celebrations & surprises

Mama C. showed up at our house on her birthday! We were so excited to be able to celebrate with her...

Emma helped me bake a pumpkin cheesecake and then she decorated the top with her beloved little deer.

It was a simple night, but a fun one too.

They ended the night watching, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer on tv. Oh my goodness does Emma love reindeer!

Little did I know that all along there was a surprise weekend planned for me. My sweet hubby booked a bed & breakfast for the weekend to celebrate both of our December birthdays. Let me start by saying that this was Rob's very first planned getaway. ever. (and we've been married over 8 years!) I always do the planning, so to be quite honest, I completely blown away, but so very excited too! The plan was to escape to the hill country, stay here, and spend the weekend together, so that's what we did.

We made to drive, which I will have to say was so nice. It was q.u.i.e.t. in the car, which if you have little ones, you know is just plain marvelous. We checked into our room, and headed back into town for some dinner.

We ended up at a cozy little steakhouse...

And enjoyed a glass of wine by the fire.

Rob picked a bottle from one of the local wineries in town...

one that we planned to tour the next day...

And we saved the cork for our collection :)

After dinner, we did some walking around the little town. It was almost like going back in time...

The Christmas decorations were so neat, although we do have a thing for German pyramids in our house. This was was GIANT!

And the lights were just beautiful.

The next morning, I thoroughly enjoyed my quiet cup of coffee with my sweet hubby and then we headed back into town, which was quite festive to say the lease. Fredericksburg definitely has the Christmas spirit thing down.

We did some stress-free shopping...

And we found so many classic toys, which I love. Why don't they make things like that anymore? We even picked the littles up a few Christmas surprises.

Lunch was a treat. I had wonderful company. And it didn't involve stuffing my face just as fast as humanly possible.

Am I the only one with little ones that does that?

After lunch, we hit the vineyards and wineries...

The vines were already dormant for the season, but still beautiful.

It's hard to believe you are in Texas when you're here.

This was our first tour and tasting. My camera took a nap for the rest of the tastings :)

A local told us about the best burger in Texas, so for dinner we just had to try it out. They were literally on the cover of Texas Monthly, so we figured it had to be good.

Okay, don't kid yourself, those weren't our burgers. They were HUGE...okay, maybe bigger than HUGE, so we split one and an order of fries/onion rings, and still needed to be rolled out of that little joint.

The weekend flew by, and before I knew it, it was Sunday morning and already time to check out. I felt like we had just arrived. But, it was time to go, so we headed home. I was so thankful for the time with my hubby, thankful for him thinking of me, and so thankful for my sweet mom for keeping our two little angels at home.

A sleeping baby is just pure delicious...

A few days later, it was Rob's real birthday, so we made him a cake to celebrate. You saw Carson sleeping in that photo? Well, that was his nap for the day. It lasted 15 minutes in the car. I didn't intend for him to fall asleep, but he did, so by the time it was time to cut the cake, our little guy was already in bed. So with just the three of us...

we lit candles...

sang...

and had cake.

Then we did a repeat for Miss Emma...

Happy Birthday to my super sweet hubby and my extra special Mom! We all love you both!

Twenty-one

months, that is. Could you slow down a bit? Geez. Emma grew fast, but it just seems like you're fast times ten. Is that how it works after the first one? Here's the latest on you...

You l.o.v.e. to have the windows rolled down...

See, I told you. You think it's the best thing ever. So, if you get a little cranky in the car, I bet you can guess what I do. It works wonders...you instantly giggle.

You learned the word "cookie." And man can you request one. Once you got this cookie on Halloween night, you were golden, as I like to say.

This is one of my favorite photos of you...your blues eyes, eyelashes, and curly hair just can't be beat. And, for the record, I thought you were the cutest little crab ever.


You really get your feelings hurt when you get into trouble, which I'll admit is a little bit amazing. We have one family member whom "trouble" didn't seem to phase.

But, you do have the saddest little cry, and you seem to be so sorry....always pointing to what you did wrong and saying, "no, no, no."

You ask to walk now when we get out of the car. Before, I just carried you. So, now we are working on holding hands in the parking lot. Why oh why is this so difficult for little ones to understand?

You were diagnosed with pneumonia about a week after Halloween, so that happy face turned sad very quickly. It was a sad day to say the least...chest x-ray, a horrid antibiotic shot that was as thick as honey, and another round of oral antibiotics to go with it.

Your cough was the. worst. i. have. ever. heard. And to be honest, I was just worried sick. You didn't eat for almost two weeks, so you're definitely on the skinny side now.

I'm not a fan of skinny babies, so we're going to work on that :) I really hoping that you start feeling better soon. It's been a long two weeks for the both of us.

Pneumonia aside, you really do just seem a bit bigger to me now...walking to trick or treat, walking in the parking lot, going up and down the stairs...so sad. I guess you're growing up.

Here's to hopes and prayers for a well Baby Carson real soon.

We love ya little guy.

::Weekend Recap:: On the Up & Up and North Pole Breakfast

I'm happy to report that the Douglas House is finally on the up & up. You have no idea how good a stomach bug & pneumonia free house feels. The past several weekends we spent sick, so with all of us being well for this one, I decided it was time to celebrate...

There is nothing that makes this little girl any happier than decorating her tree.

So, I know it's early, but a little joy a little early certainly won't hurt.

It was a family affair.

When the kiddos woke up on Saturday morning, they found this...

The elf was back! If you look really close, you can see that he dropped marshmallows along the way.

I wish I could take credit for this super fun idea, but I can't. I totally copied my "blogger friend" here. It seemed too fun not to copy, don't ya think?

We've done the "elf" thing for several years now, but we didn't have the book, so I broke down and headed to Hallmark to buy it. I decided if we were going to do this tradition, we needed the book and all.

Our elf wrote Miss Emma a letter...

And wrote Carson one too...

And to make it even happier, he brought breakfast!

Snow covered donuts and floating glacier hot cocoa...

Emma loves hot cocoa!

Our elf sent each of the littles a pair of socks too. You know it's awfully cold at the North Pole. Since you can't touch the magic elf, he sent along an elf for each of the kiddos to play with. Emma got a little girl elf, and Carson got a little boy elf....elfmates :)

We had a happy morning...

Carson was happy too! Thank goodness he's a well baby.

It was a whole lotta sugar for breakfast!

More marshmallows!

Since he's feeling better, he's become quite the family clown. It's so nice to have a baby that's laughing, playing, and asking to "eat, eat."

After breakfast, they put on their North Pole socks, gathered up their elves, and we headed out to find the geese.

They land by the 100's in the fields around here. I guess it's a migration pit stop? Not really sure, but it's fun to watch.

Later that day Emma had a birthday party at an inflatable zone. It was so fun! I even joined in...which was quite the workout.

We got the rest of our Christmas stuff out too. So, we just have the outside and the tree left. Just. geez.

Oh well....we managed to shampoo our carpets too, which is the best. feeling. ever. I love clean floors.

I was so thankful for my children being well this weekend. Weekends can be so fun when your hubby & kiddos aren't sick.

Cheers to Thanksgiving!