Even MORE Snow!!

Yesterday afternoon we got more snow!!!! We didn't get any snow last winter and I was afraid it would be the same this winter since it is an El Nino year and the winter is supposed to be more mild (accd to the local weather guys), but this is our 3rd snow already in December. The snowfall was beautiful -- thick snowflakes falling straight down, instead of coming in sideways in the wind like on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately the temperatures didn't drop low enough and was all gone when we woke up this morning (except for my snowmen, who are even smaller, but still hanging on!). But we did go out and play a little last night while we had the chance:

Chip came home from work early in order to beat the snow.

Lily was napping when it started, but we went out to play around!

Lily woke up to find another winter wonderland outside.

That little lump is what was left over from the snowman I made last weekend with the Christmas Eve snow! He is a survivor.

Lily throwing snowballs at Chip. She loves to throw snowballs. She picks up snow and yells, "Snowball Fight!" and starts throwing. :)

I'm without any makeup, but I still like this photo.

Dashing through the snow.

Love that little stinker face.

Throwing a snowball at me.

The snow last night was perfect snowman making snow -- kinda slushy so it stuck and held together nicely (the snow at Christmas was real powdery and didn't hold at all). So I had this great plan to make a real, big, life size snowman. But no one volunteered to help and I realized it was a lot of work and this is as far as I got. :)

Post Christmas Chillin'

The last couple days have been pretty mellow. Sunday Lily and I hung out at home and cleaned up some (or at least attempted to clean up). Yesterday Chip took the morning off work and we returned some Christmas items -- Lily who is still technically 2 didn't fit into the 3+ bicycle helmet that Santa brought so we had to get her a helmet for 5+!!! That girl has a BIG brain!! Then we stopped for lunch at a hamburger joint down the street where we saw Chris Harrison, host of The Bachelor eating lunch with his family!! How crazy to have a semi-celebrity sighting here. After some minor research I discovered he is from the area and in town for the holidays. :)
This morning Lily, my Mom and I went to see Princess and The Frog. I really liked it! Lily was a little quiet the whole time and she just said now that it was a "scary movie", but I am betting tonight after her nap or maybe even tomorrow she'll get all excited about it again since she never said she was scared during the movie and normally she will say something if she doesn't like it.
Here are some random photos from the last 2 days:


All Lily's Princesses got stuck in the tree, so Lily and I had to rescue them. Some we were able to get ourselves, others we had to call Toodles in to help with. It is fun trying to keep up with her imagination!

Lily is a big fan of the New Super Mario Bros. game on the Wii. She is getting a little better with the controls, and I am sure if we let her play enough she'll have it mastered in no time!

Lily (and baby Ariel) and Grandma ready to go see Princess and the Frog!

Games, SnowBalls and Lights

We had nothing to do today and nowhere to go (except for Chip who had to go to work) and it was so nice to relax at home. Well, as much as you can relax with an almost 3 year old and a house full of new toys which is actually not much at all, but it was still nice. :)
We played all morning and tried out ALL the toys!

Trying out the new scooter (this photo is actually from last night).

First thing this morning, before breakfast even, we had to play with the new play doh ice cream maker. To my surprise it was really user friendly and Lily didn't have any trouble making ice cream that looked almost as good as it did on the box!

Next we had to play Chutes and Ladders. Lily got the Disney Princess edition which is super cute, but it only took about 2 minutes until she lost interest and just started playing with the princess game pieces. Oh well.

Then we played her Mouse KeTag game which is actually kinda cool. It was a random buy off amazon since it was only $3 and got good reviews. I liked it -- the big piece that Lily is holding gives a character name or clue to the character and she has to tag them. It registers when she gets it right and times her each time. You can play with 1-4 people. It is simple and fun and kept her entertained for a little while.

Then we played Hi Ho Cherry-O which was another random amazon buy the week before Christmas when they had prices slashed. This was by far her favorite (in fact she is playing with Chip right now as I blog) and we played this game the most! The funniest part is that she totally cheats, but she cheats against herself so that she loses and has to put cherries back on her tree instead of in the basket to win! Silly girl. So I win every time. :)

I was getting tired of playing games and wanted to take advantage of the snow that is still in the backyard!! So we went out for a bit to make a tiny snowman and have snowball fights. I know there are a TON of pictures of her in the snow, but I don't know when we'll get snow again and she is so cute. We had a lot of fun playing in the snow!

Throwing snow balls at Mommy.

So cool.

You can see how it is melted in half the yard, but the half that doesn't get sun is still all icy and full of snow.

My little snowman with dried tropical fruit features. :)

Seriously all she did was throw snow -- mostly at me.

Look at that face as she chucks snowballs at me.

She even lifts her back foot for maximum distance and speed.

(I warned you there were a lot of pictures from today in the snow)

Back inside we played Candy Land before nap time! She grasped this one better than Chutes and Ladders, but still cheated and went in reverse.

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When Chip got home we went to look at Christmas lights! We went a week or so ago around our neighborhood and the neighborhoods of some of our friends who live nearby, but I really wanted to go the neighborhood we visited last year in the next town over that goes all out. Last year we actually went twice -- the first time it was SO crowded that we literally didn't move for nearly an hour, so we went again right after Christmas. This year we learned from our mistake and just waited until tonight to go. There were still a few people there and they still had the horse drawn carriage tours through the neighborhood (doesn't help with the traffic problem at all), but it wasn't bad at all. In fact, worse than the cars was the occasional ice still on the street!

It is hard to tell in this photo, but the Santa, Soldier and Snowman in the window are made of balloons! It was so cool and I'd never seen anything like it! I wonder how many new ones they had to get over the season? The balloons we have always deflate after a day or so.

