Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Burrus fam!  Our holiday card/birth announcement, along with the full set of Evie's newborn photos, is below.  I hope you all are having a wonderful and blessed holiday!

Charlie & Evie Meet Santa

My mom and I took Charlie and Evie to meet Santa at the downtown Neiman Marcus this week.  It was such a fun outing (and made so much better by having my mom there!).  Mom and Evie waited in line while Charlie and I raced through the tunnel winding around the outside of NM (very fun, but realized why they had a 4-10 year-old age limit :).  Charlie was very excited about meeting Santa--he said "Santa," "HoHoHo," and "I sit. Santa!" while we were waiting in line, all leading me to the erroneous conclusion that he was going to enjoy his time with the big guy.  Alas, that was not the case, as seen below...

Evie is starting to look a bit concerned.  Santa, however, is not phased a bit.

Evie and Santa had a very nice conversation once Cargie made his way "off!"

Although it looks like Charlie was terribly distressed by his encounter with Santa, he was happy as could be the moment he got off his lap.  He bounded off happily and was talking about Santa the rest of the day.  I asked Charlie what he told Santa he wanted for Christmas and he responded, not surprisingly, with "Big Truck!"

After our visit with Santa, we went upstairs to the children's area to relax so I could feed Evie.  Charlie loved getting to play with all the toys.  His first order of business was to don this pink bike helmet and drive a jeep.  He proudly wore the bike helmet all around Neiman's...we had quite a time getting it away from him. :) 

Rolling!

On Evie's 7-week birthday today, we hit another big milestone: Evie rolled over (front to back) for the first time!  She was VERY proud of herself, but I think her big brother was even prouder.  Charlie and I were down on the floor with her when it happened, and it just thrilled him.  Her big moment was met with a resounding "Again! Again!"  Unfortunately, Evie couldn't make it happen again today (Charlie quickly decided we were "All Done!," so she didn't get a ton of practice), but we'll try again tomorrow. :)

Christmas Parties

We have had some fun Christmas parties this season, and two of my favorites were our playgroup Christmas parties.  The kids aren't old enough to really be excited about Christmas yet, but they are super excited about the sweets this year. :)  

Here are the kids (minus a few) in our Lakewood playgroup.  Charlie has been playing with these little ones since he was 5 months old, and it is so fun watching them grow up together.  It's amazing how much they've grown in the past year, but how little their personalities have changed!

Evie dressed up for the Christmas party as well.  Charlie was fascinated with the "Big Tree" and "Big Bow" on her onesie. :)  Luckily for Evie, a lot of my playgroup friends are having second babies right now, so the little ones won't get left out of the fun!

Sweet Evie was smiling, cooing, and telling Daddy all about the Christmas party later that night...

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get pictures at our other Christmas parties...too busy keeping Charlie out of the cookies!

Evie Meets the Harolds

My college roommate, Sarah, and her husband, David, were in town last weekend for a work Christmas party and stopped by to meet Evie.  It was so good to see them.  Evie loved getting some extra snuggles and Charlie was thrilled with his company.  He LOVED "Dawid," conned him into reading "Cars, Trucks, and Things that Go" with him, and even said "Go Jawhawks!" for him. :)  Sarah and David's wedding was our last big weekend away before Evie was born, so it was fun to get to introduce them to her.  Hope you two come back again soon!! 

Father Christmas

Clint hasn't had much time off recently, so I've had to grab little bits of time with him to do a few holiday things.  When we heard about a historic Christmas village in downtown Dallas, we had to go check it out (it didn't hurt that I got Junior League meeting credit for going :).  So we got the kids dressed up and off we went!

We forgot the double stroller and the Baby Bjorn, but we made do... :)

Charlie was most interested in the "Big Choo Choo," seen behind Clint here.  He wasn't sure what to make of the period costumes.

I was very excited about the "pictures with Santa" that were advertised, but we were a bit disappointed with the jolly old guy once we saw him.  Clint decided that maybe they were trying to show how people couldn't be too picky in the pioneer village--Santa might just have to be a large-ish guy with a red beard (and a green robe???).  Turns out it was Father Christmas.  Seriously??  As you can tell, Charlie was not impressed.

Evie: "You really took me out of my warm coat for a picture with THIS guy?"

Period carolers.  Suspicious Charlie wouldn't touch the candy cane they offered him.

The historic village was fun, but it did not check "pictures with Santa" off my to-do list! :)

It's (Finally) Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I feel like I am behind on everything Christmas this year (and Evie is a very good excuse, thankyouverymuch), but we are getting there.  Slowly but surely, I have gotten the house decorated, and Clint, Charlie, Evie and I recently went out to pick out our Christmas tree (or "Big Tree!," as Charlie's dubbed it).  

Charlie negotiated a very good price for the tree...

The tree experts.

Evie had surprisingly strong opinions.  The girl loves Douglas firs.

I wanted this tree, but the kids opted for a traditional one.

Decorating the house has been so fun...but I've realized that I really need more Christmas decorations.  Guess who's going to be shopping the post-Christmas sales... :)

This is my favorite decoration.  It was my grandmother's, and I always loved it at her house as a child.  Apparently I fiddled with it enough that she eventually gave it to me. :)

Stockings hung with care...

And here is our expert tree decorator.  This guy LOVES hanging ornaments (and by hanging, I mean thrusting the ornament in the branches over and over until it finally sticks).  Unfortunately, we ran out of non-breakable ornaments too quickly for his taste, leading to a small tantrum that cut our decorating experience short.  Oh well, more decorating next year, right?

[Charlie also loves un-decorating the tree.  I keep finding our ornaments scattered around the house, and have been having to move them higher and higher up the tree.  He has someone managed to reach some ornaments (the small ceramic truck, in particular :) hung VERY high on the tree.  I did not see him get it down, so I have no idea how he managed this.  What a monkey!]

Big Tree!

Evie quickly got in her reindeer pajamas in order to take the obligatory pajama pictures next to the tree.

Charlie got in his matching pajamas, but we couldn't quite make the picture work.  I will keep trying... :)

My attempt at homemade ornaments is below.  Evie cooperated nicely for her footprint ornament (on the left), however, Charlie was not so cooperative for his handprint.  For some reason, the "monkney" totally freaked out at the idea of putting his hand in the clay.  I finally had to settle for a fingerprint (right) (and had to do my fair share of consoling even after that!).  Oh well, at least the ornament is unique!

And finally, the newest addition to our tree, in honor of the newest addition to our family...the little mouse. :)

Our halls are finally decked!  Yay!