The rest of the story.....

I have seriously started this blog post more times than I can count....
Let's try this again.
Christmas morning
Our little darling is not a morning person, even on Christmas morning. We had to wake her up! She was excited to see what Santa brought, but not thrilled with the lights/camera flashes.



 
Opening presents from Santa:

One present AC received was a Princess Presto (from Super Why on PBS) cape, wand, and tiara. She wore this over her pj's while everyone else opened their packages.

 Whew. Thanks to Gigi & Papa Bear, AC's doll, Carly, can travel safely in our car.

 When going over the pictures on my computer, I came across 16 pictures like the ones below. Apparently, AC decided to try her hand at self-portraits while we opened presents Christmas morning.
 

After celebrating a great Christmas in Baton Rouge with my family, we traveled north to Dallas and OKC to spend time with our extended family (Dallas) and the McKenzie's (OKC).
One of AC's favorite gifts - this Tangled wig from her great aunt and uncle.

I do have a picture of Brad wearing this wig, but he would die if I put it on the blog.

While in Dallas, we were also able to visit some friends. Here's AC with her buddy, Hannah.

 

 Then, we ventured up to OKC and had some time to visit Mark, Sherree, and Avery. AC and Avery always have a blast together. Sidenote: Anna Claire will cheer for A&M or OU or LSU, but when you ask her where she is going to collge, she will tell you "SNU, so Avery and I can be roommates!"

 The grandparents apparently wanted to seal Anna Claire's fate as the only grandchild. For Christmas, she received a harmonica, a Buzz Lightyear drum pad, and a Phineas and Ferb guitar. The other night, she was in her room, holding the guitar under one arm, playing the drums with the other, and singing into her microphone. The girl loves music and I can only hope she got all the musical genes from her daddy.

 Anna Claire and Aunt Roro.

 Anna Claire loves Fancy Nancy. Aunt Roro gave her a Fancy Nancy doll and the matching dress for her to wear. This girl loves playing dress up.

 After all the packages had been opened, Aunt Roro let her dogs out. AC laid on the floor and let Dozier (Robyn, help me on the spelling here!) lick her face. She laughed so hard!

 Dog drool in the hair and on the face. Gross. Although, AC found it hilarious.

 While in OKC, we were able to go to the Children's museum.
Here's AC trying her luck at a figure skating spin.

 Mom and Dad - this is for you. Where was this when I was in preschool? Electronic Fingerpainting!! :) In case you don't know, I loathe fingerpainting. Apparently when I was in preschool, I gagged at the site of it. I have issues. I still don't like the stuff. This, however, is greatness!

 Our future weather person.....

 AC is starting to warm up to people in costumes. This is the museum's mascot, I guess.

 We headed back to Dallas for a couple more days. While there, we went to the Gaylord Texan to experience ICE. This was amazing - a huge walk through where everything is made of ice. They issue you these big blue coats to wear because it ridiculously cold in the exhibit. Before going through, AC and her daddy tried out the snow sledding.

 A few pictures around the hotel that was all decorated for Christmas.

And that's Christmas for you. Now to 2011.

On Hold.....

Ugh. I got the dreaded msg from Blogger.....the one that says I've used up all my "free" space, and now I have to purchase space in order to upload more pictures.
The rest of the Christmas/New Year's story in pictures will continue shortly......

December in Review Continues....

One night in December, our friends invited us to the Baton Rouge Zoo for "Zoo Lights". I'm ashamed to admit this, but this was Anna Claire's first trip to the zoo. I know. I know. No 'Parent of the Year' award recipient here. *grin* She and her friend, MM, had a grand 'ol time.

 On the way out, MM's dad bought the girls glow necklaces. I requested a picture with the girls and their necklaces, and here are the results:

AC before church on the 19th, all ready for the Christmas service.

Then, Anna Claire had her Christmas program at school. It was in the gym this year, and for the life of me, I could not get the settings right on my camera to take a decent picture during the performance. Fortunately, Brad was video-taping, so we're good. Just know that AC takes things like this performance very seriously so she was concentrating on her music teacher until the last 5 minutes. Then, it was time for the silly faces to come out. I gave her the 'mother look' which only made her make more faces. Lovely.

 

 Here's another look at the Christmas "dress that I cut too short so it became a swing top" that I made for AC and referenced in an earlier post. Apparently, Anna Claire and I have different interpretations of the request, "Please stand in front of the tree and show me a sweet smile" request.

My mom, dad, and sister came to Baton Rouge for Christmas this year. After the Christmas Eve service, my mom requested a family picture. She makes this request every year and we have yet to get a decent picture. There is one from 2005, but that's the only one. From 2006-2009, we have out-takes and lots of them. So, this year, I had the great idea to set the camera on our mantle and use the self-timer. There are more out-takes than you care to see, but everyone was cooperative and despite the tree being off-centered, we captured a decent picture.

But first a couple of out-takes:

This one has me laughing so hard. My dad and sister are poised and ready to go. My mom and AC have the same expression - annoyed. My mom is holding AC like a rag doll. Brad is looking at them and asking himself "What have I gotten myself into?"

And then there's this one. Safe to say the family was checking out at this point.

 But we finished strong, kinda.

Richard, the elf, made his annual visit to our home. Richard was on vacation for the first couple of days of December (read: I couldn't find him!!), but when he arrived, AC was happy to welcome him into our home. This is the first year that she truely "got" Richard, and it was fun experience for her.

On Christmas Eve, AC set out reindeer food in the year -something they made at school. She was shocked Christmas morning when she went outside to discover the food was gone! Love this age.

And that brings us to Christmas morning....another post.....

Back in 2010......

Let's play catch-up:
Mid-November, we had Round-up Sunday at church. Everyone dresses western and it's a time to 'round up' friends and family who don't regularly attend church - an outreach event of sorts. AC's dress has pink horses and blue horseshoes on it (in case you can't them).

And then there was Thanksgiving. We stayed home this year and kept a low profile. We were to get some things done around the house and just enjoy the time together. We invited another family over for Thanksgiving lunch. Afterwards, we all went to see the movie, Tangled. I may or may not have gone with a friend to Target at midnight to wait in line until 4am when they opened. :) I know you can get some of the deals online, but it's all about the experience. 

Here's AC singing a Thanksgiving song:

The same crazy friend who went shopping with me on Black Friday bought me a pattern to sew Anna Claire a dress. Brad was kind enough to buy me a sewing machine last Christmas, and to be honest, it has done a great job at collecting dust this year. So, we got together and sewed these little outfits for our girls. AC's ended up being more of a 'swing top' as I took too much material off the bottom for it to be a dress. She didn't care. Here's a glimpse of it when she wore it to the Hanging of the Greens service at her school.

 This year, Anna Claire is taking tap and ballet at school. A local dance studio comes to her school once a week for lessons. This past Saturday, her little dance class was able to go to the actual studio and show off their moves for the parents. The instructor had a helper there who Anna Claire quickly bonded with because this little girl's name is also Anna Claire.

Here they are waiting for the other girls to arrive. Anna Claire was cracking me up sitting like this - and so serious.  

 

We're still here....

Yes, it's January 5, 2011.
Yes, I realize I haven't posted since November 11, 2010.
Yes, we're still alive and doing well.
Yes, I have lots of pictures to post.
Stay tuned.....