San Diego

Visited Marcus and Elizabeth last weekend. So much fun, such good food, lots of great conversation and games. Love these two and so glad they are my family!

Rising Poet

Yesterday Hannah made a "shoe" from her cheese sandwich and was playing with it on the table. I said:

"There was an old lady
who lived in a shoe
she had so many children
she didn't know what to do."

Without missing a beat Hannah replied,

"The shoe tipped over.
The shoe didn`t crack.
The lady jumped out
and she saw her children playing in the sand."


Pretty good spontaneous poetry for a 2 year old, eh?

What Season Is It?

It's 74 degrees, the kids are raking leaves, and it's January...



We love Texas!

Christmas Tree Party

We didn't get to sleeping under the tree until December 23 this year (the last possible day!) because Matthias and Hannah were basically sick from Thanksgiving until New Year's Day. And having a kid in school kind of threw things off as well since we had to wait for James' break...that hasn't happened before since he was "homeschooled" all last December. =]

We drove around looking at lights before hand, then watched a movie and crashed. Everyone was asleep before 9 (including adults) and we didn't get up until 8...it was lovely!

Christmas Eve 2011

We had a busy day of making sugar cookies for Santa and our yummy dinner feast. We decided to have lamb for dinner this year (as per Matthias "so we can remember the shepherds"), roast potatoes, beans, rolls, and homemade chocolate pudding...like made from milk and cocoa and not a Jell-O box. Mmm. Love that stuff. The lamb turned out well (Taylor was the chef). None of us have had lamb before, it smelled like venison while cooking, but had a completely different taste when eaten. It was fun. Maybe we'll do it again next year, maybe we won't. We're free and fun like that.

James organized a sing along with the kids earlier in the day while we were cooking (we spent a lot of time in the kitchen...good thing Taylor and I both really enjoy cooking). We have a Christmas Children's Song book with hymns and Santa songs along with pictures so the kids hauled the book around and sang a ton of them.

We also watched the Veggie Tales St Nick Christmas special which we did last year as well. I really like those Veggies and the St Nick one is fun.

After dinner we did the Nativity. Hannah was Mary, Matthias was Joseph/Shepherds/Wiseman, Taylor Narrator, Me Shepherd/Wiseman, James was the Angel. And he memorized his lines that he says to the Shepherds and it was really great. He had worked on them the couple weeks proceeding and nailed every word!

Then we sang some carols which was super awesome this year because all my kids know the words to several Christmas hymns (probably at least 6) and even multiple versus of some. Hannah is great with memorizing songs, really good, and loves singing them! And the boys are getting to be old enough they have learned quite a few. It was a dream come true.

Pjs were opened next and James had asked for slippers a few months ago so those came with. I sewed all the pajamas this year and that was fun. Hannah's match her baby she got for Christmas. And she was thrilled (the next morning obviously when she actually got the doll...)

Taylor and I then stayed up way too late wrapping presents and talking to family via video chat (probably at least 2 hours of it) which was wonderful and makes me so happy for that amazing technology.

Christmas Party & Gingerbread House

So there are hundreds of pictures to upload (literally), but these two are in my inbox so they get done. And maybe the others will later. And maybe not.

James and Hannah at 1st grade class party:


Taylor next to the giant gingerbread house at Whole Foods. We thought the kids would enjoy the picture since James and Hannah made gingerbread houses at the class party that morning. Taylor and I go to Whole Foods each December on a date to see all the amazing treats and goodies. And to drool over all the wonderful cheeses. This year we even stopped at the Seafood Restaurant inside and had some yummy salmon, crab cakes, and lobster/butternut squash bisque. Mmm...we love food.

And the boys each allowed me to take a picture of them so I could prove they were around too...