Moody Garden Lights

Grandma and Grandpa Handl came into town for the Christmas holidays.  We started off our ventures with a trip to Moody Gardens to check out the Rainforest Pyramid and the lights, courtesy of Groupon!

Off to see the Rainforest Pyramid

"Cheese"

"Ohhhhhh....."

Off to see all the lights

Christmas - Take 1

Grandma and Grandpa James were in town last week and, much to her delight, Madeline got to celebrate Christmas a week early!

We started out with a trip to Bass Pro, as Madeline was excited to see Santa again.

She is very taken by this train set and was eager to show it to Grandma and Grandpa!

Yay!!!  We got a smile with Santa.  She even told Santa that she wanted a bike for Christmas.

We celebrated our Christmas morning on Sunday.  Madeline's Elf brought her her very own train set to run around the tree.

Checking out the train with daddy

So much fun to make the train go fast and slow, forward and backward

"Here Grandma, this one is for you!"

She chose the biggest package to open first!

Tearing right into the package

Ohhhh, a pink suitcase!

So excited for her own suitcase.  She rolled it around all day, and exclaimed, "I'm going to the airport!" about 50 times.

"I need help!"

Another big box

Sitting down for our dinner

Thanks for visiting Grandma and Grandpa!  I had so much fun during our special Christmas celebration.

Weekend fun

We've had a busy weekend!  On Friday evening, Madeline kept asking to go see Santa.  We had decided this year that we weren't waiting in line for over an hour at a mall to let her sit on Santa's lap like we did last year.  So, Bass Pro to the rescue!  We had been receiving flyers in the mail for their Winter Wonderland, with free pictures with Santa.  We weren't disappointed!

Such a big girl!  Excited to wear her new Christmas dress to see Santa.

She was so chatty in the car on the way to see Santa, but of course once I pull out the camera, she got camera shy.  You can still glimpse a bit of the excitement here!

We didn't get a smile, but she did sit on Santa's lap and we had no tears!!.  She wasn't able to tell him what she wanted, but she did nod when he asked her if she wanted a dolly and some candy.  Maybe he'll still somehow get the message that she wants a pink bike!

We were totally impressed with Bass Pro's Winter Wonderland.  We waited less than 5 min to see Santa for our free picture.  They had a train set that Madeline loved, she had so much fun making it stop.  They also had all sorts of other toys, displays, arts & crafts...enough to please kids (and daddies!) of all ages. 

Such joy!

She insisted on riding the "tractors"

Saturday was a day filled with errands, a friend's 2nd Birthday party, and we capped the night off with the Jingle Bell Ride.  The ride was an hour long and toured through a neighborhood to let us all gaze at the lights.  The ride benefited the parks and recreation department, so we felt it was a fun ride for a decent cause.  Madeline was excited to ride bikes in the dark!

Showing off her glow stick!

Ready to ride

Looking back to see mommy

Enjoying cookies and cocoa after the ride.

She had such a fun time, but was exhausted by the end as it was way after her bedtime  She said, "I'm ready to go home" which is completely out of character for her!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

The neighborhood it starting to look a lot like Christmas.  This week, while walking around the block, Madeline has been so excited by the lights.  She stated, "I want lights on my house!"  We figured it was time for us to get in the holiday spirit this weekend.  On Saturday, we pulled the Christmas decorations out of the closet and spent the majority of the day doing Holiday preparations.  Madeline can proudly say that her house now has lights and she is very excited that she has a tree in her house!  Tonight we decorated the tree and she loved looking at all the ornaments.  Here are a few pics to share:

Looking for the perfect tree

"Look, there's a tree on our car!"

Doing the happy dance as daddy puts the decorations on the tree

She had a lot of fun pulling the ornaments out of the box.  When we asked where one should go, her standard response was, "On top!"

Happy to find a penguin

Putting the snowman on the top!

A picnic of cocoa and cookies after the tree is decorated

Mmmmm, cocoa!

Our tree, 2011

HODGEPODGE

Madeline's second trip to the dentist was a huge success.  She was such a big girl and did great.  Hopefully she will continue to find the dentist this much fun!

For Thanksgiving, Madeline had her Seattle cousins with her the whole week.  They all had such a great time together and Madeline loved having 3 big kids to follow around all week long.

We took them to see the alligators on Monday.

Unfortunately this is the only photo I took all week of all of them together.

Peeking down the look-out tower

On Wed, the girls took a trip to the zoo.  Adama was so excited to feed the giraffes (her favorite animal) and Madeline enjoyed showing her around the zoo.

Two monkeys!

All smiles on the carousel

Feeding the giraffes

One of Madeline's big excitements for the week was the arrival of her 'big girl furniture' complete with her new bed!  It worked well to transition her out of the crib into a bed while all of her cousins were here, as she and Adama had a slumber party each evening, and I think this helped Madeline get comfortable in her bed.

Madeline wanted everyone to try out her new 'big girl bed'

Madeline loved having Adama read to her.

First night was a success!  With the mattress on the floor, Adama reported (as we suspected) that she rolled off onto the floor a few times during the night.

So far the big girl bed is working out pretty well.  We moved the mattress from the floor up onto the bed over the weekend.  Luckily, I think she has yet to realize she can just climb right out of bed if she wants!!

Trick-or-Treat

Daddy's monster pumpin

Heading out for the night

Her first trick-or-treat house!

There's a treat in there

"Cheese"

Yay, yummy treats!