Our Christmas

This Christmas was a fun one with Knox.  Last year he was only a few weeks old, so even though it was sweet, it wasn't very memorable for him.  This year was a different story.  Knox loved opening gifts and playing with the boxes and wrapping paper.  We traveled to Spokane to be with Kyle's family for Christmas and once we got there (I will tell that story in a minute) we had a really great week.  Knox adjusted well to the time zone and proceeded to sleep in every day last week (Merry Christmas to us!).  So it truly felt like a vacation.  We spent a lot of time just relaxing at Kyle's sister's house with her two kiddos and all of their new and exciting toys.  It was a low-key, relaxing week and we were sad to leave on Friday.  But Sally, Heather, Marek and McKenna will all be here for Spring Break- so we'll be together again before we know it!

Now for our travel saga.  We left for Spokane on Thursday evening, Dec. 22nd.  Our flight flew out of Austin at 7pm and we were scheduled to have a 45 minute lay-over in Denver and then on to Spokane.  Well, that afternoon Denver got a snow storm, so our flight out of Austin was delayed going into Denver. We were scheduled to land at the same time our next flight was scheduled to leave.  We were told that the airlines would hold our flight because there were plenty of other people in the same predicament.  We arrived in Denver at 9:28 pm and our flight left as scheduled at 9:20 pm- without us.  Once we landed it was apparent that there were hundreds of other people who had missed their various connections as well and we were instructed to stand in the customer service line to get help.  After waiting in the line for 45 minutes without moving an inch, I went to find help.  With Knox as my sympathy points we headed off to the nearest ticket counter.  I was informed that we had missed to last flight out to Spokane and the next available flight was on Sunday afternoon (ie- Christmas Day).  That was 2 days away! What about back to Austin? I asked.  Monday- they could get us back to Austin on Monday.  Here is where I started to get a little upset.  Long-story short- we were put on stand-by for a 1am flight to Seattle which we found out at 12:50 that we were 2 of only 3 people off of standby who got on.  We arrived in Seattle at 3am with no flights going to Spokane in the next 24 hours.  Then, we met a group of strangers in the same predicament. And together 10 strangers all rented a 12 passenger van at 3 am and drove 5 hours across a mountain pass to Spokane.  We arrived in Spokane at 8am on Friday morning and Kyle's mom picked us up at the airport!  It was an insane trip to make alone let alone with a 13 month old, but we did it and Knox was a trooper!  Whew- we learned our lesson though. No more Denver airport in the winter. Next time we are flying through Phoenix no matter how much more it costs!

Here is our Christmas photo montage!

The whole family!

Fun in Spokane

Christmas Day Action

Knox's new Llama Rocking Horse! Best gift ever!!

Knox loved ripping all the paper off the packages

Miss McKenna

Knox's first look at snow!

Christmas Eve reindeers

Cousins! Only 13 months apart, they are buddies already!

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas too! 

-Stacie 

Christmas & Santa

The verdict is still out on how much Santa will be a part of Knox's childhood.  I never believed in Santa and Kyle did- so we have a house divided.  But, I am not opposed to the idea of Santa and am willing to play along for the sake of the child :)

Today, I took Knox to see his first Santa.  It would be a lie if I said that I did this for him, I did not.  I was pretty certain how it would go, but I figured there was no harm in trying to get a Santa photo for histories sake.  Knox may not agree one day when he looks back at this photo.  Part of me laughs when I see it and part of me cringes because poor guy was seriously sad.

It almost seems like child abuse, but I promise that he only sat there for about 10 seconds and immediately stopped crying when I picked him up.  I tried to do some Christmas shopping after this but I think Knox was still ticked at me and he refused to cooperate.  However, some very nice person stopped and asked if I wanted a picture with Knox since I was taking pictures of him. So thoughtful and I was excited to get a picture of the two of us! We don't have too many of these...

Here's to hoping next year's visit will go better!!

-Stacie

Christmas Traditions

Once you have a child, I think you really start thinking about what traditions you'll have in your own family.   I have mine from growing up and Kyle has his, but now we definitely need "ours" to give to Knox.  We have some- we always open our stockings and gifts together (just the two of us) before we fly out to Spokane. We also make our "christmas nachos" and watch Jim Carrey's "The Grinch". We also read a daily advent book together each night in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  So, this year we have started a new tradition.  Heading down to 37th street to look at the lights.  We stopped by last year, while Knox thankfully slept in the back.  But this year, we got Knox all ready in his PJs with his bedtime milk and walked around and looked at all the lights as a family.  It was sweet (and also kind of weird- there was a stuffed animal petting zoo- SO Austin...) and one of the many traditions that I am sure we will have as a family.

-Stacie

Photoshoot with the McClures

Thanks to our friends the McClure's for letting me take their pictures!  As always it was really fun to get the chance to try and capture a family moment.  Their two sweet kiddos did great and didn't mind having their pictures taken at all! We have known Mike & Michelle since we lived in Virginia, so they are long-time friends of ours.  After the mini-photoshoot we got to catch up, watch the kiddos play (or in Knox's case- destroy) and enjoy some "adult" time after all the little ones went to bed.  It was a great evening!

-Stacie

He's a sneaky little bugger...

Knox figured out how to open the freezer door.  He also figured out how to get the frozen chocolate out of the wrapper...

We should probably buy stock in child safety products because we now own a refrigerator lock, dishwasher lock, oven lock and toilet seat lock. All I have to say is thank goodness he's cute :) 

Head Scratcher

Photography thoughts and a photoshoot

For awhile now I have been working on my photography.  As I shared in an earlier post, I took photography for a few years in high school and absolutely LOVED it.  But then I went off to college and got on with my life and didn't really give it much thought.  I spent most of my 20's trying to decide what type of "career" I wouldn't hate and never did manage to figure that one.  But thankfully, the Lord blessed us with our sweet Knox and I was able to stay home and take care of him.  Since then, I have started to work on my photography again and have been pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy it and the positive response I have received from others.  My ultimate goal would be to someday become a professional photography. I am not really sure how to reach that goal but one thing I do know that I need is lots and lots of practice! So, I am taking another class at ACC this semester and have been getting lots of opportunities to take pictures of friends.  Many thanks to the Lee family for letting me take their pictures last week.  It isn't even remotely difficult to get good pics of such a beautiful family! Here are some of my favorites:

What a doll baby

This little lady can work the camera

See what I mean, just gorgeous!

-Stacie