Happy 3rd Birthday!

Well so much for my plan to become a regular blogger again. Let's just call this a slow return. ;o).

Last Monday (19th) was R.'s 3rd birthday. I thought it would be fun to see how he has grown and changed through pictures.

Here he is at one week old with his new friend Elie. He and Elie are still buddies today.

R. had wavy hair, but sadly it was just not curly enough to let it grow long. Jeremy was very relieved because he was not a fan of having a boy with curls.

1st birthday enjoying his first taste of sweets.

Playing with Daddy at the park. This is a day when our family met Xavier, Karen and E. at the Arbor Hills Preserve. We had a picnic and they introduced us to our first Mooyah burger (so yummy). Now my favorite burger just behind the Burger Joint in NYC. Okay I got a little distracted -back to the birthday boy.

Our funny, expressive and laid back boy. He keeps us smiling!! R. loves, loves, loves The Wiggles! Here he was channeling his inner Captain Feathersword.

At 1 1/2 this became one of his favorite places to play. He loved playing with his friend in the mirror.

2nd birthday - a Mickey Mouse party. At his first birthday, instead of blowing out the candle, he grabbed the "fire" and burned himself. So before his 2nd party we practiced blowing out candles, but as you can see we should have worked on it a little more. Aunt Sloan and Daddy saved his cute little fingers just in time.

This summer, R. spent a few days with Uncle Cameron, Aunt Sloan and the girls. Uncle Cameron has taken up photography and took this amazing picture of him. Look at that face!

We had a little family party on the day of his birthday. We will celebrate with extended family at a later date. Yeah no touching of the candles this year!! R. please forgive mommy for slacking in getting your haircut.

Posing with his proud big brothers!

Hamming it up while opening presents.

New Wiggles DVD - so excited!

A new CD to listen to at bedtime. R. & C. share a room - I am not sure who was more excited about the Imagination Movers CD?

He picked out the cupcakes with the Sesame Street friend rings. As you will see below they loved the neon icing and played a game to see who could make the biggest mess.

He loves mylar balloons! He picked out this one at the store and since his birthday has played with it everyday.

Happy birthday sweet boy - love you!! We are so glad God blessed our family with you.

Happy Fall Y'all

I can not believe that 2009 is almost over. Where has this year gone? How has it been nearly 10 months since my last post? I recently started updating my recipe blog , to get all my recipes in one place. In doing so, it has gotten me excited about returning to blogging. It also helps that I have a brand new *shiny* reliable laptop (thanks honey!) that makes getting on the computer fun. Back in January, our family PC began giving us fits. I only got on it when it was absolutely necessary because it stressed me to deal with that dumb machine!

Another reason to start posting again-my boys. They miss seeing their lives on here. Since I am not a "scrapbooker", I originally started this blog to log their lives. They loved seeing their pictures and would often ask me to read what I wrote in posts about them. They were always telling me things like "take a picture of this to put on your blog" or "you should blog about this". I plan to make a blog book containing posts about our family - so they would have a scrapbook. Side note- I was telling Amber today about the blog books that you can make at The Cutest Blog on the Block. Has anyone made one of these? My hope is to recap our 2009 over the next several weeks. I am looking forward to doing these posts, as it will be fun to look back over the year and relive our memories.

We are having beautiful Fall weather here in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. I am looking forward to getting out and enjoying it with my four guys this weekend. That is if C. starts feeling better, he started running fever today and even got "sick" tonight. I thought it was Strep Throat again, but now wondering if it is the flu. Confused though because they all had the flu mist on Wednesday. hmm... Poor little guy! Looks like we will not be hanging out with friends to watch the TX/OU game on Satuday.
Hook 'Em Horns!!

Until next time friends and family (let me know if you are reading this...) enjoy your weekend!

A Christmas Program and a Party

C. had his first Christmas program at preschool on Dec.10th. As you will see in this video he sang his little heart out. Listen carefully, he is the one who is singing the loudest and a little slower than the others too! ;o)

In the picture below he is with his teacher. We feel so blessed that we found his little school, he is learning so much and he loves his teacher.

M. had his 3rd grade Christmas party on December 19th. Here are some pictures from the party.

Making ornaments (that's his teacher in the background).

This was fun to watch - penguin relay races! They walked like penguins and then without using their hands put a nose on that was on the ground. How did the nose stay on - frosting. Frosting Noses!

He and his classmates were excited because they had nachos. In the past they always had just sweets. They were talking about how cool it was to have real food at the party. Ah - the simple pleasures in life.

I hope everyone is enjoying your Christmas break with your family!

All about Christmas!

I saw these ornaments earlier in the year and thought they would make great gifts. But they were a little overpriced so I started searching the net and found the Tiny Tots and Polka Dots site. Erin's were much more affordable and made great Christmas gifts for the boys' teachers.
I recommend that you check out her site. She has lots of cute items that would make wonderful gifts throughout the year. Erin even hand delivered my ornaments and was sweet enough to put a rush on my order. I will definitely be ordering from her again!

Here is another idea if you are crafty. Leah Belle made some with a friend over Thanksgiving. I am very impressed with how professional they look - these girls are talented!
You can find step by step instructions for the ornaments here. I am going to attempt to make some next year.

A side note...
If you like to do a Christmas countdown with your kids I would like to recommend a great book to you. Last December Lisa Whelchel spoke at our church's Christmas brunch about Christmas traditions. Afterwards I bought The ADVENTure of Christmas book and received a free advent calendar.

