A bunch of stuff!!!

I have not blogged in a while, but I am going to try and be better about it. I am awful at actually getting my pictures printed out. I love that I can upload them here and have them for Alyvia and the new baby to look at when they get a little older. Speaking of the new baby, this pregnancy is flying by sooo fast. It has been a walk in the park compared to my pregnancy with Alyvia. I was so sick the whole time with Alyvia and after my first trimester with this baby, I have been feeling great! I am 19 weeks pregnant, so almost halfway there. I am ready to dig in and get started on her nursery. I have SO, SO, SO many great ideas swirling around in my head. I did find her crib bedding that we are having made. I have been so unsure about what I wanted in her room until I found this.

Alyvia turned 4 on December 14. I cannot believe my baby girl is getting so big. We planned on having a birthday party at our house for her but it was POURING down rain so we moved it to the gym at our church. I am very thankful they allowed us to do that with such short notice. I will upload her birthday party pics later. The actual night of her birthday we decided last minute to take her to eat mexican. It's her favorite!


She has been begging for a puppy for a long, long time, sooo at her birthday she got this little girl.....

Her name is Lucy and she has turned out to be the best little dog. I think we have all pretty much fallen in love with her.

On another note, Christmas is my favorite time of the year, I love everything about it. Every year we kick things off with going to the Christmas Jubilee at the fairgrounds. They have some absolute beautiful stuff there. I love this little outfit Alyvia has on (thanks Aunt Carol). You can count on seeing this outfit on little sister too.

She was so good the whole time we were there and loved looking in all the booths. After a couple of hours of shopping though, she was over it!

Matthew and I also took her over to Bass Pro Shops across the bay to have her pictures made with Santa. We love going over there anyways and it was a great excuse!









After the pictures with Santa, Elizabeth, Dayton and Allie met us for a good ole steak at Longhorn. It was so good.





About three weeks before Christmas we got a little visitor. The Elf on the Shelf, Alyvia decided to name him Wrench. The girl can surely come up with some names. She had so much fun with him. Every morning she was up searching the house for him. I highly recommend this little guy to families with small children!



This is just a random picture that I love.



The week before Christmas was very hectic for us. We left going to South Texas on a hunting trip Christmas day around lunch time. So we had to see all of our family and have all of our clothes, hunting clothes, guns, etc. packed before time to leave. We were busy, but Alyvia was sure not to forget this.. (Yes these are the premade, precut cookies out of the pack.....don't judge me :-))



Christmas morning she had us up bright and early wanting to know if Santa stopped by??











Right after she got through opening her gifts, we loaded up the toys she wanted to take and headed to my mom's to eat breakfast. We do this every year and I just couldn't not do it this year. We were on the road at about 11:30 and finally made it to the ranch in Freer,Texas at 2:00am. It was a long ride, but it was sooo worth it. We had sooo much fun. Alyvia got to see a bobcat for the first time and she is still talking about it. I did get to see some of the biggest bucks I have ever seen in my life!! The first evening we hunted, I saw a very nice 10 point that I let walk because I had just seen a MASSIVE BUCK but couldn't get a shot on him!!!! Unfortunately the weather turned kind of nasty the next day, it got very cold and started raining. So, the deer bedded down and wasn't moving very much. Matthew killed a hog and on the very last morning.....while Matthew was loading the motor-home with all of our stuff, I went hunting and killed an 8 point. We had a blast!!





She also got this gator for Christmas from my mom and dad. I think it was her favorite Christmas present of all.



Here she is making deer sausage with her Papa. You can see in some of the pictures how serious she was about it :-).







And another thing, I am not the only one having a baby....this pretty lady right here is expecting her own babies around the second week of February!! Yay, Remi is having puppies and Alyvia can't wait!



Well, tonight is the BCS Championship game between Texas and Alabama. As you can see in the next picture I am an Alabama fan and Matthew is a Texas fan (he has also converted Alyvia to Texas...grrrrr).



Here they are all decked out in matching Texas clothing the night before the game. Well, Matthew is actually still in work clothes and she is in her PJ's.



We have a pumpkin decorating contest every year at work and our department is very, very serious about it. So, since I am in the Alabama spirit today here is our pumpkin from this year.



And here is two of my most favorite co-workers.



Whew! I know that was a bunch of stuff, but I had to get caught up.