Crazy Month :)

What a crazy month! I definitely need to be updating this blog more often with our fabulous family adventures.

Weekend in Tennessee (Jan 9 - Jan 11): Ryan and I had a super fun getaway at the beginning of January! Ryan's brother and sister in law live out in Tennessee. His brother has a "Polar Bear Campout" every January and Ryan and I have gone out there for the campout the last two years. Ryan and his brother go out and camp in FREEZING temperatures and my sister in law and I go shopping and sit by the nice warm fire :) We even got manicures and pedicures this year!

Weekend with Husky the Bear (Feb 5 - Feb 9): Little Miss's class has a class bear and once in a while she gets to bring him home. We spend the weekend showing Husky what our family likes to do and then she and I write about what we did in the journal and send it back to school. It's a great way for her to remember things and she also helps me write the journal entry. Husky came home the weekend of Feb. 5th. He helped us open the big box that was waiting at our front door. It was a present that Meme and Grandpa got for the kids. They each got a new Tag Reading System and Books. The kids think these are really cool and they are great educational toys. Little Man especially love the T-Rex book! Husky was also around when we built amazing structures with our tinker toys. He played outside with the kids on the deck over the weekend and even went to the awesome birthday party that we went to on Saturday!

Valentine's Day (Feb 14): Valentine's day this year was fun! For the kids Valentine's Day at school we decided to make our Valentine's cards again this year. We decided that we would make heart shaped crayons. It was so much fun! We rounded up all of the kids old and broken crayons and took all of the paper off of them. We then bought a silicon "cookie" sheet with small heart shaped molds. We broke up their old crayons and put a bunch of different coloured crayons in each mold and baked them in the oven for about 10-15 minutes on a low temperature. Then we let them cool for a bit. Once we took them out they were so neat! We then made our own cards that said "Happy Valentine's Day for "crayon" out loud". Finally I had each kid write their names on them and we stuck the crayon in the middle of the card.

Museum of Nature and Science Trip (March 11): We took another wonderful trip to the Museum of Nature and Science at Fair Park. Our wonderful friends took us along on another great day! We played in the water, banged on the instruments, played in the anthill, gathered items from the Farmers Market, and milked the cow. We then sat down for lunch and decided to trek on to the Texas Animals Exhibit which included Texas Dinosaurs, Ocean Dallas, Ice Age Dallas, and Wildlife Dioramas of Texas wildlife and wetland animals. They had displays of many of the different Texas animals along with a rocks and minerals section. They even had a real Paleontology Lab in the basement where we were able to watch real scientists working on fossils!

Kitchen Renovation: There is an end in site in the kitchen renovation!! My kitchen renovation started on May 24, 2008. My dad is a fabulous woodworker and offered to redo my kitchen cabinets for me :) Little did we know that it would turn into a year long renovation! We took off all of the cabinet doors, threw out the old cabinet drawers, and sanded down the existing cabinet frames. Then my dad rebuilt all of the doors and drawers. Finally we stained and polyed everything. Ryan and I ended up buying a new stainless steel dishwasher, microwave, cooktop, and double oven. Once we did that we realized that we'd have to rebuild an entire section of the kitchen. So my dad just finished and installed the double oven area. We decided to keep the double oven area but do away with a cabinet that was there and now we added a small "mud room" type area next to the garage door. I'm so excited!! Hopefully the entire renovation will be done by May so that we won't cross the year anniversary... I'll keep you updated :)

Here's the first week of cabinet demo and sanding.

May 2008

June 2008: Granite countertops go in, Dad putting on new drawer slides and backsplash has been demoed

November 2008: We've got doors (sort of) and a backsplash!

That's what's been going on the past month and an update on the ongoing kitchen project. I will definitely keep this blog updated in the future :)

We are all potty trained! (for the most part) :)

I'm so happy
I'm so happy
I'm so happy when I'm dry
So I'm going to the potty
Every hour, I will try
(Sing to the tune of Oh My Darling)

We have finally finished potty training at our house! With Little Man finally trained we are DONE with diapers!! :)

We decided to potty train Little Man over the Christmas holiday. He got out of school on December 18th for Christmas, so we talked it over with him and went full force potty training on Friday the 19th.

One of my best friends told me how she potty trained her son so I pretty much did what she did but with some "Little Man" modifications. We made two huge charts that said Pee and Poop and made a racetrack in the letters. I told him that every time he peed or pooped in the potty that he would be able to put a Car sticker on the racetrack of the Pee or Poop. (He also got an M&M every time he went.) For every 5 pee stickers he got a prize of a die cast Cars character. For every 2 poop stickers he got a different Cars character. We had our "pee pee" Car and our "poopy" Car :) So we stocked up on M&Ms, die cast Cars characters, Cars stickers, and Cars and Toy Story underwear and off we went. He LOVED putting the stickers on the chart and picking out his M&M. Once he got the hang of it, we kind of let him forget about the stickers and the Cars but we still do the M&M occasionally if he asks for it. All in all it only took us about 10 die cast Cars to get through the entire potty training event. Well worth every penny :)

He pretty much peed and pooped on himself for the first week. After the second week he kind of got the hang of the peeing but we still hadn't pooped in the potty. About a week and a half into it he finally pooped on the potty and he was so excited that we haven't looked back! As of right now (about 2 months later) he is peeing and pooping on the potty almost by himself. We still ask him occasionally to go if he looks like he needs to go, when he gets up in the morning, or when we are fixing to leave the house. He is doing great and has had minimal accidents since he got the hang of it. I'm so excited! I was really nervous to potty train him :)

Christmas and our newest tradition, Frank 2008

Christmas this year was wonderful as always. We are so blessed to live close to most of our fabulous families. We are also blessed that all of our families get along so well.

