Christmas Eve Snow!!

What a beautiful gift to see snow on Christmas!
I always hoped for a white Christmas as a child but never saw one until now.
I was thrilled my boys could experience it.

Daddy was in the mix of all this fun but I never got a shot
of him as I kept having to dodge his snowballs
anytime I was in his vicinity.

Evan grabs a hand of snow to form his perfect
snowball.

A little cold to stop and smile for the camera, Mom.
I appreciated his effort though :-)


Steve had so much fun coaching Hayden
on the art of the snowball fight.
You can see Hayden was having a blast.

Another most special part of our Christmas Eve was
visiting MeMaw and to deliver her
some special framed pictures of the boys.
She has been recovering from
pneumonia for the past few weeks but
is doing so much better and for that we are thankful.
Her lungs are clear but she still has some swelling her in
her feet so we are praying for healing there
so she can return home soon.
We got to stay and chat as her hair stylist came
to fix her hair and give her a beautiful Christmas "do".
She looks lovely, doesn't she?
Oh, how we love her so...
She is a source of some of my happiest and most
precious childhood memories.
If you know MeMaw, you know what it means to feel loved.


.

Christmas Card 2009

Evan in "Close to You"

The Carpenter's "Close to You"
is our favorite bedtime song.
Melt.My.Heart.

How Evan Enjoyed the Snow...

I am bewildered as to this child's obsession with being naked.
I guess if my buns were that cute I would probably be running
around the house naked too...

It is amazing how many times a week you hear in the house,
"Evan, where are your pants?! Put some pants on!"
He just randomly appear unclothed, usually after going to the bathroom.

Unfortunately, naked boy only got to enjoy the snow from the window.
By the time he got around to clothes the Texas snow had melted...
We will hope for more this season that will stick!

"Nah, Nah, Nah, Hey, Hey, Hey Goodbye!"

Evan's First Dentist Appointment

I was very fearful of Evan's very first dentist appointment.
Before we even left the house he was screaming,
"I don't want to go to the dentist!! I don't want to go to the dentist!"
I just knew we were in for quite the morning.
All the bribery in the world was not convincing
this boy that a trip to the dentist would be worth it....

This was Evan at the dentist. I would not have
believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

He was a perfect angel.
He did everything the hygienist ask of him.
He did not protest one second.
He let her count, clean, and polish his teeth.

He got some cool sunglasses to wear
and was holding his "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" Mouse
that Aunt Melissa had given him.
What else does a boy need?
Mommy could not have been more proud!
Thank you, Lord, for
answering the small prayer of mine.
Physical restraint was not required.
Now, if we could talk about that when I
sometimes just try to get him in his car seat!

Indiana Turkey

Hayden's Kinder assignment was to disguise his Thanksgiving turkey.
He thought Indiana Jones would be the perfect cover up.
After finding an old back pack to cut up for a jacket and a
small braided belt for a whip he was all set!
We created a leather satchel and everything to complete the look.
Indiana Turkey was one handsome turkey
and he was so proud to take him to school.

Half Marathon!

Nothing better than seeing my sweet boys cheer me on
at the finish line of my Half Marathon!
They loved taking turns wearing my finisher medal on the way home.
I came in at 2 hr 20 min beating my last years time of 2 hrs 32 minutes.
I am so behind in posting this that since then I ran the
White Rock Half Marathon six weeks later on December 13 coming
in at 2 hrs 15 minutes beating my November time by 5 minutes setting
a new personal record for me!
Running has been such a wonderful outlet for me
and keeps driving me to get stronger.
Anyone want to join me for the White Rock Half next year??
It is such a fun run and so beautiful with
tons of crowd support the whole 13.1 miles!

Halloween Fun

This sums up all our Halloween fun...

We were thrilled when we convinced Evan it was cool to be Robin so we
had the perfect Batman and Robin duo.

Wouldn't want to meet these boys in a dark alley, huh? :-)

The dynamic duo!

Batman and Robin get ready to race..
One of their favorite things to do is run up and down our sidewalk.


Who knew Robin wore little white Fruit of the Loom undies?

Quite the handsome Batman!

We decided to give our first shot at family pumpkin carving.
I let the boys pick out what they wanted to carve from some
online templates.
Of course they picked the most challenging of all choices,
the Star Wars X-wing starfighter.
I was a bit nervous about carving around the details of the little
wings but the $5 carving kit tools far surpassed my expectations!

Daddy cut the top and we let the boys dig out all the pumpkin "guts"
which they loved.
(We don't normally have the boys shirtless and in underwear
but we figured this project would be messy very fast!)

The pumpkin guts were every bit as entertaining as I thought they would be.

It is definitely an X-wing!
Sadly even indoors it was moldly and so
gross within about 2 days that we had to throw it out
way before Halloween.
I will know better next year on how to keep the pumpkin mold free.

On the day of Halloween, we took a fun
family outing to the Arboretum.


They had trick or treating there that day
which we didn't even know they were going to have.
That of course was an extra fun surprise for the boys.
Evan just dropped to the ground in the middle of the
walkway and starting pulling out the chocolate-
I totally understood his chocolate enthusiasm.




Evan loves to go at his brother's face. Hayden is entertained...most of the time

Yes, I had to get my annual matching tees from Janie and Jack.


Hayden loved the Frog water spray fountains.
Evan... not so much.
It is always sweet to see him run to Daddy though for shelter.

Hayden Singing "5 Little Monkeys"

This was taken on the way to the State Fair. Hayden loves singing his songs learned in Kindergarten and Evan appreciates his big brother teaching them to him too!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Steve took the day off work so we could attend Hayden's first
Kindergarten field trip to the Pumpkin Patch.

We were assigned to this adorable little crew to supervise.

The boy huddle clearly having a blast.

The boys found the smells
of the animal covered wet grounds gross
yet entertaining at the same time - so cute!
We all enjoyed a trip in the hay wagon around the farm.

Hayden and his buddy, Kerry.

Apparently the peace sign is popular with the kids.
I saw it several times that morning when trying to snap shots.
You could not catch these boys not smiling.

To say that it was muddy was an understatement - we could barely walk without our feet sinking into the mud. We all left with what appeared to be mud shoes. Hayden hiked his pants in the patch to try and keep his jeans out of the mess.

The "mud shoe".
Steve got a stick and tried to help several kids
scrape some of it off with some success.

Hayden picks out his perfect muddy pumpkin.

Pumpkin was a bit misshapen but had
a very proud owner none the less!


Daddy of course felt the need to give the
last bit of the feed to the beloved longhorn
or should I say "Longhorn!"

Me and my "mini-me" - so happy I got to spend that morning with him!

Hayden and his teacher who we love.

We had a great day- mess and all! :-)