photo 334...

our rockin' nye

ok. So I think we are officially old when it comes to nye and so are my peeps. We had the Leonards and the Scheers over tonight (they always come to our house these days so we can put Landry to bed at her regular time and we greatly appreciate it).

Apples to Apples is a fun game. I have seen it in the store and always thought it was a kid game. Several people have mentioned lately they play it and have fun with it, so we bought it today to bust out on nye celebration.

We enjoyed ourselves hanging with our peeps...ringing in the new year! Low key is totally the way to go...it was so nice!

photo 333...

My new friend...I hope!

I have wanted Photo Shop Elements for a long time. Many of the blog authors I read/stalk use it and they love it and they do great things with this program. I decided to put this on my birthday/christmas list ( since it was something I didn't want to just go out and by myself) hoping and crossing my fingers that I would get this.

I got it! But I haven't had to open it up and install it and play around with it yet. I am so far behind on my blogging that I am using this as motivation to get caught up. Once I am caught up, I am going to play around with it.

I can't wait to play with this new "toy"! Thanks Rusty and Susan for the hook up!

photo 332...

chubby toddler hands + board books = pure and simple cuteness!

I am a sucker for chubby toddler hands.
I am a sucker for books and kids reading books. It is the teacher in me I think.
I am a sucker for Bailey and all of his cuteness.

So basically, I am just a sucker when it comes to this kind of stuff...pure and simple!

photo 331...

The Dallas Skyline(well most of it)~Big D~Downtown

We traveled back up north today, headed for home. As we were driving in I wanted to bust out the camera and get a picture of the Dallas Skyline. I did it for a few reasons:

number one-I wanted to see how well the picture would turn out while the car was moving. number two-I have never taken a picture of the Dallas Skyline.
number three-I wanted to see what the picture would turn out like through the windshield.

Sometimes it is fun to just on the fly decide to experiment!

photo 330...

Cake Ball Truffles.

These super duper delish greatness balls are absolutely amazing! I mean really.....amazing! I couldn't even begin to tell you how my sister Heather made them, but I will be getting the recipe. I seriously could have eaten the ENTIRE tray ~ but I didn't...thank goodness!

I ate enough junk and sweets and just food in general to last me all winter like I was a bear going into hybernation or something.

Yumm-0!

photo 329...

Ummmmm....nope....not yet my friend!

Today we drove down to my parents' house to celebrate Christmas with the Bennett/Botts Clan. At one point Landry kept running to us telling us "I go potty. I go potty". She must've said this a million times. It isn't unusual for her to tell us she has gone potty in her diaper and she wants it changed which is what we thought she was talking about. We couldn't figure out why she was leading us to the bathroom.

I kept telling her we weren't going to sit on Grammy's potty, but she was stubbornly persistent so Aunt Becky followed her in and found her sitting on the Frog Potty.

She wanted to sit on the Froggy Potty that my mom has for Parker (and Landry when the time comes). Ooohhhhh that's what she meant. We are so not ready for the potty training road yet. Nope....not yet my friend!

photo 328...

Christmas Morning...

This is one of my most favorite things about Christmas. Seeing these two little girls' faces light up when they see what Santa brought them is the best thing ever! I could replay this picture over and over in my head for-EV-ER!

photo 327...

Looking out the window...

...this Christmas Eve

...we saw this pretty white snow!

photo 326...

ooohhhhh.....aaaahhhhhh

This evening we went for our traditional and annual stroll through Merry Main Street. We had intended on going over a weekend when they have a bazillion things going on, but our weekends were jam packed with "stuff" so we didn't make it.

Merry Main Street is one of Ashton's very favorite traditions for this time of year. We didn't get our usual Starbucks because the temperature today was nice 75 or so degrees. Since it wansn't freezing, we were able to walk around without jackets and not freeze.

*I snapped this picture from the car as we were driving in.

photo 325...

christmas cookies=messy!

Today Ashton and I made Christmas cookies since it is tradition for the Bryce, Leonard, and Scheer kids to decorate cookies at almost every holiday. The kids and mommies all came over tonight for a little cookie decorating, a little gift exchanging, a little playing, and some sleeping over.

I do have to say that the fact that Ashton has helped make the cookies so many times before has made her kind of a pro. She did an excellent job of rolling the dough and cutting out the cookies with fun shapes.

I just wish there was a way to make cookies with out all the mess...but then again, that sort of takes away all the fun! Messes can always get cleaned up...I'll take fun with the girls any day over a mess!

photo 324...

silly girls!

