Happy New Year!

We are back from our whirlwind tour of Texas over the Christmas holiday. After visiting Lubbock and San Antonio via lots of driving and a long flight experience for Anderson and I in the middle, we were ready to be home! Although, unpacking all those suitcases and finding room for all of our fabulous new gifts was a challenge! Our goal was to be completely finished by the 4th, when Reese goes back to work, and I think we'll do it! We had so many wonderful times over the Christmas season- too many to recap! However, I will post some of my favorite pictures from this past month.


This is one of those shots that you could never capture if you were actually trying. :) Riley and Anderson love each other so much- it's adorable.

I love the look of determination on Anderson's face as he decorates his Christmas cookie. After we made these, we had to continually hide the cookie tin because asking for a cookie became a multiple-times-per-day occurrence!

We had some friends over to play one day and they brought their newest addition. Anderson immediately took interest in saying hello to the baby and bringing her his trucks to play with. I just hope this friendliness towards babies continues over the next 6 months!

This year we put this Santa out in the front yard with the lights. Anderson began asking daily to go "ou-side" to see "Ho Ho Ho". He would go out and give him five, stand by him, wave, etc. We were a little worried to put him away once Christmas was over!

Anderson is in that stage where he is beginning to enjoy posing for pictures. In fact, he became so used to posing in front of various Christmas trees that whenever we would tell him that we wanted to take a picture, he would immediately go stand in front of whatever Christmas tree was around!

This picture captures what happens multiple times per day around here. Anderson is a typical toddler who gets frustrated easily. Hence, the frustrated expression. The hand raised is Anderson's adaptation of the sign for "help". We're trying to teach him that when he's frustrated to just ask for "help please" instead of crying, so it seems we are making some progress.

This is Reese with our niece, Kate, and Anderson at the bowling alley. I think this is such a cute picture of the kids, both old and young!

Our family on Christmas morning!

On our first morning in San Antonio, Anderson promptly walked straight over to one of the presents with Thomas the Train paper on it and just started opening it. He knew by now that those wrapped things had fun stuff inside and that he wasn't waiting on everyone else to take their places in the living room!

Anderson was a present passing-out pro! He loved delivering the presents to whoever Mommy and Daddy told him it was for. If it was a big one, his new expression was "Heavy!"

Overall, we had a memory-filled Christmas this year! Thanks to all of our family for making Christmas so wonderful for us all!

Busy, busy, busy!

Whew! We are staying on our toes around here with tons of holiday fun! While I'm lacking in time to write a proper posting to update you on what's been going on around here, the least I can do is share some pics! The bonus....they are all taken with our fancy new camera that Reese and I got each other for Christmas! Enjoy!

Anderson and his buddy Brody having a ball in the rocking chair.

Anderson creating his cookie masterpiece.

Yummy!!

My little mischief maker "feeding" Riley.

Just being a boy.

Taking Mommy's shoes for a walk!

Our Christmas tree

Trip to Lubbock

While Reese was at a training for work most of last week, I decided to take Anderson to Lubbock to visit his grandparents since he won't see them for Thanksgiving this year. It had been almost a year since we'd been back! I was very nervous about taking him on the flights by myself, but he surprised me and did really well. Here's a picture of him just chillin' on the flight there, watching Blue's Clues on my Ipod.

Anderson loved spending time at Nana B and Grandpa Billy's house. He loved crawling in and out of the doggy door that leads to Macee's potty grass. He played this game over and over and over until we forced him to come inside which of course brought tears.

Anderson really enjoyed going walking with Grandpa Billy and Macee as well as playing in Grandpa Billy's truck. All day long while Grandpa Billy was at work, Anderson would go to the garage door and ask to go out to the "truck". As soon as Billy walked in the door after work, Anderson would be so excited to get to go push the buttons and pretend to drive the truck.

We were also able to spend some time with Uncle Ryland, Grandma Ellen, and PaPaw. Anderson had so much fun playing with Ryland's bucket of balls and trucks. Here he is driving trucks along the concrete path with PaPaw.

Anderson's new game is "Falling Down". He will semi-run and then carefully "fall" to the ground fully expecting someone to say "Uh Oh Anderson fell down!". Then he laughs, gets up and repeats. Here he is after falling in the grass.

Anderson's favorite book right now is a picture book with many, many different types of trucks. He loves to point to each truck and have it named. On a few pages, he can identify almost all of the trucks if we say them out loud (Big Rig, Car transporter, Fuel Tanker, Container Truck, etc.)! Well, he was in Heaven at the airport as we waited for our flight home. He loved watching the planes and the airport fuel truck. He watched the fuel truck take fuel to the plane then come and park right by this window. The driver waved up at Anderson and the look on his face after he waved back was just priceless. Here he is watching intently.

Time flies

It might surprise anyone who reads our blog that Reese is actually writing this entry. The first piece of business is to note that we've now got our web address (www.reeseandallison.com) pointed to this new site. Hopefully that means that our friends and family can more easily find us.

As one would expect, this site is all about Anderson, and our new little one we're expecting in April. We haven't decided whether or not to find out if it's a boy or a girl. On the one hand, it sure would be easier to plan/paint/buy clothes. However, on the other hand, we're tempted not to find out because when in life can you truly have a great surprise like this? Would the anticipation be invigorating or stressful?

Stay tuned for our decision, and maybe even the answer.

Playhouse Fun

Earlier this week we met with Anderson's friends at a Playhouse for some fun. There were loads of fun toys and structures to play with! Anderson loved the swing, train table, and play kitchen the best. He also took two rides on a car rollercoaster. The video below doesn't capture well enough the speed at which he was going as well as the hilarity of the ride. For some reason this had me laughing hysterically both in person and once I got home and downloaded the video.

Halloween

Anderson was a fisherman for Halloween this year. He did great wearing the costume and carrying his fishing pole so everyone could see the fish he caught! After a few pictures there is a video of Anderson going down the bouncy house slide at the Halloween carnival we visited.