Christmas Unwrapped

Here's some of our Christmas pictures; yes I'm a few days behind. We had a nice relaxing Christmas at home with the kids. The kids were thrilled that Santa had come. Kenzie woke us up at 6:45 am, which is longer than we waited as kids!! ;) I ended up waking Aydan up at about 7:15 am because Kenzie was ready to get started and I figured Aydan would be excited too once he knew what was going on. As Aydan gets older, he is starting to really enjoy opening his gifts. It took him a little longer than it did Kenzie because after he opened each gift, he wanted it out of the package so he could play with it. We had to keep telling him he had more to open.

Kenzie passing out all the gifts.

Still trying to get woke up.

Aydan's new semi/car carrier from Grandma Judy.

Kenzie and her BFC (Best Friends Club) doll. It came with a journal and lock & key. I think that was her favorite part ;)

Playing with his robotic dinosaur.

This Thomas the train track was definately one of Aydan's favorite toys. He played with it almost non-stop practically all weekend. The train is battery powered and goes along the track by itself. He just loves to watch it go around and around. We've already been to the store to purchase more track and another train (and lots more batteries!!!)

Kenzie holding up her bath and body stuff she got in her stocking. I think it makes her feel so grown up! She's my big girl!

Wearing his new safety glasses and flashlight. He's ready to go to work. He loves to play with our flashlight so this works out perfectly!!


After the kids opened up their gifts, they spent the morning taking everything out of its packaging!! LOL, not really but I can't believe how much wire and tape and cardboard is used on kids toys! I about had to cut Barbie's hair to get the wires and rubber bands out of it! But anyway, that morning the kids were able to just lounge around and play with all of their new things.

For the first time ever, I made our Christmas dinner. It turned out pretty well. We had honey baked ham, corn casserole, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, fruit salad, rolls, and pumpkin pie. Yes, it was a lot of food for us but we ate leftovers all weekend!

We ended up having a very nice, relaxing Christmas at home. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas too!!

Sun, sand, and shells......in December

This past Saturday was such a nice day and we didn't really have any plans for the day so we decided we would run over to Galveston. Since it was off-season, of course there were no huge crowds, which made parking a breeze. There were some people walking the beach and others jogging on the beach, but overall it was pretty quiet, which was nice!

It was about 68 degrees with a slight breeze coming off the water. It was really calm and relaxing.
Kenzie hunting for shells. She has quite a collection at home.

Walking on the rocky fishing pier. Yeah, I slipped shortly after I took this picture so then we all moved to the sidewalk on the left ;) Note to self: Do not wear sandals while walking on rocks!

The water was very calm and the tide was low. The water was back further than normal but gradually started to come up on the shore more.

Caught her in her pitching pose throwing a shell :)

Aydan was covered in sand by the time we left! He just loves digging in it and getting dirty!

I just love going to the beach and I hate to say it but I think I'm ready for summer again!!

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

Since we didn't bring any of our Christmas decorations down when we moved, we had to start from scratch this year. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on a big new tree with all the ornaments and stuff right before Christmas so we decided to just go with a small tree for Christmas this year. Plus, at our current apartment, we really don't have all the storage space we would need to store everything until next year. The kids made all of the decorations and ornaments; they thought that was the coolest thing! Besides, its not really the tree that makes Christmas great.

Isn't it cute?

Say it ain't snow

Hey! I know, its been a while since I last posted. I like to keep you waiting :) I have a lot more things I need to post but first I need to find the time! Christmas is just around the corner so we've been pretty busy lately it seems.

I had this picture on my phone so I thought I'd share it. A couple weeks ago, there was a little Christmas festival at the park across the street from our apartment. I walked the kids over to check it out. They had hot chocolate, cookies, popcorn and other treats for the kids. Santa Claus even made an appearance. I think the biggest attraction though was the snow. Its real, but not. It didn't fall from the sky; it was brought in by truck. But, hey, whatever works right? Plus, this didn't affect the roads or sidewalks! They had 2 different little sections of it and all the kids loved it. They were throwing snowballs and just having a ton of fun! Unlike my kids, some kids rarely get to see snow, let alone play in it! Even when it snowed here after Thanksgiving, it never stuck to the ground so the kids didn't get a chance to play in it.

