Merry (belated) Christmas!

Daddy worked on Christmas Eve and Day this year, so our celebrating was a little delayed.  It's so weird.  I know that technically, Christmas Day is just any other day of the week, but when you don't celebrate the holiday on that day, while the rest of the Christian world is, it's kind of odd and it made me feel a little wonky.  Nicky and I drove to San Antonio to spend the holiday with Nana and Pop on Christmas Eve, and Daddy flew down to join us on the 26th.  Nicky got to spend quality time with his Pop playing and watching tv...

...hanging out with his favorite playmate GG... 

...and making cookies with his Nana.

The extended Mills bunch got together on the 26th after Daddy's and Uncle Brent's (with Brended and Emily in tow) arrival.  Nicky was so excited to see his cousins that he couldn't wait to play. 

We all ate way too much...Erica - those little cheese/onion tart things were to die for!...here's Nicky enjoying some pickled okra...what 3 1/2 year old eats that?!

And then opened our presents...thanks to all for the fun gifts!  (Aunt Marsha - the new tiger, "Lenny", is Nicky's new go-to baby!)

The next morning, Santa visited Nana and Pop's house and we got up to check our stockings. 

After the present-opening frenzy...

...we had a yummy breakfast (thanks Nana!) and then got busy preparing for Old Nana's birthday party. 

We gave Emily a few "Polly Pocket" dolls and Nicky and Brenden enjoyed them just as much as she did!  Nicky got a barn and tractor from Nana and Pop and that Polly Pocket was right at home down on the farm!  Nicky was so enamored with her I told Daddy I was going to give Nicky a Polly Pocket set, dress him in a pink shirt (Daddy's least favorite color) and bring him up to the fire station for a visit...that didn't go over so well - but you bet I will take a TON of pictures if I ever get into a spiteful mood! :)

I think it's safe to say that Nicky loves spending time with his cousins...here's a pic of him cuddling up on the couch with Emily. 

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  (not bad - only 2 weeks late posting this...oh well...at least I got my Christmas cards sent out on time!)

Cowboy Nicky

Since Nicky is now a Texan, we figured he should partake in some true Texan activities.  We celebrated our Mills family (my dad's side) Christmas on the 26th at my Aunt Marsha and Uncle Edward's new house in Seguin, TX.  It's out in the country and let me assure you, although we didn't come across any on this visit, the place is creeping with snakes.  I'm deathly afraid of the suckers and just walking around outside on their property is a huge feat for me.

Nicky on the other hand, is all about it.  The creepier/crawlier the better!  This kid is all rough and tumble boy - literally - he throws himself around on the floor like nothing I've ever seen...he has no fear!  If there's dirt/cars/trucks/diggers/dinosaurs/bugs/reptiles/animals, etc, he's all about it.  He's quite fond of cows...not sure why, but he wants to ride one.  I don't think he'd last 8 seconds...

We figured it would probably be best to start with riding a different 4-legged creature...one who's a bit more accustomed to having people on it's back.  Here's Nicky meeting his new friend Sunny...

We got him in the saddle and he couldn't stop smiling.  He held onto the reigns and wanted to know how it all worked.  We probably could've told him how to ride the horse and sent him on his way and he would've figured it all out - he's so good with that stuff.  Daddy and Susie (Sunny the horse's "Momma") walked along side Nicky; my fear of the slithery ones kept me next to the trailer and surrounded by other people just in case.

A few yards away from the starting point, Sunny decided he needed to shake a little dust off himself, and by doing so nearly threw Nicky off as well.  The little buckaroo held on tight and wasn't even phased!

By the end of the ride, he was practically riding all by himself.  He pulled back on the reigns and said "whoa" and stopped right next to me!  He had a perma-smile and wanted to go again.  (Thank you Susie for obliging!)  Alas, the ride had to come to an end, but Nicky told us "i ride dat horsey morrow".  Maybe not morrow my little cowboy, but we promise to find a place to take you riding soon (or when it warms up a bit...whichever comes first)!

Austin's Birthday Party

December 18th marked an awesome event - the 1st birthday of Austin, our friends' (Shelly and Ramsey) wonder baby.  Why wonder baby, you might ask?  Well, it was one year ago that the little guy was born way prematurely, and he's trudged through this past year like a champ!  Shelly and Ramsey had a little party for him on the 19th, and we were lucky enough to attend.  Nicky had a great time helping Austin open his presents...

Not to mention playing with the new toys...

