Our little boy...

Can you believe, 7 months has gone by since Christian was born. Wow! He is growing so fast. I wish I could slow things down. I feel like the days are going by to fast and I don't want to miss a thing. Before I know it my little boy will be a man and leaving home.

He has been army crawling for a little over a month but now it is an all out crawl (and he is fast). Now that he is mobile, I am constantly chasing him and trying to distract him. The dogs water bowl is his favorite go to item. He has found the doggy door but has not tried to climb out of it (yet). The other day, I walked into his room and he had pulled himself up to his knees and was looking out of his bed. Needless to say, I immediately lowered his bed. Christian loves his sister. The two of them laugh and play with each other. He lights up every time he sees her. He tries to chase her around the house and gets frustrated that he can't keep up with her (one day he will be running circles around her). I love watching them plaay and laugh together. It fills my heart with so much joy seeing them giggle and smile at one another.

Christmas Morning

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. Now that we have kids, the holiday is even more meaningful and special. It is filled with so many wonderful things...family, sense of peace, and all the wonderful treats (that I should have stayed away from).

Christmas eve, Kayla and Christian opened their gifts from Mommy and Daddy. One of Kayla's gifts (from Christian) was the new Tinkerbell movie. Needless to say, we had to watch it before heading up to bed. After the movie, I asked Kayla if she wanted to put the cookies out for Santa. Her reply, "No, he doesn't need them." The next morning, I had to go wake our sleeping beauty up...it was already 9:30a.m and I knew we needed to be on the road to Hico by noon (if possible).

When Kayla came down stairs, she was a little apprehensive. She didn't quite get the idea that all the gifts laid out were for her (and there were a lot). Her first reaction was to give Christian his toys. Once she got into opening her toys, she was excited. Kayla and I played with her new tool bench. Jon and Kayla made ice cream cones with her Play-doh set and even played with her new barbie. After all of the toys were played with and Christmas breakfast was made, my little ones and my wonderful husband passed out.

The Schneider Family

After watching Jonah, Monda, Josh and Riley dancing (several million times), Kayla insisted on creating one of herself and Christian. So here we go....

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas @ The Ranch

Last weekend was the traditional Christmas at the Ranch celebration. We almost did not make it to Campwood, TX. The day before we were to leave Kayla came down with a bug and was running a 102 fever. She was absolutely miserable. However, she woke up Friday with no fever and energy. So, we decided to go and celebrate with the Wensel family. This probably was not the best choice for she started relapsing on our way there (fever of a 101) and did not feel her normal energetic self all weekend. We got to see everyone which was very nice but Jon, Kayla and myself were miserable (no sleep and a cranky child makes for a very long weekend for the parents). Thank goodness Christian did not catch the bug (I could not have handled two sick kids).

Even with Kayla not being her normal cheerful self, I was glad to have been able to spend the time with the family (and of course...eat some of Mary's wonderful fried chicken and banana pudding).

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Jingle Bells

The house is decorated and we are ready for Santa. The decorating process took a little bit longer then I like but that has to be expected with a two year old and a six month old(my intention is to have the house decorated and ready the day after Thanksgiving; maybe when the kids are in college will that happen.)

Before having kids, I always decorated the house with all my angels. The tree would be adorned with valuable and breakable angels, white lights, gold Christmas balls and a beautiful angel tree topper. Well, times have changed. Now, the tree is adorned with multi colored lights, home made ornaments and a multi colored star tree topper. Use to, I would spend hours making sure that each ornament was in the perfect position, not too many in one area. This year, I watched as Kayla hung many of the ornaments in one little section. Each time she hung an ornament, she would back up and say "It's perfect." I look at the tree as I sit here and type and my heart fills with joy. Yes, the tree filled with my valuable angels was beautiful and one day I will put it up again. However, this new colorful tree is just as, if not more, beautiful for it is filled with love and wonderful memories.

I have started a tradition this year. Each Christmas the kids will pick out one store bought ornament, make an ornament and have a picture ornament. By the time they are eighteen, the tree wont have a bare limb, the tree will be filled with tons of memories and each kid will have there own ornaments (the store bought ones) when they have their first tree.

Thanksgiving part 3

Peace and relaxation. That is what I am thankful for, and for a wonderful husband. This Thanksgiving, Jon packed Kayla up (to my suprise) and took her to Rockport, Tx to Uncle Bill's Wednesday afternoon. Christian and I stayed at home and relaxed. It was nice to be able to catch up on some much needed rest. However, by Friday, I missed my little girl.

Kayla had a great time with her Opa, Uncle Jerod, Uncle Bill and her Daddy. Thanks to Uncle Jerod, there were some great pictures that were taken. Kayla got to fish and even caught her first one. One of the best pictures was during their boat outing when Kayla needed to go to potty.