Christmas (Part 2) at Pop Pop's

We traveled to Port Barre on the 23rd to spend Christmas weekend with Pop Pop and the rest of our LA family. The tradition in Nick's family has always been to gather on Christmas eve for gumbo and we did just that. All of the brothers, sister-in-laws and cousins were there and we had a great time! We ate, drank and enjoyed every minute of our wonderful holiday with family. We had a blast watching all of the little ones play and dance and just have fun together. Then it was time for all of the kids to get ready for bed so that Santa could come. Santa found Kate in Port Barre and brought her a few fun things. Then we spent the rest of Christmas relaxing and taking it easy at Pop Pop's house. We hope all of you had a wonderful holiday as well! Merry Christmas from the Krewe de Speyrer!!

Kate with Nanny and Parrain

Pop Pop and Claire

Kate, Karoline and Ann Marie playing

We tried to get a picture of the little ones before we opened presents...guess who wouldn't cooperate. This is Kate's "I'm pitching a fit and I am NOT going to do what you want me to do" right now. She slides on her stomach like she's sliding into first base. It's hard not to be a little amused (of course without letting her know) when she does it

Opening gifts with Momma

And Daddy

Pop Pop, his boys and all their kiddos

Daddy and Uncle D and their little girls

The family

Kate happy to be putting on her Christmas PJ's so that she can go to sleep and wait for Santa

Kate, Braxton and Amelia dancing in their PJ's

Kate's gifts from Santa Christmas morning. She's wearing a ladybug hooded towel.

Looking at gifts from Santa with Daddy

"Hello? Thank you Santa for my new cell phone!"

Looking at her Mickey ornament that she got in her stocking

Looking like a big girl with her sucker and cell phone

Laid back in her wagon ready for a ride!

It was cold outside so Daddy took Kate for a ride around the house in her new wagon

Christmas Part 3 still to come as we travel to Florence this week for Christmas with the Johnson Clan!

Welcome Claire Marie

Kate's 14th first cousin was born on Sunday December 19th. Miss Claire Marie Speyrer was welcomed into the world by her loving parents, Derrick and Brandi Speyrer. We went to visit Claire on her birthday and I thought we would share a few pictures from our visit

Claire Marie

This is about as close as we let Kate get since she can be a little feisty at times these days. She was somewhat interested in the baby but not too worried about Mama and Daddy holding somebody else.

Christmas Part 1

We had round one of our Christmas festivities a couple of weeks ago in Leonville and Port Barre with Mama Speyrer and Mama LaHaye. It was a great day with lunch at Mama Speyrer's and supper at Mama LaHaye's. We exchanged gifts at both and enjoyed kicking off our Christmas fun with a day filled with family, food and fun. Here are some pictures from our day--

Everyone gathered at Mama Speyrer's

Visiting with cousins Amelia and Karoline

Kate and her goodies. I was pleased to see that Kate got a stuffed elephant to keep her tiger friends company.

Best shot after several attempts to get a picture of Mama Speyrer with all of the great grandchildren

Kate and Mama Speyrer

Uncle Stewart playing Santa at Mama LaHaye's

Amelia and Ann Marie checking out Kate's new Mickey Mouse book

Christmas Traditions

I absolutely love this time of year! I love having Christmas decorations around the house, buying presents for loved ones and spending time with family and friends! Since we have been married, Nick and I have tried to establish a few family traditions. As I'm sure most people do, we have brought some traditions with us from our families and started one or two of our own. I thought I would share a couple our traditions and how we are getting Kate in on them.

