Merry Christmas

For Christmas we traveled to San Antonio. Our car trips have always been adventurous but traveling with two kids and a dog brings it to a new level. We're quickly learning that an SUV that seats five isn't as big as it sounds. Mike's dad came through town a couple of days before we left and took a load of gifts because there was NO WAY we were going to make it to San Antonio with Christmas gifts for five kids (our two + my sister's three) and and all of the adult's gifts too. It looks like there might be some car shopping going on at our house before the next Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, we were joined by Mike's aunt and uncle and their family at Mike's parents' house. We exchanged gifts, had a nice dinner and visited. I kept trying to tell Clay about Santa but I don't think he'll really catch on for a couple more years.

Clay the Reindeer

Carolina's Christmas Eve outfit (I couldn't find what I wanted in her size so I made her this onesie instead- she loved it! )

Our little family

Carolina's Christmas Eve pajamas

We spent Christmas morning at Mike's parents' house opening all of our presents from each other. Clay was so preoccupied with his stuff from Santa that he didn't even open his stuff from us until that night.

The Santa stuff

Clay with one of his new toys


Mike and I got so many cool things this year. We just keep talking about how blessed we feel. The funniest part about my gifts is that I got two of them last year also. Once the cat ate the collar on my brand new wool coat and I ran over my Bluetooth all within a week of Christmas last year, Mike decided I might need replacements this year. I also got a really cool label maker (the OCD person in side of me was so happy!). My present for Mike was a Wii (but I'm hoping he'll share it!).

Clay and Carolina made out like bandits! I have been shopping for most of the year trying to find all of the best deals on cool toys. I did learn a rookie parenting lesson this year, though. I got so excited about finding good deals and making sure the children had a really fun Christmas that I WAY overbought and Clay was overwhelmed. If he had gotten a third of what we bought him he would have been thrilled. Next year, I'm cutting back to just a few special presents and I think it will be so much more meaningful. Lesson learned!

New blocks

Clay with his new dog flashlight

After we opened gifts at Mike's parents', we went to my sister's house. It's always fun to watch her kids open gifts because we put so much thought into what we get them and they always deliver on priceless expressions and squealing with joy. Mike was so excited about this hair beader that he found for my niece (how that happened I still don't know...) and that girl had those beads in her hair within minutes of opening the rest of her presents. Way to go, Uncle Mike! We had a nice dinner and Clay enjoyed playing with his cousin Brittan's new toys.

My dad and all of his grandchildren

Clay and Brittan with Grandpa

Clay getting in touch with his feminine side

Casey with her hair beader

Kaelen and his harmonica

Brittan being oh so delicate with the wrapping paper (she takes after her aunt!)

She was happy just looking at the picture on the box!

When we left my sister's we headed back to the country to Mike's Grandma Susie's house. She lives on some land in the country and has what could only be described as a mini-petting zoo. Clay got to hand feed cows, pet chickens and pigs and ride on a donkey. The best part was when he lost his shoe in the pig pen and Mike's dad had to rescue it. What a fun time for our city boy!

A True Pig Sty

Clay meets the Donkey

Uncle Larry, Clay and Nana

Clay, Papa (or Tot) and the chickens

By the end of the day we were all exhausted. Driving from the country to the city and back to the country can be tiring (4 hours total on Christmas Day!). We had such a wonderful Christmas!

A little boy who's had enough for one day....

Christmas Fun

With Clay being a little older this year it was important to me that we do some Christmas festivities so he could see what fun Christmastime is. Our first event was the Holiday at the Hall in Lewisville. Since I forgot my camera, I have no pictures. Boo. We saw some really cool ice sculptures being carved and Clay got to ride in the colored barrel train. It was cute and a good little intro to Christmas activities.

The next weekend Rebecca and I took the children to the Arboretum for pictures with Santa and to see some of their Christmas decor. As we strolled through the Arboretum we came upon Frosty the Snowman. Big mistake. Clay was totally freaked out and tried to crawl inside of himself while screaming. Seriously. Next was Rudolph. I took Clay out of the stroller while he clung to me for dear life. We took a picture but Clay did not enjoy the experience. At all.

Clay trying to stay as far from Rudolph as possible

When we finally made it to Santa, Clay was officially freaked out and wanted nothing to do with him. If his previous behavior hadn't already gotten him off the nice list, kicking Santa and screaming in his face surely did. Oh what fun! The best part is we got it all on video for posterity.

Clay hearts Santa

After Santa we went over to the Gingerbread houses. Carolina took her picture with Mrs. Claus (who was so sweet!) and we tried again to get a picture with the children together. Bad idea.

Little Carolina with Mrs. Claus

Clay trying to make a run for it....


Next, there was a cute little gingerbread house that you could take a picture in front of so we decided to wait in the line for that. Another bad idea. As we stood in line, there were flower beds with pansies on either side. The line was really long so Rebecca and I were standing there talking. All of a sudden Clay is slipping through the front of the stroller and off like a rocket- right through the beautiful flower beds!! I RUN after him (sinking in the mulch of the flower beds as I run). When I finally catch up to him (on the grass past the flower beds), I am mortified! Then I look up to a man saying, "Excuse me ma'am, he only has one shoe on." Wonderful. Guess who got to go back through the dark brown flower beds searching for a black dress shoe while the entire line watched?? Me. I'm the lucky one. So embarrassing...

Clay in front of the flower beds plotting his next escape...

