Christmas

After a long break, I am finally trying to catch up.  I didn't realize how time consuming working on the campaign side was.  I also didn't realize how keeping the blog forced me to take pictures of the kids in an effort to capture our family moments.  So here are a few shots from around Christmas!

Ron and Becky made the drive from ABQ with Moses in tow. They stayed for almost a week and we loved every minute of it!  We sent to see the Christmas lights in Deerfield, celebrated my birthday with Thai food and a carrot cake made from my Nana's recipe by my dear husband.  We also had several trips to the park, a few long walks, and we discovered the joy of cinnamon ice cream with steel cut oats (thanks to Sweet Firefly).  We watched movies, ate, drank and enjoyed each other's company.

Liam decorating the Christmas tree while drinking mulled apple cider and watching Christmas movies.

Grandma and Grandpa reading a bedtime story to Liam.

Prior to candle light Christmas Eve services at our Church.  Ansley's dress was a gift from Aunt Jolyn when she was born and she was big enough to wear it to the service!

Home is where the heart is.

After our New Mexican Christmas Eve feast complete with tamales and spanish rice, Liam and Daddy prepared for Santa's arrival.

Carrots for the reindeers and cookies and milk for Santa.

Santa arrives!

Cookies, carrots and milk gone.  Santa forgot his Diet Coke with Lime and Kindle though.

Christmas stockings filled with loot.

"What of it? Don't talk to me until I have had my morning milk."

Bow and arrow from Santa.  Stephanie would be proud.

Vintage Julia Childs cookbook from Becky.  Love it!

Cuddling with Grandpa

Shooting instructions

Becky has this super crazy ability to guess what everyone is going to receive just by looking at and feeling a package.  Her predictions had a 90% success rate.

Santa brought Eric a book he has wanted ever since his time in the architecture program.

Ansley LOVED the Disney Princess Little People castle that Grandma and Grandpa gave her.

Mid-morning workout before we consumed yet more calories.

Ansley's turn!

We love our advent calendar which was a gift from Noni and Papa a few years back.  This was the first year Liam enjoyed putting the characters up.

And one of the best parts of Christmas morning?  The unexpected white Christmas!

Completed snowman. 

Warming up inside.

Time for Grandma and Grandpa to go.  Ansley tried to stow away, but somehow her presence was discovered.  What a great year for building memories!

Dear Ansley,

Dear Ansley,

You are such a sweet little girl and you bring so much joy to your Mommy and Daddy.  It is hard to believe that only a year ago we brought you home from the hospital on a cold December day.  A perfect Christmas present!  So tiny and content to be on the outside.  From the beginning you have been such a cuddler with such a calm temperament.

You adore your big brother, although you are definitely starting to hold your own.  You mostly sleep through the night and you have four teeth which you put to good use. You eat most anything that is put in front of you.  In fact, for many meals you eat more than your brother.  You are soooo close to walking, but you still find the most efficient way of travel remains crawling.  You absolutely light up when your Daddy comes in the room.

I wish so many things for you.  I pray for good health and wisdom.  I desire happiness and fulfillment in finding out God's special plan for your life.  I wish that I could protect you from this crazy world, which sometimes seems so senseless. But most of all I want to keep you safe and protected for as long as I can.  We want you to develop a special relationship with Jesus, which will help get you through life's ups and downs.  We pray that someday God send you a mate who will cherish you and who will help you to chase after God's will.  Your Daddy and I want to teach you perspective and compassion in a time where not much is to be had.  And we want to encourage and guide you in finding out who you will become.

We love you unconditionally.  We look forward to seeing you grow up.  We know that there will be many challenges, but we will be there for you, loving you and supporting you.  We thank God for the gift of having you in our lives, and we promise to be here for you whenever you need us.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Happy Birthday Ansley Claire!

In early December we had Ansley's first birthday party!  We had a sock monkey theme and I ordered these cute little cupcake toppers off of Etsy.  And then I promptly forgot to take a picture of said cupcakes and all our pink decorations.  Yay for scatterbrained mommies! I didn't realize how much I wanted a little pink in my life until I had a little girl.  We had several friends over and we were lucky to have my mom and dad and family friend, Kathy, in town for the special occasion.  The weather was beyond gorgeous, in the upper 70s.  Our friends, the Gragerts, brought over their toddler bounce house and the kids had a great time. 

It was a lovely day with great friends and family!

Grandpa Marty cuddling with Ansley.

The twins, baby Bear and Ansley

She absolutely LOVED the bouncing!

Hey Bear! I got mom's keys! Let's hit the road!

Liam consoling a bounce house accident with a big pink cupcake.

Sweet little smash cake.  Unlike Liam who wouldn't touch his cake, Ansley loved tearing into it.

Why is everyone looking at me?

Are you sure this is OK?

Excitement overload!  Liam also loved the new toys!

Delicious and beautiful feather tiara.

Enjoying the beautiful weather after nap time.

Thanksgiving

It's beginning to look a lot like....Thanksgiving?  Well it is here at the Pate Household, because I am updating the blog with outdated pictures!  Last year at this time, I was getting ready to pop, which meant no travel for the holidays.  Even though we had the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with great friends, we still felt a little hole in our hearts at not being with family.  I obviously have a big family, so having lots of cousins running around and aunts and uncles everywhere was commonplace growing up.  I still have such fond memories of that day, and it is important to me that Liam gets to have some of the same experiences as he grows up. 

I have been super busy with my new job and our evenings are often spent trying to catch up on all the things I used to do during the day when I stayed at home.  So it was great to have 5 days in a row of family time.  We climbed in the car and headed to Kansas early on Wednesday morning.  The car trip was....fine.  Although we stopped 4 times before we even hit the Texas-Oklahoma border.  Did I mention that we are only like 2.5 hours from the border?  Any way, we got to Kansas without much fanfare and the fun started.  Eric's parents were already there when we arrived so we had plenty of help getting settled in. 

I won't bore you with the details of the week, but it was lots of fun!  We had like 9 pies (for 10 people) and had an nontraditional but yummy Thanksgiving Day feast of green chile cheese burgers and baked sweet potatoes.  And of course, more pie than you can shake a stick at.  Grandma even made one of the apple pies with all three grandchildren.The day before Thanksgiving was incredibly beautiful and we had lots of time to play outside.  But soon a cold front set in and we were glad that we had taken advantage of the glorious weather. 

The kids all play together so well, and they all adore each other.  It was so much fun to see Ansley starting to join in on all the fun of playing with her cousins!  On Saturday morning we packed up and headed back to Dallas.  While it is always hard to leave family, there is something so nice about coming home.  We spent that weekend decorating in preparation for Christmas and Ansley's first birthday.  It was a great week filled with lots of laughs, wine and pie!

Making gingerbread houses

Liam was often reminded that he could not eat his house, but the evidence was all over his face.

Proudly showing off their decorating skills.

Another meeting of the Mutual Admiration Society.

Proud grandparents

Taking advantage of the beautiful weather.

Ryan and Jo are in the process of putting a swimming pool in their backyard, which meant BIG DIRT HILL!  What could be more fun for kids...and Uncle Eric, sitting in his dirt chair.

Soaking up the last rays of sun before heading inside for our Thanksgiving Day feast.

Holly supervising the making of Turkey place cards.

Eric watching his Pops in admiration.

Sam is always ready for his close up!

A walk to Bradley Fair before the cool weather set in.

Ansley admiring the ornaments in the big tree.

One happy Grandma!

Dodging duck and geese poop for a family photo op.