Christmas 2011

We had such a great Christmas this year!  I had to work Christmas Eve night, but my sweet co-workers took over my patients at 4:00 so I could leave early.  And my sweet baby slept until 8:30, so I got a little bit of rest.  I was so glad that I was able to enjoy the entire day with my little family!

Kyle's parents came up on the 23rd and stayed through the 26th.  We did a lot of lounging until Kyle's brother and his new wife flew in on Christmas Eve.

Hanging with Papa Jack.

I got a new camera for Christmas and I can't stop taking pictures of Harper.  She's just so beautiful (if I do say so myself:))!

Jeff and Ginger got into town on Saturday evening.  Everyone else headed to dinner for my in-laws' 31st anniversary dinner, while I headed to work:(

I got up with Harper on Christmas morning before anyone else woke up.  We didn't open any gifts but she did find her chair from Santa under the tree!

Harper took a nice, long morning nap (her last one, I guess) while all the adults enjoyed Jack's crepes.  When Harper got up, we opened gifts.  She was only interested in unwrapping a couple gifts and then she just wanted to play with her new toys.

The girl loves chap stick, so Santa dropped some in her stocking.

Longhorns gear for Jack!

My sister-in-law, Lisa, made this tutu for Harper.  She loved it!  So cute!  And this picture is proof that she does smile sometimes:)

She couldn't even wait for the cozy coupe to be put together, she just had to get in it!

The rest of the day consisted of a lot of lounging and sleeping.  We went to Sandra's cousin's house for dinner.  It was delicious and we enjoyed seeing everyone.  

Playing with Aunt Ginger

Hanging out with Uncle Jeff

Playing with Daddy

All bundle up!

Just a couple more pictures with Jeff and Ginger before they left.  We don't get to see them much and really loved having them here for a few days.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!  And have a Happy New Year!

'Tis the Season

Yesterday, I was definitely feeling like "Bah Humbug!"  I was out Christmas shopping, along with everyone else in Austin, and realized that Kyle had the stroller:(.  I carried my squirming one-year-old (because she would much rather walk now) all over the mall looking for last minute gifts.  It's my fault really, I should've done my shopping earlier this year.  I'm also upset with myself for not sending out a Christmas card.  Big FAIL on my part.  I usually love Christmas so much!  Everything about it!  But this year,  I have to keep reminding myself that Jesus is the reason for the season:)  It's probably just because I haven't been able to enjoy enough Christmas movies and tunes.  I have, however, enjoyed plenty of sausage balls and snow mounds:)
Nonetheless, I am really looking forward to celebrating with my little one this year.  Last year, she was a little too little.  But this year, I think she will really enjoy getting a few new toys.  The girl LOVES toys!

Especially this little cozy coupe that she couldn't get enough of at a friends house the other day.  So glad it's wrapped up under our tree!

I am also looking forward to having some of the Kamraths in town for Christmas.  They are coming up to Austin to make it a little easier on us again this year.  It really is so nice, since we have to pack up our entire  house to take Harper anywhere overnight.

The other night, Kyle and I got out for Kyle's company Christmas party.  I had a great time, although I was little nervous because I was set next to the boss man.  We snapped a couple pics before we left.

It was casual:)

With our sweet girl.  

She was all ready for bed.  Love that she goes to bed as we're getting ready to go out. Would love to switch places with her some days!

We're celebrating our first Christmas tonight with Blair before she leaves for CO!  That's sure to get me in the Christmas spirit, right?  I mean I get to celebrate Christmas with this cute girl, so how can it be anything but merry?

Hope everyone else is enjoying the season and has all their shopping done.  Merry Christmas!

Jeff and Ginger's Wedding

Last weekend we went to Fredericksburg, Virginia for Jeff and Ginger's wedding.  The wedding was beautiful and we had such a great time!  We flew up on Thursday just in time for the rehearsal dinner.  

The thumb sucking birthday buddies after a long day of traveling.

We had a great time at the rehearsal dinner hearing stories about the bride and groom and meeting/seeing family and friends!

The wedding was on Friday night.  The weather was so perfect.  The ceremony was gorgeous, as was the reception.  Everything was Christmas themed.

The boys.

My Mother-in-Law looked gorgeous!

My niece Lucy and I.  Loved hanging out with her all weekend and so did Harper!

I don't know if you can tell, but here's Harper with her first busted lip.  She reached out to get a ball before the wedding and fell right on her face.  Poor girl:(

We had such a fun time at the reception.  Harper lasted until the very end.  We did have to run out in the middle of the reception to get diapers, but no big deal:)

She's a dancing machine!

Our failed attempts to get a decent Christmas card picture.

Happy Holidays!  Love, The Kamraths :)

Kyle's Grandfather Bob, Grandmother Barbara and his Uncle Pete and Aunt Nancy.  We loved spending time with all of them.

 Would love this picture if Harper were looking!

With the bride and groom.  

(Probably should've gotten this picture before all the crying/dancing occurred.  But doesn't my husband look handsome?)

On Saturday we hung out at the Martin's house and then headed into Washington DC pretty late.  We did a little bit of sight seeing in the city on Sunday before we left.  I also got to have breakfast with on of my oldest friends, Heather.  It was so great to get to spend some time with her, but I forgot to take a picture.  Here are a few pictures of us exploring a little bit of the city.

