Sunday, December 27, 2009

Christmas morning

Riley woke up to find a Wii, My First Craftsman Air Compressor Set, and a new outfit!Alex found a kitchen, vacuum, and a new outfit.

Then we continued to ensue the spoiling with more games from Uncle Travis & Aunt Jamie.
My prissy little girl loves her new purse and phone!

Transformer!
Alex's favorite of all gifts was her new backpack! She thinks she is big stuff with a backpack!

Who needs presents, we got snow!

Shortly after opening all our presents, we decided we could play with toys anytime, but you can't always play in the snow.Cheyenne
A rare picture of Mickey, he usually hides when he sees the camera.

This was Riley at first. He was so afraid that he would get snow on his pajamas.

But then Daddy went outside. Snow had completely filled our drainage ditches in front of the house. So Randy picked Riley up and dumped him in the snow. It would have been lots more funny if the snow had not already been packed down. Either way, Riley got over being worried about getting snow on his pajamas.

Snowball fight!
Daddy started it!
Alex all bundled up!

Just before we could get bored, Randy came up with a little Aggie engineering! He attached the hard plastic table to a cable and the cable to Papaw Richard's Ranger that they use for hunting. And a sled was born!

We really were amazed that in the neighborhood no one was out enjoying the perfect snow.
Then peer pressure got mommy to put down the camera and join in the fun. It was LOTS of fun, but a little cold!
Randy was a big wimp and wouldn't trust me driving down the street. (Even though he nearly slung us into a stop sign & a brick mailbox!!) But he did let me pull them around the backyard one time!
It was really too bad that all the snow fell on Christmas eve. We could have stayed out and enjoyed it all much longer, but we knew we had company coming and had to clean up the house before everyone arrived.

Christmas 2009

Christmas afternoon was spent with my mom & dad, cousin Jamie & her son Caleb, and my Aunt Jeanne. My parents came over about noon. Right after we returned from our "sledding" I called them and told them to be sure and wait about 45 minutes before heading our way. I didn't know what the rest of the roads looked like, but I knew our roads were still icey. Sure enough mom & dad said the roads were fine, until they reached our subdivision and then the roads were not real great, but driveable. Randy got a tool case and I got photoshop elements. I am so excited, but now I have to spend some quality time figuring out what all it will do so that I can have perfect pictures too.
Mom told me not to buy her anything, but I couldn't resist when I saw this movie picture. It was too perfect for her movie room.

Gampa helps Alex open her little people house.

Aunt Jeanne tries to get Alex & Caleb to pay attention and open the presents. It didn't work they were both tired of opening. So the adults had to finish opening everything.

Family picture 2009

A rare photo of just the two of us.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Eve Gift

We have an old family tradition that started long before the age of caller id. The point is to be the first to say "Christmas Eve Gift". Mom thought that Riley was old enough to be let in on the game. But it backfired. Riley misunderstood the game. On Christmas Eve Eve I stayed up late wrapping all the kids presents. I woke up on Christmas Eve to find this!Riley decided that the game meant that he could open his gifts on Christmas Eve. OOPS!

The real Christmas Eve gift/surprise came that afternoon when it started snowing! That makes twice in December in TEXAS! Who ever heard of a white Christmas in Texas?

That evening we decided to brave the elements and head to church for the Christmas Eve service. Alex looked absolutely precious! The service went wonderful although we did have to drop Alex off in the nursery because she did not want to sit still throughout the service.
We decided to make Christmas day go a little smoother that the kids would open a few presents at Nana & Gampa's before we headed to church. All of those presents will stay at Nana & Gampa's house. Thank goodness because they got a keyboard!My prissy little girl got lots of bracelets.
Our way home did not go as smoothly. The ice was starting to build on the bridges. Our trip was slow, but moving until we hit the hit the bridge from 35 to 287. We came to a stand still. All the trucks could not make it up the hill. Finally a sand truck showed up. We waited another 20 minutes for the trucks to start moving. Most of the trucks started moving, except for the 2 in the lanes in front of us. 45 minutes later we made it up the hill. Needless to say we had to write a letter to Santa apologizing for no cookies and go straight to bed.
One last peek before I headed off to bed. I have to admit that this is one of my favorite times of the night, watching my sweet sleeping children. They are so precious. Merry Christmas little ones!

Holiday in the Park

This year my mom's Christmas list consisted of one thing, quality time with the family doing something Christmas. So on Monday night, we took advantage of the warm weather and headed to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags. It was perfect weather and we had so much fun. Randy unfortunately was unable to join us because he had to work late. So the kids and I joined Mom & Dad. Right after we arrived, we saw Scooby Doo. Riley instantly wanted a picture, Alex as usual was not too sure of him.
Our first ride was El Sombrero. Riley was so excited and loved it, until about halfway through. Then he started complaining that it was hurting his belly. I got worried, but thankfully the ride was over quickly and then, he wanted to ride again. But we didn't, we knew there was a whole park to show Riley and not near enough time.

After watching Riley and I ride, Alex wanted to ride something. So our second stop was the teacups. This was a new ride to Six Flags for me, but then again it has been several years since I did Six Flags. Alex LOVED it!
Our third ride was a ride that used to be called, The Avalanche Bobsled, although I have no idea what its name is now! Riley, Dad, & I stood in a 45 minute line while Nana & Alex went and rode the carousel twice. I think Alex decided that this ride was a little too slow for her taste though. Finally we all met up and headed to the train station to check out the winter wonderland area. This turned out to be no big deal, except a really long line to see Santa. We wisely chose to skip this one, since we had already seen Santa and he is not big on Alex's list of favorite people.
The good part was our photo opp place!
Holiday in the Park is not complete without a few treats. We indulged in hot chocolate, kettle corn, and a pretzel for Alex. YUM!
Six Flags has added lots of small rides since I have last been there. Unfornately most of them go in circles and I wasn't sure I could do any more circles so Gampa took over riding this one.

