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.

Thanksgiving part 2

Our second feast of the month was the weekend before Thanksgiving. This year it was my turn to host the traditional Thanksgiving weekend. Before the weekend festivities, Kayla helped me make personalized place mats, leave garland and Thanksgiving Turkey kitchen towels. She even helped me make some of the casseroles the day before. I am always nervous before everyone arrives, do we have enough food? did I forget something? where is everyone going to sleep? Well, it all worked out and we all had a great time. The weekend menu consisted of two 18+lb turkeys, tons of appetizers, casseroles, and three scrumptious pies (treadmill time!). Kayla and Jonah wore themselves out. Even Christian played hard. I so enjoyed having everyone here and visiting.

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Thanksgiving Part 1

(First I want to say I am sorry that this has taken so long to post. My camera battery decided to give out on me and had to wait and get pictures from Monda (thank you Monda). )

Food, family and giving thanks for all that we are grateful for; that is what our November consist of. This wonderful time of the year started on November 8th for our family. We all headed to Palestine, TX for Thanksgiving lunch with Jon's Dad and Susan before riding on the Polar Express that evening. We had a wonderful lunch and enjoyed spending time with the family. Kayla and Jonah enjoyed playing together. Kayla, Jonah and even Christian made their traditional "hand" painted turkey place mats. Kayla and Jonah played chase in the back yard and pulled each other around in the wagon. We tried to put them down for a nap before riding on the train but that didn't work out so well. The two of them laid in Opa and Oma's bed reading and watching videos. They never fell asleep.

Kayla having a great time. Thank you Oma and Opa!!

Jonah and Kayla...two of the cutest kids.

Story time...not nap time.

Christian had a good time!

What a month...

I feel like the days are rushing past me. I have no idea where the past month went. I cant believe almost three weeks have past since Halloween. Before I know it, Christmas will have come and gone.

In the past three weeks, Christian has grown and developed so much. He is out of our room and in the nursery now. (I guess it is time for me to get all the pink out of the room) He is rolling over with no problem (front to back and back to front). He is starting to try and crawl. He gets up on his hands and knees but tends to push backwards rather then going forward. He loves eat his socks (he loves to eat everything). Overall, he is a very easy going and happy child.

Precious smile!

Kayla is growing up to be such an amazing little girl. She is by far a Daddy's girl. If I tell Kayla, "I love you" she replies back "No, I love Daddy." Kayla's favorite color is by far PINK. Inf fact the other night, I was able to go out by myself while Jon kept the kids. My intention was to go shopping for me. Instead, I ended up buying Christian three new outfits and Kayla four outfits and a new PINK vest. I don't think she has taken it off since, not even to go to bed.

Beautiful little girl!

The box

It goes from one room to the next. It started out as something to hold Kayla's train set. Now, it is Kayla's personal stepping stool. She uses it to turn the lights on and off, to wash her hands, to get up on the counters (which is a no-no). Now that she has learned to open the fridge, she uses her box to get the milk out herself. We are in trouble!!!

Halloween 2008

We have been building up to this day. Kayla told everyone for the past 3 weeks that she was going to be a tiger and baby was going to be a monkey. We practiced saying trick or treat and even practiced eating the candy I had bought for the trick or treaters. Thanks to Jenn, Halloween was a success. Christian slept most of the evening. Kayla loved going up to the houses. Several times she insisted on getting more then her share of candy (especially if it was M&M's). The candy was exciting at first, but then all the kids in costumes and the decorations became the main focus of the night. Kayla amazed me in her lack of fear. She wanted to follow and touch some of the scariest costumes that we saw. There was one house that had creepy music playing and frightful decorations. I was scared when we walked up to it. Kayla, no, she walked right up to the house with no fear and said, "Trick or Treat!" We ended up staying out for a little over an hour. Once we got home Kayla was exhausted. She insisted on one sucker. However, she didn't even finish it before she was ready for bed. Overall ,the night was frightfully fun. Thanks again Jenn for your help.

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