After the Great Escape we were ready to head home. On the way out, I thought it would be a good idea to try and take a picture of me with my two babies and Rebecca was happy to oblige. After a TON of tries, (bless Rebecca's heart!) we gave up. The children were not feeling cooperative that day at all! Here's a good example:

Later that night Mike and I took the children to an event in Richardson called Santa's Village. It was WAY crowded but Clay loved all the fun stuff and the "people watching". It's a bunch of little one-room houses that are kid-sized and you stand in lines and walk through the house. Some of the houses we went into were the hospital and the music house.


Getting a goody bag at the "hospital"



Getting measured at the "hospital"


"Anyone home??"


Playing instruments with the Richardson Symphony girls

Clay had a great time riding in a little sleigh pushed by some "elves" and we also wrote Clay's first letter to Santa.

It was fun to walk around and see all of the festive things going on but at the end of the night Clay was SO tired. We had such a good time doing "Christmasy" things with Clay and Carolina. Hopefully, we've started some traditions we'll enjoy for the years to come!

A Visit from Grandpa

Clay and Carolina got to enjoy a visit from Grandpa (my dad) the week after Thanksgiving. Our visit included a downtown Lewisville festival (I left my camera at home :(), a nice dinner out and lots of visiting at home.

At the Christmas festival they had a 4 wheeler pulling four little colored barrels with the tops cut out (to look like a train). It was so cute and my dad paid for Clay to take a ride in it. While we were waiting our turn I tried to figure out what color barrel Clay would pick when it was his turn. His turn came up and much to my surprise (and the train driver's), Clay went straight for the 4 wheeler that pulls the whole thing! All those trips on the one at Nana and Papa's had him thinking HE was going to drive the train. So funny!

All in all, we had a nice relaxing visit and the kids got to spend some quality time with Grandpa. Thanks for coming to visit Dad!

Thanksgiving

As usual, we traveled to San Antonio for Thanksgiving. Carolina was just a month old so it was great to have a few extra hands on deck to help with two babies and we always love visiting with our families. We stayed with Mike's parents and Clay had a particularly great time (he always does!). Here's some of the highlights of our trip:

Clay got to ride on the tractor for the first time this trip

Clay and Papa



Another first: Clay got to play with one of Mike's childhood toys-the Quadro (tubing and platforms that can be constructed into hundreds of different things- slides, forts, etc.).


Sliding down the slide



Mama and Carolina on Thanksgiving

Clay and his cousins with Papa on Thanksgiving

One of the most fun parts of the trip for Clay was a trip to Chuck E. Cheese with my sister and her children: Casey, Kaelen and Brittan.

Clay and Casey

Kaelen and Brittan

Clay, Brittan and Stuart Little

"You talkin' to me??"

Carolina resting peacefully amidst the Chuck E. Cheese chaos

Clay found a new love: the carousel

The only hunting Mike did this year...

New Year, New Computer

Well, we are finally back from the holidays and what a wonderful holiday season we've had! Over Thanksgiving and Christmas we spent time with our families and enjoyed introducing Carolina to a lot of the special people in our lives.

We had such a great Christmas. It was definitely one of my favorites ever. One of the best parts of our Christmas was that Mike and I got a new computer. It's FABULOUS! Thank you Anita and Bobby! I haven't spent much time exploring it (I don't have much time these days...) but I love all of the parts I have seen.

Before our new computer came I had to take my camera's memory card to CVS, upload the pictures and an hour of work later I could bring the disk home and upload to my blog. Now you see why I didn't update with pictures more often! Now I can stick the memory card straight into the computer and voila! the pictures are there. I can even edit them - so exciting! So here's to a new year with lots more blog entries with pictures!


Lots of updates/catching up to come! Stay tuned...

He's Gonna Find Out Who's Naughty or Nice...

*I didn't have a chance to post this on the day it was written but it now has photos of the evidence- even better!*

Dear Clay,

You're down for your morning nap and we're going to see Santa Claus today. I've been telling you about it and teaching you how Santa says, "Ho! ho! ho!". You say it when you see our Santa decorations and you're adorable. That being said, though,let's get down to business. It's only 10:30 and you've had a pretty eventful day. Here's a recap:

-You climbed into the dryer while I was unloading all of the laundry.
-I caught you standing on top of the shredder (which is turned off) and trying to reach a picture frame while I cleaned up your breakfast dishes.
-You colored on the wall, the dining room chair and the hardwoods with purple marker while I was feeding your sister.
-When I went to start your bath, I came back to a little boy sitting in the middle of the kitchen table with orange marker tiger stripes all over his face (and today is picture day!). So much for putting the markers up on the table to keep them away from you...

Listen, little man, this new climbing on EVERYTHING business is getting old. Yesterday when you got too quiet while I was feeding Carolina I found you in the bathroom sink with a Q-Tip in one hand and pumping soap with the other. And you've learned if you climb on top of the coffee table and onto the recliner and slide down that you end up behind the gate blocking the Christmas tree- with wonderful access to the shiny ornaments.

Now you know that your daddy and I have always been strict with you that the furniture is not a jungle gym but suddenly you think it's okay to climb to the back of the couch and lean against the wall.

Clay, I am nearly always in the same room with you watching you like a hawk (and taking pictures of your nonsense). And you also know that you were within my line of sight when you've been on most of your little adventures lately. You're a brave one, baby boy. Lately, you LOVE when I'm feeding the baby because it gives you just enough time to get into a mess. Don't you worry, though, I'm learning. I'm on to your tricks.

I just want you to know though that I know something you don't. I know how to talk in complete sentences. Yep, we're going to see Santa today and I can tell him what you've really been up to. You can tell him all you want to tell him but just remember- I'm your translator... Have you been naughty or nice???

I love you orange marker tiger face,

Mama