A little ice never hurt anyone

Unless you've been living under a rock, or without power for the last 4 days, you heard that Dallas was victim to an ice storm.  I have thoroughly enjoyed being contained to my house and was fortunate that my hubby ended up being off work with me for all but a few hours Saturday afternoon.  Although he did have to ride home in the cold and rain Thursday night.  Check out his bike!

I spent most of Friday doing crafty projects to get ready for our Bible study Christmas party.  I found a link on Pinterest to this party mix.  Fortunately I bought all the ingredients last weekend, otherwise my friends would not have gotten anything nearly as yummy as a gift.

There was lots of laundry and cleaning done on Saturday, and the crockpot got plenty of use over the weekend.  My good friend's baby shower was scheduled for Sunday, and we made it happen!  I wasn't supposed it host it originally but it ended up that I did, and we had a fabulous turnout!  We did the traditional belly measuring game, advice for the new mom, and bingo while she opened gifts.  We even had a dear friend who couldn't fly in for the shower Facetime so she could still be part of the fun!

After those festivities we had our annual Edge Group Christmas party.  It amazes me how every year we always have new people.  We've got a couple members still in utero, one who was just born to LEBean, and our friend Bagels became a part of our community in the spring.  Some old friends have moved back to the metroplex after being overseas for 3 years, and it honestly doesn't even feel like they ever left.  The highlight of the evening for me was the munchkin and her toddler friends pushing each other around in the doll stroller.

Oh and one of our friends bought a donkey as the community gift.

Today has been a quieter day.  We all slept in, the munchkin sleeping the longest, and we ran a couple errands.  The roads were fine by the afternoon, but I'm grateful for the bonus day off with my little family.  Just another 9 days of work until Christmas break, two of which I'll be spending at a conference, and we're also celebrating our anniversary (twice!) and my brother-in-law's birthday, and going to a Christmas party.  Busy December!

Getting closer and closer to 2!

Little L is now 21 months old and she is all toddler!  We're learning that we need to make everything into a game, otherwise we have a very stubborn and strong munchkin to contend with.  But overall she is good natured and affectionate, but very active and curious.  We wouldn't have her any other way.

Finally putting away the 12 month pants, but she can already wear 24 months and 2T shirts, if we roll up the sleeves.  She recently had her 2nd hair cut, just a trim of her bangs, to keep the hair out of her eyes.  She is a good eater, especially if it involves fruit, cheese, or pasta.  She also is loving peanut butter and yogurt right now and her favorite treat is ice cream. (She calls it ice!)

It's tougher to get outside since it gets dark earlier but Scott still takes her to the playground on his days off and I try to take her on the weekends at least once.  She loves her gymnastics class and practices at home by climbing on everything and jumping in her crib.  We read lots of books, currently Todd Parr, Eric Carle, and Spot are her favorite, and she likes to push her stroller (sometimes empty) around the house.  We let her watch a little tv, the show Taratabong everyday.

Her talking is really taking off.  She's great with her animal noises and can recognize a couple colors too. She will say "bless you", "thank you" and "excuse me" at the right time and loves saying "Hi!" to people when we're out running errands.  She has a name for herself, it comes out sounding like "Sha sha".  She's starting talking to Grandpa and Grandma on the phone and with Skype, which always makes their day.

We're looking forward to her second Christmas in a couple weeks!