christmas 2016 : part one

I'm titling this 'part one' because we're only halfway through December and I have enough photos to share. That, and I just shut down my (very busy, but wonderfully fulfilling) Etsy shop for the season and now I have more time to enjoy Christmas time. That means more activities and more pictures! So I'll come back at the end of the month or in January with more. Here's how we've been getting in the spirit over the last few weeks!

We put up our decorations the day after Thanksgiving and I'm excited to finally have some time to go back and tweak them before Christmas. Oh, and I need to wrap gifts, too!

My friend Amy is in town from Virginia and her little girl Emma is 2 months older than Beau, so we've been spending lots of time together. We took them to Northpark to get pictures with Santa and it was everything you could hope for with two one year olds. :) 

Here's the photo I purchased (picture of a picture, posted on my instagram): 

Emma had the same feelings as Beau, but was more mobile about it. Check out Santa hanging on for dear life!

Later that week, Amy and I made the trek down to Waco to visit Magnolia! I think we are both mild fans of Fixer Upper and have heard great things about what the show has done for Waco, so it was a good little day trip. Waco is only about an hour and a half from our house so we went in the morning and came home while the kids napped in the backseat. 

We spent SO much time in the yard and it was perfect for the kids to get out their wiggles. Honestly, if the yard wasn't there, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the trip half as much. It was a beautiful day!

By, the way, since I don't do monthly updates anymore, Beau is WALKING. Full on walking. He started by taking about 15 straight steps right at 13.5 months and since then has gotten better everyday (he's 15 months now). He has pretty much stopped crawling (sniffle, my baby!) and is loving his whole new world. He also has almost 8 teeth, had his first haircut, says lots of words (but understands EVERYTHING) and is generally perfect in every way. :)

(there he is, blending in with another family)

So there is this cute setup in front of the silos so we propped the kids down for a photo opp...and Beau wanted nothing to do with it. See below.

(still upset)

(still upset)

We decided to take a break and eat at one of the food trucks on site...

...and when we tried again, it was a no-go. Not sure what his fear was!

I had to manage with a photo opp from afar. Ah, well.

Back in November, my sister took a few quick snaps of us for our Christmas cards (coming soon!) She took them on their property and in their neighborhood. It only took about 10 minutes and I love the few that we got! 

And today, I sat down and snapped about 100 pictures of Beau with the tree and got a handful of almost-not-blurry photos to share with y'all. I'll have to try again another time, but this boy is on the move!

Happy Holidays!