Happy New Year
So again, I'm over a month behind. I'll bring you up to speed quickly. Thanksgiving we went to Emory to my mom's family's house. It was great. It was our first real family car trip...4 hour drive. Tatum threw up 2x on the way but we managed and actually had a good time. Here are a couple of pictures from the big day...
Our friends, David and Shelly, are expecting their 2nd...actually, they've already had baby Weston now...but at the end of her pregnancy they moved in to a new house and I decided to take their 3 year old, Reese, off their hands so they could get some work done. Reese and Tatum are big buds so we brought PTerry's over to the house and had a princess party. It was a blast. The girls got dressed up, helped me fix my hair and drove the "tacktor" around the backyard. I loved watching the 2 of them together and am excited for another play-date.
Giving Daddy an up-do. Have you ever had one of these things JAMMED in your skull? That HURT.
2 little princesses.
A glimpse of what's to come in about 13 years??
A fairy's fit...
We made cookies and put the first ornament on the Christmas tree.... Anne put four ornaments on but was there for moral support. Another big "thanks" to our mothers for helping with the lights and ornaments again this year. I don't know where we'd be without you. Yes I do...I'd be doing it myself...THANK YOU AGAIN!
All kinds of cute Christmas outfits for the girls. This is getting to be expensive and Christmas isn't even here yet. I don't remember needing 8 outfits for the Christmas season. Welcome to girls, right? i know...just wait. i'm scared.
Cole and Tara's daughter, Cannan, had her big 1st Birthday. She's as cute as a mouse and is the sweetest little thing. She's working on her walking and it won't be long...
We had a great "Dads and Daughters" night out to the Zilker Christmas Tree. A big thanks to my brother-in-law J. for coming up with the idea. We had dinner at Chewy's, walked to the trail, spun under the tree until we remembered why that's not as much fun as it sounds and then walked thr trail of lights. The trail got a lot of flack this year for how much they cut back. I actually thought it was a lot better as it was more manageable, neater landscape rather than just a flat pasture and they had fun performances for the kids to watch at the stage. Anyway...it was a really fun night.
Pippy and Annie took the girls to the Children's Museum to do their annual Gingerbread houses. I went along to capture the moment. It was so cute to see them work. Our houses were the best BY FAR...
Christmas came and we had a blast. I was more excited than the kids...I did my best to get them all riled up...we talked about Santa for 2 weeks straight. We wrote a letter to him, we baked cookies and milk and left them out for him. We politely asked him to not let the reindeer poop on the roof as that would be messy but encouraged them to drink from the pool if they needed some water. Tatum became increasingly concerned about them pooping on the roof...I probably shouldn't have pointed out that possibility to her.
Christmas night I couldn't sleep. I used to not sleep because I was so excited to open my presents. This time, I was so excited to see the girls reaction. We came down at 9:00 and turned the corner, video camera in hand...and...wait for it...wait for it...nothing. no reaction. She picked up some vest she got the day before that was at the bottom of the stairs and pranced around with it for about 2 minutes before we could get it away from her and focused on what was under the tree. It was a total let down. I was expecting screaming, giggles, hugs and laughs...I got nada. NEXT YEAR...it's going to be off the charts. We're going to start the Santa education/reminder process a LOT sooner and I'm not accepting anything short of a FREAK OUT when they walk down stairs. The girls hit the jackpot... Santa brought them a tricycle for Tins, a bouncy tricycle thingy for Tatum. Grandpa' Papa Clause brought a convertible red mustang which was awesome. Grandma' Nettie Clause brought the hands down favorite...the vanity mirror...complete with every type of make-up a girl could ever want. All afternoon Tatum and her cousin, Natalie, played in front of that thing. Tatum did her eyebrows with fingernail polish...an awesome combination I'd never thought of before. She put on more blush than any hooker I've ever seen (not that I've seen a lot...). Her outfits were piled on top of each other including princess crowns, gloves, glasses, parasol, high heels....you name it. It was awesome. Even Tinsley picked up on it and went over and grabbed a lip stick and started checking herself out in the mirror. it was priceless. Then came the worst moment of my life...Tatum put on a wedding dress and veil and did her make up sitting on the stool. I did get some priceless pictures of that moment that will come in handy down the road. But let's hope it's a LONG way down the road...like when she's 45 or something and maybe I'm dead. I don't know how Dad's can give away their daughters. I understand now why my father-in-law thinks I'm an asshole. Nobody is good enough for your girls. Lump. Swallow. Breath deep.... I'm back now. All in all Christmas was a lot of fun. We bought 8x more crap than we needed. I will remind myself of that next year but you all know it won't stop me from doing it again. Speaking of...do you watch the show Hoarders? Wow... I think if our house weren't so big we'd be candidates for that show. Luckily we can just string it from one end to the other and it doesn't look so bad. One day that's going to catch up with us too.
I love the lips
Check out the hat and scarf for the top down in winter time.
Tinsley on "the hopper"
Uncle J. with out little Monkey, Tinsley
Look at the concentration...
No. No. No.
Some of the best moment's life has to offer...
Tinsley wanted to play dress up too
New Years Eve was a different twist this year. With the economy being as fun as it has been and my income taking the plunge that it did, we decided to hold off form tossing $10k at a party to remind ourselves we have friends. We had a quiet night at home...I cooked beef wellington (first time ever and it was awesome if I do say so myself), we watched Hang Over and we ran to a friend's new bar literally for 30 mins to hear the stroke of midnight and came home to be asleep by 1:00am. it was the most sober, laid back and easy NYE we've ever had. I missed our party and we hope to bring it back next year and make up for lost time...we'll have to double up on the fireworks or something.
The polar pool plunge was a blast. The pool was something in the mid 40's...damn cold. We had a small group jump in to prove their manhood. I did a fun video invite...here's the link to it if you want to see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjWeHi2-3pE
Well...happy new year to all of you. As I've been saying...we survived '09 and hope to thrive in 2010. 2009 was a testing year for us in so many ways. We learned a lot both personally and financially and learned what's really important to us. So we're going to spend less time together and more time working. KIDDING. Relax. We learned that we enjoy time at home more than traveling, time in our backyard more than time at bars. Time with our kids is more fun than time with friends (no offense intended...we still love you all). When things come back around we're going to be more careful, more appreciative and be more prepared. But even if it all goes away...I've got my wonderful bride and 2 beautiful girls....that's what's important.
Happy New Year. A few pics we had done before the holidays...
