Merry Christmas

Before it gets to late to talk about Christmas, I wanted to share our absolutely wonderful time. I have decided that spending time with our little family of three can be amazing. Our Christmas Eve began that morning with a cleaning house blitz. This is yet another way I have turned into my mom. Santa will not stop at your house if you can't take care of the things that you already have. Next, we got to spend a lovely afternoon and delicious dinner with our friends Corey and Stephani. How grateful we are that they invited us last minute to share with them. We went home and frosted our cookies for Santa

and then Dan and Tyler did their special project:



After making a manger for Baby Jesus, we read Luke 2 and Twas the night before christmas

Tyler had been under strict warning to NOT come downstairs in the night. So at about 2:30 I hear my name being called. He had a cough that woke him up, and the excitement kept him up. After 1 hour, and a bath, he finally settled back down. We all got up for good at 7:30.


Santa definitely found our house. Unfortunately, the UPS man has not. My mom sent us a package, but thanks to their computerized system, our package ended up in Little Rock, and although we have been assured that it is on its way here, we still have not seen it. I hope it comes tomorrow!

We had the missionaries over for breakfast and stockings. Then we relaxed. That afternoon we went over to Dan's brother's house in Katy. Tyler loves playing with his cousins. Finally we came home, via the airport, where we picked up my sister who spent the weekend with us. Yipee!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Tyler

My baby is now 5. His birthday was yesterday, and, since he already had his giant party, we had a nice low-key day. His wishes for the day? Pancakes for breakfast and Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We had gone there for Uncle Tom's birthday, and Tyler really wanted to ride on the birthday saddle. It was hilarious!




I know that every parent says it, but I cannot believe how fast time has gone. It seems like only a few days ago that we brought home from the hospital this sweet bundle. At five, he really is a joy. Granted he can be found fibbing occasionally, and we sometimes have to put a stop to the whining, but overall we are lucky. He loves to play with his friends and his toys. He is beginning to read and getting better at writing his letters. He loves to learn about space and planets. He is polite and thoughtful. We love our guy. Happy Birthday!

My Birthday Boy

Well, I can add to my list. You know, the list you made before you had kids of things you would never do, but now have?

Last weekend we celebrated Tyler's birthday at one of those huge birthday party places. (Poor kid will never get a party on his actual birthday, December 26. We will always have to plan for the beginning of December or wait until January) It is a place full of inflatables just up the road from our house. I was never going to do one of those gigantic parties with a bazillion kids that costs more than any parent should ever spend on a birthday party, but we did. And, cost aside, I loved it.

It started when Tyler went to a party there in the fall. He totally wanted his own party there. So the seed was planted, and Dan and I began thinking about it. Then, we talked about who we should invite. As we started to name kids from school, I felt that we really ought to invite his whole class. And as we named kids from church, and from the neighborhood, suddenly we found ourselves with a large number. There was no way I was doing a party for a small army in my house, so we went with the big-ol' birthday party.

Like I said, it was really fun. All I had to do was show up with cake and write a check. They took care of everything else, down to a helper in the room to serve the pizza and write down the gift list. So happy birthday buddy!

(I am sure you will get another somewhat sappy post as his real birthday rolls around.)

One for the grandmas

Tyler wanted to show grandma this. He had his picture in the small, local, free paper when his preschool was part of a food drive. Which of course to him was the coolest thing ever. We promised grandma we would show her a copy, so here is the poorly scanned photo from the paper. (His name is below the photo, I just didn't want to post the names of the other kids.)

That time of year

Ah yes, that most wonderful time of the year. And I'm not talking Christmas. Nope. Tax time. I just got done writing out checks for thousands of dollars to pay our property taxes. It stinks, but we would rather keep that money in our own account all year and write the big checks than let the bank escrow it. Bye-bye money! Hopefully we'll see you soon in the form of wonderful schools and superb roadways!

My cute family

While we were in Utah, we had family pics taken. I just got ahold of the files tonight, and thought that I have such a cute family. See:

My family: Mom and Dad, next to my mom my older sister Rebecca, me on the left, my sister Maren on the right, and my little brother David.

And the whole family:

Baby it's cold outside

But it is supposed to be 74 on Sunday.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I love it. The weather here is cold (for Texas), all the decorations are up, and I just downloaded me some new Christmas songs. Yeah for Christmas!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving visiting my family in Utah. It is always so great to see them; we have so much fun playing together, and laughing. My sister is especially giggly when she gets tired. We also made sure to hit all the regular Utah stops: Seagull Book, Roberts Crafts, Shade, and Cafe Rio. We were also thrilled to be able to attend the annual trim-the-tree party. When we were little, my grandparents would host a party where we came down, helped decorate their house, cracked a pinata, and received a new Christmas ornament. My mom has carried on the tradition with her grandkids. Tyler has only been to it once though, when he was 11 months old, so we were so happy to be there.

We had a safe trip home and pulled out Christmas stuff the night we got home. It is all ready, and I actually feel pretty ready for Christmas. I am by no means done with everything, but I feel like I am in a good spot. Only a few more gifts to buy, one preschool party to organize, presents to wrap, okay maybe a bit more than I realize. I hope you all have a great holiday season!

Book Club

Just a reminder about our new book club: Thursday, 7 pm, my house. It has now become an official Enrichment Activity, but I think the only difference will be that we can advertise through RS. Anyone is welcome to come. Please bring a few ideas of books to read for 2009, and let me know if you have questions!