So, after 12 wonderful weeks at home with my baby girl, I went back to work with ONE week left in the semester. We were so lucky that my mom was willing to take a week off to come and play babysitter. On Grace's 13 week birthday, I was kissing and running because I knew if I spent more than 2 minutes with Grace that morning- the tears would pour! Well, needless to say, I made through my first week away and Grace didn't seem phased at all!
Our two week Christmas break was fabulous! Luckily, Mike had a lot of days off so we got to spend time Christmas shopping together and enjoying some good ole family time. During the week before Christmas, Uncle Matt and Aunt Cecily paid for Grace to get her ears pierced for Christmas! I had been looking for a good opportunity to take her, and this was perfect! Aunt Cecily joined us at Claire's around 10 one morning--I didn't want to have to deal with holiday shoppers giving us the judgmental eye for making my baby cry. Grace did really well. She was in a great mood. She screamed bloody murder for maybe 5 minutes, but then she was good as new- and hasn't been bothered by them since--and she looks SOO cute! :)
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Grace with the Claire's bear!
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Our Christmas celebrations started on Thursday at Mike's Aunt Sandy and Uncle Kelly's house. It's an annual tradition full of good food, presents, and family. My nephew, Nate, was getting over the chicken pox so we had to keep him a nice safe distance away from Grace...which was sad because he has a little bit of a love affair with his baby cousin. :) Here's a picture of Grace with her Gigi in her 'Santa Baby' outfit! Such a cutie!
On Friday, we got up early and headed to Granbury to see LoliPop and Uncle Landon. Before heading out of town, we stopped at Bass Pro Shop so Grace could see SANTA! Santa didn't come until 10 a.m., but we got there as soon as the store opened at 9, so we could get a good spot in line. I'm sure glad we did that because the way they do it-is you wait in line to get a pass with a time on it, and you can't get in line without that pass. We got a 10 a.m. pass, and decided to go get some breakfast! It was already getting crazy too--about 10 minutes later, they were already handing out 11:30 a.m. passes! We met Gigi at Whataburger, and then went back to get in line. Grace was being a huge sleepyhead, but as we got closer in line we decided to wake her up. She was being so cute and smiley! She just let Santa hold her and move her around however he wanted! We had women in line telling us that she was so cute that they would give us their numbers to babysit! :)
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| Grace dressed-appropriately-as a present on X-mas eve...with Loli! |
Christmas Eve is always a good time at my parents house. We have a few cocktails and they always have some new and exciting Christmas game. This year we played a trivia game my dad ordered, and it was quite entertaining! Grace woke up in a wonderful mood on Christmas morning, and boy did she have a lot of presents... even though she can't do much of anything yet! Landon is very talented when it comes to building and creating furniture, so I asked him to make Grace a toybox...he went above and beyond! AND-it was a good thing because after Christmas, we have plenty of toys to put in it! :)
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| Grace's toybox! |
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| Good morning and Merry Christmas! |
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| Stocking time! |
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After opening all those presents!! and yet we're more interested in our wrist! :)
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After opening all our presents and having a good breakfast, it was time to pack up and head back home so we could spend Christmas night with Mike's family. After dropping off the first load in Plano, we went to Lewisville and met the rest of the Bolding clan! AGAIN, Grace was showered with some great gifts from her Gigi and Gickum...and her aunts and uncles! Also..Christmas dinner is always fabulous at the Boldings! We had some delicious Prime Rib with all the fixins! Yum!
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| hangin out with Aunt Cecily |
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| Aunt Jess and cousin Clay |
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Gigi, Gickum, and all the little grandbabies!
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We also had a blast on New Year's Eve! Susie, Victoria, and myself hosted a party in Granbury at Spud and Victoria's house, and it was a Mardi Gras theme. I must say, we had some great decoration, even better food, and plenty of tasty beverages! There was a great turnout, and besides a black eye, sticky floors, and a fall here and there--it was a blast and the perfect way to ring in 2012! I was so glad Landon and his girlfriend, Whitney, got to come because on Friday Landon is leaving for Spain for 4 months! He is going to have so much fun, but we sure are going to miss him--and Grace is going to be completely different when he gets back! Happy we got to have a fun celebration together!
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| Victoria, Candice, and Susie! |
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| Me and Whitney |
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| Landon and Whitney :) |
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| all the girls... |
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| and with our masks... |
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| the Bolding ladies |
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Candice, Mike, Landon, and Whitney
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Besides having a wonderful Christmas, making fun memories with our baby girl, and having an awesome New Year--we also got to celebrate Mike's graduation with his Masters from UTD and my good friend, Jessica, had her precious little boy, Hudson! Such a wonderful holiday season-it sure was hard to see it end!
On Friday, we got up early and headed to Granbury to see LoliPop and Uncle Landon. Before heading out of town, we stopped at Bass Pro Shop so Grace could see SANTA! Santa didn't come until 10 a.m., but we got there as soon as the store opened at 9, so we could get a good spot in line. I'm sure glad we did that because the way they do it-is you wait in line to get a pass with a time on it, and you can't get in line without that pass. We got a 10 a.m. pass, and decided to go get some breakfast! It was already getting crazy too--about 10 minutes later, they were already handing out 11:30 a.m. passes! We met Gigi at Whataburger, and then went back to get in line. Grace was being a huge sleepyhead, but as we got closer in line we decided to wake her up. She was being so cute and smiley! She just let Santa hold her and move her around however he wanted! We had women in line telling us that she was so cute that they would give us their numbers to babysit! :) 