I saved it to use this season and we have all learned so much! Lisa writes about the meanings of various Christmas practices and symbols to help us keep this busy season focused on Christ. You can buy the book on Lisa's site and right now get the calendar for free. Definitely a must have! Check out the book here.

I have not posted the boys' picture with Santa this year so since this post has a Christmas feel to it I will do it here.
We love this sweet man! He comes here from Canada every year to play Santa. He is so gentle, patient and makes each child feel special. Over the past nine years one of our boys has taken a picture with him - that is except for one regrettable year. In 2001 I thought I should go to the "other" mall that goes all out in decorating for Christmas. Boy was that a mistake Jeremy will not let me live down! That is the only year that M. cried in his Santa picture. The Santa at that mall was not full of Christmas spirit or maybe he was having a bad day, but we did not have a good Santa experience. When we put the pictures on the mantle each year Jeremy always threatens to photo shop the bad Santa (as he calls him) out. Don't tell him this, but if I knew it would work I would let him do it!

Happy Birthday Bruce

Happy birthday little brother! I hope that you have a very special day. I will be praying for your 2009 as many exciting adventures are ahead of you - not to mention a wedding! Love you!

Merry Christmas!

I thought I would share one of my favorite Christmas songs called "I Believe" (by Natalie Grant). For me this is what this special day is all about. We wish your family a very Merry Christmas!



In a land far away
Time stood still
Long ago
There were shepherds in fields
Or at least this is how
The story goes
The story goes
Woman with Child
And a man with no room
Born in a manger
For telling it too
This is how The story goes
But it is more than a fable
And it’s more than a fairytale
And more than my mind can conceive

I believe
The Wiseman saw
The baby born the angels called the son of God Heaven’s child
The great I am
Born to take away my sins through nailed pierced hands
Emmanuel has come

I believe
Two thousand years
Still the story lives on
God’s gift to us Sent to earth Wrapped in flesh
His only son
His only son
And the heartbeat of heaven
Confounded our wisdom
But it’s still the simple truth
That sets me free

I believe
The Wiseman saw
The baby born that the angels called the son of God Heaven’s child
The great I am
Born to take away my sins through nailed pierced hands
Emmanuel has come

And I believe
Precious child
How can it be that God’s great plan
For his story Would send you to The lonely tree
That you would come
For one like me

I believe
In a cross
I believe he came
For one, he came for all Heavens child became a plan
Gave his life for me
In spite of all I am


I believe
I believe
Oh I believe
Christmas lives in me
I believe

A Tree With a Story Pt. 2

For part one of A Tree With a Story click here. Before we can talk about the ornaments, we have to put up the tree.

We have a new tree this year - no stringing on the lights because it is pre-lit - what a bonus! I know we are behind the times, but we now see what all the fuss was about - what an awesome invention.

Now to my favorite part - taking the ornaments out of the boxes. As I unwrap each ornament, memories come charging back and for a minute I am right there in the moment. What an amazing experience and something I look forward to each year. Once all the ornaments are ready to be placed on the tree it is time to go to the hall closet and gather all the goodies we have bought or been given over the year. Here are the 2008 ornaments.

This hard to read Ornament is from our trip in August to Savannah. The buildings are all the major landmarks in Savannah. We actually found this in the airport on our way home.
The CEO of Jeremy's company (my former boss) brought this back to us from her European holiday with her husband. They bought it while in Vienna - the little man painted inside is Mozart.
Ahhh - the sweet moose ornament. Of course we bought these (actually my parents bought them for us) while in Colorado. I chose this one because it reminded me of our trip to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo which we would not have visited if Meredith had not recommended it. Every time I unwrap this for future Christmases it will remind me of meeting my new friend Meredith at Agia Sophia.
This one will remind us of our day in Cripple Creek, our time playing at Focus on the Family, my tea at Glen Eyrie with my mom and our beautiful view of the mountains.
This ornament was on Granny's tree and we asked if we could have it as a memory of her. Granny loved spending holidays with her family and we missed her very much over Thanksgiving and we will miss her on Christmas but it brings me joy to know that she is having the best Christmas ever! I can't even dream what it must be like to have cake with THE birthday boy. It gives me chills thinking about my grandparents and Granny singing Happy Birthday in person to Jesus. Amazing.
My mom loves Christmas and loves to buy ornaments throughout the year. She bought this one for our family at a Craft Fair this fall. What a cute little gingerbread family.
My friend Kim, who I co-lead the Bible Study group with, gave me this for Christmas. It reminds me of her because she is a pillar of strength and she has been through so much in the last five years. The neatest part is that anyone who watches her knows that her strength does not come from within but from her rock Jesus. I am thankful for our friendship.
C. made his first ornament at preschool this year. It was fun to watch him find the perfect spot to place it on the tree.

Well that should have been it for the tour of our Christmas tree but guess what I received in the mail today (which is actually the 22nd)? My Christmas present from my sweet friend Amy! It was full of goodies that she brought back for me from their family trip to WDW this month. Here are the three ornaments that she sent us. Love you girl!

Santa Mickey with glittery ears (M.'s favorite).

She knows me so well! Even though I am not usually a pink girl - seeing this ornament almost brought tears to my eyes. Amy knows that in a house full of men that I could use a little pink because every girl has an inner Princess that they want to let out from time to time. Lastly, our Snowman Mickey - R & C's favorite - they like his Mickey buttons.

Happy Christmas Eve to you all!