The first is our Christmas tree decorations. I think everyone has their own idea of how a Christmas tree should look...what type of ornaments, lights and other decorations should be on the tree. Nick grew up with gorgeous trees that were coordinated with matching ornaments that followed a theme and/or color scheme. My tree, while also gorgeous if I do say so myself, was a hodge podge of all types of ornaments that my mom received from her students as a teacher over the years, ornaments that my sisters and I made (yes, even those almost unrecognizable ones from Kindergarten) and ones that we were given over the years. When we were all living at home and decorating the tree there were so many ornaments you had to start on the inside of the tree next to the trunk and work your way out on the branches so that all of the ornaments would fit. Each of us had our own box of ornaments and by the time I left home and had my own tree it was full to the top with all of the ornaments that I had made and received over the years. Nick and I have brought this tradition into our family. We have all of my ornaments from my childhood, Nick's collector LSU ornaments (we get a new one each year) and we have added ornaments since we have been together--one with a dated picture the year we got engaged, one from St. Lucia where we went on our honeymoon, one from San Francisco where we went on our 1 year anniversary and last year we added a family ornament with a picture of our little family with our addition of Kate. We added ornaments from some of those that used to hang on Nick's trees growing up, mostly ones that his mom hand painted. We also started an ornament box for Kate last year and plan to add at least one ornament to her collection each year. It is a lot of fun to pull out the ornaments each year and remember where they came from and what was going on in our lives at the point in time that we added them to the collection.

As with most southern families food has also always been a big part of the holidays. There are a few things that I always remember being made around the holidays--cheese balls, chex mix and Christmas Fruit Cookies (aka Fruit Cake Cookies) just to name a few. This is yet another tradition that I have tried to bring into our family. The Christmas Fruit Cookies are the "biggie". For as long as I can remember, I remember these cookies being made to have on hand and give as gifts for Christmas. I also remember these as always being made with other family members...probably because they are some labor intensive cookies...but I also think as an excuse to spend some extra quality time during the holidays with the ones we love. It started with my Mammaw, my Mom's mom. I remember her sitting at the kitchen table chopping fruit and nuts into this big yellow tub for hours while she and my mom talked and all the regular hustle and bustle of the house went on around them. Then after my Mammaw passed away it became something that we did with my Granny, my Dad's mom. The first couple of years of marriage I was able to help out with the cookie baking as we would come in town around the holidays but once we moved to Baton Rouge I wasn't able to be there when they were being made and I decided that I would carry on the tradition and bake them for gifts. Well this year I decided that this was something that I was going to get Kate in on. Now of course there's not too much that she could do but she did help me mix the fruit and nuts. It must be done by hand so she was excited to get her hands into it. However she ended up mostly sampling the fruit. Then she helped sample some of the first ones that came out of the oven to make sure that they were turing out all right.

Well I hope you all are having as wonderful and blessed a holiday season as we are! And I hope you enjoy some pictures from our traditions.

Our Christmas Tree

Snowman ornament made by me I think in Kindergarten or the first grade, ornament from our honeymoon and one of the 12 Days of Christmas ornaments from my Mammaw's tree

One of Nick's LSU ornaments from his collection (we get a new one every year), an ornament hand painted by Nick's Mom and Kate's ornament from last year

My helper during the Christmas Fruit Cookie process

Cookies in process

And the finished product. Yum!

Santa stopped by our neighborhood while we were baking our cookies. He rode through the neighborhood posing for pictures and handing out candy to all of the children in the neighborhood

Kate was not a big fan of Santa...check out the look she's giving him. When he tried to hold her for a picture she grabbed onto me for dear life so the 3 of us got a picture. I know I look rough but remember that I had been baking all day

13 Months Old

Kate was 13 months old on December 2 and is more fun than ever! We are constantly entertained and amused by what Kate is coming up with. We are also in awe of how smart we think she is, although I'm sure all parents feel that way. She really hasn't added too many new words to her repertoire. One that I have mentioned in earlier posts, "Hot", has been perfected. Kate was saying in an almost whisper as more of a "Huh" with no T on the end but she has recently started emphasizing the missing T. Now it is a definitive "Ho-tuh". She is also big on animal sounds. She is great at the sounds that a dog, cow and tiger make. For the Christmas season we have been working on what Santa says. Most of the time we get a "Ho" and some times a "Hohohuh" all run together. Kate also knows a few body parts. She knows her ears, hands, teeth (because we brush them every night and she's not a big fan of it), belly and hair (she loves combing, brushing, pretending like she's drying her hair or anyone else's hair). She can find eyes and belly button on someone else but doesn't yet find them on herself. Kate is still quite a busy little bee. You can tell there is always something buzzing in her little brain. At night our routine is to drink some milk and then rock her for a little while before putting her in the bed. When Nick is in charge they mostly giggle and play instead of settling down and rocking. When I am in charge I try to get her to snuggle and settle down so I usually sing and hum a little. She has started humming along with me, I almost think to make sure I know she's still busy...and to keep herself from falling asleep. It's pretty cute! Finally, our little dancing queen has some new moves. Her latest we refer to as the spin move or the twirl. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Belated Happy Thanksgiving!!

