The Downing Family

We were able to spend Christmas Eve with my family in Denton. Sally had a wonderful time opening presents and playing with her cousins. What a special first Christmas.

A new family tradition...Daddy reading The Night Before Christmas.
Christmas dinner.
Ellyn is loving the snow!
Her new walk/ride toy!
A tutu!! How fun!!
"Oh boy! Look at all this paper I can eat!"
"Thanks Aunt Megan, I love my tutu!"
Ellyn got one too!!
Daddy and Uncle Mark.

We celebrated Christmas as our little family on December 23 before we headed off to Denton and OKC. It was a very special morning of firsts...Sally's first Christmas, first Christmas in Tulsa, in our house, etc, etc, etc. We are so blessed. Waving good morning to the Christmas tree. We do this every morning. I will be so sad when its not there for Sally to say hi to each morning. Sally's favorite place to hang out was this big present with my name on it...I was so surprised to see that it was a Keurig coffeemaker from Ted!
Sally and her rocking bunny from Santa.
Opening her dog, Violet. Violet is a big hit at our house these days.

Copper and Sally examining the wreckage. From the looks of this mess, I would say Christmas # 1 was a success!

Andress and Patrick came for a special Christmas visit. I am so thankful that they were able to squeeze in a trip to come see us. A & P, thanks for coming up during the craziness of the holidays- it made our Christmas holiday so special!

We were very busy with the usual holiday activities while they were here...opening presents, visiting Santa and ice skating....You know, the norm...wait a minute!!! It was such a fun weekend of good friends and fun, wintery events! The ice skating crew. It was beautiful downtown.
At the rink. Sally was a trooper. She slept for a while and then woke up to watch everyone slip and slide around.
Sally liked Santa...kind of. She kept looking back at us like, "Why am I over here with this guy and you are all over there together looking at me...this seems weird."
Andress and Patrick brought Sally the most adorable winter sweater. It was the first present she got to open!
Big fan of riding in the box. Patrick took her for a great ride around the living room!
Sweet, sweet friends.

Sally finally got to play with her very special friends, Mason and Hudson. They live in College Station, so it is now quite the trek to get together. Kim and Rhonda made the trip up to Denton when I was there earlier in the month. It was so fun to get to spend time together and catch up. I loved seeing Hudson and Sally play together. Hudson is 3 months older than Sally so he was able to show her all his tricks! Mason did a great job of being big brother to two little ones for a couple of days! The visit was too short, but I am thankful for the time we spent together. Next time Sally and I will make the trek to College Station to play!

Sweet boys.
Busy playing.
Precious Mom and Son.
Mason looks like he's ready to roll....3 going on 16?

Our Sally Claire turned 8 months old last Wednesday. Remember Animal from the Muppets? One of Sally's nicknames is now Animal...in a good way, of course. Ever since this little one became mobile, we have had some fun! She is in to everything. She can go anywhere, and she's getting very fast! Her newest trick is standing at the windows licking them. Nice trick, huh? I have got to get a picture of this! She is a big eater these days. Her newest favorites are cheese and waffles. Right now she really prefers jarred baby food instead of my homemade food. Apparently she doesn't think I'm the best cook! She is teething again...yea. She is working on her top four teeth. Laughing is one of her favorite activities. She still has a hilarious fake laugh. She now laughs everywhere we go...we get some looks in Target. Dada is her favorite word. Everything is dada right now. But Ted swears she said "Hi Dada," one morning. She waves now. She mostly waves hi. We're still working on bye bye. We are counting the days until Christmas. Her first Christmas should be amazing!

Happy Girl!
8 Months old with Lambie
"I'm outta here!"

She looks like she's about to take off, doesn't she?
This is a nightly occurance around our house. Sally and Copper help me cook dinner.
Sweet lil owl.

She's getting ready to be one of Santa's elves. Her very own Christmas tree.

Ted has been very busy lately! It is officially Christmas time at the Downings! More to come soon...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I can already tell that all of our holidays are going to be so much more special with our sweet little one. Everything has so much more meaning.

Sally and I spent last week in Denton while Ted was in Vegas with work. We all had a great time! Ted had fun "working," and Sally and I enjoyed visiting family and friends in Dallas. We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family last Sunday and then we came home for a couple of days and headed to OKC on Wednesday to celebrate with Ted's family. It has been a wonderful couple of weeks!

Pictures are VERY out of order...


Thanksgiving 2009


Red-headed cousins...Parker, Allie and Sally.

Sally just loved her buddy Parker!

Grandmums and Grampa and all the grandkids

Jill, Jenni and Ted ready for church on Thanksgiving day.

Thanksgiving in Bolivar. It was so fun to spend time in the country.

Nana and PopPop and all their grandkids.


Sally and her cousins on the Huff side.


Rob and Sally. She loves her cooler, older cousins!


Random picture from last week. She looks so busy in this picture. Pay no attention to the messy room...she had been very busy playing that day!!!


Lauren Margaret and Allison came to play while they were visiting Tulsa. It was so great to see them and the girls had a great time playing!


Ted and Sally playing with Sadie (I thought I got her in the picture) at Andress and Patrick's. Sally loves dogs right now. She has this completely fake laugh that she does when she sees them. Hilarious!


We also got to see Piper and Taylor while we were in Dallas. It was so fun to see Piper and Sally together and catch up with Taylor. I love seeing how the girls are developing.


We also got to play at Ava and Kristen's house. Sally pulled Ava's hair so hard that Ava cried!! Oh my goodness, I felt so bad! Sally and I are working on showing her love for her friends in different ways! I also really enjoyed spending time with Kristen. I always feel so refreshed after spending time with her.


The girls showing each other how fun the diaper bag can be!


We got to have a wonderful dinner with Megan, Eric and Rob. Sally loved playing at their house.