happy new year!!

hello everyone! well, i'm back from my christmas travels and have lots of fun to report, so let's get started. first off, we went to mimsie and grandpa's on christmas eve-eve to see them before our trip to IN. that was loads of fun, and i love to play with their beagle dog, maggie. i've always liked her (and other dogs) but am now really getting to have fun and play with her. we didn't officially celebrate christmas with them yet because aunt mandy wasn't with us, so we'll do that this weekend at our house and i'll post pictures next week. after our short trip there, we came back home to wake up here on christmas morning - yahoo!! i had been talking about baby jesus's birthday a lot leading up to the big day and was excited to see what was in store. one of my favorite parts was just having daddy home with me and momma, and we had an unusually sugary breakfast of cinnamon rolls and bacon - yum!! off to a great start! i got some fun toys in my stocking and tried out a new boat set in the bathtub (while also sporting sunglasses on a random whim)...

then later in the morning i got to open my special presents - a set of wooden construction trucks - yessss!! i really like these and am sure to have lots of fun playing with them for a long time...

after spending the morning at home, we were finally off to the airport to fly on a plane to indiana! i had also been looking forward to this for a long time and couldn't wait to arrive. here i am in the airport looking cute and not at all like the disaster i might have been on one of the two flights we took that day. sorry, fellow passengers!

but we arrived safely on christmas night and got started right away with having fun (and sleeping less!). i have to say i really like visiting my relatives in indiana, and i think they like having me there too - here i am with all the guys! there are lots of girls around up there, and they're super fun, but sometimes the guys just like to hang out together (now that there are enough of us to actually constitute "the guys")...

and here's a picture of beamee's christmas tree loaded up with presents - what's not to love about that?!?! i told you this place was fun...

here i am hauling around my "trunki" from selt - super cool! my very own suitcase!!

i received many other neat things too, and i'm so thankful to everyone for thinking of me. we had fun opening gifts on saturday and i took a really long nap to recover from my sleep deficit, and when i woke up, this is what had happened - AUGH!!!

it had been snowing gently ever since we arrived on friday, but it wasn't until sunday afternoon that it had accumulated to this, and mommy bundled me up to go play outside - yahoo! these are my first ever steps in actual snow...

here i am venturing out into it a little further, enjoying the crunch crunch under my non-snow-boot regular sneakers, which the melted snow ever so slowly penetrated...

and here i am putting my non-mitten-covered hands into the fluffy white stuff to discover what it's like...

and here i am immediately after that, coming over to mommy...

to wipe my frigid hands on her pants...

and to let her know how i really feel about this stuff!!

had this smart woman lost her mind? where had she taken me? where is the indiana i used to know and love, and what is this white stuff all over the grass? where is the sun? why am i covered in fleece from head to toe and still freezing my bohiny off? and why isn't beamee saving me?!?!?!

after being reassured by momma that this snow would not be the end of me and that it could actually be fun to play in, we borrowed some mittens from taylor (because why on earth would i own any?!) and decided to stick it out a little while longer... turns out i actually did like walking around in the snow, to see my tracks around the yard and just generally check out the white scenery...

i was a little bummed that the neighbor's playground was not as fun to play on when covered in cold snow, but i gave it a shot anyway...

and mostly just walked around with gabbee and taylor...

here are some more pictures of me outside. mom took a lot so that it looked like i was out here enjoying myself all day or something, but it was probably only about 15 minutes!

i guess all that snow wasn't the worst thing ever, but it definitely was not my favorite. i think i'll stick to texas for a while and just enjoy the view from inside beamee's house when we come to visit indiana in the winter. this face sums up my final opinion of my first real snow experience...

but rest assured that when i came back inside, i got a warm bath and some sympathy from everyone, and then grampee fed me one of my favorite treats - crushed ice. :)

i continued soaking up the sympathy from aunt elaina with some whip cream from her starbucks drink...

and here i am later eating up high on a special chair grampee rigged up for me... as you can see, no one goes hungry at beamee's house!! :)

the rest of the trip was full of fun hanging out together, playing games, and just enjoying the christmas season. somehow there is no group picture to post, or even one of all the kids - augh! it's just hard to keep up with the camera when there's so much fun to be had (and food to be eaten!). but i had such a wonderful time and miss everyone already. i guess the next time we'll be together again is in may to celebrate the arrival of my little brother!! i don't think i've mentioned on here that i'm having a little brother - but it's true - yahoo!!! we are so pumped. :) i'll close with a picture of my fun on the flight home, which mostly consisted of playing with the tray tables (and screaming some - sorry again!) and a picture of beamee and grampee (i miss you so much, thank you for all the fun at your house!). stay tuned next week for an update on the matthys christmas and more fun back at home... bye!