Ok, more posts & pictures to come soon.....

~~~~Merry Christmas!!~~~~

Snow, rashes, and other unpleasant things...

OMG!! Did you hear the news!! It snowed down here in Houston on Friday!! I couldn't believe it! Early in the week, the weather forecast predicted that we may see some snow but I thought for sure that it would be wrong because come on---snow in Houston---ridiculous, right?

Wrong!

Sure enough, Friday morning it started snowing, and it was coming down pretty good! The flakes were surprisingly huge! I have to say it was very pretty and it made it feel a little more like the Christmas season was upon us. I'm only happy that it DID NOT stick around and I WILL NOT have to shovel it or scrap snow and ice off of my car!!

People react to snow alot differently down here than in IL. The weather channel issued Winter Weather Warnings and Advisories for the area because they forcasted 1-3 inches of snow. Inches....not feet...and they issue warnings. Schools let out early and the bank I work for even closed at noon. A record low temperature of 29 degrees was set and another record for snowing for 2 consecutive years in a row was set. At our apartment building, people came outside excited to touch the snow as it fell to the ground.

And this week, the temperature is supposed to get back up into the 60's and 70's. I'll take it.

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In other news, poor Aydan had scarlet fever last week. If you are like me, you probably didn't think that was even still around. Thats what you get when you mix strep throat with a fever and rash, which I did not know. He had gotten a fever of 103 on Monday and I had to pick him up early from daycare. On Tuesday, his fever would come and go with medicine, but it didn't get as high as 103 again. He would tell me that his mouth hurt so I didn't know if he meant his throat or something else. Wednesday rolls around and fever is still coming back, and now he is getting a rash on his legs and back. So I call the doctor and get him in that morning. He tested positive for strep throat and thats when the doctor said he actually has scarlet fever. He got a prescription for antibiotic and is doing fine now. It did take a few days for the rash to go away. I am so glad that no one else in the family got it (knock on wood!!) because he was very contagious.

Well, that about sums up our past week. Now we need to get everything ready for Christmas. I can't wait until we get our Christmas tree up; it just doesn't feel like Christmas without it!

~~~~~~~Merry Christmas to you all!~~~~~~~~~~

Thanksgiving 2009

This year was our first Thanksgiving away from our hometown and the traditions that we are used too but luckily we have family nearby that we were able to celebrate with. Aunt Vicki hosted this year's Thanksgiving dinner and we had a great time. Here are some pictures of our day; they are in the wrong order but you get the idea :)

After we ate dinner, the kids made smores in the fireplace. Yum yum!!

Kenzie with her smore. She almost passed up pumpkin pie so she could have a smore (but we let her have both.)

Gabriel taking his turn at roasting a marshmallow.

Uncle Jerry slicing the pie with his sons Aaron and Sean.

Aydan just had to help Aunt Vicki whip up the whipped cream. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "Makin punkin pie."

Fun on the trampoline before dinner.

Kenzie and her cousin Gabriel.

Aydan and his cousin Christian having fun in the clubhouse.

Christian, Gabriel, Sean, and Kenzie.

Uncle Jerry's homemade pumpkin pie. The pumpkin on top is so neat!

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We really enjoyed our Thanksgiving. Although we might not always think about it, we do have so much to be thankful for. When we moved from Illinois to Texas, we only brought what we could fit in our cars. We left many of our possesions behind and it really made me realize that its not the material things that matter. Having a happy, healthy family means more to me than any possesions I could ever have.

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and now the Christmas season is upon us! It doesn't seem possible that its that time of year already!

ideas?

I want a new title for this blog.....Any ideas???

Grilling out in November

Have I mentioned how nice the weather has been lately? I'm not trying to rub it in or anything but I just can't get over how different the weather is down here. It was almost 80 degrees out on Saturday and its November! I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever be able to use my winter coat!

Saturday evening we loaded our grill, our lawn chairs, and some food and headed over to the park. We thought it would be neat to grill out there and let the kids play.

We brought along some marshmallows too for dessert. Yum!

Kenzie grabbed the camera and said she was taking a picture of Aydan, but this is the picture she took! I think its awesome! She gets the award for "Best Photo."

Roasting some 'mallows. Kenzie said she like them all black. When Aydan tried to do his own, he mashed it around in the coals so we decided maybe he shouldn't make his own! :)

They are so good, but so messy!

Picture of the sunset.

With the time change, it gets dark so much earlier now! There was a nice, cool breeze coming off the water and as the sun went down, it actually got pretty cool out.

Something New

Friday night we got invited to go out to eat with some friends we met from church. Its always nice to get out of the house and spend time with other people our age, although we did have the kids with us. We decided to go to Ichibon's that is right down the road from us. We had never been there but the couple we went with said it was very good. Here are a couple pictures we took, but I posted them in reverse order.

The kids enjoyed some ice cream after their dinner.

The coolest thing about this place was that a chef prepares the food right at your table. They make it very interactive and fun. He put oil on the stovetop and lit it on fire. I think it scared the kids at first, but then they seemed to enjoy it. He did tricks with his knives and made different things out of the food. Its hard to explain; you just have to see it because it was really cool.

In this picture, he had just finished making the fried rice and was handing out everyone's bowls.

The food was so good and it was neat to be able to see it prepared before your eyes. Can't get much fresher than that! It was definately a different experience than we are used to and if it weren't for the friends of ours suggesting it, we probably would have never tried it just because it was different.

Enjoying the fall weather!

It's technically been Fall for about a month and a half, but for the most part, it had felt like summer here still. Finally, though, the past couple of weeks have been wonderful, in the mid 70's, so we have been really enjoying doing this outside. It's been great not to have to run the air conditioner and just have the windows open! Here are some pictures of the kids at the park.