew :)) it is a beautiful very large house, so fair enough. :) then saturday we had our first family christmas at my parents new house in dallas. oh-what-fun. we had our annual link family football game, lots of food after, and lots of fun being together. 

christmas eve was a beautiful service at our church with both of our parents and dinner at kirbys after. the service was so special. link listened intently and loved singing the songs, lighting his candle, and sweet reese slept calmly in all the beautiful sounds of christmas. i LOVED every minute of it. like a dream, and what a beautiful celebration it was! christmas day we had brunch here with jay's family and my parents, and opened gifts. link came riding the scooter santa brought him into our room at 5:45am, screaming, "look what santa brought me, a lightning-the-queen scooter!!!!" (yes, i know it's lighting mcqueen, but link has his own way of saying it) so we did presents in the darkness of our living room before sunrise. :) oh my early riser! killing me! :) 

but we had a blast and then had a lot of friends come into town the days following christmas, so we had a lot of fun catching up and sharing in birthday celebrations. 

and now, a TON of pics. forgive me.

my cute kids in link's new jeep

north park santa outing

santa baby

christmas cookies with hunny

is there a better pic of xmas morning? new slippers, toy blower, superhero t-shirt? what more could a boy want - oh right, some goggles. :)

my three favorite girls - and my nieces, who inspired me to realllllllly want a little girl. LOVE THEM.

the tulsa crew got to meet reese for the first time, and they loved her oh-so-much

cousins having fun :)

three wise pritchards :)

love. ;)

getting ready for "hunny's nativity"

i mean it - i love this with all my heart!

christmas eve dinner

the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

adorbs.

friends celebrating

the early morning gifts - see how it's pitch black outside? and the clock shows just before 6am? told ya. ;)

link taking his friend finley for a ride in the jeep

celebrating zetta's first birthday!

we love this sweet girl - happy birthday z!!!

we have been having some fun around here. reese is growing like a weed and still sleeping like a champ. most nights she is down for the night by about 7 or 8pm and then sleeping until about 7 or 8am. way to go, sister! she also had her 2 month shots and appointment last week and dr moore was pleased to confirm what we already knew, that she is indeed, perfect. hahaha - i kid, but she took those shots like a champ!

weight - 12.1 lbs 75%
length - 23.5 in 92%

she is chugging along and chugging some milk, as you can see. :)

link is having so much fun with her and loving the smiles and giggles she is starting to return. dallas has really cranked it up lately with the new park downtown and the perot museum opening. that coupled with all of the holiday stuff around town and a couple of fun football games and we've had endless fun. this week we tried out the perot museum and the tubes at neiman's downtown. safe to say link is a BIG fan of both. we are going to hit the trains at north park next. :)

jay and i have been able to get out a lot more too (thanks to my parents!!) - and have a lot of fun holiday parties, NYE stuff, cotton bowl (boomer sooner!), anyway, a lot of fun things happening in the next few weeks. i love the holidays and the only thing that makes it even better is seeing the twinkle in your kids eyes at the lights, the shrieks of joy seeing santa or frosty or a nativity or the reindeer or anything resembling anything christmas-y.

quick story - link is pretty obsessed with this whole thing being about Jesus birthday, which is good, b/c that is what christmas is about. anyway, he is so excited to have a birthday party for Jesus and is completely enamored with all nativity scenes. there is one in particular in our house he loves to play with and name each member. baby Jesus, joseph, mary, sheep, donkey, wise "mans," and of course, the salt. or peppered. yes, he calls the shepherd "peppered" and gets confused with the word association of salt and pepper. it's hilarious to see him say, "salt. no, no, peppered." and be so pleased with himself. hahaha. so as i said, it's fun at christmas with the kiddos. in my best clark griswold voice, "JOY TO THE WORLD!!!!" ;)