Christmas with the Strouds...

Well, here are some pics from our trip down to see Ryan's side of the family... Hope you enjoy!

Christmas at the Swaringens...

Well, there really aren't too many "Christmas shots" as I was on a mini-camera strike, so I could actually enjoy spending time with my family, but here are some of the pics taken while staying with my family... :)

I guess you have to accept reality someday...

...so why not today?

Well, we finally were able to pick up Ryan's Chrysler LHS today from Shorty, and Ryan decided that it probably wasn't the most dependable car, so we should just trade it in and find a more dependable, reliable vehicle. We need a 4 door car because it is really annoying getting Eli in and out of our little 2 door Cavalier especially having Eli's carseat in there means whoever is riding in the passenger seat is going to sacrifice their knees because the seat is pushed up so far!


So today we headed into town to look for a nice pre-owned car. After lots of looking in the ridiculously cold, blistery weather, we ended up settling on a 2007 Ford Taurus with just over 21K miles. It wasn't our original choice and definitely isn't at the top of the cool cars list, but it is dependable, roomy, and gets half-way decent gas mileage. So that is what I am finally accepting... We are a growing family that needs a family car, so old people car, here we come!


I had called our military bank, USAA, and had gotten pre-approved for a loan, so it was really nice being able to not have to haggle with their finance guy, but to hand them a check from our bank and just worry about dealing with our bank not whoever they deal with. They also admitted that we got a considerably better interest rate than they could have given us, so that was also nice to hear!


I believe we handled everything really well and got $1800 knocked off the initial asking price... (After about an hour of back and forth haggling) That stuff is so much fun! The Salesman who was a former Army First Sergeant says that the dealership only made about $53.00 on the sale, but I really highly doubt that. They did fight hard with us over that last little bit, but we weren't budging on our intial demands...


Anyways, after literally 7 hours in the dealership, we finally headed home, and we can't wait to really start enjoying our "new" vehicle!


Here is a pic I found online. This is the closest I found to the actual color... Ours has a little spoiler though...

Our little Christmas at home...

Well, this year because we were heading down to our hometowns for Christmas, we decided we should open presents here, so we wouldn't have to haul them back to Texas... There were still some that I had for Ryan that I left in NC, and he shipped some down as well so I would have something to unwrap, but the bulk of mine and Eli's was definitely here. ;) Ryan though had equal amounts here and there...

Yes... I am THAT cool...What can I say... My toes just taste good!The Loot on Christmas Eve...I promise I like Daddy most of the time!My first chance at the presents on Christmas Morning! (Notice how Ryan didn't wrap most of Eli's... That will not be happening when Mommy does it next year!!!) ;) My first Bible... Yay... Now let me eat it!I love Tigger!Wow... what's this Mom? Monopoly?You mean you got me a game that I have to wait to play till I'm

like 8 yrs old!? What in the world, Dad!!!I guess I'll just have to play soccer then... Daddy's pile of loot... (He had a little more than this in NC)Mommy and Eli's pile of loot! (Daddy spoiled us this year!)One of my fav presents... It is a Mommy holding her little boy... I stinkin' love it! ;)Do you think he had a good Christmas!?

I guess I'll just start at the beginning...

Well, there is so much to go over, so I am just gonna show you some pics I took of Haylee and Eli for Christmas... Renee posted a lot of them, so I'll post some of the ones she did and some of the ones she didn't... ;)

We had so much fun taking these and Eli was so good... I made that little shirt for him, and he was just too cute in his little hat.

Alright, hope you enjoy...

Something to wet your whistle...

Well, we are finally back home, and we are so excited to be getting back to life as usual! Don't get me wrong, we had a blast back home, but it is time to get back to our routine...

Anyways, the house is a disaster, but I wanted to post a pic of little man so you won't forget how cute he is! Just kidding... like that's possible! ;)

Hope you enjoy! Will hopefully be back to blogging as usual in no time at all.

How does 7 months go by so fast?

Well, no one fall over dead, but I just had to post this blog post! ;) Trust me, I am not forgetting about our blog, but we have been in North Carolina and Georgia for the last 24 days or so, and I wanted to spend as much time with our families without focusing on Blogging. Plus I didn't have my Photoshop there and I hate posting pics without editing them! ;)

Anyhow, I wanted to blog about how our beautiful boy is now 7 months old!! I cannot believe that he is that old, but I guess I just need to get used to time traveling so fast! ;) He really is a wonderful baby, and we are so very lucky to have him in our lives. We have so many pictures that we took over the holidays that I will be posting once we get settled back into the house!

Sorry for no new pics, but I promise... they will come... ;)