Christmas 2012.

Christmas 2012 was wonderful, although somehow the season ended up a little more low-key than previous years.  I only got about half of my decorations out.   Christmas morning was still a fun event, though.  Kerry slept til around 8:30.  Apparently even the lure of presents under the tree is not enough to get her out of bed early.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once she did wake up she was thrilled to find her very own "Prancine" stuffie which was left unwrapped under the tree.

 

 

 

Then she took a moment to decide what to unwrap next.

 

 

 

 

She had wrapped a few "surprise" presents for Mommy, Daddy and even herself.  I got a restaurant coupon, he hee.

 

She had requested a "jewelry box to decorate".
 

 

 

So she got one =).

Christmas Eve-eve at Nana and Papaws.

My girlie was looking so cute in her little sweater dress (a deal from Old Navy's clearance rack last year).  And those knee socks....I mean, come on!

After Church it was off to Nana and Papaw's for a little Christmas-ing.

 

When did she get so tall?!

 

Nana snapped a quick family shot for me.  I need to take more of these...or better yet, have a family portrait done for the first time in three years. 

Kerry and her cousins before tearing into presents.  Kinsley had been into the Hersey's kisses and had left the evidence all over her face.  I love these girls!  At ages two, four, and six they are little stair-steps with Kerry smack dab in the middle. 

Boy, were they ever thrilled with the new Tabeo tablets that they got from the Grandparents!  I think Nana just tired of them hogging her IPad  =).

Christmas Pretzels!

 It's that time of year again!  Time to make chocolate covered pretzels with Mommy and Mamaw.  This has become a yearly tradition in the days leading up to Christmas and Kerry always looks forward to it.

 

We made milk chocolate as well as white chocolate and white chocoate with crushed peppermint candy coatings.

 

 

 

  

 

 

Kerry got nearly as much chocolate on her as she did on the pretzels..but she didn't seem to mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 She had fun being the official "dipper" and would try to see how many she could fit on her fork at once.

 

 

Caught red-handed, hehee.  See that big pile of containers behind her?  We filled them all!

 

Like many people I have been just saddened and sickened over the events that took place in Connecticut.  I've choked back anger and tears and have certainly been holding my girl a little tighter this weekend.  And trying to keep distracted.  And trying to keep things normal for her sake. 

 

So the annual decoration of Nana and Papaw's Christmas tree by the three Grandgirls went on as planned.   Kerry always looks forward to her "cousins time".

 

 

 

 

Kerry and I had also planned on making Christmas cookies this weekend...so bake we did.  This has always been one of Kerry's absolute favorite things to do.  Even before she could really talk, if I pulled out the cookie cutters she would just smile and squeal with excitement. 

 

 

She really gets into it..as evidenced by the amount of flour she ended up wearing.  And on another note, look how tall and slim she's looking these days.  And when did she develop visible collar bones?  When she first came home as a plump 16 month old she didn't even have a discernable neck!  Crazy.

Santa visit 2012

 

Now that Kerry has come to terms with the Big Man in Red she was eagerly anticipating this year's visit.  And this Santa did not disappoint.  First of all we lucked out and had only one person in front of us when we showed up..and no one behind us..so Kerry got to take her time visiting him (one of the perks of being off of work on a weekday).  He was so nice and, get this, he even pulled out a red guitar and played and sang "Frosty the Snowman" and "Santa Claus is coming to town".  How neat is that?!  I wasn't super thrilled with the photo quality this year, but the overall experience for Kerry more than made up for that.  Look at that grin =). 

 

 My girl loves, loves, LOVES puzzles.

 She has quite a collection of them and is likely to pick a puzzle over a toy when she finds her self with a little spending money.  She is doing 100 piece puzzles these days and she is fast. 

She will happily sit for up to an hour at a time and work on one after another.

 

  

 

And I just love to watch her work.  And, you know, when there's nice lighting handy..take photos.

 

A little Indian Summer

 

Kerry was happy to be able to play outside today without a jacket.  And I just love watching my girl having fun.