This year we started a new tradition with the kids. We heard about the Elf of the Shelf from one of my favourite blogs, http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/. I got it in mid-December and we started it right away. I believe it was Dec. 13th. So the idea is that you get the Elf of the Shelf and he comes with a book to read. Basically, the Elf shows up at your house right after Thanksgiving each year. He watches you and your kids and each night he leaves the house and reports back to Santa on your goings on. Then he shows up each morning at your house in a different location (it's so much fun watching the kids run around looking for him)! Your kids can talk to him about good or bad things they've done or tell him what they want for Christmas so that he can report back to Santa. We named our Elf, Frank, after my grandfather and it so fits him :) I love this new tradition.

So Christmas morning Ryan, the kids, and I all got up. Santa had eaten the cookies and milk we left for him and he had also taken Frank back to the North Pole to get him rested up to come back to our house next year. The kids ran down the stairs and saw some of the bigger Santa presents out and around. We opened all of our family presents and then had a great Christmas morning breakfast. All the family came over (my parents, Ryan's parents, and my sister and her boyfriend) around 3 pm. We opened all of the family presents and then had Christmas dinner (which included delicious beef tenderloin that my husband made). Overall it was a wonderful Christmas!

Me and the kids just before opening presents, me and Ryan (this picture was taken by Little Miss :) ), and Little Miss opening a present from Nana (with Ryan's mom, Meme, and my mom, Nana in the background)

I will tell you that that afternoon I started to feel really achy and sick. After everyone left it got worse. I ended up being super sick for 5 days after Christmas. My poor husband spent his entire Christmas vacation taking care of me and our kiddos.

Our tv room before Christmas morning, my father in law with the picture frame that Ryan made for him, and Santa's letter to the kids :)

A Different Christmas Poem

A DIFFERENT CHRISTMAS POEM

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter, beside me, angelic in rest,

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight,
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve,

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But, I opened my eyes, when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps, outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door, just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!

"For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,

I'm out here by choice.
I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers.

"My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue. An American flag.
"I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.

Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled .
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That, we mattered to you as you mattered to us.

Neighborhood Outdoor Christmas Movie Night

Baby it's cold outside, oooh
Baby it's cold outside, oooh
Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby Ba - Ba
Baby Ba Baby Ba Ba
Baby it's cold outside
~Family Song (we made it up :))









For the past two years our neighbors have been having a Neighborhood Outdoor Christmas Movie Night. The neighbors have a huge blow up movie screen to watch the movie on. They make hot chocolate and provide hotdogs for roasting and all of the makings for s'mores. They have a huge fire structure to cook our hotdogs and s'mores over and also have two chimineras for warmth. We all bring a side dish, our lawn chairs, and a bunch of blankets.








This year's double feature started with Home Alone followed by A Tuna Christmas. We only made it through the first movie with the kiddos but it is always so much fun! Today the high temperature was 71 degrees and a cold front came through just before we started the first movie and it was around 35 degrees. We were SOOOO cold!

Little Miss's Christmas Program

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say
On a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day
That's the island greeting that we send to you
From the land where palm trees sway
Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night
Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way
To say "Merry Christmas to you."







This year's wonderful Christmas program was "Christmas Around the World". Each of the classes sang a song from another part of the world. Little Miss has been singing Mele Kalikimaka for the past two months and was super excited to sing for all of us :)
These pictures are of her with her school class and with her teacher.

Chrismas Cookies 2008

I sure do like those Christmas cookies sugar

I sure do like those Christmas cookies babe

The ones that look like Santa Claus

Christmas trees and bells and stars

I sure do like those Christmas cookies babe

~ Christmas Cookies by George Strait

Yesterday we continued our family tradition of making Christmas cookies! This is by far my most favourite family tradition and my kids have come to love it as well.

Each year we all get together (this year it was me and Ryan and the kids, my mom and dad, his mom and dad, and my sister and her boyfriend) and make an entire day of lunch and Christmas cookie decorating. We all brought a batch of sugar cookie dough along with another cookie dough or dessert item. Each of us also brought our special cookie cutters to use.

Here are Little Miss and Little Man decorating their cookies. Little Miss did a really great job of decorating and Little Man was so into it this year!

We got to mom's house around noon and had a wonderful lunch of Andra's corn chowder. Then the decorating began. We made candy canes, bells, Santas, and reindeer. And then we made the not so traditional cowboys, fish, unicorns, and t-rexes. Lara's boyfriend was so funny this year, he kept making each cookie look like an animal, no matter what it was supposed to be (my favourites were the bell that became a Christmas octopus and the candy cane that became a caterpillar).

(Here are me and my sister.)

Left to Right: Little Miss and MeMe (Ryan's mom) - Little Miss, Little Man, and Nana (my mom) - Ryan with his green glitter decoration gel :)