Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we spent the morning going to a Half Price Books on Westheimer and in Rice Village searching for Daddy's books for his classes. We luckily found 3 of them. We then went to a great restaurant, J. Alexanders, then headed home for the rest of the afternoon. That evening we got dressed up and headed out in the pouring rain to go to the 7:00 Children's Christmas Mass at my mom's church. Addison did wonderful in church!! When we got home, Addy put on her Santa PJs and set up Santa's cookie plate and milk. She set out her letter to Santa and also, with the help of Pappa, threw out her reindeer food. She was so excited and did really well going to right to sleep! I wonder what Santa brought her? Check back with us to see Christmas Day!

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Santa Land

In the next couple of days, I hope to blog about all of our fun events that took place in the past week! I don't want to do it all in one day and bombard you! So keep checking back for new and fun pics!

The Sunday before we went to Houston, we decided to head over to Santa Land in Mackenzie Park. This is a free event that Lubbock Parks and Recreation put on every year, each night until the day before Christmas Eve. It includes a bunch of hand made animated elves and animals, Disney Characters, a huge Christmas tree, loud Christmas music, bonfires, and a Santa and Mrs. Claus for pictures. We went for the first time last year and Addison LOVED it! We decided it had to be a must for the years to come. Nothing really changes in the decorations, but it sure made Addison just as happy as it did last year. It was even more fun, because she was much more lively! We sat in front of the stage for at least 20 minutes letting her dance and watch the people, that was a blast in itself!

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Vocal Ensemble

Since Addison was a year, she has been involved in Joyful Noise Music Studio doing Kindermusik. It is a wonderful program that allows children to explore with music, build on their developmental skills, and to have some bonding time with mommy/daddy. She is in the fall 2 year old program, and has really enjoyed it. She has even become a little bit of a teacher's pet to Mrs. Gayle. Mrs. Gayle a month or 2 ago, asked us if we would interested in placing Addison in the Vocal Ensemble class for the 3-5 year olds. Even though she was younger, Addison was showing the ability to sing with the group, match her pitch with the teacher, and find the beat. We were very eager and quickly added her to the ensemble group. She runs in the room ready to sing and be with Mrs. Randa. We don't know exactly what she does in there since, we can't go in and watch her. This Saturday though, the group of 3-5 year olds from multiple classes and a few older girls joined up to do 2 recitals at the "fancy" retirement centers in Lubbock: Raider Ranch and Carillon. Addison was very nervous for me to leave her and I had to bribe her with a cookie at Sugarbakers after she sang, and after that she was good to go. The second performance was a little more lack luster, because she was quite tired. In the end, we were soooo proud of this girl! She was so brave and she did a wonderful job, especially for being probably the youngest gal in the crowd!

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Elf Yourself

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Miracle on 34th parade

On Saturday night, we decided to head over to 34th street for the Christmas parade. It started at 6, so thought it would be fun for us to pack a lunch and sit in our chairs outside and wait for the parade to start. Well, once we got outside we quickly realized how incredibly cold it was going to be that night and chose to have our pb & j, crackers, string cheese, and carrots/ranch picnic in the car. It was quite interesting, especially since it was Thomas' car and he did not want anything to get dirty.

Once the parade was about to start, we went ahead and began to battle the cold. Luckily we have the cutest hat for Addison to wear and the newspaper lady also thought it was super cute. She took a picture of us and we will be in the Friday paper in the GO section. Here is the site: http://spotted.lubbockonline.com/photos/index.php?id=3299553

The parade was not what I expected, pretty low rent parade, but it wasn't for us, it was for Addison. She absolutely loved being able to wave at every person walking or riding by and saying "Merry Christmas" to them. She didn't need extravagent floats or decorations for the parade, just the Christmas spirit that she felt and the people in the parade reciprocating that to her! I love it! In the end we saw Santa and she was happy and content to end the parade, go home, and snuggle up in her warm bed!

Here is Addy with her peanut buttery mouth! Mmmm...she loves peanut butter

Don't we look excited? You should see how we looked by the end of it, when we were freezing!!

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

We went to see Santa on Saturday and it was a great experience. If you remember last year there was screaming and crying and Addison was not thrilled at all to Santa. Addison was so happy to see him, a little shy, but very happy to see the jolly old man. This Santa was so great! Very sweet and friendly. We will be going back to visit him again. Addison told Santa that she wanted a Cowgirl Jesse (Toy Story) for Christmas. Let's hope that he makes her wish come true!!;-)

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Cutest Builder In Town

On the first Saturday of every month, Home Depot has a free building workshop for kids. We took my class there a couple weeks ago for a field trip and discovered how great of an activity this would be for Addison. We had a great time and she was able to build a picture frame. She was really quite good at using the hammer and even hammered Daddy's finger once! LOL! She really enjoyed it and so did we. I think this is going to be on our "TO DO" list for the next upcoming months! Is she not the cutest in those safety goggles?!!

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Carol of Lights

We went on Friday to our annual Texas Tech Carol of Lights. We were not able to go last year, because of the cold and the fact that Addison was quite sick, so we were determined to continue our family tradition again this year. The Carol of Lights is a very special occasion for Thomas and I and we are so happy to have added Addison into the mix. I think Raider Red and getting a candy cane from Santa were the highlights of her night!

Having fun on Daddy's shoulders.

Even though it was really not that cold, Addy was determined to wear her winter attire: monkey hat and mittens. After a couple of minutes she was ready to take them off, I am sure it got a little toasty for her!

Resting on Daddy's head while we listen to the carols.

The three of us at the Carol of Lights.

Isn't she so cute!!?

Raider Red and the Reynolds

The Masked Rider

Much Love,
The Reynolds