Blessed Beyond Measure

Tobey LOVED Shelvey's new bed! Birthday Fun! Having a Tangled birthday celebration. Contraptions- possibly the most frustrating, fun game ever!! Thank goodness Shaun had the patience to finish the tower! Hello?! Hello?! Anyone home? Uncle Terry becoming an official Easy Bake Oven Chef Another wonderful Christmas celebrated with family and friends. As always, we traded toys around and had a good time playing with everyone else's toys. Shuan and I loved Uncle Terry's Contraptions game and Uncle Terry loved Nixon's Easy Bake Oven! Good times!

The incredible Steel Eel , that my almost six year old rode with no fear!! When we got off, she did say, "You guys totally should have waited until I was seven to let me ride that!!" Brave little turtle laying out on the gator's head. Crazy!! The beautiful entrance, complete with falling snow My favorite place!! Hungry Sea Lions waiting to be fed from above. Continuing the fun of our little vacation, we spent the day at Sea World. We walked up to every ride and got right on, had the best seats in the house for all of the shows and never had to wait in line for anything.

The most beautiful butterfly ever! Hungry, Hungry Hippos!! It started off really fun with a few birds. Uh, they brought friends. And, more friends. OUCH! That is my earring. And my arm. And my shirt. Get off! No wonder this place is listed as one of America's top zoos. It was beautiful. And what more could you ask for than almost 80 degree temps in December in Texas. AMAZING! Feeding the hippos and the bird exhibit were among our favorite parts!

These Japanese Tea Gardens were near the zoo and we loved walking around just taking in the beauty. It was a hidden treasure that we were happy to find!!

Our beautiful hotel- that we got an amazing deal on with Priceline ! We did something a little different this year. We took a little time out to take a little vacation to San Antonio and we loved every minute of it!! The Riverwalk was beautiful this time of year! We had so much fun riding the river boat and taking in all of the lights and Christmas music.

Nixon asked for an American Doll for Christmas. For WEEKS!! Then she opened it up and could have cared less. She finally confessed that she wasn't crazy about her freckles. Something I pointed out when she picked the ONE she wanted in the catalog. As the day went on, she started paying more and more attention to her. Finally, changing her clothes a million times, fixing her hair, stressing because she doesn't have a night gown to sleep in, settling on dressing her to sleep in a sun dress, cuddling with her and sleeping with her right next to her. Guess they will be friends after all. Welcome Shelvy ! (Don't ask me where the name came from!)

Matching dresses made by Nana! Scissors are a must for my girl! The only one who was VERY interested in the doll was Grey. He stared her down for a LONG time! The favorite gift- the Geography Pop-Up Book Already working with the Magic Fabric kit Another favorite! We had a blast celebrating Christmas at home today. Santa even came early! N loved all of her presents, especially her Princess tent and tunnel and her Geography pop-up book. The American Girl Doll? EEh . She's OK. Exactly what I expected! Maybe she will grow on her. She did love the dress that Nana made for her though, so that helps! My favorite was when Nixon opened her Little Librarian Kit. She opened it and said, "Uh, what is this?" "It's a Little Librarian Kit. Mommy thought you would love it." " Hmm . No." What fun!!