What a wonderful Christmas!!

Greg and I opened our gifts late on Christmas Eve (except our stockings) so that Christmas morning could be all for Allison. She's at a great age where she loves to open presents, so we knew she'd have a blast!!

All her goodies...

We all got new jammies for Christmas, so here we are showing them off :)

Allison practicing telling how old she is...

Our little princess

My all-grown-up two-year-old

Greg's parents took Allison to a surprise photo shoot one evening while they were babysitting. The blue dress is an old one made by a family friend that Greg's sister used to wear...I know I'm a bit biased, but isn't she the cutest???

Lots and lots of new posts

Since school is now closed for Winter Break, I actually have time to update our blog. Life has been going full-speed lately!!

In case you aren't a Facebook User or haven't gotten our Christmas card yet, we're expecting Baby Baird #2!!! Our due date is June 18th, which works out perfectly with the school year; my fear is going into labor in front of a bunch of 12-year-olds...talk about the birds and bees!! Everything seems to be going well with our little kidney bean, so I'll be sure to keep everyone updated the further along I get.

Allison is blossoming into the cutest little girl ever! She definitely has grown into her own person recently. We started "Big Girl Boot Camp" this past weekend; she moved into a big bed (full-size mattress on the floor), started potty training and threw out all the pacifiers. She's taking it pretty well.

Keep scrolling down for lots of new pictures...

Thanksgiving with the Bell clan

Though the grandkid group will be expanding soon, Grandma and Pappy were able to spend Thanksgiving with their 7 grandkids.

Of course, good pictures are hard to come by, so here's the best we got...

Allison and Pappy on the tractor

Westchase Wonderland

A friend on mine heard of this Westchase Wonderland (in the West side of Houston) complete with snow for the kids, a petting zoo, a live nativity (Allison hee-hawing at the donkey was the cutest thing ever!!), bounce houses, and school choirs performing. We took our toddlers for a Mommy-daughter day and the girls had a great time!!

Yes that's my 2-year-old attempting to climb over the petting zoo fence, then she wanted to hang on the pull-up bar. Doesn't she know she's only 3 feet tall??

Alli's 2nd Birthday party

December birthdays sure are hard to plan...Mom was right!!! We had Allison's party a couple weeks before her actual December 30th birthday; mixed in with the Christmas decorations was the purple and green butterfly party decor. Thanks to everybody who came out to celebrate with us. Allison is one special little girl :)

Holiday spirit in a 6th grade Math class

At school there was a door-decorating contest for the holidays. Here's what I came up with...

I came in 2nd place to my partner-teacher who had a "Houston Snowman" that was wearing a Rockets hat (because that's the only good team we have around here apparently...) and that was melting into a puddle on the floor by her door.

Christmastime in an Aggie House

The new addition to our Aggie family: the Aggie Christmas tree. Thanks so much to Mom for all the Aggie ornament hunting all year long and for my wonderful hubby for making the too-cute Bonfire Outhouse for the top of the tree...it seems like I may have a bit of my Mom's artsy-craftsy skills after all!! The bottom half of the tree is less decorated thanks to the 2-year-old living in our house, but you get the idea :)

Mom passed on some of her old yard decorations to help us decorate the house (since we didn't do much last year when we moved in). Alli was such a good helper!!

We also have super-cute garland around the door and on the banisters, as well as the Dicken's Christmas Village houses displayed on a ledge in the foyer, and our smaller, less-Aggie tree in the front window; I just didn't have pictures to post.

Aggie Christmas to all, and to all a Gig 'Em!

Halloween post a few weeks late

Our little Halloween fairy (though she kept saying she was a butterfly)

Allison loves her little pumpkin...from Pappy's Pumpkin Patch of course...

Even though sometimes I think she's so grownup, she's still my little baby...

Fall is always sooooo busy!

So I just realized it's been over a month since I posted!! Time sure has flown by. Here's some updates on the Baird clan:
**I'm still working on my Master's and doing pretty well! Not like my first year in college a decade ago, but we don't need to hear any of those details...Being Math Department head has been keeping me busy as well, but this school year is the best start I've had in my last 6 years of teaching! I hope it continues to go well.
**Allison is growing like a weed. She's starting to count, but can only manage "8, 9, 10" without any coaching from us. She repeats EVERYTHING we say and do, which has made me acknowledge some of my mannerisms and quirks. She is the light of our lives...such a cutie!!
**Greg is still working hard at the same Engineering firm and is slowly moving up the corporate ladder. He can't wait for Fall to officially be here in Texas because that mean the grass won't grow as fast. Our riding lawn mower has been in the shop for a couple months now (it's hard to track down parts for a 20+ year old mower), so he's had to do it all with a pushmower.
**We still love our house (we've been here 10 months now!!) and I can't wait to decorate for Christmas!
**We still have 2 mortgages :( but have found a renter for the condo who, cross your fingers, will move in next week!! That will be a big weight off our shoulders!! I'm never selling a house ever ever ever again. We will live in this house until we're old and will probably be buried in the backyard (unless there's a state lawa against that...hmmm...).

Some pics of our recent visit to Pappy's Pumpkin Patch
Allison and Maya playing


Allison loved the barrell train and the personal chauffering that Pappy gave her

Gig 'Em...Allison points out anything with maroon and white letters and says "Aggie". Yep, that's my girl :)

Such a difference a year makes...

She loves her Pappy!!

On the big girl swing. *tear

Some pics at Blaine's 7th birthday party

My battery died about 20 minutes in to the party, so all I got was Allison and Bailey playing...

Playing in the sink while I cooked dinner one night

Such a big girl!!

Daddy and Allison in our carport ready for one of the 2 Aggie games we've made it to this year.