GG Meldrum

While we were in Utah, Mike's grandma was visiting at Janice's house so we made our way over to see Grandma and have her meet Hadley for the first time.  Too bad she was sleeping when we eventually pulled out the camera.  We sure do love Grandma!

Freshman Reunion!

While in Utah, I was able to catch up these cute girls over some yummy pizza.  It has been a long time since I have seen most of them since I am the one who lives the furthest away, but I was able to catch up with them before some of them went home for Christmas.  It is amazing how you can not see someone for so long, and chat the night away like you have never been apart.  We lived together almost 9 years ago (Ahh I am getting old!), but we still can chat the night away.  We missed Courtney who had to go to a Work Party if she wanted her bonus, so we totally understood. Yea for Friends!

Christmas Day

We started off Christmas morning with lots of smiles.  A couple of days before Christmas, all the girls went to the mall and we stopped at the Disney store to pick up a few things for Brooke's birthday.  Allie latched onto a Daisy Duck and did not want to leave without it.  After some talking with her about it, we convinced her that we just needed to ask Santa for it.  She had already seen Santa work his magic on her bike, so she willingly left the store but as soon as we started to go out to our car, she started to get very worried because she NEEDED to go talk to Santa right away.  She did not want to miss him and not get Daisy.  We were able to convince her that writing a letter to Santa also works, which we promptly did as soon as we got home.

Needless to say, she loved her Daisy and Hadley also got a little Minnie from Santa.

 Christmas Sunday pictures - Allie was determined to wear a purple bow just like Daisy, so grandma pulled out her purple ribbon just for her.  Not very Christmasey, but this 2 year old was happy.

 After church, every member of the Shaw clan got together and opened our gifts together and had an awesome Christmas dinner.  It was so much fun to have everyone together... and play with their toys!

 Grandpa read bedtime stories every night, with Curious George as a popular favorite.

 It was so cute to see all of the cousins interactions.  Allie connected with Sophie, which Sophie loved because she is usually the little sister, not the cool, older cousin.  I hope their cute cousin interactions continue throughout the years.

They also loved singing and playing the jingle bells while Grandma played on the piano.  It was such a fun Christmas day, we loved it!

sporting her new spoils, along with Ben's binoculars.

Pixie in the Chimney

This post could also be titled: Crazy Face Christmas.  I don't know what it was about Christmas eve at the Naylor's, but all of my pictures have at least one person with a crazy face.  

The Naylor tradition is to eat enchiladas on Christmas eve, but these little guys didn't think it sounded too exciting so they had some tortillas and cheese.  I figured if we could get anything in them that was not sugar-coated we were doing good.  This year we also broke tradition and we brought some roasted chicken to add into the enchilada layers and it was wonderful.  It added just enough texture and protein with the amazing sauce that Grandma makes to have the perfect enchiladas with a fried egg on top.  Yum.

We also got to dress the girls in matching shirts that I bought before Hadley was born, but Hadley did not like the bows and kept getting frustrated trying to pull them off.

Allie really enjoyed pixie in the chimney this year as well as her new pajamas.  She also was quite sneaky in her acquisition of Hersheys chocolate nuggets throughout the night.  Good thing she got those few bites of tortillas and cheese in. :)

The First (and only) Snow of Utah!

The day after we got to Utah for Christmas this year, it snowed ever so lightly.  Because we are from Texas, we ran outside as soon as we saw the first flakes.  Hadley could not be held back from joining in on the fun even it was colder than she has ever experienced.  Plus, she looked uber cute in her hat.  

 Our little snow princesses!

Christmas Activities with Allie

This year was really fun because Allie could actually participate in our Christmas activities and really understand what we were doing.  This year we ventured into fudge making and made some delicious rocky road fudge which was rockin!  I took it to the ward Christmas party and had people sending out mass emails to the ward to find out who made the fudge.  It was pretty addicting if I do say so myself.