At the Air and Space museum.

Kyle with his Uncle Rob and his wife Lea in front of the Supreme Court building.  Loved getting to know them!  

Us in front of the Capitol.

We definitely want to go back soon and do some more sightseeing!

Harper is walking ALL OVER the place now!  I tried to post a video, but I'm not having any luck.  I'll put it on Facebook.  

Congrats to Jeff and Ginger and Best Wishes for a long, happy marriage!

Catching Up

Ugh!  I'm so behind on my blog posts!  I just had the LONGEST one done and then accidentally erased the whole thing!  So frustrating!

Anyway, we have been doing really well around here, just SUPER busy!  One piece of good news; I am officially part-time again!  The past five months have been pretty rough:(  I love having whole days at home with my little one.  Some days we don't even get out of our PJs.

And I'm obviously not the only one happy about it:)

We've been pretty busy traveling over the past month.  We have one more trip this week and then we will be staying put for a LONG time.

In mid-November we ventured up to TN, just Harper and I.  We spent some time with my Grandparents, brother, sis-in-law, nieces and nephew.  I love seeing them all so much and wish I were around my nieces and nephew more.  I hate not being able to see them grow up.  In fact, I think I missed my niece Mia grow up!  Where does the time go?

My little travel buddy waiting for the plane.

Harper was not really cooperating with picture taking our entire trip:(

Our first meal in TN at Las Palmas of course:)  How cute is this little boy?

Loved seeing Harper play with her cousins!

Her only picture with Uncle Adam:(

Lisa, Me and two of the cutest babies I have ever seen!

We got to spend a little bit of time with Sarah and Emma Kate while we were in town.  I can't believe how big Emma Kate has gotten!

I never got a great picture of the girls, but they played pretty well together and I can already tell they're going to be BFF.

After traveling all the way to Nashville, we took a couple little side trips while we were there.  Luckily, Harper is pretty good in the car (although Katie-Laine might disagree).  Our first trip was up to Bowling Green to see the two newest members of the coterie, Lynleigh and Corbin.

Corbin and I

Katie-Laine and Lynleigh had a special bond.

Riley doesn't like having her picture taken:(

Most of us.

I love all these girls so much and I am so glad I got to see Lynleigh at only six weeks old and Corbin at three days old!

We went south to Birmingham for the weekend to meet baby Annie and spend some time with three of my dearest friends, Emily, Eleanor and Erin.  We had such a relaxing time just hanging out and catching up.  Annie is so sweet and I have loved seeing these girls so much this year.

Can you believe this is the only picture I took?  I'm the worst!

Luckily, Eleanor took some pictures when we visited their family farm.

Love this picture so much!

Again, Harper wasn't really cooperating with the picture taking.  She just marches to the beat of her own drum these days.

We were doing A LOT of this, but she is pretty much on her own now!

SO MUCH PERSONALITY

It was, as always, a whirlwind of a trip, but we loved visiting with everyone!

Excited to be flying home to see Daddy!

About a week and a half after we got back from TN (and AL and KY:)) we loaded up the car and headed to CO for Thanksgiving.  Everyone went, including Moose!  It was a long 13 hour drive, but Harper was so good and we took turns driving so it really wasn't that bad.

Girlfriend slept a lot of the way there.

There was a snoring contest in the backseat going on for a little while:)

Mom had to work for a little bit on Thanksgiving, so she prepared a lot of the food on Wednesday night.  Then Blair and I (with a little help from everyone else) finished everything up on Thursday, and it was all edible!  We were pretty proud of ourselves:)

Harpy hanging out with her Uncles, Aunt and Lovie.

Everyone was pretty good about "walking" her and giving my and Kyle's back a little break:)

The CSU-P Thunderwolves were undefeated this season (Go Pack!) so we were lucky enough to get to go to a play-off game while we were in town.  Of course, I wish I had taken more pictures.  I also wish they would've won the game, but nonetheless, they had a great season and we are so proud of our Dad/Pops!

Walking on her own and ready for the game!

We all took turns watching the game and entertaining the baby:)

We are also so proud of Mary Grace and so blessed that we were able to be at her baptism on Sunday morning!

The nativity scene blocked my picture, but you get the idea:)

We did a little bit of Black Friday shopping.  These pictures were probably the highlight of our shopping trip though.

Happy holidays from Blair and Stuart!

And from Harper and Mary!  Haha!

Of course, we had to take a slew of pictures the night before we left, since I had been such a terrible memory keeper while we were there.

It was really sad to leave because we don't know the next time we will all see each other:(  But we had a great time visiting!

Since we've been home, we have been gearing up for Christmas!  We've had one failed attempt to see Santa.

So relaxed waiting in line, but oh so stressed when she realized that I wanted to leave her in Santa's lap for a minute.

And we decorated our tree!

She was my little helper:)

Can't wait for things to slow down a little bit so I can enjoy Christmas movies, hot chocolate and sitting in the living room with the tree all lit up!  Oh yeah, and so I can finish up some Christmas shopping.  I'm such a slacker this year!

I forgot to post this picture of Harper at her one year check-up on my last post.

Looking so much like her Dad these days!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  Hopefully, I'll be back with another post before the month is up!