Snow Day - December 4, 2009

*Note: I'm going to try to go back in fill in a little bit of what I missed, so please bear with the dates jumping around!

We don't get snow much here in the deep south, but on December 4, 2009, it snowed in Houston, Texas! We picked Anna up from school early so that she could enjoy it while it was still coming down.

She really loved getting to wear her mittens ("glubs") and just had a blast playing in the snow.

I think that she really would have loved to make a snowman, but this was the best we could do.

She had a little trouble at first when I was trying to explain to her that she could "eat" the snow. . .But she eventually got the hang of it!

We drew in the little bit of accumulation we got on the patio chairs, then Anna started complaining about being cold. Her little mittens had soaked through from all of the snow she picked up, and her hands were freezing!

And so our 2009 snow day ended. Hopefully, she'll get to see some REAL snow in the next couple of years!

Toddler Speak

In the last year, Anna has turned into such the little chatterbox. Since she's getting better and better at mastering the English language every day, here are a few words that I want to remember how she says them right now. . .before she starts getting them right!

1. Chap Stick

• Anna just loves putting chap stick on, so she asks for it all the time. She puts it on her upper lip all the way up to her nose and on her lower lip half-way down her chin.
• Pronounced: "Chop Stick"

2. Chocolate

• She's female. Enough said.
• Pronounced: "Shock-lit"

3. M & M's

• A rare treat in our house, but if she sees some, much pleading and whining ensues.
• Prounounced: "EN-na-nems"

4. Our House

• She has a little trouble with pronouns. I just so happen to think it's terribly cute.
• Pronounced: "We house"

5. Potato Salad

• She can say "potato" and she can say "salad", but can't put them together for some reason.
• Pronounced: "Sah Salad"

6. Lemonade

• She can say "lemon", but not "lemonade".
• Pronounced: "MEM-a-lade"

7. Gloves

• We've had a colder winter than usual this year, so Anna has gotten to wear her gloves quite a bit.
• Pronounced: "Glubs"

8. Ballet

• We took Anna to the Houston Ballet's Nutcracker for the first time this Christmas (Thanks Maw Maw!)
• She loved it, she just can't seem to SAY it :)
• Pronounced: "Buh-LAY"

9. There's a mean lady in there.

• She loves Disney princesses, but doesn't love Disney princess movies because she is scared of the villains.
• One night, she was looking at some Disney board books with Maw Maw and kept saying this over and over. No would could understand her except for Aunt Katie (aka. "The Toddler Whisperer")
• Pronounced: "asdkanfqbnweiuaaiuamn"

See? You probably wouldn't have caught that last one either!

Vote for our Christmas Card! (Pretty Please!)

Mackenzie Wheatley of Chubbyfoot Photography took our family pictures this year that I used to design our Christmas card, and she's having a little card contest on her blog!

Here is ours:

Please go to the link below and vote for us (#34) by leaving a comment if you get the chance! We'd really love to win the photobook!

http://chubbyfoot.typepad.com/chubbyfoot_chatter/2010/01/3140-and-were-done-3-days-to-left-to-vote-.html

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010!

Christmas and New Years Day have come and gone, and like so many other people, I was too caught up in the craziness that the holidays bring to write about all of the fun we were having. (Although I can assure you, we had a lot!)

Then when I finally came up for air, I was completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of holiday pictures on my hard drive, and didn't know where to start. So I've decided to give myself a pass for now with no pressure to do a huge "catch up" post. If I get to it later, I get to it. And if I don't, I can live with that too. Clean slate.

So now it's time to leave 2009 behind and move forward into 2010. . .can't wait to see what it has in store for us!