Christmas Day

We spent Christmas day at Freddy's parent's house.

Carly didn't get any presents.

Ha! Yeah, right. She made out like a bandit AGAIN. Third time in less than 24 hours.

Nana made Carly an adorable Mickey Mouse blanket (and also a matching pillow and a matching mini blanket for her baby doll). That blanket is her new favorite. She has to have it every night when she goes to sleep. It's a super-thick fleece blanket, so I don't know what she is going to do in a few months when the Texas summer heat hits!

Christmas with the Clark men ALWAYS includes new tools.

And this Christmas I got a special Christmas surprise.

We bought bedroom furniture for Carly's big girl room from one of Fred and Lynn's neighbors.

It was raw furniture and they painted ALL OF IT as a surprise to me. I was grateful because I wasn't sure when Freddy and I would ever get to it.

The best feature of this furniture? The under-bed storage. It is perfect for creating extra space in her small room. Now to paint the walls in her bedroom...

Carly loved all of her Christmas gifts. She was eager to get in there and test them all out.
She had quite the set up, didn't she?

Christmas is also Papa's birthday.

So after we all fill up on a super delicious Christmas Day lunch, we also get birthday cake!

This Christmas was another special one for the Clarks.

We are blessed to have such wonderful friends and family who make every day of the year so special for us.

Christmas Morning

We spent Christmas morning with our Family of 3.

Santa came. Oh, boy did Santa come. Carly made out like a bandit and, as I mentioned before, she was really in to the opening of the presents this year.

I am not the best blogger, but I think that I do an adequate job of chronicling our little life. What I am horrible at is remembering to bust out the camcorder. But we didn't forget this Christmas morning!

Carly's big gift this year was her Leap Pad. It's a learning tablet for kids.

Leap Frog makes it and I LOVE Leap Frog products.

She doesn't quite understand the device, but she enjoys playing with it.

She has, however, already managed to change her username from "Carly" to "yig".

Freddy's big Gift was a very cool looking golf bag with all of the things he wanted a golf bag to have - lots of compartments, a "kickstand" as I call it and a unique color that will make his bag easily-recognizable. I did good.

Carly and I had to show off our 2011 Christmas pajamas, of course!

I had my traditional cup of coffee in my Santa coffee mug and we were off to Nana and Papa's house!

I am so blessed to have a sweet family to share my holidays with. I would tell you that I don't need another Christmas present as long as I live as long as I have my sweet family, but I won't. Because my husband would take me up on that offer.

Merry Christmas morning from the Clarks!

Christmas Eve

Over the past few years, Freddy and I have established a holiday routine that works well for us.

We spend Christmas Eve with my family, Christmas morning with our family of three and Christmas Day with his family.

This year, my parents were in Minnesota spending time with my Grandpa and helping my Uncle Bob get my Grandpa settled in to a long-term nursing facility.

So...We hosted my siblings at our house.

Charlie spent several hours updating my ipod for me. It was having issues. And why wouldn't it be? I don't think that it has been updated since I got it 3 or 4 years ago. Oops! Thanks, Charlie.



Ch



Carly was really in to the present-opening this year. It's amazing what a difference a year makes! She loved opening presents - and not just hers. She loved to help everyone else open their presents, too.

She helped Lola try out her new dog bed (which Lola is CRAZY about).

Carly even played Santa, handing out presents to everyone - even the heavy ones.

Carly played with her new toys.

And modeled her (upside down) new shades.

But most importantly, she got to spend some quality holiday time with her family.



Aunt Cathy, Uncle Charlie and Carly




The Brougham Kids.



Our Little Family of 3.



The girls.



It was a very Merry Christmas Eve!

Friend-Filled Break

I loved having two weeks off over Christmas. It meant that I got to spend every day with Carly. And we got to spend lots of time with friends.

We went over to Landri and Bailey's house.
The girls played and I got some much needed catch-up time with their mommy and one of my besties, Kristi.

Our new friends Erin and Laine invited us over to their house for a Kid Craft Day. 

Carly got to make reindeer food.

Davis (and her mommy, Cheryl) were there, too!

Carly LOVED decorating her waffle cone tree.
She ate way more mini marshmallows than she decorated with.

Laine - she always busts me when I try to take her picture



Carly also went to Alexis and Brett's house where she and Alexis modeled their high heels



And this isn't even all that we did over the break. Can you see why I didn't keep up with the blog? It was a busy, fun, busy, fun-filled and BUSY break. And I loved every minute of it.

Deck the Halls

This (past) year, we didn't pull out all of our Christmas decorations, but that's okay because Carly helped decorate and that made it much sweeter.



She decorated her very own pink Christmas tree.



Every year I buy (at least) one special ornament for Carly.

09 ornament - rattle for baby's first Christmas



'10 - Pig ornament because she was in a phase where she LOVED pigs

'11 - What else? A Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ornament!

Putting up Christmas decorations with a toddler may take longer and it may not produce the perfection that you are used to, but it certainly is Merrier!

Those of you who know me will be SHOCKED by this next decoration.

Not a big "character" person, Carly has only one shirt with Minnie Mouse on it.

And I've never been a pro-holiday-inflatables. I've never been ant--holiday-inflatables either.

Then I found this one for $20. I knew that Carly would love it, so I bought it.

It was raining the night that I brought it home, so we blew it up in the house. You should have seen her face.

She talked about that Mickey and Minnie for WEEKS. As we pulled in to the neighborhood, she would tell me either that "Mickey is sleeping" (inflated) or "Mickey is up" (deflated).

She was beyond excited. Best $20 I ever spent.

Friday Flashback

Remember how tiny Carly used to look in her crib?

I have to look back at old pictures in order to remember.

Well, look at her (and all of her stuff) now...

*sniff

Fall Photos and Feedback

Thanks to my wonderful and talented friend Amanda with Wanted Photography we got some GREAT family pictures taken this last fall. Sorry for not sharing them earlier.

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Now, if you notice, I have numbered three of the photos. I want to turn one of them into a 16x20 canvas print (I got a GREAT deal on Groupon!), but I can't decide which one, so PLEASE feel free to leave a comment with your favorite.

And if you ever need a photographer, I highly recommend Amanda. She shot Carly's 2 year old pictures and we loved them. And the fact that she got so many great pictures of Carly with her eyes OPEN and not "cheesing" is a miracle in itself. She was so great with Carly!