Sweet & Sassy

We desperately needed out of the house so Grammy came and got us and took us to Firewheel mall. Mommy needed to make some exchanges at Gymboree and Grace needed a haircut really bad. She was looking scraggly (if thats a word). Since Firewheel has a new Sweet & Sassy store by Gymboree Grace got to get a haircut. She wanted it cut and styled to look like kit's hair. Kit is her new American Girl doll that she got from Santa. What do you think? I doubt Daddy will be able to dry and flat iron it to look this way but it sure is cute!
Before:

After:

Christmas Day: Part III

In the late afternoon after Grammy's family left we celebrated Christmas with Grammy, PaPaw, Uncle Chicken, Aunt Shelley, Caleb & Leah. We always let the kids open all of their presets first. Then we all go out to the garage to see their big presents. When the kids are all done and settled in with food or toys we adults take our turn opening presents. We always all spend the night with Grammy and PaPaw and have a nice big breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and biscuits in the morning. The kids had a great time this year. It's so fun being a parent at this stage when kids are so excited about everything. To see it all through their eyes is so awesome!

Christmas Day: Off to Grammy & PaPaw's house

We went to Grammy and PaPaw's house to have Christmas lunch with Grammy's family. Thank you Great Grandma, Great Grandpa, Aunt Deb, Uncle Robert, and Uncle Rennie for the gifts.



Grace liked Great Grandpa's new hat!

Christmas Morning

We woke up around 8:00 am on Christmas morning to find that Santa ate his cookies and drank his milk.

Rudolph drank from the bowl of water that we left for him AND his nose turned the water RED!

And Santa left presents for Grace and Ava.


We then spent the morning opening lots of clothes and fun stuff from mommy and daddy!

Christmas Eve

This year we spent Christmas Eve at my parents house with all of my Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. The house seems to get smaller and smaller every year. We will soon also add the 1st great-great grandchild to this family. It's going to be a girl. Isn't that exciting. I slept the evening away in my parents room since I was pretty much still under anesthesia but the girls had a great time playing with all of the kids.
The girls got to open one present before we left for my parents house. The present was hand picked from under the tree by us. They were suppose to be able to help me out since I won't be able to tie any shoes for a while.

Wrist Surgery on Christmas Eve

Yes, I had surgery on my wrist on Christmas Eve. This was the only day that the Dr. had availabe and considering I'm going to be in a cast past my elbow for 6-8 weeks I would rather get it over with now before Summer gets here. Imagine having a cast on your arm in 100 degree weather. UGHH! The Dr. was able to reattach all of the torn ligaments in my left wrist. Thought I would share a picture of the arm. It doesn't feel so great but it shoud soon. It's the itching in places that I can't reach to scratch that drives me so crazy. Sice I'm not ver good at typing with one hand you will most likely see more pictures than words for a while.

Meet Wilbert

Wilbert is Our Elf on the Shelf. He has been great to have around this month and the girls have enjoyed waking up every morning to see where Wilbert has decided to sit for the day. The have already asked if he has to go home on Christmas Eve night.

Christmas with Mommy's Family

On Sunday we celebrated Christmas with mommy's family. Everyone was there to enjoy lunch and presents. The kids had a great time playing. Thank you Grandma, Poppy, Aunt Vangie, Uncle Dale, Parker, Aunt Sara, uncle AJ, Mason, & Jackson.

The Best Present Ever

My sweet husband has known for the past year how frustrated that I have been with my small digital camera and how much I wanted a Canon Rebel EOS XSI. Yesterday morning he went out to the grocery store to buy some things that we needed and came home with an early Christmas present for us. This is what he got. I love it and I got some of the best pictures yesterday when we celebrated Christmas with my family. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME! I mean US!

Christmas shirts

I finally had a chance this afternoon to sit down and make the girls some Christmas shirts that I have wanted to make for a few weeks. I'm glad that I had the chance to get out my sewing machine. It's been a while and I realized how much I have missed it. I have also learned how to make hairbows and have made some really fun ones lately. I guess now I have to make matching bows. I seem to not be in the normal red and green mood this year. With the exception of one dress everything that I have bought or made this year seems to be pink, green, and turquoise. I think that I need to add some pink stones or something to the trees. What do you think?

Bethlehem Revisited

Travel back to Old World Bethlehem. This Christmas season will be like no other you have ever experienced! Imagine being able to step back in time, 2000 years ago, and walk the streets of ancients Bethlehem as Mary and Joseph did on the night of Christ's birth.
Looking for a room, they not only encountered innkeepers on their journey, but also merchants, food vendors, craftsmen, tradesmen, clergy, and many other citizens as well as live sheep, camels, and donkeys. The streets were bustling, they will be for you, too.
Stroll around the walled city and see demonstrations of historic crafts as you journey to the site of the nativity. You can also visit Herod's Court and await the nightly parade of the three kinds bringing their treasure to Bethlehem's newest citizen.

This Saturday night we took Grace to Waxahachie to see Bethlehem Revisited. This was so neat to see and experience especially for Grace. We talk about Christmas and why we celebrate it and how Jesus was born in a "barn" but this was a way for us to talk about it again with Grace in a way that she could see it and understand hands on. This is something we will definitely do every year.

