Afton at the Park

Admittedly, this is not a very exciting video. But I thought it was funny and worth keeping, so I'm posting this for me and not you. Maybe the grandmothers will also enjoy it. For the rest of you, you've been warned that you might want this 78 seconds of your life back if you proceed to watch the following clip.

Things To Do When You Have To Leave Your House For Showings

So our holiday season was also try to sell our house season. We had to leave our house many times for showing, which was a good thing. The more showings, the more likely you are to get an offer!

I liked it as an excuse to get out of the house and have some fun. There were several times when our awesome friends allowed us to come over and hang out with them during showings. When we didn't feel like imposing on our friends' hospitality we:

Went to Magnolia Pancake Haus.

I had never been! So it was a must.

We went to Chik Fil A! 

Afton loves "chench chies"

We also went to the pet store, its a good thing we were moving, 

or I would have insisted on adopting a dog.

Bass Pro Shops.

The Santa-land was perfect. (minus Santa)

Indoors, carousel, lots of space to run around-

Need I say more?

I promise, she LOVED the carousel! 

We really need to work on her poses for the camera.

When the weather was nice we just went to the park.

Afton loves the slides. :)

All of our hard work to make the house look awesome for each showing paid off! 

We got an awesome offer after 2 weeks of being on the market, and the closing went through right on time!

YES!

Christmas

This was the first year of our marriage (5 years people) that we stayed home and did our very own Christmas.

It was wonderful.

Yes, we did miss our families, but it was nice knowing we would be moving close to them in a months time.

Christmas Eve we had a little feast with some friends from church and then we headed home so Santa could visit!

Here was our tree:

(stuffed with presents! Good thing our parents spoil us)

One of my favorite things is to sit and stare and the Christmas tree while everyone else is sleeping.

The house is so peaceful, and I get an opportunity to ponder about the birth of Jesus Christ, and His love for us all.

SANTA CAME!!!

We didn't talk a ton about Santa with Afton, but we did tell her if she left her stocking out that Santa would come and fill it with candies and presents!

She responded with a "no santa!" and chucked her stocking across the room. 

Oh well, better luck next year.

Christmas Morning was a lot of fun, but boy were we exhausted. 

Afton woke up screaming for a good hour in the middle of the night. 

She was even more made because we wouldn't let her go into the family room because Santa had already come. Oops.

Not to mention Ruby waking up to eat. 

Someday we will get to sleep again.

Afton enjoying her spoils from Santa:

Playing in the wrapping paper post-present opening! 

As predicted, Afton wanted to play with each toy after it was opened. 

BUT it didn't take too long to open everything because she had fun unwrapping everything too.

I don't remember what I was doing, but I came into our living room to find this:

Afton had stacked up all of Ruby's presents on top of Ruby :)

I thought it was pretty cute, so I relocated Ruby for a snapshot in front of our tree.

Afton, of course, had to show off her spoils too! 

Playing with our Christmas presents!

Afton loves to accessorize.

We had Christmas music on for most of the morning, but when a Vince Guiraldi song came on Afton started to say "Charlie Brown! Charlie Brown!"

I am so proud :)

Ruby's still not too sure about this Christmas-thing:

Brad and I both agreed that this was our favorite Christmas yet. 

We got to relax and just enjoy our beautiful little family in our beautiful little house.

We definitely will miss our little Texas Home!

We hope you all had as great of a Christmas Day as we did:

Christmas time festivities

This is just a random post about some fun Christmas-time things we did this year.

We got a real tree!! We didn't travel anywhere this year, so I insisted on getting a real tree this year :)

I don't care how easy or convenient fake trees are, they will never beat a real tree for me.

And despite the look on Afton's face, she did have a good time picking the tree out.

We also went to Bass Pro Shops to see SANTA!!!!

Here is Afton "writing" her letter to Santa.

We were mean and had Afton sit on Santa's lap to get a candy cane.

I was a little surprised she wasn't a fan, she usually warms up to new people pretty quickly.

Must be the beard.

And the official free shot. She almost looks like she is happy..... right?

We probably won't make this a yearly tradition.

 I still feel a little guilty about it.

HA

Did I mention how Afton is VERY anti-posing lately?

Here are the girls in their cute matching Christmas dresses!

Afton really does love to hold Ruby. She is such a sweet big sister.

Finally a good smile shot!!!

I love my sweet girls.

(also note, none of the presents under the tree at this point are from us....we are spoiled)

Last time eating at our favorite San Antonio Restaurant: Mi Tierra. We love the food and the atmosphere.

I also insisted on seeing the Christmas lights at the river walk.

I had to cross it off my bucket list, so we went when our parents were in town for the blessing.

Afton and Grampy

Due to the large amount of presents Afton had under the tree, we decided to let her open one each day leading up to Christmas. We started 3 days before Christmas Eve.

Afton was a fan, and it made the Christmas morning present unwrapping go a little quicker. :)

Christmas, Texas style.

Merry Christmas y'all!

Ruby's Blessing Day

Before we realized we would be moving, we planned to have Ruby blessed December 15th.

So amidst all the moving prep and holiday celebrations, we took a break to celebrate our little Ruby and give her a name and a blessing.

Both of our parents were able to come down to San Antonio for the blessing. It was so nice to have them there!

Our neighbor Ginger, and her boys and our close friends the Barricks also came over, but I did not snap a picture with them. oops!

Afton has been in an anti-posing phase as of late... can you tell?

And now for an excess of photos of Ruby in her blessing dress!

She wore the same dress as Afton - an heirloom from my Grandma Yeagle that I wore for my blessing.

It is the sweetest dress!

I made Ruby a different headband to wear and Grandma Morgan made her some new slippers.

OK MOM! Enough with the pictures already!

Ruby's First Month

Ruby is 1 month old! woohoo! 

Time flies just as fast, if not faster with the second.

At 1 month Ruby is suprisingly social in that she has already given us a few smiles (non-gas related) and she is pretty decent at making eye contact! (Well, her pediatrician thought it was impressive)

I forgot to write down her weight and length, but she has grown sufficiently! I do remember that she was about 50% for weight and 70ish% for height, so another little string bean in the makings!

Life with two has been a bit of an adjustment. Most days are spent in our pjs, and watching more TV than is probably healthy. We are working on that. 

Life his been a little more hectic because we are preparing to move to UTAH soon (and there is still Christmas to celebrate as well)! That means having the house kept clean and tidy and being ready to go out the door with short notice for showings, not an easy feat. Fortunately we have several awesome friends that have let us come play when this happens.

Afton is still a pretty awesome sister. If anything she can be accuse of loving too hard.

She mostly calls Ruby "baby" at this point. Probably because I refer to her as "baby Ruby" when I am talking to Afton. 

Afton love giving Ruby hugs and kisses, and still informs me whenever Ruby is sad, or crying, or burps. Burps = sneeze, toots, and burps.

My last post had me looking all cute and glamorous for family photos. Here is the more realistic me for this first month. :)

Don't worry, I am not as depressed as I look in this photo. I was just trying to show Brad how my day was going, so I was being a little dramatic. The hair is legit though :)

AND a few fuzzy glimpses of some smiles from Ruby. They are pretty rare, but oh so sweet!

So that's Ruby's first month. 

It's been a happy flurry of moving prep, holidays, and newborn snuggles.