I was trying to get a picture of the girls for their thank you cards and you all know how pictures with Landry goes these days. After I had taken a few and was DONE with the lack of cooperation from a certain toddler, Ashton called me back in to the office. She was pretty proud of herself because she came up with this pose and was able to get Landry to cooperate for about 2 seconds. This was what I got....needless to say, this is not the picture I am using on the card!

photo 323...

blue skies in Texas

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day! Not a cloud in the sky...not too cold...just a pretty day. Daddy was out taking pictures of his car so he can sell it. I thought this was a pretty cool pic looking through the sun roof from inside the car.

Now let's just hope he sells his car in a timely manner...that would be NICE!

photo 322...

donuts anyone?

Today was long and super fun filled day for the Bryce fam. After checking off the first thing on the agenda, which happened to be flu shots for the girls (FINALLY!) we headed to celebrate a special little girl's 4th birthday....donut style!

The girl decorated these cute little chef hats at Carly's birthday party. It was a great party with lots and lots of sugar. I have many more pics and details to come!

photo 321...

the sweetest snowman on the block...

Today Ashton had her Winter Party at school. One of the planned activities was to make snowman using the sweet stuff provided in the bag.

I bet you have never seen a snowman with the legs before! I snapped the picture before the masterpiece was complete....she did add pretzel arms and a hershey's kiss hat.

It was a super fun par-tay to kick off Winter Break!

photo 320...

are those elf legs?

nope. these cute little legs belong to our BG. She donated money to the Ronald McDonald house for the Student Council at her school, which earned her the privilege of wearing silly holiday socks and slippers to school for the day.

photo 319...

Lan-Lan P's new favorite dessert...

*this little girl is just like her mommy and her big sister and her daddy~she loves her some dessert!

*this little girl love her some raisins

*and now this little girl loves her some "chockit raisins" for her dessert

*she only gets two desserts a day-one after lunch and one after dinner.

*she only gets 3 or 4 of these "chockit raisins" but she thinks she has won the lottery!

photo 318...

Who Took the Candy in the Candy Dish?

This last mint candy belongs to Little Miss Ashton. We have this candy dish decoration that I fill with candy. The candy disappears often (Daddy and I have a hard time walking by it without grabbing a piece-I even bought candy with a wrapper so it wouldn't be as tempting) and last night after dinner, Ashton took one for her dessert and she claimed this last one for her dessert tonight. She requested that Mommy and Daddy didn't eat it. Ha...love this girl!

photo 317...

Holiday Card Display...

I love to get holiday cards. I have never really had a good way of displaying them until I got this idea last year from "Blog Land". I decided I would try it this year. I am loving it! These are hanging on either side of our tv on the entertainment center. When these two strips are full, I will put some ribbon on the cabinet doors in the kitchen.

I am loving this idea....thanks blog land homies!

photo 316...

Homemade Chex Mix....

~is one of my favorite things about this time of year.

~I was waiting for December to get here so I could make it.

~it is never as good as my mom's but still a yummy staple for this time of year!

~both of the girls LOVE it too

~many more batches will be made between now and January!

photo 315

Daddy's Hair Doing Skills...

I am impressed. He was in a bit of a panic when I told him he was in charge of the Little One's hair for Bailey's first birthday party today. I had to take Ashton to another party at the American Girl store so she and I were going to be a little late to B's party which meant he had to get Landry ready.

He did a pretty good job AND he even took a picture. He is a "Girl Daddy" and a great one at that!

photo 314...

This is one of my birthday presents...
(sorry the words backwards I took the picture in the mirror and couldn't flip it...but you get the idea)

This is the one thing that I hinted and hinted and hinted a little more that I really, really wanted. I mean I showed Bobby the website, showed him how to design it the way I wanted it~you know made it completely obvious and super easy for him.

After I finished opening my presents, Bobby told me one of my presents wasn't here. I got a little excited hoping it was this shirt. He wouldn't tell me what it was {even though I did a lot of begging} until it got here.

He even told me that he knew I thought it was my shirt and said "sometimes gifts don't turn out as planned...for unavailability reasons". I still didn't believe him.

So after he found out the gift was delayed due to the fact that it never got shipped in the first place, I told him they should overnight whatever it was...he responded with "well it is large and I don't think they can overnight it easily". Hmmmmmm...

So when I picked Ashton up from school on Wednesday, she asked me if I got my gift yet. I said no Daddy said it was big so it would take a bit longer to get here. She said, "Well did you get the clothing part of it?" I instantly hoped and kind of knew that it was this shirt.

Long story short...I got my shirt....I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! I love that it is sparkly since my girls are all about "pockles".

Thanks to my girls I can let everyone know that I am proud to be a GIRL MOM!

photo 313...

Chicken Tortilla Soup...

Tonight was the first night I made this particular recipe and it was yummy. We had the Leonards over for dinner {we sure did miss the Scheer Trio since they couldn't make it} so the kids could draw names of who they get to buy gifts for this year.

