Basketball

Logan is playing basketball now. He is on a team with several friends and the coaches are the Rockwall High School Basketball coaches. Their team name is the Jackets and they have "real" uniforms. Logan chose to wear the #20 jersey because he wanted a big number. Adam has of course been at each practice but for his first time as a parent he is getting to just watch and not coach. He is really liking being able to just watch Logan and not worry about everyone. Their first game was last week and they won 20-0. Way to go Jackets!

No, Logan isn't flipping you off. He is showing off his first jammed finger. It was swolen and bruised for a few days He has been very proud of it. It must be a boy thing!

Bitty Baby

Mammie wanted to buy Landry an American Girl Bitty Baby for Christmas. I thought we should go before Christmas and let her choose her baby. She has been talking for a few months about her baby named Plampia. We are not sure where she came up with that name but she has been adamant about that being her baby's name. We just had to go and find her. Mammie and I were so excited because we had never been to an American Girl doll store either. I must say I "got the tears" when we walked in. I can only hope to go back there many more times throughout the next years.

A very excited little girl not really understanding what to expect.

It was VERY overwhelming when we walked in. We made our way to the Bitty Baby section.

There are 5 different ethnicities of Bitty Babies. We showed her all 5 and let her choose which one was her Plampia. They are all sitting in their little bouncy seats just waiting to be adopted. She had a difficult decision but ultimately decided on the blond haired blue eyed baby. She said, "I want her because she has blue eyes like me". It was so precious to see her want a baby that looked like her. After we chose Plampia we sat at the soda fountain to get a dessert for Landry. She chose the ice cream cone trio. It was tiny cones with 3 assorted scoops of ice cream with bright colored sprinkles. She really enjoyed them and we enjoyed watching her.
Thank you Mammie for a good afternoon and for our new Bitty Baby, Plampia Gerhart. She is a great addition to our family. Landry immediately fell in love with Plampia. She hugged her and talked to her and sang to her on the way home.
What a precious baby. It was a hard day at the doll store. It's hard being a new mommy!

Christmas Card

This year I took the pictures for our Christmas card. There were several great pictures and poses. Here are the ones that didn't make the card.

Christmas Tree

Yes, we have an artificial tree! I have always had fantasies of going to a Christmas tree farm as a family in the cold weather wearing matching mittens with axe in hand to cut down our own beautiful tree. We would agree first time on a gorgeous 7 foot pine tree. Then we would tie it to the top of our wonderfully clean SUV and drive home drinking cocoa while singing Christmas carols as a family. Well, our kids have allergies and Landry has eczema and I don't want to have to water a tree or vacuum each day and I'm not taking any chances (plus this one is a really good one but I know, FAKE!) So, we get the tree down from the attic each year. That's our farm I guess. Plus, the kids think it's fun to push the box around and play in it.

Yes, they play Star Wars ALL the time, even in a tree box.

Logan put the entire tree together. He is really good at it. I wanted Layton and Landry to sort the pieces out and hand them to Logan and that actually happened, for about 37 seconds!
Yes, the end of the Cowboy game was on in the background, for daddy.

I think this is the only branch she even touched. Putting the ornaments is my favorite part but it's not the boys (all 3) favorite part. They all 3 wanted to be the ones to open the wrapping and lay them out. Daddy won that part this year.

I always hang these 4 together and in this order. These are the ornaments that tell my story. The first is from Adam on the first Christmas we spent together. We were barely dating but he came over to help us put up our tree at my mom's house. It is of two precious moments ice skating and that commemorates our first date when we went ice skating. The next one is a mercury glass ornament of a bride and a groom, then one from my Nana on our first Christmas as a married couple. The last one is 5 snowmen and that represents our little family of 5.

I know that some people prefer a more formal tree where everything is the same color or theme or with bows on it, etc. I don't! I love to look at my tree and see some paper ornaments, many from my childhood, lots of basketball ornaments from our coaching days, several handmade ornaments with hand prints or photos and many many others. It is very eclectic and I love it that way. I love to look at my tree and see my life.It gives me a warm feeling. The first thing I do each morning is to turn on the lights.

Landry's Fancy Nancy Party

On December 5th Landry turned 3 years old and celebrated with a Fancy Nancy party. Fancy Nancy is one of our favorites so I created a fancy party for Landry and some of her little friends.

The table was decorated "fancy" too. This tree changed colors and Landry wanted the lights turned off when they ate their fancy lunch to watch the fancy tree. The tree was decorated with rings and tiaras.

The fancy lunch was strawberries, iced cookies, fancy shaped breads, cheese cubes, raspberries, pink and purple goldfish, grapes, white chocolate dipped pretzels, white M&M's, pink marshmallows, strawberry cremes and pink lemonade.

I made her cake and it was a 12 inch round one layer strawberry cake with a 10 inch round one layer strawberry cake stacked on top. It was iced with strawberry cream cheese icing and detailed with a picture of Fancy Nancy.

Each little girl was able to make a necklace with wooden beads like flowers, butterflies (a favorite of Nancy), ballerinas, etc. They also got to decorate pink sunglasses with jewels to make them fancy.

We gave each girl a pink boa when they arrived. What a fancy group of girls!

The candles were a little harder for her to blow out this year, maybe because there were 3 of them!

Landry gave each girl a small gift to open as she was opening her gifts. As each girl went home they got to take a Fancy Nancy book, a pair of earrings and a ring, the small tiara from the tree along with the boa, sunglasses and necklaces from earlier in the party. We had a wonderful time and we are so pleased that so many friends showed up to celebrate Landry's fancy 3rd birthday party!