I was super impressed with their real snowman! Much better than my dinky guy and wearing a Romo jersey too! :)

And finally, the video you have all been waiting for. I know I posted this last year, but it is TOO great not to share this years display:

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A Very Merry Christmas

Finally the big day is here! I LOVE Christmas and I think I was the most excited. I woke up a little after 6am and could not fall back asleep, I was so excited. I was about to go downstairs and start banging pots and pans together when Lily finally woke up about 7:20. When we got downstairs this is what we found:

Santa left a Princess bike, helmet and filled our stockings!!!!

Testing out the bell.

Trying it out.

We also found that none of the snow had melted!!!!

(In fact, it is 7:30 pm now and we still have a huge patch of snow in the backyard which will most likely survive the night and still be there tomorrow!)

My first ever official white Christmas.

Back inside, Lily went through her stocking. She was adorable commenting on everything she pulled out. She got a lot of little Disney Princess dolls, necklaces, rings, nail polish, mirror, brush, barrettes, balls, binoculars, cards, a kaleidoscope, pom poms, stickers, note pads, a princess wallet and little pet shop puppies.

When she got out the wallet, she opened it and said "There's no money in here!"

When she found Princess Jasmine she asked where Aladdin was and I said I didn't think there was an Aladdin and she said, "Well that is a bummer!"

She was cracking us up!

When she discovered the notebooks she said she needed crayons, but couldn't find any so she got out her binoculars to look for crayons. Silly silly girl.

After the stockings all she wanted was to open her "mirror" from Grandma and Grandpa -- she meant her new vanity. I tried my hardest to get her interested in all the new presents under the tree, but all she wanted was the "mirror." So Chip and I gave in and he started to assemble it (I didn't get a good photo of that). To save on time, I started doing my makeup and getting ready since we had a brunch reservation. Lily was getting impatient waiting for Daddy to assemble her toy, so I got her to open a present. A wooden make-up set, so she could do her makeup with me (I am not ready to give her real play makeup yet).

Here she is painting her toe nails. :)

Then she wanted to open the tool set she got last night so she could work like Daddy. She is pretty good too -- I didn't even have to tell her how to use any of the tools.

A picture of the snow in the backyard with our tree in the foreground. :)

Yeah, the vanity is ready!!

She LOVES it!

Then we actually got to open our presents!!

Lily already opened that Strawberry Shortcake doll from us and I can see in the background of the picture she also got a light doodle board and a big tea party princess rug.

Chip filming nearly every second. That camcorder will be retiring soon since my parents got me a new Flip Mino HD camera for Christmas!

It's Sleeping Beauty! She also got Cinderella and Prince Charming. A Ken doll we are substituting for Sleeping Beauty's prince and each Princess got their our horse!

A whole bunch of Little Mr and Little Miss books!

Opening Prince Charming.

Opening her big gift from us, her puppy!

Love at first sight.

You can program the puppy to know her name. It sings songs and grows! Scary robot puppy. :)

Chip got a PS3

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Just so I remember -- Lily also got Snow White on DVD and Horton Hears a Who; a magnetic puzzle map (which she swears is not for her); more tools from us; Hi Ho Cherry O game; A talking Tigger mask; Mickey's Mouse Ke Tag game; magic toaster; princess walkie talkies; princess bouncer ball; and a little Elmo's world playset. I got lots of bras (but I asked for new bras), bike shorts for spin class, adidas shoes, lotion, Bon Jovi CD, Pearl Jam DVD, lotions, wonder hanger; Guns N Roses book, Kathy Griffin Book, Michael Jackson book and an external hard drive for all my pictures and new flip videos! Chip got 4 video games, an Human Body Anatomy book, "Don't Spill Your Guts" game; "Skeleton in the Closet" game (I was going with a medical school theme) and a desk dock for his iphone. It was a GREAT morning.

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Quick playtime in the snow before we have to get dressed.

My parents took us to a very nice brunch at the Gaylord Texan hotel.

Lily LOVED drinking water from her flute!

It was so cute.

The ballroom was beautiful and all the food was kind of overwhelming!

The kids buffet area -- see how low the table is. They had Pb & J, chicken strips, pizza, pudding, cereal, cookies, cupcakes, jello, mac-n-cheese, . . . it rocked.

At the entrance/exit to the brunch.

I think Lily's favorite part of the day was riding the escalators with Grandpa! Honestly, I am not sure when she has rode an escalator before since we have strollers or carry her.

After brunch we headed over to see ICE! at the hotel which is a huge display of ice sculptures of Who-ville and the Grinch.

It is 9 degrees inside ICE! so they provide everyone with parkas.

Lily looked SO cute in her little parka.

Seriously, it is all made of ice. Amazing.

Lily was tired and a little out of it since it was approaching her normal nap time and it had already been a pretty eventful day!!

Inside an igloo!

With the Grinch.

Again, all ice!!!

Lily going down the ice slide. I know it is blurry, but she did it and she looked so cute, so I wanted to remember it.

Grandpa going down the ice slide. I changed the setting on the camera and it worked much better. Too bad Lily didn't want to go again.

More ice.

The Grinch's heart grows.

She is cute when she is freezing and has rosy cheeks.

At the end they had a nativity scene made of ice.

Chip went to drop all the big coats off at the car so we could walk around and explore the hotel. While we waiting for him to return, Lily and Grandpa rode the esculators some more!

A Texas Santa

Me in a sleigh!

They had this great photo opportunity, but Lily was so tired and no one else wanted to get in with me, so I got in for the photo!! :) Maybe it will be our Christmas card next year.

I wanted Lily to sleep the whole ride home (it was 29 miles away), but she didn't fall asleep until we were almost back. Grandpa, however, slept most the way! :)