A white Christmas in Texas???

Yes, those are bare foot footprints, remember - she is part island girl!

Who would have thunk it? Christmas eve it started snowing and Christmas morning we woke up and it was still on the ground -Crazy! but if I had to choose 2 days out of the whole year to have snow, those 2 would have been my choice too.

Crazy Tongan in his rolled up pants and slippahs

One excited girl

LaRee informed us that Santa was bringing her a camera, 2 days before Christmas when the Santa at the Gaylord asked her what she wanted, she told him a baby doll!??!
sad but true, her story never changed sooo ta dah - thank you Santa for my baby doll.

Christmas Tradition

Feels like we as a family have gotten away from some of our traditions and living in Texas is a good reason to start a few new traditions. We try to make a gingerbread house each year and this was our final product for 09'

This was the year, LaRee finally got her picture taken with Santa Clause. What a treat! He was so good with her, he chatted with her about all of the similarities there outfits held.

The Gaylord Hotel in Grapevine has a Texas size celebration for Christmas.

Everything is HUGE sprinkled with a lot a Texas charm.

A longhorn cow

Go Cowboys!

A nine story oil derrick w/lights
A Shop till you drop longhorn

amount of ingredients used on the cabin sized gingerbread house

Gingerbread Cowboy Folk n their dog

I can't win for loosen, either LaRees not looken of Grandpas not looken

Thank you Byerly Family for sharing a lil' bit of Texas tradition with us.

Finallly....

Potty training started in December. I wanted the following: 1)LaRee to be potty trained before she turned 3 (end of January) 2) since our spending was sky high due to Christmas being around the corner I really liked that thought of all that diaper money going towards our Christmas present budget and 3) oh how happy the thought made me of a diaper free Christmas and New Years!

So, the adventure started. I asked on Facebook for any and all advice, comments or suggestions and I got them, lots of them and by the end I had used every single one of them.

1) Let her pick out big girl panties 2) Sticker chart 3) Candy reward 4) Money reward 5) Be her biggest cheerleader 6) Let her know that every time she 1 or 2 in the potty she got something that she really wanted/couldn't live without and that was going across the street to get a Popsicle and play at Christi's house (thank you Christi's mom and Dr. Phil) 7) Take pictures of her on the toilet so she gets used to the idea of seeing herself on it and being a member of the "toilet using" society 8) Have a basket of goodies (books, crayons, games) in the bathroom to pass the time 9) when she does have an accident show her by the look on your face that you are let down and disgusted (this one was the easiest one for me to do) and my very own idea 10) making her drink and eat while on the toilet, it's that whole load and unload theory. We tried all of the above and some backfired, some worked wonders and others held great entertainment value. Some days we spent more time in the bathroom then any other room in the house. I moved a chair in for me, a stand for all snacks and drinks, toilet paper was moved off of the wall (to distracting) and after many days and many tries...


we got a double thumbs up for her first poo poo in the potty. Look at that face - total confidence and excitement in a job well done. I wish I had the video camera going but to verbally recap she gave me a puzzled look, then a pushing look (with eyebrows down) followed by and enthusiastic, "momma, I'm doing it, I'm doing it"!!!! (with eyebrows up). I truly felt like I had conquered my own personal Goliath. Really - such a proud momma am I!