Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Rives Christmas

Christmas Day was full of twists and spins for us this year.  To start off, we didn't get home until the wee hours of the morning. Once we arrived, I still had to go home and wrap presents for my sisters and parents that I had neglected to wrap before leaving for Beaumont two days before.  I finally got the presents wrapped and we went to bed.

We did not wake up until after 11:00 A.M.  I was freaking out because my family had not called us or anything.  I thought something must have been wrong with my phone.  Nope.  They were still asleep too.  They stayed up extra late putting Emmy's new car together, so they were sleeping in.  We lazed around at our house for a little while longer and let Emmy open a couple of her presents.  Around 1:00, we headed over to my parent's house in our pajamas to open presents and eat a late breakfast.

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Emmy loved opening presents this year.  All of the bright paper and being able to rip into it delighted her.  When it was time for her to get her big present, we were all really excited.  When she saw her yellow car, she didn't even know what to do she was so excited.  She jumped in and wanted to drive it right away.


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We watched movies and hung out all afternoon just enjoying the day.  The wind started blowing really hard, and we struggled to take a family picture before we ate dinner.

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When we came back in the house, the power had gone out.  Luckily, dinner was already done, so we didn't need electricity to continue cooking.  We lit candles and had flashlights illuminating the room.  It was a little stuffy inside, so we had the doors open with just the screen door shut.  This made me a little nervous because you never know who might be out in the middle of a storm looking for a place to go.  All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door.

Nathan and Katie showed up!  They were out of power at their house as well and had loaded up the girls to go for a drive.  They came in and ate dinner with us. Just as we were finishing up dinner, the power came back on.  It was definitely a memorable Christmas!

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Monday, December 24, 2012

Nelson Christmas

This Christmas Eve was bittersweet for the Nelson Clan.  Every year for as long as I can remember, we have spent Christmas Eve at my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Steve's house.  Since my uncle retired, they will probably be selling their house in Channelview and moving permenently to the Toledo Bend area.  We had a lot of fun, ate a lot of good food, and made lots of memories.  We also (of course) had to set up a small photoshoot for the babies since we want to have Christmas pictures of the three of them every year.  I apologize in advance if the volume of pictures that I post after this exceedes yoru interest in our Christmas celebration. :)

My little Hipster Baby! 
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Happy Halle Cheesing it up for the camera!
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If I had to make a caption for this picture, it would say, "So what do you think they will do with us next, Halle?"
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Emmy and Ollie!
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The Three Musketeers!  I hope that they will be as close as we all were growing up.  Cousins are the best friends!
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Our handsome little man!
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Mike with the girls!  Caption: "He thinks he's such a ladies man doesn't he Emmy?"

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Sunday, December 23, 2012

Beaumont Christmas

We celebrated with the extended Rives clan early this year.

Let me explain that when I say early for us, it might not be everyone else's definition of early.  For instance, when I was little, we would usually have our Christmas celebration sometime between the end of January and early March.  This year, we had it on  the 23rd of December, Christmas Eve Eve.

We made the trek to Beaumont, TX to visit with family. Not only were Samuel, Cindy, Rebekah, and JT there, but this year's group included Delbert, Michelle, Nicolas, and Xander.  It was a full house at Mo Mo B and Papa's house. 

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Usually we go out to dinner and then open presents, but this year, the little kids wanted to open presents before we went to eat.  Emmy had a ton of fun opening all of her gifts.  She got two Cabbage Patch dolls.  She was in heaven!

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After all of the presents were opened and the paper cleaned up, we went out to dinner at the infamous Mexican buffet where Bradley ate a couple of pounds of fajitas a couple of Christmases ago.  The food was as good as we remembered.

After we got back to Papa's house, we hung out and watched TV, and just enjoyed time together. 

Emmy sitting by the tree!  She looks a bit mischievous.

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The Family doing "The Creep"

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The McNews

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The Rives Family

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Kissing Cousins...just remember we aren't the part of the family that's from Arkansas!

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Brit and Bek working it for the camera.

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Brit, Kari, and J.T. by the tree.

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Eventually, it got late and it was time for us to go to our hotel.  We made plans to eat Breakfast at Cracker Barrel the next morning. Perfect ending 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

18 Months!

Happy Half Birthday Emmy!!!

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Her nose was a little raw from a cold, but she still took a nice picture!

It feels like we have reached another important milestone here at 18 months.

This month you have really blossomed and are showing even more personality everyday (if that is possible).  You are putting on a show everywhere you go, and you definitely know how to work people to get what you want/need.  I myself have fallen victim to it a few times lately.  You are so expressive and it's like I can tell exactly what you must be thinking by the way you narrow your eyes when you are focused on getting something.  You also like to kind of smirk at people like you are just toying with their affections when they try to make you laugh or smile.

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Your teacher and I talked about how you are the instigator of most of the climbing in your class.  Everyone likes to climb she said, but you usually bring up the topic.  She also said that you are really empathetic and sweet.  If someone is crying or hurt, you will go hug them or try to pat their back.  You are also getting better about sharing these days.  It is still mostly MINE and No-ah at home, but at school if someone really wants a toy and is crying about it, you will give it to them.

You went to the high school's play, Beauty and the Beast, and you participated in the princess pageant during intermission.  You enjoyed wearing the princess dress, but you were less than enthused about getting up on stage.  Celeste was giving out the roses, but you acted like you had never seen her before in her big dress.  I had to push, prod, walk you all the way across the stage to get your magic rose. Since about 60 of my students were in the audience for extra credit, you had a large cheering section.  It was *almost* embarrassing.