...I guess since Nicky didn't really have many toys to play with when he was a little tyke at the orphanage (much less super-cool ones that light up and make noise), he's super-interested in toys geared towards the little ones now.  Hey, as long as he's entertained and happy, we're happy - he can play with a one-year-old's toy until he's blue in the face!  Speaking of - the intent he showed while trying to figure out each toy was quite impressive.  He furrowed his brow and got lost in his own thoughts and barely paid attention to the commotion going on around him.

Here's Nicky's new "fake smile"...

Daddy was calling his name and he thought it was because we wanted to take yet another picture of him (apparently we take quite a few?).  What Daddy really wanted, was for Nicky to back up a bit, as he was getting all up in Austin and Shelly's grill while they were trying to open the presents. 

We all sang 'happy birthday' to Austin, then he half-heartedly dug into some yummy jello-jigglers with whip cream on top. 

After sharing some ice cream with Daddy, we decided we better take Nicky home - it was past his nap-time and he was starting to peter out a bit (that's kinda fun to say..."peter out"!). 

Thank you for sharing your birthday with us, Austin, and cheers to many more!!!

Confessions of a Blog Slacker

Hi.  My name is Annaliese and I'm a blog slacker.  I've tried to stay on top of things and post regularly but I'm so far behind right now and I've got so many other things to do before I can post!  I get so gung-ho and post several a day, then slack off for a week or two.  It's a procrastinator's nightmare really - I'm so backed up on just about everything in my life right now I think I'm sinking and I don't know what to start on first.  Would someone please throw me a life-ring?

Top 5 Things Keeping Me From Blogging:

1. Removing Christmas decor from all over the house - I swear - next year I'm only going to    have 1 tree.
2. Planning my girl's trip to London which is next weekend.
3. Shopping and Packing for my girl's trip to London, which, ironically, is for shopping.
4. Exercising - I figure for once I should keep a New Year's Resolution that I've made, and my pants are getting a bit snug from all the pigging-out over the holidays.
5. Sorting through pictures - we took so many over the Christmas holiday that I want to put some in blog posts, but that means I have to go through them first!

However, I have vowed that I cannot go across the pond until I at least get the Christmas blogging done, and for those that know me, you know how much I love London.  So, I guess I better stop talking about how I'm procrastinating, and get busy!  I know - to procrastinate even more I'm going shopping, then I'll make a list of things I have to do!

Upcoming Blog Posts (In case you need something to look forward to...)

1. Austin's Birthday Party
2. Merry (belated) Christmas
3. Father Frost Pays a Visit
4. Priceless
5. Cowboy Nicky
6. Old Nana Turns 90

Until then...

Curse You Aeolus

In case you don't know who that is, he's the ruler of winds in Greek mythology.  Why am I cursing a dude that may or may not have ever really existed?  Well, I'll tell you.  Christmas Eve (and day for that matter), Daddy had to work at the fire station, so Nicky, Blitzer and Bailey and I piled into our SUV and drove down to Nana and Pop's for the holiday (Daddy flew in to join us on the 26th).  A winter storm blew in the night before we left, and it was super-cold outside and pouring down rain when we left the house at 6:15am.  Waaaay too early to be driving if you ask me, but I figured we better get out of town because the rain was supposed to turn into snow around 9am...and it did...Dallas had a white Christmas for the first time in 80 years!  Anywho, as we drove further south, the rain let up, however, the wind seemed to pick up as the morning went on.  As nice as it was to be driving our SUV so that everyone was comfortable and we had room for all our crap, I sure wished I had been driving my car.  I could barely drive faster than 50 mph at times, for fear we would fly off the road!  I white-knuckled it all the way to San Antonio, and by the time we got to Nana and Pop's, my arms felt like I had been arm-wrestling a tornado for 5 hours!  To put it mildly, it sucked.  Nicky sat in the backseat playing with his most annoying sounding ziploc bag toys, watching movies (thank goodness for portable dvd players...and bless you Uncle Brent - that's been the best Christmas present we've ever received!) blissfully unaware of what was going on around him.  I have to give the little guy some props - he was awesome in the car - only one minor incident...he tore a hole in his ziploc bag and wanted me to "tape it"!  If every long-distance car ride could go that well, we'd drive the little booger everywhere!

The drive home wasn't that bad either (no more wind thank goodness, and I didn't have to drive!).  That is, if we don't mention the fact that it took us about 8 hours to get home (not sure how...we did stop to shop at the outlets, and we had dinner, and there was a little bit of traffic...but still...that's a long time for what should be a 4-ish hour drive.).  We also somehow managed to forget to pick up my car from the airport.  Neither of us even remotely thought about having to get it all day, and to add to the hilarity, it wasn't until we drove into our driveway and opened the garage door that we realized we had forgotten it!  I'm blaming Aeolus for that one.