Hello Santa!

We FINALLY went to see Santa this week at the Bass Pro Shop, of all places! Sophie was curious, but got nervous and cried when we handed her to Santa. She quickly recovered and - while we didn't get a smile - at least she's not bawling!

Two cards, one order

I'm a little late, but today I ordered both Sophie's birth announcements and her 1 year birthday invitations. I completely forgot to order birth announcements until it was way too late, so I never did. But I just hate that blank page in her baby album, so I bit the bullet and ordered 10 cards. Maybe the grandparents will appreciate the keepsake as much as I do. At least I'm not ordering Christmas cards too! :)

Here's a preview....

Horseshoe Bay Vaca

Benoit and I have always taken a little vacation around the holidays to just relax together and thought we'd carry that tradition on now that our family has grown. So Benoit, Sophie, Baby C2 and I headed to Horseshoe Bay, which is about an hour from Austin. We just lounged around the resort, ate some good food (early with the senior citizens) and slept a lot. It was great!

Sophie had a blast in the hotel room. She really enjoyed the full length mirrors on the closet and being able to explore everything in the room.
We took a walking tour of nearby Marble Falls' Christmas Lights - really pretty!
We discovered some exotic birds on our stroll around the resort. Sophie was not a fan - they scared her when they started 'talking' to us!

Found a really cool waterfall at the resort - great photo opp!

Deja Vue

So we finally announced our news of Baby C2 due in June. We are ecstatic, of course, and a bit surprised our news came so early. Sophie will be 16 months old, so I'll definitely have my hands full for a while. We'll find out in January whether we're having a boy or girl and we haven't even started one single thing to get ready for this baby yet. I figure, we'll just wait until we know what we're having and then we can get busy with the details.

In other news, I attempted to take Sophie's Christmas card photo last weekend, which was disastrous! We suddenly had a cold snap in Texas, but I really wanted that perfect picture so we bundled Sophie up and out we went to a local park. We unwrapped her right before I started shooting but it was windy and she was not a happy little girl. I eventually gave up my dream and we got a decent shot by the Christmas tree later that day. So here are the photos that didn't quite make it this year.

By this time, Sophie was REALLY mad at me....

Our little green thumb

So here's what happens if you turn your back for one minute - maybe even thirty seconds - with a crawling, cruising, curious child in the house!

Busted!

Look at all this dirt mom!

This is so much fun!

I'm coming over for a muddy hug!

Spooky days are here!

This week has been full of spooky goodness as we celebrate fall and Halloween around town. We went to Fall Festival at a nearby church with our neighbors last Friday. Sophie went as an octopus, perhaps not the scariest costume around, but super cute. Then we went to a birthday party - Halloween themed - and she was decked out in her 'scary' tutu. So fun! I think she mostly wondered what she was wearing, but was a good sport about it. We have another Halloween playdate on Friday and then she'll dress up again (along with Cody) for trick or treaters Saturday night. Enjoy the pics!

PS - The last one is of my dirty, dirty dog who was playing in the mud this afternoon. He's looking at me like "Why can't I come inside?".

A Day at the Park

(Delayed publish - just uploaded pics.)

On a beautiful, sunny day this week (a rarity with all the rain we've been having), Sophie, Cody and I went to Frisco Commons Park. Frisco has done a pretty good job of developing several parks around town. This park has a very nice lake stocked with fish, several paved walking and biking trails, nice pavilions, and a huge playground. I'm sure Sophie will enjoy that in a couple of years, but this time around we just took a blanket and chilled out on the grass by the lake after a short stroll. I decided to test out my new camera and have added a few fave's below. Sophie had a blast just being outside - I swear she's going to love camping, hiking, etc. She's happiest outside, no matter what the weather is like. She enjoyed digging in my diaper bag, playing with the grass, feeling the wind in her face (it was seriously windy!), and watching Cody play next to us. It was a great fall day and I can't wait to go back with Benoit, maybe with a picnic next time.

Posing for the camera!

Playing with the grass.