Busy Busy

The past few days we've been running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Tuesday night we went to see The Blind Side. It was really good. Makes me want to get rich & adopt a kid...jk.

Wednesday morning, Missy took our family pictures. Bless her for putting up with all of us! She had to shoot my sister's family, my brother's family, my family & then all of us together with our parents. Let's just say there was a lot going on. I'm sure they all turned out great. I took this picture of Elliot after we got home. I wish she would have smiled like this earlier.

Today we went & took a tour of the Cowboys stadium. I thought it was a really good tour & our guide was pretty entertaining. Definitely worth the $15 to go. It lasted 1.5 hours so I feel like we got our monies worth. I was amazed at the attention to detail in all the decorating.

Here's my brother Justin with his little guy Easton.

We're standing in front of this glass wall with a play on it. I found out that Jerry Jones, Jimmy Johnson & Barry Switzer all played on the same Arkansas Razorback team. Behind us there are all these silver helmets hanging from the ceiling. Since the Cotton Bowl is now at the Cowboys Stadium, the helmets of the 2 teams playing will gradually replace the silver ones for the next 20 years.

The Cotton Bowl is on the 2nd, so they had all of their logos everywhere instead of the Cowboys. That was kind of a let down. I wanted to see the big start in the middle of the field.

And of course we had to get a picture in front of Romo & Witten's lockers. We also went into the cheerleader's locker room, but I felt no need to take a picture of the lockers with their life size pictures above them :)

Primping

Today I went with my sister Jami & my sister in law Jaymie to the spa. Jami had a gift card & was nice enough to use it on us! So we all got fancy pedicures. It was so relaxing & fun to have time away from babies. Nothing but good girl talk. Our toes turned out great, but I'm sad that I had to cover them up since the weather is FREEZING! After, we decided to go to a cheap nail place to get manicures. My hands were in desperate need of some tlc. Now I just need somewhere to go!

First Part of Christmas

On our way down to Arlington, we stopped off in Kerens where Lane used to live. This is the house his dad built. It's still in really good condition & so quaint.

Our festivities began on Tuesday. We went with my parents & sister's family to South Lake & ate at Buca, which was sooo good. After we headed out to their town square & took pictures in their little Santa Land.

On Christmas Eve, we went with my parents to El Rancho Grande in Fort Worth. It's been a tradition of ours for the past 5 years. Then we went over to Lane's dad's house to celebrate with his family. Brenda gave everybody these little crowns to wear. It's some kind of English thing.

And wouldn't you know that it snowed! A real white Christmas!

On Christmas morning we went over to my parents' house to eat breakfast & open presents.

Elliot was all smiles. Then on Christmas night, we went over to Lane's mom's house to celebrate with their side of the family. Check out Elliot's cousin Vinny. He was born 2 days after her & weighs 21 pounds! He's such a little teddy bear!

And here is Elliot digging into her present!

4 Months

Our little girl is 4 months today! Her stats are:
Weight 11 lbs 14 oz 15%
Height 24.5 inches 55%
Head 15.25 inches 3%

Lane came with me & witnessed her 2 shots. I thought I was the weak one, but Lane started crying! I'm talking tears running down his face. And then he informed me that he's not coming to any more appointments because they're too sad.

Everything is going well with her. We can start rice cereal & stage 1 baby foods. That seems so soon to me, but I'm excited to see how she reacts to it all. I wish I had a picture to post, but I haven't taken any recently. But don't worry there will be more to come!

Thumb Sucker

Looks like we have a thumb sucker on our hands. She did this for the very first time yesterday.

I know it's a bad habit, but it's really cute!

New Job

As of December 18th, I will be changing careers to become a stay at home mom. I gave my official resignation yesterday. After a brief moment of panic, I am at peace with everything. I had originally planned on this happening at the end of the school year, however our sitter is unable to watch E after December. We thought about getting another person to watch her, but I am very picky, they would have HUGE shoes to fill & everything would need to feel right. And since it didn't we thought this would be the best thing to do. I feel like this happened at the right time because just a week before we found out, I was complaining to Lane about how I hated being away from Elliot & felt so bad about not spending more time with her. Now she's got me 24/7 & I'm sure she'll get sick of me! I'm going to try to come up with some sort of a schedule to keep us occupied. So to all you stay at home moms...call me! Haha!

Christmas Time!

I'm so excited for Christmas this year! Yesterday it snowed, which is crazy for Houston. Unfortunately none of it stuck where we live. But this entire last week we've had some serious winter weather. I have to say I haven't minded it as much as I usually do. A few days ago, we got our tree. I swear our trees keep getting smaller each year. This is our first Christmas in this apartment & space it tight. We were debating on even getting a tree this year since there is really no good place to put it. We had 3 options: 1) Disassemble our kitchen table & put the tree there. But then we'd have to eat on the couch for 2 weeks. 2) Stick it in the baby's room, right between her crib & changing table. Yes, it would be out of the way, but I wanted it to be seen more. 3) Put it in front of the doors that go out to the patio. This is the one we went with. But now we have to climb over the couch to get to the computer...a small sacrifice for a great tradition. Nothing beats the smell of a pine tree & the feeling you get when you turn off all the lights & are left with the soft glow of the Christmas tree. Love it!

I've also been listening to my favorite Christmas cd-Kathy Matea "Good News". It's pretty old. My parents used to annoy us by playing it on a repeating loop at Christmas time growing up. My mom even made me sing one of the songs at our church's Christmas party (thanks for that). But somehow it grew on me & is now one thing that I look forward to hearing this time of year. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a good one.

Here is our family photo we're putting in our Christmas cards.When Lane told me about this huge tree with oversized presents, he had me sold...until he told me it was in a hospital. But I think they turned out great (Thanks Lauren)!

And of course I had to throw in a picture of miss Elliot. This is by far my favorite one yet!