 Allie's favorite part of fudge making?  Licking the beater.  Also note the Cinderella dress which she has worn almost every day since she got it when Grandma and Grandpa were here.

 Here is Allie's little Joy school group that we hosted in December.  She goes every Tuesday with 5 other kids, rotating houses and for December we made popcorn ball snowman.  About half of the kids put their candy on their snowman, the other half ate it all without any resemblance of a snowman.  Allie LOVES her school and gets excited every Tuesday when it is time for school.  I also get excited because I get 2 hours with only one child again which makes errands and cleaning at home much easier.  

 We had a lot of fun doing toddler Christmas activities this Christmas season!

Day after Thanksgiving a.k.a. Meldrum Christmas Eve & Christmas

To go along with our plan for an early Christmas with the Meldrums on Saturday, we had Christmas Eve Friday night.  Per Meldrum tradition, we had hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans and chips to celebrate Mike's Dad's Birthday.  Allie helped pick out the cupcakes which were quite bright and in turn helped blow out the birthday candles.  

To also go with Meldrum tradition, we put out all the gifts we got each other by taking turns closing our eyes while the gift givers shake the jingle bells.  

Christmas morning!  

Hadley loved the wrapping paper more than her gifts, but what baby doesn't?  

This year we got to surprise Mike with a Wii system!  He has always said that he wanted a gaming system after he was done with school.... but we just keep going to school.  So since he is almost done (YEA!), the girls and I got him something that we could all play as a family.  It is fun to actually surprise him.

What Christmas is complete without a new princess dress?  

Allie did not want to get out of it for days.

Allie's big gift from Santa this year was a bike!  She has been asking all of the Santas  we have seen for a bike, so it was a good thing he came through!  It took her a few days to figure out how to pedal, steer and look where she was going without running into walls, but she got it and now she flies around the community.  It also has a steering handle on the back, but now we use it as a parental brake when we are around cars.  Hooray for Christmas!

Thanksgiving in Houston

This year for Thanksgiving,  we had just our little family with Mom and Dad Meldrum and it was such a delight, as long as you don't mind making all the food yourself!  Good thing I love to cook and it was perfect because Mom and Dad did all of the entertaining of the children while I cooked and Hadley took a 3 hour nap in the morning which was perfect so I could cook without a little helper.

Here is Allie helping Grandpa make gumdrop and raisin turkeys which he used to make when he was a kid on Thanksgiving.  Allie loved it, but mostly loved eating the extras!

We put Grandma in charge of making the sweet potatoes and she did a mighty fine job

 Allie dancing with the Thanksgiving day parade dancers.  Any time there is music on, she is dancing or singing away.

Mike got out his harmonica that was his Grandpa Pagel's and Allie gave us show after show on her little step stool.

Here was our Thanksgiving Dinner Table:

-Turkey (brined in an orange apple cider brine)
-Home made rolls
-Sourdough rye stuffing
-Sweet potato casserole
-Mashed Potatoes
-Gravy (good gravy!)
-Cranberry Sauce
-Green Bean Casserole
-Chocolate Pumpkin Ice Box Pie

We also used Great Aunt Annabell's China which I inherited from my Grandma Shaw!  It is such a beautiful pattern and I love using it!

 Grandma and Allie using the s&p for microphones singing Rudolf.
I know what you are thinking about the Christmas decorations, but we were having Christmas 2 days later with Mike's family so we had to get ready for it so Allie would understand. :)

After dinner was over and tummies were full, we headed over to the Galleria for Christmas carols, bringing in Santa, turning on the Christmas lights and FIREWORKS!

There is a hotel that overlooks the plaza and they have a balcony decorating contest.  One of the rooms had a bubble machine that looked like snow falling, so fun!  It was pretty warm, once we got out of the wind.

 Allie and Hadley both loved the fireworks!  They can officially be a part of my family. :)

This firework show lasted like 10 minutes, it was awesome and all set to Christmas music.  It could almost be better than 4th of July because of the music!  It was an awesome Thanksgiving!