Treats with Grammie

A few weeks ago, Grammie came and stayed with us for a few days to see Daddy & Caleb's concerts. We had a wonderful time! During that time, Caleb and Grammie made some special treats!

Christmas in the Park

2008 CDC Christmas Program

Caleb's class dressed up as elves this year for their annual Christmas program. They sang a song, and it was very cute! It was a great program!

All the grandparents came out to see the show! Here are Caleb and Grammie before the program.

Christmas Photo Session

I am so bad about waiting till the last minute to do my Christmas cards every year. So last week, I finally got around to taking pictures of Caleb for our Christmas card. I had him do a "Christmas Photo Session" in our living room with all kinds of Christmasy things. Here are some of the pictures we took!

After taking pictures, Caleb put on a show for me on the fireplace. He held a flashlight and sang and danced for me. It was priceless!

Caleb LOVES his stocking! He knew exactly which one was his this year without me even having to tell him.
I love his smile in this picture. He is getting so big!

Goofy smile! This is the way most of his pictures turn out. He is such a silly kid!

What a sweet face!

Grammie gave Caleb this wreath last year with Little People on it so that we could take one off and put it in the nativity set each year and talk about Jesus' birth. It made a fun picture!

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

My Christmas/New Year's break is officially over. I am back at work today and thus life and blogging can resume. It was amazing, but I didn't hardly even look at the computer for the week and a half that I was off work. So thus keeping up with my blog did not happen.

Here is a run-down of all we did over the break:

Thurs & Fri - Finish Christmas shopping
Christmas Eve - Dinner & shelf hanging at Casey & Lauren's
Christmas Day - Wake up at our house and do our own thing, go to Mimi & Poppy's to open presents, lunch at grandmother's, nap back at my parents', then back to grandmother's for leftovers
Wednesday - Friday - At Don & Tianay's for the Carroll Christmas. We stayed there and had a great time!
Friday - Bridal Brunch, Manicures & Pedicures for the girls, Wedding Rehearsal & Dinner
Saturday - Breakfast with Grandmother & Poppy, to Sam's to pick up flowers for the wedding (for throwing as C&L left), to the church to get hair done, finish getting things ready at the church, etc. (My bridesmaid's dress' zipper blew up, so they had to pin me and sew me into the dresss!! Great fun!) Wedding, Pictures, Reception

After all that fun, I was EXHAUSTED! We wound up not going to church that next day, and then we pretty much just rested the past few days trying to catch up. We had a great break, and it was wonderful to see so much family, but it just about did me in. It's actually nice getting back into the swing of things so that life can slow down a little bit (that sounds funny since we are constantly on the go, and I am well-known to be one of the most busy people ever!).

Oh, and Caleb was the ring bearer for the wedding, and he did AWESOME!!! We didn't think there was any way he would go down the aisle, but he did so great! I told Chris that I really wanted to tell him how proud I am of him (which I have many, many times over the past few days), but I really wish he could understand right now how extremely proud of him I was. So Caleb, when you read this someday when you are older, know that your mommy was soooo proud of you! I wanted to jump up and down on the stage and clap for you! I know there will be many more times in your life that I am that proud of you, but this was one of the first times that my pride for you was swelling up so much within in me! I love you!

Merry Christmas from The Carrolls

Christmas Break

I am so excited to be on Christmas break! I got to sleep a little late this morning, do some shopping, and took a nap with Caleb. Tonight we are going to hang out with family. I love Christmas break!

2007 CDC Christmas Program

Here is a picture of some of Caleb's class in the Christmas Program last night. They decorated the buggy to look like a sleigh, and the jingled their bells while we all sang "Jingle Bells". I will try to get the video on here if I can ever get it to go into Photobucket right.

2nd Picture With Santa

If you liked Caleb's last Santa picture, you will LOVE this one! It is so great! When Ladydenise handed me the pictures, she said that I was going to have to put this one in his senior slide show! Man is she right! I didn't realize that they had snapped a shot of this, but I am so glad they did! But really, I think he's had enough torture for one year.

This is the picture that I took with Caleb so that we could have a non-crying picture.

Santa Visit #2

Well, the CDC had pictures with Santa today. I wondered what Caleb would do since he didn't much like his last experience. (See previous post) I hid behind a pole so that maybe he wouldn't see me.

Tresia had Caleb in her arms, and she said that he was shaking from just seeing Santa. This is with standing pretty far away from him! So, when she tried to put him in Santa's lap, it just wasn't going to work. Caleb was not going to stay in Santa's lap no matter what.

So I came out from behind the pole, and took at picture with Santa with me holding Caleb.

Hopefully next year will be better. I'm sure he'll have the whole Christmas thing figured out by then and know that he needs to be nice to the Santa guy. I was hoping to take Caleb to the mall Santa to get another picture, but after today's scary experience with the big red man, I don't think I have it in me to make him go through it again.

So, when I get the picture, I will make sure to post it on here.

Oh, also, Caleb got a shiner at school this morning. He was playing with the cars that you can sit in, and he fell and BOOM! Tresia brought him in so I could see him, and it is quite the boo-boo he has. I tried to take a picture of that too (I know, I'm such a mean mom!), but he kept wanting to grab the camera from me and then run away. I'll try to get one tonight. He'll love those pictures when he's all grown up! :)

Too Girlie?

UPDATE: The people have spoken! The boy needs the kitchen! Plus I need him to learn how to cook from a very early age!

Ok, I need your opinion.

I really think Caleb would love a play kitchen. He's played with the food before at school, etc., and I just think he would love it! When I told my mom, her immediate reaction was "Isn't that too girlie?"