 

 

 

 

She borrowed a little cane from Joseph (from our Nativity set) and entertained herself by "bamming" the last of the dead leaves from our trees, then hooking the cane onto a low branch and letting go to watch it spring up into the air.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She played on her swingset a bit.

 

 

Penguin puppet is a constant companion nowadays.  Wherever she goes, he goes...often even from room to room in the house.  I'm not looking forward to breaking it to her that he won't be able to go to Kindergarten with her next year, or that he'll at least have to stay in her backpack.  And those nearly-outgrown-and-covered-in-paint crocs that she grabbed from the screened in patio have to go...soon. 

 

 

She's pointing his head at the camera so he can say "cheese" too, hehee.  You may have noticed he's sporting a new accessory.   She apparently thought he needed a collar.  I guess it's better then the stickers he's often covered with. 

 

 

Daddy was talking about mowing one last time to mulch the leaves so she thought she'd give him a hand. 

 

Christmas Card photo shoot

Yesterday was absolutely and completely georgeous..as in clear, sunny skies and 73 degrees, so I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and try to get this years Christmas card photo taken care of.  I decided to dress Kerry in her red and gold Cheongsam dress this year, the colors just seemed Christmas-y.   So we packed up, headed to Bernheim Arboretum and ended up plopping a chair down in the middle of the Hubboch Holly collection.

 

 

 

She insisted on getting Penguin Puppet in on the action so he was in the first few shots.  I had to make him my "special assistant" so I could get him behind the scenes.  This included me having to make him "talk" and give her instructions in a silly voice...but I was willing to look silly if it meant getting this years Christmas card photo taken out-doors instead of in the living room this year. 

 

 

It's always interesting trying to get a good shot of my silly, spicy girl.

 

 



 

It's a bit of a challenge sometimes...

 

 

but it's never-ever boring.

 

 

 

 I got a lot of the "forced smile" look.

 

I got some sweet ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I think I got a winner or two.

 

 

 

 

This is what she calls her "princess" smile, he hee.

 

 

I had also lured her with the promise of a post photo-shoot picnic...she loves picnics at Bernheim.  We ended up having a really, really great day.  I kind of wish I had a photo-editing program, these are just SOOC, but I'm pretty happy with them, anyway.


 

Gymnastics cuteness!

 

 

Kerry is love, love, LOVING gymnastics, and I must say I love watching her.  Sometimes it's pretty funny...it's always pretty darn cute.  The little clip below is from last nights lesson and it starts off with some funny little hand-stand attempts, then we go into THE cutest attempt at learning a backflip ever!  The clip ends with some bar work..I think she accidentally bumped her mouth in her first attempt but she keeps on going.  Enjoy!

 

 

The Doc is in!

 

  

 

This girl was counting the days to Halloween! 

She decided early on that she wanted to dress as "Doc McStuffins" this year.  There aren't really any costumes out there (that I could find, at least) so we just ordered a little lab coat on-line, bought a striped purple shirt, added a pink skirt and bright pink sneakers that she already owned.  To top it off we found a super sparkly purple headband, ripped the bow off, and hot glued a pink and white flower taken off of a clippy barette and put her hair in braids.  She was pleased as punch with her costume =).

 

 



      We got a slightly later start on trick-or-treating that anticipated so my pictures were not so great but I think she was super cute.

She had so much fun and said " Trick-or-Treat" and "Thank you!" at each house.  She even said "BOO!" at a few stops even though she was far from scary, he hee.

 

Even though she's not even a huge candy eater, she was so excited to get home and check out her loot. 

 

 

 

I have to tell you what my sweet girl did.  She knows I love Skittles and after stopping at several houses she said "I have to get some "Skillets" for you Mommy, I just Have to!"  I assured her that I would be perfectly okay without them and not to worry, but at each house she still took note of what candy she got.  Well, after dumping her loot out on the living room floor she spotted on lone package of the rainbow colored candy.  She jumped up with a huge grin and squealed "Mommy, I DID get 'Skillets'! I'm sooo glad! Here, these are for YOU!"   I just love her sweet little heart =).