The Bankston Family: Christmas 2011

Oh Christmas was so much fun this year! Some of these might be out of order but I will just tell the stories. On Christmas Eve we stayed at our house (we have decided to do this for the girls so that they will be in their own house on Christmas morning). Matt and I attempted our first Gumbo- pretty brave to do that on Christmas Eve! I will say it was pretty darn good but we are excited to try again in the future. We also made Christmas cookies and had Laura, Clay and Lilly over to help. Addison just ate cookies for dinner as you can see. AND I let her. I'm just not that kind of parent that won't let their kid have sweets! She certainly doesn't do this often but I just love the joy in her eyes and know that you are only a kid once!!

All afternoon the girls ran around the house and just goofed off with one another.

Here is Addison digging into the cookies and icing. I had to laugh cause I didn't add enough food coloring for the red and it just turned out to be a nice shade of pink! I do love pink and green:)

This little lady is SERIOUS about her icing! She was very quiet the entire time and just got down to business!

Melody enjoyed a few bites too!

Eating the icing right off the spoon!

Ok, so the girls go to bed and we start working! This poor little jeep has been given to Addison SOOO many times only for us to realize she wasn't ready to drive! We have stored it at my parents house for a long time and we were excited to bring it home! Well, this was the year. She has loved it and gets better with every driving lesson. The wheel is a little stiff to steer but she is figuring it out. For the first few times I would be bent over steering for her while it sped off with Melody on my hip! That has worn me out! She has run over my foot twice and almost hit Melody so it is best to just carry her on the hip. I always wanted one of these cars as a kid and really kinda still do:) SOOO, I decided to hop on in! It was pretty rainy the few days after Christmas so we let her just drive it in the house. We would go a few feet then have to turn her around. This went on forever and she loved it!

One day in Hobby Lobby Addison wanted a Dora ornament. I cringed cause I knew it was breakable but she insisted on having it and it was 50% off (as is everything from Hobby Lobby). Sooo, off to the house we went with our new breakable Dora ornament. Within 30 minutes that sucker was in little pieces all over the kitchen floor. We avoided the meltdown by telling her to ask Santa for a soft Dora that doesn't break. So, she ran to the front window and looked out at our big blow up Santa and asked him just that. On Christmas morning she was so excited and kept saying that it was a "soft Dora that doesn't break." and sometimes she will say, "I want my soft Dora that doesn't break." She will even try to prove her point by throwing it up in the air and letting it hit the floor and will say, "Look! It didn't break!" So, Santa had put Dora in the jeep with a helmet on!

We had been talking about what to get Melody and just thought it would be silly to go out and buy all these toddler toys that we already have (that Addison has outgrown). We keep them in a closet and pull them out when Melody is ready for them. We would have just bought the same things! So, we dug everything out and found the coolest things that we knew she would love. She is sooo musical and we found neat radios and drum sets and stuffed animals. We also knew this would probably be the last year we could get away with this! Our biggest worry was if Addison would call us out on it since she has such a great memory. She never said a thing! It was so weird going through all those toys too cause they were things Addison played with when she was 17 months old. Just seems like yesterday. Even after all that, Santa didn't disappoint! He made sure Melody AND Addison had their very own NEW toys. He was so thoughtful. He wrapped all of Addison's gifts and left Melody's unwrapped since he knew she was too young to do it herself!

This is when she first came out of her room. She was SO talkative but very calm about the whole situation! We didn't know what to expect.

We we SOOO proud of Addison's attitude the whole day. We were pretty concerned leading up to it. She does best with just a few toys. When there are too many new things she gets really overwhelmed and easily frustrated. I would too! I wouldn't know where to start if I had all these cool things laying around the house.

Melody LOVED her radio! She was jammin' out right here! I do love her bed head!

Addison found a sweet little crown in her stocking. Melody now enjoys wearing it like sunglasses.

Diggin' through the stocking!

This is so much fun!

Melody found a really cool Elmo phone. She loves to pretend that everything is a phone- remotes, pens, water bottles....

Addison also got the whole Little Mermaid crew! Here she is admiring Sebastian.

And Santa never forgets the pups. They got bones in their stockings and looks like Melody stole a few for herself!

Santa was really hungry and loved the Christmas cookies that we made. For breakfast we had our homemade cinnamon rolls that are AMAZING! This has become a tradition for us and we like to make them every year and hand them out to friends and family. We doubled the recipe this year and we may have to triple it next time! We brought 2 huge pans to Ruston for brunch and they were a hit! Nona especially loved them- I was so glad she did cause when she likes something, you know it's gotta be good!

When we were at Totsie and Papas guess who showed up?? We were all in the living room and he just walked up on the deck! The girls have never seen him in person. Addison did amazing and wanted to go to him immediately and Melody had a very normal reaction!

Here she is waving to Santa through the window.

Not totally sure about this!

Isn't this priceless?? It's like one of those pictures that you would send to a show! Poor Melody. I picked her up right after that though. Had to get the shot!

Hangin' out with Nona

Totsie and Papa got them this pink baby grand piano. They sure do love it! But when we got home we had to take the stool away (Melody is a big time climber) and take the legs off. So for now, it's just flat on the floor and they sit right in front of it and play away.

Papa also insisted on giving them this. Melody sure does love it- musical I tell ya.

I believe Melody had just stolen something from Addison and was making a run for it! She's got that look! Too funny and always keeps it entertaining at our house.