Nutcracker in a Nutshell

On Saturday afternoon I took Grace to the Eismann in Richardson to see The Nutcracker in a Nutshell ballet. It is a shortened version of the ballet just for small kids. Afterwards, they have a Sugar Plum party where you get to have cookies and juice with the ballet company. Grace and I have been reading the Nutcracker book for a while so that she would understand the ballet. She really liked it and she got to see really well since we sat front and center. When we went to the Sugar Plum party she saw lots of little girls getting autographs from the characters. She asked me what they were doing and when I explained she was determined to get lots of autographs. She did just that. Her favorite person in the story is Clara so she was really excited when she got to have her picture taken with both Clara's. The Clara on the left was in the ballet that we saw and the Clara on the right was in the next show.

Family Pictures 2008

It's been way too long since we had family pictures taken. The last family picture that we had taken was on the beach in May 2006 just a few months before Ava was born. We had these pictures taken and I just got them in the mail. I did not post the picture that will be our Christmas card this year. You will just have to wait to see that one.

I have always wanted to have pictures taken at this place and have already put the girls on the list to have their picture taken in the bluebonnets and the stream in the Spring. I'm hoping that one of these from the Spring will land above my mantle in a nice large print.

Ho Ho & Claus - What do you call him?

Grace has always referred to him as Ho Ho.
Ava calls him Claus. She didn't call him anything last year.
What do you call him?

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Yesterday was Ashley's birthday so to celebrate we decided that we would make it a whole day of family fun. We went to Grapvine to ride the North Pole Express train. The girls love trains and we so excited to get to ride one. This particular steam train was built in like 1896 and most of the parts are all original. Which means it is well over 100. The departure portion of our ride went well with lots of songs. The return part of our ride was going well with a visit up and down the aisle by Santa Claus or Ho! Ho! as Grace calls him. Then all of the sudden there was this loud boom and you could see all this smoke come off of the train. This made the train stop. After sitting for about 20 minutes they told us that we blew a piston and that they were sending a diesel train to come pull us back to the station. After another 40 minutes and lots of available options given to us for our return: put us on another train, pull us with the diesel that they just brought or push us with the front of the train that is now the caboose they finally got us back to the train depot. We stayed on the original train and they pushed us back. Good thing that they had lots of snacks on the train to keep all the kids quiet for a while.



After our exciting train ride we went over to the Gaylord Hotel to look at the lights and displays. We originally also wanted to see ICE but it was just too cold for the girls. Check out the ingredients for this gingerbread house and notice that the list doesn't give the candy count. If you look closely at the pictures you can see where people have picked off pieces of the candy. Did they eat them? That is gross!


Then we went to a really late lunch at Outback and home to have cake with Grammy and PaPaw. Grace and Ava made daddy his birthday cake.

I got the cutest picture of the girls with Santa at the Gaylord. I didn't think that Ava would get close but the way that they approach all of the kids was so sweet and gentle that there wasn't one kid that I saw cry. There were a few odd faces but no screaming and crying. My scanner is having technical difficulties but once it's fixed I will scan and upload the picture with Santa.
Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you!

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving day. I am so thankful for our families and wonderful friends. We spent this year with Ashley's extended family where all of the kids had the best time playing outside in the fort/restaurant. What kid doesn't love that monsterous playhouse? Grace has said all month that she is thankful for her family. Whenever she has drawn a picture this month at either church or school or even home about what she is thankful for she always draws the cutest family picture of all 4 of us. Cousin Caleb had his tonsils removed the day before Thanksgiving so he had to hang out and take it easy all day at Grammy and PaPaws hosue. Grace was so sweet to hang out in the room and watch TV, eat, and color with him all day. Even with a backyard full of kids playing she wanted to stay with Caleb and make sure that he was okay. So Sweet!

Turkey Cookies

The girls decorated turkey cookies that we made tonight. They turned out really cute. Grace and Ava love crafty projects so this was even better than scissors and glue because after they finish they get to eat their own artwork. Ava only made one really messy ugly turkey cookie. She had already decorated 3 turkey's so by the time she got to the last one she didn't care.

Thanksgiving Feast

Today was Grace's Thanksgiving Feast at school. Her class did a short presentation before eating that told about Thanksgiving. Grace had letter "O" and "X" to recite. She did very well and remembered her lines. The class then did their silly, get out your wiggles song, and then they ate. The kids were either a Pilgrim or an Indian. Grace was an Indian which I think completely fits her personality. If she was a Pilgrim she probably would have defected from them in the end.

Confessions of a Mother

If you look at most of our October pictures you will notice a big sore on Grace's nose. You just won't believe what her mother did! Her mother took her to the Sachse Fall Festival and forgot to put sunblock on her and Ava. The girls both got terrible sunburns on their faces. Grace had little blisters on her nose and then when she went to school on Monday she fell outside on the playground and broke the little blisters which caused a big sore to form. How does a mother forget that just because it's not Summer you can't get a sunburn? Poor Grace. The sore has luckily healed but you can her mom won't forget the sunblock again.

October Flew through

So it's been a while since I have updated with the exception of the girls Halloween picture. So check back to find a few updates of what we did this month. The month was full of fun times: the Sachse Fall Festival, Grace's 1st field trip (in the school bus), Covington's Fall Fun Day, the Ft. Worth Zoo, Ava's Fall Fun at MDO, and last but not least Trick or Treating.

Trick or Treat

We had our usual Halloween fun with Ashley's family. We started a tradition a few years back of eating dinner at their home and taking the kid's trick or treating. The kid's all have a great time together.

Grace, Caleb, Leah & Ava

Grace and her goodies

Ava and her goodies