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!

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!

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!

Trains at North Park

Yesterday my mom & dad took the kids to North Park mall to see the trains. They had a really good time, although Riley's excitement has waned alittle after seeing it 3 years in a row. I will never forget that first year that we went and Riley was hoarse by the time we left from yelling "Choo! Choo!" throughout the whole exhibit. It was truly one of the cutest things I have ever seen. That is the trouble with having two kids. Just when one is starting to outgrow something, the other one is just getting old enough to enjoy it.

They did a better job of having trains down lower this year, so Alex was able to experience all of it without having to be carried.

No vanity here, just an adorable baby!

Have to have a picture of the construction site. Is that Randy running that dozer?

My little engineer!

Mom with both kids

Gampa's turn

***Side note, they tried to go see Santa while they were there (about 2 o'clock) and they told them to draw a number and return between 5-7pm! Are you kidding???? It was a Wednesday afternoon and the kids are not even out of school yet!!!!!!!

Christmas pictures- take 1 & 2

The last 2 days I have been trying desperately, with assistance from my mom & dad to get pictures of the kids in their Christmas clothes. I think these pictures clearly show why I usually go to a professional photographer for Christmas pictures, no matter how great my camera is! Here is take 1 on Tuesday night...Alex decided she no longer wanted to pose with Riley, just stand in the chair!

Here is take 2 on Wednesday morning at Nana & Gampa's house. But of course enjoying their new nativity set was clearly more important!

Riley at least was posing!

New backdrop, same effect!

Aren't they cute together? I'm sure it was beautiful music...

On Wednesday evening after 2 parent conferences, I decide to squeeze in a visit with Santa. Riley, my easy going child, as usual was fine and content to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. Apparantly on Wednesday he wanted the hot wheels set that changes colors when the cars go through the car wash. Maybe he should have told Santa's helpers while they went shopping!

I don't think this picture will surprise any of you who have ever taken a toddler to see Santa!

Alex was completely terrified. I told the photographer to just quickly take the picture and then we moved on. I least I can say that my pictures reflect reality.
I wish that I could say that I have a great excuse for why this is my first post in WEEKS! But unfortunately, all I can say is the tree is decorated and the boxes are out of storage (NOT UNPACKED!). The Christmas cards are not even ordered yet, and my house is a disaster. I have not done any wonderful Christmas activities with my children this year. But we ARE finished shopping for the kids, and 3 other people...I will get there...eventually!

Riley's Thanksgiving Feast

One week before Thanksgiving, Riley's school had a Thanksgiving Feast. Since Randy's work had picked back up, I got a sub for the afternoon and went to go meet his friends. Before the food was served, they got dressed in their Thanksgiving attire. He looked so big and was so excited to have his Mommy at school. Then they got out their special placemats that they made for the occasion and sang their blessing prayer. Finally it was time for the feast made for 4 year olds to begin.
They had chicken nuggets, apple slices, grapes, macaroni & cheese, carrots, & juice boxes. Riley was in heaven. As the food was served, I was reminded how of lucky I am to have such a well behaved little boy. Immediately some started complaining about the food while others started crying and running to their moms because they didn't like the food. My wonderful eater just dug in and cleaned his plate, with the exception of his macaroni & cheese. Then he quietly asked if he could have a cookie too. My heart swelled with pride as I looked around and compared him with the other children.

Then he took me out in the hall to see their class Thankful Turkey. This was the things that Riley was thankful for.

After all the food was cleaned up the room mom sat them down in a circle to play the game. She had a baggie of candy corn for every child, but instead of just passing them out they played a game with them. She turned on music and whenever the music stopped the child holding the baggie got to keep it.

After every child got a baggie, they made apple turkeys. Of course Riley's didn't make it home before he had already started eating on it.

On a side note, the parents were supposed to eat with the kids. Unfortunately for me most of the moms took very little food, so I followed suit with one chicken nugget, a few grapes, and a spoonful of macaroni & cheese. I didn't mind too much because I thought that the brand new Freebirds was opening that day. So as soon as Riley's day was over, we headed to Freebirds. I saw people eating Freebirds, I smelled Freebirds, and then something horrible happened. The worker stopped me and told me that they were not opening until the next day. After all that, I wasn't allowed to eat Freebirds! I was crushed!!! Instead I had Taco Bueno through the drive through because Riley crashed on the way to pick up Alex.

Just wanted to include a picture of Alex in her favorite chair. She makes me laugh they way she will curl up in her chair with a book. I hope she develops Riley's and my love of books!