Finally no Holiday in the Park would be complete without a ride on the snowhill. At the time, I thought this would be our last chance to see snow in 2009. LOL!

We had lots of fun, but ended the night with a wet rear end!

The kids were such troopers. We didn't leave until the park closed at 10, well after bed time. But they were so well behaved and hopefully gave my mom her Christmas wish!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Classroom Party Day

Thursday was party day! First Riley had his Christmas party/program/birthday party for Jesus at school. Since I had my own school party that afternoon, I couldn't just take off and get a sub so my parents went in my place to the party part. Riley was so excited to be able to show off his friends and school to Nana & Gampa. Here Nana is helping Riley make his second ornament. (The first one had a tragic ending!) Then I guess they sang some songs. I honestly don't know what they were singing, but my guess is "You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry!
Shortly after the pizza party, I was able to leave my class for a little while and see the program.
They did a book exchange. Riley got a rebus nursery rhyme book. I thought it was really cool and Riley thought it was fun almost reading!


Then all the parents filed into the sanctuary for the Christmas program. I was so proud of Riley. He actually sang and did most of the motions.
My handsome little boy!
After the program, everyone filed into the reception hall for the birthday party for Jesus. Unfortunately we did not stay. Riley immediately started saying that his tummy was hurting and that he wanted to go home. He did not even want to stay and have birthday cake. So Mom & Dad took him back to their house for a nap while I returned to school for my classes' holiday party. The good news was he was not sick, but I still skipped out on my dinner with the old 3rd grade team. I was afraid that he might be coming down with something and didn't want to expose anyone else. At least he doesn't appear to be sick, but Riley has not quite been himself this past week. Although he told me today, that he just needs to spend some time with mommy without Alex or anyone else. I tried to make this better by playing a little game of Cars Bingo while Alex took a little power nap.




Christmas Activities

We have been so busy lately, although I don't have a lot of pictures to show for it. The good news is that I finally got in the Christmas spirit this week. On Tuesday night, my 4th grade team went out for our Christmas celebration. We have so much fun together although it is weird how different this team is from last year. Just a couple of minor examples to explain....last year's team got together to eat chips & hot sauce and drink wine. This year's team shares nachos and drinks beer. Last year's team meets for dinner and stays late. This year's team meets for dinner at 4 and we are home by 6. Again just different, and not necessarily bad.
Here we are at Flips posing with the bear...I think this group is a little sillier than our old group. Maybe that is a reflection of a younger team. Chelsea, Me, & Jennifer

Tiffany, Melissa (my partner teacher), & Tammie
Mom & Dad had picked up the kids for me so that I could enjoy dinner & not have to rush. But since we finished up early, we decided to go see some Christmas lights. We crammed Mom & Dad, Riley & Alex, Papaw & Nemo, and me all into one car and drove out to Interlochan in Arlington to see the lights. Luckily for us, it had not officially started yet. That meant hardly any traffic, but still lots of beautifully lit houses. This really put me in the Christmas Spirit. In fact, I was even able to come home and finally write my Christmas letter. Unfortunately there is a glitch in my holiday spirit. I thought I was ordering one hour cards from CVS. Apparantly my cards are being shipped...I ordered them a week ago tomorrow and I still don't have them! The labels are typed & printed, the letter is typed & printed, return address labels are typed & printed, stamps are even bought, but NO CARDS!

Wednesday at work, Tammie & Chelsea decided that we needed to liven things up if we were going to survive the week. The result was a 1980's flashback with beads & beautiful bowheads!

Showing off our beautiful works of art. I'm pretty sure we were the envy of Bluebonnet Elementary on Wednesday!! But they were right, we needed something to liven up the day!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

15 months old

Well "Missy Prissy" as she is called these days, turned 15 months old last Saturday. She is growing and becoming more girly every day. Last Saturday, the boys went to Randy's work to run the dozer and the girls went with Nana to the Bell Craft Fair. While shopping, I became increasingly aware that my daughter is even more girly than her mother. Don't get me wrong, I know how to wear a dress and even enjoy wearing a dress, but all Alex wanted to look at was the jewelry and purses. While she probably should be saying a few words by now, Alex is quite content to express herself with "at" and pointing. This sometimes means what's that? Usually Riley follows it up with telling her the names of all the objects around her. On Saturday, "at" meant I want that! In fact over one particular purse, we even heard, "OOOH! at!" Which I will take to mean OOOH! I want that! Too bad the purse was as big as she is!Speaking of size, my petite little girl has only gained one pound since her 12 month appt. She now weighs 19 pounds (5th percentile) and is 31.6 inches long (75-90%). Dr. Leffel is not concerned but did recommend us trying to add a little more fat to her diet. So in the mornings, she is getting 1/2 pouch of instant breakfast mixed in with her milk. (Which she absolutely LOVES!). Then she wants us to add butter and milk to everything else to make things more fattening. Just compare her chunky little legs at 5 months vs. now. By the way she was 14 pounds at 5 months.

Anyway, since my little girl is still insisting on putting things in her mouth, she does not have any jewelry yet. So Alex decided to make her own. She found the cookie cutters (that have probably never been used) and made them into bracelets. Aren't they pretty?



It is going to take some getting used to these girly ways, but maybe I can still teach her to shoot some hoops!