Whirlwind Christmas

This is one of my favorite photos from Christmas this year. Not a creature was stirring, and all that jazz. A moment of calm in between all the excitement, travel and chaos. Spencer had a terrific Christmas - what generous family and friends we have! There are tons of photos in the December photo album.

We took a lot of video with the "real" video camera, but who knows when I'll have that available for viewing (considering we have never downloaded ANY videos off that camera!) Here's a quick video of Spencer riding the horse that Aunt Dianne and Uncle Scott gave him.

Christmas Morning from Susan Rives Horridge on Vimeo.

You can also see a video of Spencer's reaction to his new John Deere tractor by clicking here.

I hope you all had as blessed a Christmas as we did. Looking forward to seeing what 2011 brings!

Meeting Mr. Claus

We took Spencer to the Kerbey Lane Doll Shoppe to meet Santa last week. After last year's reaction, we thought we might have more success at this little store where Santa hangs out for a few hours each day in December. Spencer would have time to acclimate, check out Santa, etc.

He sized him up and chatted for a bit...


The we decided to go for it and plopped him on his knee...


But Spencer much preferred to just stand next to Santa and visit with him about trains.


Whenever we bring up Santa he says, "I didn't like Santa's knee." I can't say I really blame him.

Elfin Superhero

Spontaneous superhero pose takes the Christmas cuteness factor to a new level.

Piper and Beckett's Petting Zoo Party

Spencer's pals Piper and Beckett had a super fun 2nd birthday party on Saturday. There was a big petting zoo set up in their backyard. All of the kids (and parents) had a blast.

We are still on the quest for a picture of these three all smiling. Heck, we'd settle for all three looking in the same direction!

Spencer petted, held and fed a lot of animals - bunnies, chicks, lambs, goats, a pony and more!

Check out the rest of the photos here and more videos under the Videos link on the right.

Naughty or Nice?

When Spencer woke up from his nap the Friday after Thanksgiving, he walked into the living room and announced, "Want to decorate the Christmas tree, Daddy!" So Daddy set up our tree and Spencer and I spent the afternoon decorating it. The title of this blog is also the caption of the first picture below. :)

He kept saying the cutest things about the ornaments, for ex., "Mommy bought this mitten at the baby store." He has really been into the tree and Christmas things in general. We listen to Christmas music all the time and tonight we went to see some festive Christmas lights with the Poages (that will be a separate entry later). I wonder what he'll think about Santa this year?

Thanksgiving

I've fallen behind on updates, so since it's already December I better mention that we had a lovely Thanksgiving. We went to the ranch Wednesday afternoon and hung out with Geep, Pop, Gary, Janice and Austin. Then we headed to Dianne and Scott's in Katy for Thanksgiving lunch with them, Grannie, Paw-Paw, Renee and Steven. Then we came back to the ranch in the afternoon. I think we might've watched some football that evening, but I can't remember...

A cold front blew in Thanksgiving day but that didn't keep Spencer from some of his usual outdoor ranch activities - sandbox, EZ tractor rides and throwing acorns into the pond.