White Christmas...Morning pt. 1

(Kate was so excited when she woke up Christmas morning after we told her Santa had come and we could finally open presents)

...Ho-Ho coming to visit. Kate learned over the last couple of weeks that Santa Claus says "Ho Ho Ho," but when she tries to say it she doesn't get the last "Ho" out. So, anytime she sees a picture of or a stuffed or ceramic version of Santa she says "Ho Ho!" Well, Ho-Ho visited Kate in Oklahoma, even making it through the blizzard. Thank you Santa Claus!

Kate walking in to see what Santa brought for the first time.


Look Dad-dy


Do you think she liked Christmas? Could she be any sweeter?


Look out puppy dogs...Kate is now faster than ever.

Back Online or White Christmas...Eve

....me, forgetting to pack the computer power cord. Normally that wouldn't be such a big deal, but since we had a major blizzard the morning after we arrived we were snowed in for several days with no way to update the blog (or, more importantly for Amanda, to work on a dissertation). Thankfully, our sister-in-law Kaci came through for us and swung by the Apple store on the way over for the family Christmas yesterday.

After deleting all the bad photos and/or pictures I wasn't crazy about, I have about 250 I need to edit now. So, I thought I would just start with a few from Christmas Eve. Oklahoma City was in full-on blizzard mode from about 8 a.m. through 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and recorded the largest single day snow fall in state history at 14 inches! It has now been 5 days and the roads are still ice packed in places...and we are supposed to get more tomorrow.

The picture above was from the morning, not long after the snow started. This picture was shortly after dark, but by the time it actually stopped snowing the porch was under a 4 foot high snow drift--the bushes and lights in this picture were no longer visible after 10 o'clock that night.


Kate knew what to do with presents this year, and she was so excited to get to them. We were going to open some on Christmas Eve, but it took Amanda's Dad over 5 hours to get home from work due to the blizzard (he works about 15 miles from home), so we waited until Christmas morning.


I thought this silhouette of her was neat.


Putting together toys for Christmas morning. Not Santa's gifts of course, he would bring those himself later in the night.

Ho...Ho...NOOOO!!!!!

....one last shot for Kate to sit on Santa's lap this year. To say it went badly would be an understatement. She does okay looking at Santa from a distance, as long as he doesn't get too close. Amanda barely set her down when the picture above was taken. She was screaming before she even made it to the ottoman. Poor thing. We probably shouldn't have been laughing as much as we were, but it was just too funny--even if it was so sad. So, no Santa this year, but there's always next year!



our friends Jeremy & Kristi (and their 2 kiddos) went with us to see Santa last night. Neither Kate nor Logan wanted any part of Santa last night. At least Sydney, Jeremy & Kristi's 5 year old, got her wish list in with the big man.


She was okay with Santa's sleigh...since Santa wasn't in it.


...

Maybe as Close to Santa...

...maybe as close to Santa as we get this year. Kate is taking longer to be back to her old self than we anticipated, so since we can't get her out and around a lot of people yet this may be our picture with Santa for the year. On Friday night we went to the Ranching Heritage's Christmas celebration, which is where we got to meet Santa.

Speaking of Santa, Kate got a present in the mail this week! Santa must have known it wouldn't have fit well in our car, so he mailed it to us in advance. So thoughtful, that Santa Claus. She got her very own chair for the living room, and she loves it. I think the pictures speak for themselves

Kate and Stephanie at the Ranching Heritage Center


Kate's new chair!!!

Happy Birthday Sophie!

...a tiny little bundle of joy 6 years ago today. Today is Sophie's 6th birthday and we are so blessed to have her. We were a couple of sad and lonely people before we got her (we lived in Kentucky at the time and missed our friends and family terribly). Sophie has brought so much joy to our lives and we can't imagine life without her.

Catching Up

...a lot of blog catching up we need to do. For starters, Kate is recovering well from her surgery. She really doesn't have any symptoms other than her incision seems to itch some and she gets tired easily. But that doesn't mean we don't have plenty to update.

Last week I took Kate to her first Texas Tech men's basketball game. It was an awesome game as Tech beat #10 ranked Washington. We got to sit on the front row and Baby Kate made plenty of appearances on ESPN 2. I brought one of her pom-poms with us and every time the cheerleaders cheered, she shook her pom with them. I even taught her how to keep her "Guns Up" while a Tech player shoots free-throws. She interacted with the women's head coach and a lot of the women's team. We both had a blast and can't wait to until the Stanford game on December 22.

Last night we were brave and went on a date leaving Kate with a baby-sitter. The girl pictured above and below is a lab student at Kate's school and she and Kate get to play together every Tuesday and Thursday. They both did great and we thoroughly enjoyed our night at the Texas Tech Madrigal Dinner.

Today we had a parent/teacher conference at Kate's school. Well, really they just wanted to give us an update about Kate's development from their perspective. Good news, she's developing. Ha. It was a nice meeting with one of the teacher's and here are some of the things they wrote about Kate: "Kate is very social with both peers and adults!...We so enjoy her love for people and her love for exploring...Kate is very eager to explore new materials and new toys...especially drawing and marking with crayons and putting stickers on paper (and her body!)...As you know she has an extensive interest in books, which is excellent!...She is such a fun, secure, happy little girl and a wonderful addition to our class!"

Here are a few pictures of our cabin feverish little girl:

On the Mend

...Kate getting better each day. For the most part you would never know Kate had major surgery last week. She is playing and running everywhere. However, she tires much easier than usual and is napping more than usual. She has always been sweet and affectionate but I think the surgery has made her even more so. Lately she has been coming up to me and hugging or kissing me, unsolicited! It did make her a little more nervous when one of us leaves so we have had some sad faces in the mornings as Daddy leaves or when I leave for work or to work on my dissertation. We are thankful to have it behind us and look forward to a fantastic Christmas season!