So, what do you think?

What if we get one that doesn't look all girlie? One that is not pink...maybe green or something.

If you really think it is too girlie, let me know. Really. I can take it. But I just might get one anyway!

Trip to Santa's Village

We took a trip to Santa's Village last night. It is a way cute Christmas park by the Richardson Library. We had a good time, but I really can't wait to take Caleb next year when he'll get into it even more! Here are pictures!

Caleb getting a cookie from Mrs. Clause's Bakery.

Here we are waiting in line to see Santa. The line was very, very long! It was a good thing that they had a clown there to entertain everyone in the line.
Here we still are in line, but closer. We are in Santa's Toy Shop!
Here is the cool train in Santa's Toy Shop. Caleb kept saying "Choo-choo!"
Here is Caleb with his best friend Santa. Caleb does this with all of his best friends. They had a really good Santa. He had a great beard!
Caleb is thinking "Why did mommy just put me in this weird guys lap, walk off and stand there laughing while I'm screaming my head off!!! What is wrong with this picture?!!"
Poor Caleb! He wasn't happy for a little bit after seeing Santa. Santa had a good sense of humor about the whole thing though and mentioned to me when I picked Caleb up that he thought he wanted a fire truck for Christmas (because of the siren - crying - well, you know!) Funny Santa!

Christmas Favorites

I saw this on Rachel's blog and thought I would do it too! I love copying others!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. I love how it looks under the tree!

2. Real tree or Artificial? We always had real growing up, but after a fire at my parents' house that came close to burning the tree, I probably won't ever get one again. I love the smell of real trees, but I also love the fact that I don't have to buy a tree every year!

3. When do you put up the tree? I try to put it up the day after Thanksgiving, but it doesn't always work that well. This year we got it up the day after TG, and it has been so nice getting to enjoy it!

4. When do you take the tree down? I try to get it down the week after Christmas. There was one year that we still had it up till the end of January. Man, why do I always have to tell my dirty little secrets on here!

5. Do you like egg nog? No way! But Chris does, so sometimes I get it for him. I love spiced cider over the holidays!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Man, there are so many. My parents are great gift-givers. There was one year that my parents bought me a new flute about a month before Christmas. Because of that, I didn't think I was going to get anything else, but I got a big tv that had a built in VCR player. It shocked the heck out of me.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? I have two. A little one that someone gave us at our wedding and then a Fisher Price one that my mom bought for Caleb the year before he was born because she knew he was on the way! He loves it! You can tell him to go bring you baby Jesus, and he goes and gets Jesus. So fun!

8. Hardest person to buy for? Really, I don't think anyone is that easy to buy for except Caleb.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Caleb - because at this point he doesn't care!

10.Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can't think of any.

11. Favorite Christmas Movie? Miracle on 34th Street - very cliche, I know.

12. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope, but I have recycled wedding & baby presents!

13. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Christmas candy, and anything when it's with family.

14. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Definitely clear.

15. Favorite Christmas song? O Come All Ye Faithful (Actually, I don't know if that is my favorite. I just kind of picked one that I was singing this morning. I like a whole lot of Christmas songs.)

16. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Our family is all in town for the most part, so we don't travel much, but I still wish we had a little more time at home each year. Don't we all!

17. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Sure, but I don't want to type them all out.

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Hearing the same Christmas songs over and over.

20 Favorite ornament theme or color? Silver ornaments, clear lights, and whatever else on the tree. I love lit garland too!

21. Favorite food for Christmas dinner? We normally have pretty much the same thing that we have at Thanksgiving, and I love it!

22. What do you want for Christmas this year? I can't think of much that I want. I want stuff for Caleb. And a nap. And time to clean my house. And time to relax. And time to spend with family. I guess there's more that I want than I thought!

Lights and Such

I put my lights out on my bushes this weekend and meant to take a picture, but I forgot. I'll post a picture on here soon.

Well, tonight begins our month of needing someone to watch Caleb because we are so dang busy! I sent out an email to some family the other day telling them the dates we need someone to watch Caleb and asking for volunteers. They all got filled really quick, so that is good! This month is a whole lot of fun, but it is always so busy! I love parties and dinners and shows, etc. But this year with Caleb in the mix, I sort of feel bad about all of the time that we have to be away.

Bring on the parties!

Where are the good Christmas Lights?

Well, if you live in the Dallas metroplex, you can go here to find out! Enjoy!

Oh, and my house isn't on there. We don't have any lights yet. But I am planning on putting some one our bushes this weekend. It still won't be impressive, so don't feel the need to drive by my house.

P.S. Right now I have a Christmas swag on the front door and my Fall decorations still on the porch. I just might get written up by the HOA any day now. The removal of these items is high on my list for this weekend though.

Christmas Music

I listen to KLTY quite a bit. It's not my favorite station in the world, but it's what I grew up listening to, so that's what I listen to most of the time. I love Christmas music and want to listen to it the day after Thanksgiving. I just wish they wouldn't play it almost constantly the whole Christmas season. I would still like to hear more rest-of-the-year music mixed in with the Christmas selections. So this time of year, I find myself flipping to other stations more often than I normally do just to get a break from the Christmas music. Just a few more non-Christmas songs an hour would be great!

Also, I think Christmas Wish is great and a wonderful idea. The stories are heart wrenching and glorious. But I also find myself turning the station at times when these are playing just because I don't want to be bawling in the car. Especially when I'm on the way to work. I don't want to have to walk in to work after crying in the car. So, while I think they are wonderful and beautiful stories, sometimes I just can't handle listening to them. Maybe I'm just a wuss, but there you have it.