Our Santa Picture

We decided to go to the YMCA when Santa visited.
Stephen was very excited. Joshua was fine...but got nervous.
Stephen couldn't have handled Santa at Joshua's age...but now you see Stephen would even have conversation with the Jolly Old Guy, so, Joshua will be there.




Joshua enters the scene. Santa smiling, Joshua crying, Stephen not sure.


The free pic we got for attending the event!
My facebook status post on this was, "Well, here is OUR Santa picture. Sure, the 1 yr old is crying. Typical. Sure, the 4 yr old looks like a deer in headlights. Typical. BUT-in OUR Santa picture, even Santa looks distraught!"

Snow Day!

We had another snow in Houston this year! WOW! That's two years in a row! This snow broke several records. It was the earliest snow ever recorded in history. It did stick in some parts of town, but not so much at our house. B&B came over to play with us.

The little's wondering what's up with their big counterparts :-)




Snow Ball Texas style


Snowball fight Texas style


Snowman Texas style



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Gift Exchange with Friends

We have a close group of friends. Most of the girls in this group met at the hospital Mommy & Me class. I met one of them when I had Stephen in swim class since I had my kids at a different hospital. We try to meet once a week. Now that our kids are older and additional kids have come along, two more babies are on their way, getting together is harder...so, this gift exchange, where the four of us could all get together, and all kids were healthy, was particularly special.

December Beach Trip

Two years ago, I took Stephen to the beach on a pretty December day. It has been one of my favorite days ever. SO, I repeated the event yesterday with both kids.

The kids played really well together and separately. Joshua had a grand time running, throwing sand, and making sand trails by crawling and plowing his hand through the sand.
We had a great time...until I hit WalMart after the trip :-)

Joshua Goes to School

Joshua was offered a spot at Stephen's school for the beginning of the school year, but, I turned it down because I wanted to spend the time with him. I found myself in a very hectic schedule with no breaks. Then, I got offered a job for the Spring semester. One hour every Tuesday and Thursday. SO, I decided to put Joshua in school. I decided to go ahead and start him in December since my Christmas bassoon/handbell life is BUSY. Joshua loves school. I have gone back and forth on this decision. But, now that we are into it, I am happy I made this decision. It's not for everyone, but, I am using my time with kids to be with kids now. It's a good decision for me putting my kid's interest first. I want them to remember quality time with me. Not frantic, chaotic Mommy time.

Joshua's first day:
At home getting ready to leave


Joshua and his lunchbox. He loves to carry his own lunch--just like Stephen carries his own stuff. In fact, Joshua HAS to carry his own lunch or he will fuss at me.




Joshua went right to playing at school. He didn't cry & hasn't cried for them. WOW. Totally different personality than Stephen at this age!

Thanksgivng and My Birthday

We travelled to see my parents for Thanksgiving. We also got to celebrate my birthday while we were there. We had a great time!

Joshua got an early start on dinner. He actually really got into the cranberry sauce and liked it quite a bit. This picture is just too funny not to post.


Stephen did a great job helping set the table.

The Woolley dogs and Cupitt dog kept a close on on the Thanksgiving dinner last minute preparations.


No pictures of the dinner. We just enjoyed it. Imagine that!

The next day Stephen helped Aunt Lisa and Grandma prepare a birthday cake for me. They worked really hard on it and decorated it really well!


Another silly Joshua expression. It's not too hard to catch his silliness. He is such a goof.


Stephen was right with me on all the birthday happenings. Stephen is truly my buddy.

Halloween, The Day

We did a good job of celebrating Halloween this year!

Carving pumpkins--Stephen was really into it, Joshua, not so much.



We did a good job of celebrating Halloween this year!

Trick Or Treating was cute. Stephen really took Joshua under his wing. Or, sword. Ha! Stephen really is a great big brother.

Pumpkin Patch

This year we hit the pumpkin patch on a weekend so our whole family could go. It's getting harder to do these events with Stephen in school three days a week. I can't imagine what 5 FULL days is going to be like next year!!


Kara and Jason were in town, too, so we got a pic with Ms Molly!

The Methodist church we take these pics at has quite an assortment of pumpkins, some very unusual. Stephen liked the bumpy pumpkins this year.

Joshua is happy wherever he goes. This smile is his norm.

Some sort of Egyptian move? LOL!



We bought two pumpkins this year. The bump one survived. We also bought a smooth, normal pumpkin that rotted in the middle of our foyer when we were out camping one weekend. Don't worry, it was easy to clean up. Much easier than the clean up was after the cat!

Halloween

We are well into December and I am WAY behind on my blogging.
Halloween was really fun with the kids this year. I sat Stephen down and started talking about what costume we should get. He saw something pirate, so, we went with pirate. It turned out to be a super wasy and fun costume for the whole family!

Stephen and Joshua getting candy at Trunk or Treat at Stephen's school

Joshua had no problems learning the T.O.T routine! He just flashed that little smile and got whatever he wanted. The people were complaining I gave him too small of a bag! LOL! He's just one!


Paci Pirate.


Stephen. The swords didn't make it to too many Halloween affairs :-)

2009-10-31

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Stephen with Orange Hair

Aunt Beth and Aunt Kara like to put fun colors in their hair. So, when I took Stephen to get his haircut, I asked if he would like to try a different style. He told me he would like to make his hair purple. So, he got his haircut & we went to CVS to get some Halloween hair spray. He thought it was a lot of fun, but, wasn't expecting all the extra attention at school :-)

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