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Oliver's 1st Birthday was this month, and you had a great time playing and seeing Ollie and Halle at the party.  He got a four wheeler for his birthday, and you tried to hog it the whole time.  Once again, you cried when you had to be pried off the handlebars.  I can't wait until you get yours for Christmas...you are going to be soooo excited!


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You went on your first weekend trip away from Mom and Daddy this month.  Since we weren't going to Milam for Thanksgiving this year, we let Nana & Papa take you to visit GiGi the weekend before.  You were so good (they said) and were a joy to have around.  It was hard to let you go, but I know that it is good for you to be a little more independent and spend time away from Mommy and Daddy.  This will only make you into a better young lady in the future. #Wedon'tneedakneeclinger

You also got to see your Barnes/Foster family in Cedar Park this month.  You had a fabulous second Thanksgiving, and while it was a learning experience for you not to be the only cute little person around for an extended amount of time, I think you enjoyed playing with Christopher.

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We took you to take a picture with Santa at Sonic (classy right?).  You also went to the Christmas Mall, but I didn't take any pictures there.

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We took you to the parade tonight, and I thought you were going to wave your arm off.  You were so excited.  You kept trying to wave and say hello to everyone that rode by.  You also got to have some donut holes which made you a little sleepy in the car and you knocked out!  Score 1 for processed sugar rushes!

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She likes: Playing with her baby dolls, carrying around blankets and covering people, dogs, and dolls, playing with the tablet (she still has a fondness for angry birds), her "Mon Mon" (sock monkey), books (especially Duck and Goose), pictures, riding in her car, going for walks, the puppies, drinking out of a straw from "big people cups", giving hugs, giving mouth kisses (not just to Mommy and Daddy), having her way, lifting my shirt so she can see my belly button, dancing, playing with the dishes in the kitchen, playing with her kitchen, being outside (when we will take her), baths, wearing her red TOMS, trying on any pair of grown-up shoes that she can and modeling them, trying to repeat everything we say, "singing",  and doing things Emmy's way.

She dislikes: Being told no, changing clothes/getting dressed, having her nose wiped (this could go under a heading called "Hates with the Burning Passion of a Thousand Suns," not being the center of attention, head bands, letting me check her gums and teeth, not being able to play with the dish washer, and sitting in her high chair if I walk out of the room.

She eats: Just about anything, but she does have favorites: chicken nuggets, pizza, apple breakfast bars, , ice cream, smarties (only occasionally),pizza bites, CHICKEN, ravioli, yogurt bites, puffs, carrot slices, Ritz crackers, animal crackers, fruit grain bars, and eggs. You tried salmon and ate it, but you weren't too impressed.

She Says: Daddy, Mama, WahWah (water), Papa, Nana, Rah, Bea, GiGi, Puff, Ball, Dog, Baby, Hug, Kiss, Bite, Yeah, No, Mine, More, Hi, Bye, Night, Nose, Eyes, MonMon (monkey), Juice, Milk, Book, Shoes, Up, Hey, Duck, Nice.  She is getting really good at repeating things that we tell her.  If we say look at the truck Emmy.  She will say truck and so forth.  She is saying so many more words that it is getting really hard to keep track of all of them and to pinpoint which ones she is mimicking rather than just knows.  I do know that her favorite words are up, mine, no (no-ah), and more.  I am trying to remind her to say up please, but it is a losing battle right now.

Teeth: We still have eight teeth.  The molars are almost all the way descended now, and she is constantly chewing on her fingers which makes me think we may have more teeth coming soon.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Family Christmas Pictures

It's that time of the year again. It's time to send out Christmas Cards give thanks for the birth of our Lord and Savior.  In honor of his birth, and the sending out of the cards, we took new family pictures.  I spent a lot of time coordinating our outfits for this shoot and planning out/making Emmy's special second outfit. I found Emmy's dress at Carters and I knew that I wanted her dress to be the focal point of our picture because let's be honest, she's definitely the cutest.  I added a pop of red into mine and Brad's outfits, and tried to keep our colors neutral.  The only bad part was that my pop of red was in my shoes (new red glitter TOMS to match Emmy's) and you can't see them in any of the pictures.  But it's okay.  I know that I had them on, and I fully plan on wearing the same outfit to Christmas dinner so I can show them off then as well.

We met Sarah in Bryan to take the pictures early on Saturday morning. Bradley and Kari were going to the LSU v A&M game later that day so it was good that we were getting it finished early.

Our little angel was all smiles while her Daddy was holding her.

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A sweet group shot!

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She sure does love her Daddy!

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We got a cute shot of just us girls as well.

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The hair clip that I made Emmy for the shoot...One of my first tries too!

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Next we changed Emmy into her Pinterest inspired outfit that I put together.  The pictures started out a little roughly.  Emmarie did not want to stand on Ms. Sarah's box.

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She warmed up a bit though as we went on.  She was interested in the bell on the tricycle.

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To say the hat was a little too big would be a bit of an understatement.

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Our little Snowman (Snowwoman?, Snowgirl?)
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Oh No!  I seem to have lost my hat! (most effective when read in a British accent)

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Thanks Sarah for capturing the real us, tears and all!

All photos in this post were taken by Butterfly Chaser Photography.