My big girl.

I miss the baby days like this

and this

and this

even this in between stage.

But I am having soooo much fun and loving this big girl!!!!!


Matthew and I are so blessed to have her in our life. She makes up laugh and smile every single day. She brings us so much happiness. I feel like she is growing up so fast. I just wish time would stand still for a little while.

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.

Fair, Halloween and Hunting

We have been busy lately. This will be a whirlwind post just to catch up. Alyvia has been so excited about the fair. For weeks, she has been asking about going everyday.

In the next picture, her shirt says "Future 4-H'er" with the 4-H clover on it. All of our friends kids, that are old enough, show steers in the 4-H show at the fair. In fact the Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion are kids from Georgetown. She CAN'T WAIT. She will be old enough to show a lamb next year and she is going to do that. Really, I'm not sure who is more excited, her or me! :)

She loves her daddy. I love him too!! I may be a little biased but I think that child is gorgeous.

For halloween this year she was a lady bug. We go to our church every year, they have a huge fall festival. There are tons of games for the kids and more food than you can imagine. She was all about her red, shiny slippers.

Dove Hunting with her daddy.

Yesterday Matthew took Alyvia with him to shoot doves. She kept saying that they were gonna "smoke some doves". I am so thankful for Matthew, he is such a wonderful daddy to our daughter and I could never ask for a better husband. I am so proud that he is mine!! ;-)

Seward Farms

A couple of weekends ago, my sister in law and nephew was in town from Birmingham so we decided to go to Seward Farms Corn Maize. There was a ton of stuff for the kids to do. Right when we walked in Alyvia spotted this tractor cab and made a b-line for it. You know she is a farmer's daughter.


They both liked this bull and Alyvia kept getting under him saying that she was "milking" him. In the background you can see the targets for the corn cannons. It is a cannon that you can actually shoot whole ear corn out of.


They had stuff like this tractor, made out of round and square hay bales, sitting all around.

And this pig. In the background is the duckpond, you can pay for a handfull of feed for the ducks.

The favorite part of the day for Alyvia was the cow train. This was so cute and she LOVED it!!


Alyvia

Aiden

They had this slide made of PVC pipe. She loved this too.
Another slide.
They had this big box with shelled corn in it and they played in it for a little bit. This is nothing out of the ordinary for Alyvia. She plays in shelled corn when she is with her daddy all the time.




It is hilarious to me that it made her so happy to pretend like she was milking this cow. My daughter is a country girl through and through and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Trying to make her way through the corn maze.




On a totally different note, my sister' s little boy is now eight weeks old and he is just precious. He has jet black, curly hair. He is going to be a big boy, he weighed 9lbs, 8oz. when he was born.