Merry Christmas 2009!

It has been one of those days that you simply want to bottle, put on the shelf, and know that you can open it up and experience it again on any other ordinary day.  I can not begin to tell you the many feelings of excitement, joy, anticipation, love, and thankfulness that Dave and I experienced today.  It was an amazing experience to watch Taylor walk into the living room and realize that Santa Claus visited in the night.  He was so overwhelmed that he didn't know where to begin.  However, once he got started, he was on a roll, and wanted to keep going back for just one more present.  We finished off the day by lighting a fire, popping popcorn, putting in a new movie, and all curled up on the couch- all four of us (Baxter included).  What an amazing day!

The Portable North Pole

Taylor has been such a good boy this year that Santa Claus sent him a video message via The Portable North Pole.  You can view it here.  It is too cute!

Here is also our Elf Yourself Christmas card.  Here is the other one that we created.  They are sure to make you laugh!

Getting ready for Christmas

Dave and I are really enjoying our time off from work preparing for Christmas and spending lots of special time with Taylor.  The other night, Taylor and Dave were watching a Christmas movie from the inside of his cardboard play house.  There were so cute that I had to snap a picture.  Yesterday, we made our first homemade sugar cookies.  They are Papa's favorites.  Taylor caught on to the concept of stamping out the cookies, placing them on the cookie sheet, and then dumping lots of sprinkles on them.  I do have to admit that I feel they turned out quite well.  Papa gave them a thumbs up as well. Tonight, we joined the Purcers in eating pizza and making a trip to the Roper Mountain lights.  I had no idea that there was so much to do there.  You can see Santa, roast marshmallows, take your picture at many different spots, and even enjoy various crafts.  We had a fabulous time!  We will definitely have to make it an annual outing.

A charcoal study of Taylor

Dave began this amazing charcoal study of Taylor a few weeks ago.  It was meant to be a practice portrait to see how well he could capture Taylor in charcoal, and how well he could do portraits.  In my personal opinion, he did an outstanding job.  I am absolutely in love with it, and when he puts his final finishing touches on it, I want to have it framed.  I think that he captured Taylor's eyes, lips, nose, hair, ears, expression, etc. beautifully!  I just had to share what an amazing job he did.  Dave did want me to mention that the picture does not capture the portrait exactly.  It was photographed with his artist light above, and in a fairly dim room.  The portrait isn't this dark at the bottom.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love this time of year!  I love being surrounded by family from near and far.  We celebrated this Thanksgiving with a huge family gathering.  Twenty-three people came together at Mimi and Papa's house.    We enjoyed catching up with aunts, uncles, cousins, and our wonderful grandmother, Muh! Can Thanksgiving day last just a little longer?!