Texas Christmas Part 2

After our fun Christmas at Mema and Papa's, we headed to my parent's house to spend a few days and await a visit from jolly old Santa Claus. However, before he could come, there were some things we had to do first...

1. Watch Rudolph (or "Rurolph", according to Madi) with Gee Gee - this is my mom's favorite movie and she was very excited about sharing it with Madigan. Madigan enjoyed it, but was a little doubtful when we kept assuring her that the Abominable Snow Monster/Bumble was going to turn out nice...

2. Pet and rock the reindeer -Isn't that part of everyone's Christmas traditions?

3. Make Christmas cookies and eat at least half of the sugar cookie batter in the process.

Sugar high face

4. String popcorn for the Christmas tree (Not pictured)

After all of that, we were finally ready for Santa to visit. We laid out some cookies and milk and went to bed. The next morning...

That's right - Santa had come! He ate some of the cookies, drank the milk and even left a note that said, "Ho ho ho! Thanks Madigan! Love, Santa". Unbelievably creative, huh? I wish I could explain why Madigan was checking it out with a flashlight, but I have no idea...

Santa also left a very special stocking for Madigan's Texas Christmas and a present. Could it be the one thing she asked him for?!!That's right, ladies and gentlemen - Santa came through with a pink camera! And not just any pink camera...a pink PRINCESS camera that makes noise when you click the button and flips through pictures of Princesses in the view finder. Wow!Madigan spent the first fifteen minutes smashing the camera against her face trying to see the Princess pictures. She actually left red marks on her face from pressing it so hard. She finally figured out that you could still see the pictures if you held it a little gentler - that worked out better on the camera and her face.But, the presents didn't stop there. Here's a picture of her with her loot from Gee Gee and Pa which included Princess movies, Playdoh, new clothes and shoes, Color Wonder marker sets, bath markers, Hannah Montana make up, and gift cards. Here she's pretending to eat her ice cream cone from her Playdoh ice cream shoppe set (pink ice cream, of course). And here are a few pictures of her new, very cute dress and shoes.
But what dress would be complete without a black sweater with white fur lining the collar?It was a wonderful Christmas and Madigan was very proud of Santa for finding her all the way in East Texas. Gee Gee and Pa helped make it a really special time for us all...and I think they had some fun in the process!

Here are a few other pictures we took...

Reading with Gee Gee

Reading with Pa

At the creek with Gee Gee

At the creek with Mom

Posing in front of the house

We all had a wonderful time and were so glad to spend time with all of my family this year. Thanks to everyone for making it so much fun!

Texas Christmas Part 1

We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas in Texas with my family. Due to the large amount of pictures and my limited attention span, I'm only going to post the first leg of the trip today.

We headed to Texas on Saturday, but made a very special stop on the way. My friend Lexie and I met almost 16 years ago (man Lexus, we're getting old...). Together we survived the awkward days of middle school, the drama of high school, and living in a very cramped dorm room in college. About three weeks ago, she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Hudson. Unfortunately, they live in Texas so I hadn't gotten to meet my nephew. So...we remedied that problem on Saturday and stopped in to visit the baby for a few hours (and his parents too). Hudson was absolutely perfect while we were there - he slept, cuddled, occasionally opened his precious eyes and even smiled a few times (gas?). These are the only pictures I got, but you can see how excited Madigan was to get to "hold" Hudson. She's talked about it for over a week now!

He's a wonderful baby and we look forward to getting to watch him grow up. Thanks for letting us visit!

After that, we headed to another friend's house in the metroplex and spent the night with them. After church the next morning, we made our way to Mema and Papa's house. My parents had made the trek out to West Texas and picked up my dad's dad (Grandad) and drove him to Mema and Papa's. So, we got to spend the day with all of my grandparents, my aunt, uncle and cousins, my brother and his family, and my parents. It was a full house! It was also a lot of fun. We ate (WAY too much) and then opened presents.

Before the present opening started

During the present openingAfter the present opening - ha!Ted reading instructions to Avery and Ella's present :)

The cousins posing in their cool new shirts from Gee Gee

We also took family pictures while we were there. This was the first time in 5 years we had the whole family together to take pictures.

The Melton Clan

Our family with Grandad

Mema and Papa with the grandkids

Mema and Papa with the great-grandkids

Grandad with the great-grandkids

We had a fantastic time and were so glad to get to see everyone together. Thanks to Mema and Papa for letting us destroy your house in the process!

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Who says white girls can't dance?

Lots of pics coming soon from Christmas fun, but for now...



(I think she got the moves from her dad...)

Inclement Weather Day!

Yep, that's right. The sleet/ice/freezing temperatures came to visit Arkansas yesterday and decided to stay the night. What does that mean - poor road conditions and no school for a day! Unfortunately, this day off comes just days before our 2 week Christmas break, so the timing was a little bad. But, nothing we can do so we'll just enjoy a fun day at home! And, I'll finally get some pictures posted from the last few weeks.

Christmas Tree

A few weeks ago, we headed out to pick out a Christmas tree. A quick comparison from last year...

20072008

Needless to say, Madigan got into the tree picking a little more this year. She was also being a bit of a toot, so I didn't get any good pictures of her selecting the tree. Here's one from the ride home. She enjoyed decorating the tree. Here she's helping Mommy put the angel on the top of the tree. Ta da! Look at my tree!It was fun and she's actually done a great job leaving the tree alone since we got it up. Amazingly, Petey (the cat) has also done pretty good with it.