We have stayed quite busy lately chasing our little walker around! That's right Miss Kate finally decided that she prefers walking over crawling. I'm a little late getting this update on the blog. She decided literally the day after we had her birthday party. Nick was saying for a couple of months leading up to Kate's birthday that he wanted her to be walking for her party...well I guess she showed him! Monday morning my Mom and Dad packed up to head back to Florence and Kate got up from her afternoon nap that day and decided she was done with crawling and walked all over the place.

We also traveled to Florence for the Thanksgiving holiday and were lucky enough to spend the whole week with family up there. We had a perfect week! Kate had a great time visiting with Nonna and Papa, Granny, Aunt Anna and Uncle Jason and all her cousins! In addition to visiting with family we also did some fun things around Florence. Nonna and I took Kate to visit the lions, Leo and Una, at UNA where I went to school. Kate is CRAZY about animals right now so getting to see the big cats was right up her alley. Nick and I also got to go to the Iron Bowl with Anna and Jason while Nonna and Papa watched all of the kids. It wasn't quite the outcome we had hoped for but we had a great time anyways! Even got to see out good friends Brad and Christie Berry while we were in Tuscaloosa.

We hope that all of you had a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We are so thankful for all of our family and friends and our precious Kate! We couldn't have a busier, chattier, funnier and sweeter little girl and we are so thankful to be so blessed!

Enjoy some pictures from our Thanksgiving week

Kate at UNA making our way towards Leo and Una

Kate stopped to check out the pansies. Purple and Gold for UNA also like another school I know...

Nonna and Kate checking out Leo

With Una

And Leo again

Kate liked trying out this lion riding toy

Family photo for Thanksgiving

With Daddy

Nonna took Kate for a ride in the wagon a few times over the weekend. Kate absolutely loves it! I think she's trying to give Santa a hint about what she might like to have for Christmas.

Nonna and Papa helped us snap some family pics in hopes that we'd get some good ones to use for Christmas cards. I've saved the Christmas card hopefuls but thought I would share a few from our shoot. Here's one of Kate and Daddy

One with Momma

And the family

First Birthday Party!!

Kate's First Birthday Party was on Sunday. We had a great time! Kate was great for the entire party except for when it was time for her cake. Even with our practice during the week before her party she really wanted nothing to do with her cake. She didn't mind it if we gave her a few bites but she didn't want to dig into it with her own hands. Kate got a lot of great gifts! She has LOVED having new things to play with this week! Thanks again to all of our family and friends who were at the party in person and those who were there in spirit! Kate knows that she is loved by each and every one of you and loves you too!

The birthday girl!

The family

Playing with Candace and Adi Levy

Kate loved the decorations for the party. I thought she would like the balloons the best but I think she liked the banner a little more. She was reaching for it all day.

Kate's cakes

Looking like she's ready for her cake...

Still looks like she's interested in the cake...

And now she just wants to get away from it

She kept turning around in her seat and burying her head in her high chair cushion

After we got her out we finally convinced her to try a bite of the cake and she was pleasantly surprised

We coaxed her back into her seat to see if she would try the cake now that she had a taste but she was more interested in feeding it to Daddy

Kate finally got a little messy but it was from playing with and not eating any of the cake

All cleaned up and ready for presents

Helping Momma open gifts

Kate was excited to see everything that we opened and starting playing right away with all of the toys

Adi showing Kate how to use her ride on toy

And here's Connor giving her tips on another ride on toy

All the kids enjoying the new toys

Adi, Kate and Connor testing out the "house"

After all the guests left Kate and Papa kept playing outside with all of her new toys

The pictures above gave a short play by play of the cake experience but I thought that I would also share the video.