Taylor Family Christmas

For our last Christmas we headed to Oklahoma City for the Taylor family Christmas. We left on Friday December 26 and came home on Sunday. It was Izabella's first out of state trip! This was the longest car ride she has had to date and did fairly well. We did, however, by a portable DVD player for the trip home so she could watch her new Veggie Tale CDs. What a GREAT purchase! :)

Except for the fact that I was sick almost the entire trip, it was a nice visit. I had never been to Oklahoma City either, but now I can say I have been! I wish we would have had more time to do a little but of sight seeing, but I didn't really feel like it at the time!

Nanny Taylor is Izabella's only living Great-Grandmother so I was glad we were able to get some four generation pictures. Izabella had a blast on Saturday. Allen and Cindy's grandson kept her entertained for a long while. She was laughing so hard at one point in the day, that she spit up! Her laugh is SO STINKING CUTE!!! And contagious! She finally had had it though and feel asleep on her daddy's shoulders!

All of our Christmas trips were nice and it was great to see and visit with everyone.....but boy were we glad to be home again! I LOVE Christmas, but I am so glad that it only comes once a year! I don't think I would have the strength to have it any more!

Christmas at our house!

When we got back home from Stephenville, Santa had arrived with Izabella's present. It was a beautiful, perfect for her size, horse! It sings a song and nays! She wasn't sure what to think about it at first, but soon enjoyed it! Santa is so good! :)

The McConal Family Christmas

Our next Christmas was for the McConal family. We spent both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Stephenville. Sadly, Izabella and I had to head south early on Christmas Eve morning. My Aunt Alene passed away earlier that week, so she and I went with Natasha's family to her funeral in Goldthwaite that day. Chris came down that night since he had to work that day.

We came home after the funeral and hurriedly got dressed for church that night. We dressed Izabella up in one of her "Santa" suits for the church service. Boy did she look adorable! Of course what else would you expect?! She even left her hat on for most of the night! Such a good baby we have!

After church, we were letting her play on the floor. And she kept crawling backwards like she had been doing for over a week. She got stuck under dad’s foot rest at one point. But then, she looked at me and took her first "CRAWL"!! It was only a few but hey, she finally mastered it after only being able to go backwards for over a week! How exciting!! On Christmas day, she did a little better trying to "unwrap" the gifts, but still not as amazed as I thought she would be. I know, I know, just wait until next year! :)

We had to come home on Christmas night since we were heading out again the next day. It was a great Christmas with lots of good food. Started off sad, but ended wonderfully with all of our family together, including Aunt Merle!

The Erwin Christmas

Well, Christmas has come and gone. All in all, we had a nice Christmas. But boy was it hectic! Not only was it so much fun having Izabella's first Chrismas, but through the holiday's, she achieved so many milestones. While we were at Terry's house, she started getting herself to the sitting position ALL BY HERSELF! How exciting! She is growing like a weed. It is just going by to fast for us!!

Our Christmas started out with the weekend before Christmas for the Erwin family Christmas in Wichita Falls. We headed up on Thursday and came home on Saturday night. We took the RV so we would be assured a place to sleep while we were there!

The house was full on Saturday and it was so nice to see everyone and spend time with everyone. It was Izabella's "first" Christmas and she wasn't near as impressed with the paper as I thought she might be. But of course there were about 12 kids there that she was more interested in and they her! I think her favorite item was Grandpa Terry's fiber optic reindeer! It was just the right size for her!!

Christmas and Santa

Santa's Little Helper!

That ornament felt good on her gums!


Izabella's first Christmas! What fun!! It is so hard for me to believe that she is already 6 months old! So much fun to look forward to a child's first Christmas. I am so excited! Although we really didn't go all out for presents since we know that she will be more interested in the paper and boxes than she will the actual presents....at least for that moment anyway!

Izabella did get to have her first meeting with Santa. They had a Santa come up to the hospital and since Chris was working, we got to meet him at the back door before he went in with all the other kiddos. I was so excited for her first Santa picture! She however, wasn't. She did not like Santa AT ALL!! Not even with Chris holding her next to Santa! The picture is a classic!

Santa!

It is going to be a hectic Christmas trying to get to every family, and having our own, all in a week! But all the scurrying around will be worth it! We have two Santa outfits that she looks so adorable in! Christmas is such a joyful season and this year we have our little sweetheart to be even more joyous about!

She rolled under there and couldn't figure out how to get out!

Family Trip & Bella's First Teeth!

After several long, hard working months, Chris took some time off. We were able to get a week with our timeshare down in New Braunfels. We used the time to try and get our Christmas shopping done, which we won't try again! We were spending so much time being worried about getting all the presents we needed, that we really didn't sit back, relax and enjoy ourselves. But it was nice to get away all the same. We were able to hit the outlet malls on Sunday, Fredericksburg on Monday, and San Antonio on Tuesday. We had to head back home on Wednesday since Chris had to work on Thursday. It is always nice to get down to the Hill Country. Looking forward to our next trip south!

Our friend Sandra and her daughter came to stay with us on Saturday night. I was thrilled that they were able to come stay with us. It was so good to see her! Wish she lived closer!! On that Sunday Kaylee, Sandra's daughter, let Bella chew on her finger. She kept saying "OUCH! That hurt! She has teeth!" We adults kept saying, "Not yet, but she soon will!" Well, I guess Kaylee knew more than we gave her credit for! That night I looked in Bella's mouth......low and behold there was a tooth! Within a few days, the she had her two front bottom teeth! Guess we should have listened to Kaylee a little bit better!