Drawing names is another little tradition we do with the kids. They each draw a name, and keep it a secret and then they get to help pick out a little $15 gift.

I L-O-V-E soup....it was a cold day just perfect for soup and of course we loved the company too!

photo 312...

This box holds our holiday cards....yay!

I love getting and sending out holiday cards...it is one of my favorite things about this time of year. It is a lot of time consuming work-but worth every second of it!

photo 311...

" I look my bells....I look my bells"

The other day I put a set of these bells hanging in each of the girls' bathroom. Landry is IN LOVE with them. I think she is in love with the fact that they are hers and hers alone.

Several times a day she will come and grab one of us by the hand saying, " I look my bells, I look my bells my bah-room"....And when we get in there she points and very proudly says, 'dat my bells...mommy make my bells me". I like my bells". Then she wants us to go with her into Ashton's bathroom so she can see Ashton's bells.

She does the same thing with the lights on her tree in her room, but the bells are clearly her fave right now.

photo 310...

Has it really been 6 months?

Yep....six months have passed and that means it was time for Ashton to visit the dentist for her regular cleaning and check up.

And now, the time has come for us to schedule an appointment with an orthodontist. Yep...you read that correctly....the orthodontist!

We have known for a very long time that this was going to be in our near future. We weren't sure if it would be this time or next. Our dentist warned us in June that it would be 6 months to a year and after today, she has enough of her permanent teeth to start the orthodontic process.

Let the fun begin....

photo 309...

An almost two year old's tree decorating....

Today we FINALLY got our tree decorated. We probably should have done this little task while a certain someone was taking her nap but we wanted to do it together as our family of four for the firs time. Last year we Daddy, Ashton and I did it without Lan-Lan's help.

She was really into it at first. Then she became more interested in the hooks so she became "Daddy's Little Hook Assistant". When she did put the ornaments on the tree, she put them all in the same spot...making a little clump. The picture doesn't do it any justice, there are about 6 ornaments all balled up together at the bottom of the tree. We haven't move them yet...it is just too cute. Ashton did the same thing in her younger days.

We usually let Ashton put the ornaments on and then we spread them out when she is done. This year she did a pretty darn good job of spreading them out. Daddy did the ones she couldn't reach.

Our tree is "kid decorated" and I think we might just leave it like it is this year!

photo 308...

oof....

these are just a few of the boxes of Christmas decorations spread all over our house waiting to be taken care of. It really bothers me that we don't have our stuff together yet. That is okay, by tomorrow evening, these boxes will be empty and put back in the attic.

our house will be holiday ready and I can't wait.

photo 307...

Thank goodness there aren't 34 candles on here!

Today was my birthday....it was fantastic! It was busy, but that was just fine by me! My girls and my hubby spoiled me....these cupcakes {peanut butter and chocolate} were yummy!

Celebrating your birthday with your kids is so much fun...it is awesome seeing it through their eyes! I don't how many times I heard Landry say "hap bertday" followed by a giant tight hug! And my big girl wanted to make sure I didn't do any "work" on my birthday! Love 'em!

photo 306...

a little shopping and "Mommy" time all in one....

Tuesday at dance, Jodi and I decided we needed to head down to the American Girl store sooner rather than later so we made an evening out of it.

I picked Jodi up and we had a fun and yummy dinner at Tin Star. Queso, tortilla soup and Dr. Pepper what more could a girl ask for?

Then we had so much fun browsing and choosing what we needed from the store.

It didn't end there...nope! When I dropped her off, she showed me her blog book on the computer. I LOVED looking at all 2 hundred and something pages! It is so incredibly awesome...I can't wait to see the real thing when it gets here!

It made me even more jealous that mine isn't done. That is on my list just as soon as I get caught up on my blog! You know...if that ever happens! Maybe one of Santa's elves will hook me up with this project!

I had such a fun evening and got some things accomplished! Yay!

photo 305...

our first snow of the year....

~may be our last of the year

~was melted by around 9 am

~caused LOTS of excitement for two little girls in our house

~was a fun thing to wake up to

~had Ashton asking if she was still able to go to school since it was snowing

~allowed me to get some cute pics of the girls in their "Texas" Winter Gear

photo 304...

Piggy Back Rides....

Tonight at Landry's bedtime, Ashton wanted to give Landry a piggy back ride back to her bedroom. Daddy usually gives the girls a shoulder ride to their rooms at bedtime and both girls were excited for a brief change in the routine.

How is it that Ashton is big enough to give her little a sister a piggy back ride? How is it that Landry is old enough to want a piggy back ride from her sister? Personally....I love seeing Daddy give the piggy back rides....for now!