Santa #1

A week an a half ago, we went to Breakfast with Santa at one of the local churches. Madigan was so excited to see Santa (which we expected) until Santa arrived and she decided Santa was scary (also expected) . What I didn't expect was that she actually sat in his lap and let me scoot about 3 feet away. She also smiled briefly for the camera, but we didn't catch it. I was quite proud of her!

The only problem, after leaving Santa's lap, Madigan had a minor meltdown because she realized she hadn't told Santa what she wanted for Christmas (a pink camera, of course). Which leads us to...

Santa #2

Then this past weekend, Santa made a visit to our Christmas party. This time we talked up how she was going to sit in his lap and tell him what she wanted. Of course when he arrived, the fear returned. But thankfully, it was removed by a sucker from Santa...

Next came the smiling for the camera... And then the important part - telling Santa what she wanted for Christmas. This was a pretty deep discussion...All in all, a great Santa experience!

Cheesing It Up

I was trying to get a good picture of Madigan for our Christmas cards. I think she got a little too into the posing. What do you think?

To our fellow Arkansans (and the other states hit by the ice), hope you're inclement weather day is a great one.

Thanksgiving in N.C.

We went to North Carolina last week to spend Thanksgiving with Ted's family. As you can see, Madigan was quite excited to see her Grandi! (Gramps too, but he was taking the pictures...)
We had a wonderful time and since we had 3 cameras going at all times, I have lots of pictures to share! I'm going to try to divide it up into sections and minimize the writing since all you really want to see is the picture anyway.

Thanksgiving

Since we did go for Thanksgiving, I'll start with that! Grandi had everything looking very festive, even the outside. Here's Madigan posing with the Pilgrim, Indian, turkey, and pumpkins...

Madigan got to help prepare our Thanksgiving meal. I figure since we're starting her out at the age of 2, she should be able to prepare a full meal independently at least by the age of 10. At least, that's my hope...
Of course, as any good cook knows, the best part of cooking is making sure the food tastes okay.Madigan was really good at this...One of the Bowsman Thanksgiving traditions is the wearing of "hats" for lunch. Actually, we put them on, take pictures and then gradually lose the hats as we sit down to eat. Not sure why Madigan and I ended up being the turkeys. Make sure you note the chief standing in the background. (Not pictured - Ted and Grandi, both pilgrims) Not all of the Bowsmans really like this tradition, but Madigan thought it was pretty fun!Lunch was fantastic (Grandi is a great cook!) and the naps afterward were even better!

Family Pictures

We took a few family pictures for Christmas cards while we were there. Here's one with the whole family (including Kate's dog, Zoey, with the cool colored eyes!)

Madigan with Grandi and Gramps...and a really cheesy smile.

Spoiler alert - if you typically get a Christmas card from us and want to be surprised by the picture on it, skip this next one :)

Fun at Grandi and Gramps

As always, Grandi and Gramps had plenty of fun stuff for Madigan to do. The new additions to the toys this year was a fancy kitchen and a Cinderella vanity set. Madigan spent many hours cooking food and staring at herself in the mirror while putting on "make up". I tried to encourage the cooking...

Gramps had also raked some of their leaves into a big pile and introduced Madigan to the fun of jumping in leaves.
As you can see, she wasn't the only kid that had fun playing the leaves :)Here's Madigan riding on Gramp's rocking horse. Giddy up!
Of course, Aunt Kate made time for toe nail painting...Rocking on the front porch...Showing Gramps how to do puzzles...
For some reason, Madigan got very into playing with the angels Grandi had on the piano. Aunt Kate captured this picture while they were playing with the angels. And, of course, there was plenty of time allotted for bonding with everyone. Madigan cuddling with Aunt Kate...Watching TV with Gramps...
and reading with Grandi...

Tea Party

In addition to all of the other fun, the girls all got to have a REAL tea party!
What fun!Drinking tea takes a lot of concentration...Even Mommy and Aunt Kate worked on their tea drinking style (note the pinky fingers properly positioned!)

Christmas

Yes, I did just move from one holiday to another. Because we won't be able to go back to N.C. for Christmas, we celebrated while we were there. Here's Madigan standing with the tree and all of the presents. I think she was a bit overwhelmed!

She's definitely perfected her present opening technique since last year. She could rip through a package pretty quickly and was so excited about every gift!
I love this picture - she's cuddling with a baby Aunt Kate bought her. There was reason to be overwhelmed - she got all kinds of new things! Clothes, babies with car seats and diaper bags, kitchen accessories, purses with makeup, etc. However, I think the biggest hit was her new luggage. Funny story - while we were in the airport on the way to N.C., Madigan saw an older girl pulling a pink suitcase behind her. Madigan said she wanted a suitcase like the girl and so I told her (knowing Grandi had bought her a suitcase) that she'd have to wait and see. Turns out, Grandi had bought her the EXACT suitcase that the other little girl had. Ask and you shall receive...Madigan pulled the suitcase around with her everywhere and loved seeing how many toys she could stuff in it at a time. She actually did great with it at the airport on the way home too. Ted and I also received some fantastic gifts, but I didn't think you probably cared about those pictures :)

Good Bye!

As you can tell, we had a wonderful time and were very sad to leave. But we were grateful for the time we got to spend with everyone. Thanks to Grandi, Gramps and Aunt Kate for making it a wonderful trip. We can't wait to see you again!