Christmas Day 09!

Marcus helping daddy put his new grill together
Yup! Taking a bath in the sink

Grandma and Popo playing with playdoh with Elena

How did Marcus know this was for him?!

Preparing for the big day!

Christmas day was fantastic! Grandma Sylvia and Popo decided to come into town late Christmas eve to be with us for a couple of days. The kids were very excited when they woke up to see the tree, plus that their grandparents were here. It was a day of family, which is what Christmas is really all about. The presents are just fun stuff to pass around, but being with your family is what is most important. The lunch I made was delicious....followed by round 2 for dinner. Our day began in our "lazywear" and it ended in our "lazywear" - it was great!

The next day was my father-in-law's birthday so we slept in a little bit, then had a great lunch at Saltgrass before they had to head back out to Corpus. It was a quick visit, but a worthwhile one. Hope your day was as great as ours! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 09!

Placing Santa's key on door
Spreading the reindeer food

Surprised my husband with his new grill

Our Christmas Eve starting with preparing for a late lunch with Uncle Danny, Aunt Stacy, Uncle Randy, and future Aunt Cathy at our house. We loved having them over for some food and of course some laughs. We winded down with presents that we had for each other. Since I also had no way of hiding a huge grill for my husband as a gift, it worked best to give it to him on this night. He was very surprised and loved it!

Afterwards, we headed out to church in the cold and very windy weather. It was a beautiful sermon. Father talked about how we need to learn to just "slow down". We get so caught up with cell phones, time, rushing, appointments and such that we've gotten away from really taking in each moment of our lives. It was actually pretty funny how Father quoted a movie from Jennifer Lopez. It made sense though and this was a perfect time for this message of peace, love, family, and happiness.

We ended the night late by spreading some reindeer food and leaving the Santa key on our door since we don't have a chimey. The key only allows Santa to enter and leave the gifts he has for us. Needless to say, the next morning he came through!

The Big Tree

This is the HUGE lighted tree we see every year. It's in Cedar Park and it's absolutely gorgeous! Of course, we missed their annual celebration when they have a bonfire and festivity of lighting the tree on at the very beginning of December. But it's still a nice place to let the kids run around the tree and be silly. The kids had an absolute blast! Marcus hadn't taken a nap at all yesterday and all he did was run around the entire time (go figure)!

There is also a huge sleigh were families can take pictures together. My kids, on the other hand, didn't like the part of sitting still for even 5 seconds because they were just having too much fun playing. Afterwards, we picked up some Starbucks hot chocolate to warm up and went driving around looking at lights. It was the perfect ending to a busy day. Hope your family is enjoying this time together with the many small traditions you celebrate! Merry Christmas ya'll!

2nd Annual Cookie Baking!

Kalli is putting her personal touch to her cookie

The three cookie makers hard at work!

We recently had our 2nd annual cookie baking at our house this year. We get together with the Steele family and Miss Rebecca to make cookies as gifts and as goodies for our families to share and eat. The kids love getting together to share in this fun occasion. This year was more difficult since we had some batches burn, but overall is was a success! We had so much dough that we didn't do that many cut-outs and ended up just having regular round cookies.

All in all, the kids had a blast and my kitchen and table were covered with sugar and icing! That was plenty of proof to show how hard the kids worked to perfect their cookie skills. We look forward to the 3rd annual cookie baking at Miss Rebecca's house next year! Merry Christmas and happy baking!

Elena's Party!

We absolutely loved having our friends and family help celebrate Elena's birthday! Grandma's, aunts, and grandpa, who live out of town, made a special trip to come see Elena. What more could we have asked for? We thank everyone who made Elena's day so special!

Elena's 4th Birthday!

On this day we spent Elena's 4th birthday with some pizza, cake, and presents from her mommy, daddy, brother and sister. It was a quiet night with the kids excited to just eat some cake. I wanted to make a cake for Elena and asked her what color she wanted. Needless to say, when she said pink, it didn't take much for the frosting to get any more pink! I was proud of myself, but not so much on the piping. I figure it's practice for the many other birthdays to follow when we celebrate as a family. Though it's always nice that we can celebrate with friends and other family, it's a little more special when it's just your own little family in your own little house.

Summer's has come to an end

Marcus at 6 months
Marcus within a week old

Marcus enjoying his snack time

Marcus giving "pretty eyes"

1st time falling asleep at the dinner table

Marcus is able to climb onto the end table with no help. Unfortunately we are not sure if this is really the first time.

With their cousin Carissa at her cheerleading camp here at UT.

Tia Amelia, Tia Licha, and Grandma set up a tea party for the girls.

Andy and his Tia Amelia enjoying a game

So the summer has been officially over and it was a hard transition for me. All I'm going to have to think about is the friends we hung out with, the family we saw, the BIG trip we made, the birthdays we celebrated ( I just had to share the pic of Marcus as a newborn and at six months), and everything in between. Many laughs, many hugs, many kisses, some boo-boo's, many unscheduled days, play dates, pool time, and most of all the overall feeling of just being with my family. It is really hard to sum up everything we experienced, so all I'm going to say is that it is a summer I will never forget!

Got milk?

After getting the go ahead to begin drinking whole milk since Marcus turned one, I decided to ween off the bottle this weekend. Yesterday he tried milk for the first time and nearly drank it all! It was nothing like when I first introduced his juice. That he tasted, played with the sippy cup for awhile, then would come back to it now and then. I figured it was something sweet and he would really enjoy, but it wasn't that big of a deal for him. As for milk, he really took well to it. So hopefully the transition from the bottle to the sippy cup may be sooner that I thought. Oh no! - I hope I didn't just jinx myself.

Too cute for words!

Just had to share these quick photos I took of Marcus and Elena. We also had lunch today with Erin and Lyla, and Marcus was just soooo ready to see Lyla. It was really a chaperoned date between the two of them. I'll need to get the two of them in a picture so that I can put it on here-they really are too cute together when they hug!

Happy 1st Birthday, Marcus!

Marcus is having his first dinner of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans as a 1 year old
More interested in the paper than the gift

Analissa and her great-grandma

The 3 Muskateers

Marcus enjoyed his first sweet treat of a birthday cupcake

The kids enjoyed the playscape during the party

Marcus was rather impatient when we were about to sing 'Happy Birthday'

Kalliann was a great helper with opening gifts

Marcus celebrated his 1st birthday at the house this weekend. We were so grateful to some of our family and friends who were able to attend. It's nice when you can watch all the people who care about your family enjoy themselves at a great celebration. I feel very fortunate to have so many caring people in my life.

Thank you to all those who gave Marcus and I well wishes on our birthday. Especially to those who traveled to be with us. We can't wait for more family to visit us next week!