Dallas Fun

After our Christmas in Dallas, Pearce and I stayed for a few extra days.  Pearce and Charlotte, and Nathan had SOOOOO much fun together!  Ashley and I said we hardly ever hear Pearce or Nathan belly laugh the way they do when they are together.  And it is constant....so funny!  Nathan is so good with Pearce.  Pearce only wanted Nay Nay to rock him when it was time for bed, only wanted Nay Nay to brush his teeth, only wanted Nay Nay to change his diaper.....thankfully for Nathan, I said no to that :)  For lunch one day, we went to Benihana because Nathan and Charlotte had never been to a hibachi place before.  They loved it!  Pearce even had fun eating with the kid-rigged chopsticks.  Nathan and Charlotte got a karaoke machine for Christmas and Pearce loved singing Let It Go on it.  I didn't realized how much he sang it or listened to it because now he pretty much knows the whole thing!  For New Year's Eve, Mama and Papa kept the kids and Ashley, Wayne, and I went out to eat and then to see American Sniper.  We had so much fun and the kids had fun too!  Apparently Mama and Papa decided to have their own New Year's Eve party while we were gone.  I got the funniest video of Papa fixing the kids' each a plate of pizza, chips, and M&M's.  They thought it was the best dinner in the world!  We also went to see Grandma and Pearce was so sweet to her, as always.  She was in the middle of lunch when we got there, but Pearce wanted to go to Grandma's room first to see if she had chocolate in her drawer....she always has Hershey kisses in there and Pearce remembered!  Mama took him to her room and then came back with a cup full of chocolate kisses.  He sat next to Grandma and ate his chocolate while she ate her lunch :)  One day Papa took Pearce to Cabela's which is a big outdoor/fishing store.  Papa said Pearce loved looking at all the big animals that are on display.  He also had fun "riding" the big tractors and boats.  He still talks about going to "Bela's."  Pearce loved baking cookies with Mama.  She always bakes homemade cookies, so Pearce got to actually sift flour...and lick the beater.  Those cookies were so good!  We really just all had such a fun time together.  Oh!  I almost forgot about this.  Pearce would come tell us that he "had to do some work" and then go into Papa's office and start writing on his notepad.  We spent half of our time with Ashley and then the other half with mom and dad.  While we were at mom and dad's, mom and I saw two good movies...Foxcatcher and Big Eyes.  I LOVE going to the movies with mom!!  While we were at the movies, Papa would take Pearce on golf cart rides and to McDonald's...I think Pearce enjoyed us going to the movies, too :)  Now it's back to reality in Austin.  Can't wait to see everyone for Pearce's birthday in just a few weeks!!!

Christmas 2014

We had such a nice Christmas this year!  This was our first Christmas with Pearce that we spent with just the three of us.  It was so fun deciding how we wanted our Christmas to go and what traditions we wanted to start.  The first thing I couldn't wait to do was to bake Christmas cookies with Pearce.  I let Pearce cut out the shapes and then after they were baked, the fun began :)  I just let Pearce ice them and sprinkle them however he wanted.  He actually wasn't too messy, but by the time we finished decorating the cookies, we definitely had fewer than what we started out with!  Right before bed, we put out the reindeer food that Pearce had made at school and set out Santa's cookies and milk.  It was pretty easy to put Pearce to bed.  After he was in bed, Chris and I got busy getting everything set up.  Pearce will always get 3 main gifts from Santa plus his stocking and a few other small things.  This year, he asked for a "Kenai Stick" which is basically a walking stick from a movie he likes, a basketball goal, and a "puter."  Santa got all of those things for Pearce, but Chris and I knew the walking stick was going to be the big hit....Pearce LOVES all sticks and this was a really good one :).  I had collected the stocking stuffers and the small gifts over the past couple months, so we got all of that out and decided what would go in his stocking and what would go in Santa's toy bag.  Finally, we got everything just how we wanted and we just could not wait until morning!  We woke Pearce up around 8:30 and when he came out of his room, he ran straight to the walking stick!  Knew it!  He then dumped out the Santa bag and loved his Buzz Lightyear umbrella and Superman figure.  He then dumped out his stocking and was sooo excited about the giant candy cane and a little toy camera.  We played basketball for a few minutes and then he played with all of his other toys and ate the candy from his stocking.  I just thought it was hilarious what toys he really liked....LOVED the walking stick, the 3.00 plastic camera, and the 8.00 umbrella!!  So glad we did not go overboard with expensive toys!!  While Pearce played, Chris cooked breakfast and then we all ate together.  Then I suggested to Pearce we go on a walking trail with his stick to look for bears....Pearce couldn't get his shoes on fast enough!!  After we played outside for a while, we came back and put Pearce down for his nap.  Chris and I decided our other tradition was going to be Kobe Steakhouse for Christmas dinner.  When I was pregnant with Pearce, we spent that Christmas just the two of us because I couldn't travel and we went there for our Christmas dinner and just loved it!  We had to wait over 2 hours for a table because they don't take dinner reservations, but Pearce was sooooo good!  He played with his Superman guy and played on my phone some and got to drink a Sprite.  Finally, we were able to sit down.  We had a great table with two other families.  Pearce loved watching our chef cook on the table!  I could not believe how much he ate.....he ate almost all of his bowl of fried rice, a ton of chicken, all of his broccoli and our broccoli from our veggies, and the whole time, he sat so nicely!  He definitely deserved a bowl of ice cream for dessert.  Our dinner was soooo good!!  We came home and put Pearce to bed and just talked about how nice our Christmas was.  It was a simple, laid back Christmas with not a lot of fuss, and it was perfect!  

 

 

 

 
On the 26th, we celebrated Daddy's birthday!  Pearce woke Daddy up with our cards and our present and then Pearce sang a nice version of Happy Birthday :)  Chris got to spend the rest of his birthday with friends, which was nice for him, so Pearce and I loaded up the car and headed up to Dallas a day early.  Chris met us on the 27th and Pearce had yet another Christmas celebration with his Dallas family and we got to watch everyone open their gifts from us.  Pearce was the elf who passed out the gifts :)  Pearce got a fun new game from Nathan and Charlotte and a scooter from Mama and Papa!  He loved both!  He has already played the game several times and he is getting better and better on that scooter...especially having Nay Nay to keep up with!