Preparing for Christmas

The kids are getting very excited for Christmas. Jacob is REALLY into it, and has been telling Gwyn all about Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus. Gwyn will say, "Want to talk about Jesus." It is pretty sweet.

We had a few fun things this past week. Jacob had his Christmas party at school, and thankfully Jason came over and watched Gwyn and Annie so that I could go to his party. He was very excited to see me, and we had a great time.

The kids are so sweet together, at least some of the time! Jacob has even begun to "read" her books, at least the ones he has memorized!

Here is Annie smiling, she opens her mouth really wide and it is so cute!! She had her 2 month appointment and her first big round of shots, poor thing. She's 22 3/4 inches long and 10 lbs 15 ounces, the nurse said if she hadn't just wet her diaper, she would have been 11 lbs! She's 50th percentile for both height and weight and is doing very well.

12 Days of Christmas

On the 1st Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me….1 sweet precious baby named Annie.
On the 2nd Day of Christmas, wrapping presents gave to me…2 wrapping paper roll sword fighting kids in Christmas outfits, and a sweet baby named Annie. On the 3rd Day of Christmas, the mall gave to me….3 kids not happy to see Santa, 2 sword fighting kids, and a sweet baby named Annie. On the 4th Day of Christmas, nature supplied to me…4 precious hours of snow in Houston, 3 screaming kids at Santa, 2 sword fighting kids, and a sweet baby named Annie. On the 5th Day of Christmas, God gave to me…5 family members in front of the Christmas tree, 4 hours of snow, 3 screaming kids at Santa, 2 sword fighting kids, and a sweet baby named Annie. On the 6th Day of Christmas, my sweet kids gave to me…6 straight hours of long-missed sleep, 5 family members, 4 hours of snow, 3 screaming kids at Santa, 2 sword fighting kids, and a sweet baby named Annie. On the 7th Day of Christmas, John and Claudia gave to thee…7 nights of watching our new tadpoles, “Peachy” and “Tee,” 6 hours of sleep, 5 family members, 4 hours of snow, 3 screaming kids at Santa, 2 sword fighting kids, and a sweet baby named Annie. On the 8th Day of Christmas, my sweet Jacob gave to me…8 minutes of singing in his Christmas program, 7 nights of tadpoles swimming, 6 hours of sleep, 5 family members, 4 hours of snow, 3 screaming kids at Santa, 2 sword fighting kids, and a sweet baby named Annie.
On the 9th Day of Christmas, we sadly discovered…9 breakable “unbreakable” ornaments on the kids’ trees, 8 minutes of singing, 7 nights of tadpoles swimming, 6 hours of sleep, 5 family members, 4 hours of snow, 3 screaming kids at Santa, 2 sword fighting kids, and a sweet baby named Annie. On the 10th Day of Christmas, my good fortune gave to me…10 sweet friends to have a Sip N See for me and Annie, 9 breakable/unbreakable ornaments, 8 minutes of singing, 7 nights of tadpoles swimming, 6 hours of sleep, 5 family members, 4 hours of snow, 3 screaming kids at Santa, 2 sword fighting kids, and a sweet baby named Annie. On the 11th Day of Christmas, our Daddy gave to thee…11 perfectly decorated ornament cupcakes for Jacob’s snack at school, 10 sweet friends, 9 breakable/unbreakable ornaments, 8 minutes of singing, 7 nights of tadpoles swimming, 6 hours of sleep, 5 family members, 4 hours of snow, 3 screaming kids at Santa, 2 sword fighting kids, and a sweet baby named Annie.

On the 12th Day of Christmas, my sweet family gave to me…12 months of priceless memories, 11 ornament cupcakes, 10 sweet friends, 9 breakable/unbreakable ornaments, 8 minutes of dancing, 7 nights of tadpoles swimming, 6 hours of sleep, 5 family members, 4 hours of snow, 3 screaming kids at Santa, 2 sword fighting kids, and a sweet baby named Annie.

Santa and Snow...what could be better?

We went to see Santa this week. When asked, Gwyn wants milk and a juice box, and Jacob wants a red robot, a batman costume, and a fireman costume. Of course we hear that AFTER, we've already bought them presents! It would have been good to know about the costumes around Halloween, and I could have gotten them right after for 50% off and now they are all sold out. Oh well, I'm sure Santa will think of something! Gwyn, by the way, does not like Santa in person, but likes reading books about Santa. Here are some pics of the kids waiting to see Santa and riding a train at the mall. I met some friends there, since I'm sure I'd lose a kid if I went out by myself!


If you haven't heard, Houston got some snow last Friday. The kids had so much fun playing, at least Jacob did and Gwyn did too, until her hands got too cold and she wanted to go inside...she's a true Texan. Here are some pics of the kids playing in the snow:
We also had Brad, Erika and Maddy over on Sunday evening. The kids are growing up so fast!

Here are a few videos that Jason shot while everyone was in for Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving and Christmas Decorating

We have had a busy last couple of weeks. I have been pretty proud of myself for surviving with three kids on my own. I managed to take the kids to a Thanksgiving playdate at a friends house, and take them to the park...thank goodness I have some friends to help me not lose track of Jacob and Gwyn while I have to feed Annie!

We had a great Thanksgiving, we had Rick, Sue, Stacy, Justin, my mom, my dad, Jason all here for Thanksgiving. The kids loved the extra attention and it was nice for everyone to get to meet Annie...she is changing so fast!

Gwyn and Jacob each have their own Christmas trees, all with unbreakable ornaments. Our family tree is actually getting kind of bare because we've given them pretty much all of our ornaments that aren't breakable. They love their trees, Jacob wants you to tell him about where each and every ornament came from, and they both want their trees to look good, so every time I turn around they either Jacob is taking ornaments from Gwyn's tree and putting them on his or the other way around.

This is why all the ornaments are unbreakable...

Our Elf on the Shelf showed up again this year. He watches over the kids and flies back to Santa each night to report on their behavior...he comes back the next day in a different spot to continue his work...the kids are enjoying trying to find him each morning, just after they open the advent calendar to get their piece of candy...this is usually done by 7 am, I guess a piece of candy for breakfast until Christmas isn't going to kill them! This year, Jacob named him Kong Kong...he came up with that on his own and was pretty proud of it...it is funny to hear Gwyn say it. This is the first location he showed up:

Brian gets pretty creative on where Kong Kong shows up each morning:

Annie is starting to smile!

Here are a few random pics from the last week:

I call this one "cheeks"

This is how Annie likes to be carried around...

Never a dull moment

Annie is 4 weeks old now, she weighed 9 lbs 2 oz and was 21 in long at her 4 week check up, 50th percentile in both height and weight. She is growing fast and is starting to get a round little belly.

With a 3 year old potty trained little boy, poop somehow gets brought up in day to day conversation....multiple times / day. This week we've had our fair share of poop incidents including Annie pooping in the bathtub with the other kids in there with her causing a fiasco of having to get Jacob and Gwyn in the shower, draining the tub, and recleaning Annie. Gwyn and Jacob also found some dog poop out in the front yard. Now, Jacob was smart enough to know he didn't want to touch it, but he was mischevious enough to show it to Gwyn, who of course got it all over herself, and I mean ALL over herself...I think that would have been her third set of clothes for the day. Anyway, while I (the lucky one) was cleaning her all up it was so funny, she had this little frown on her face saying "OH NO" (just like she does when an episode of Dora has ended, as in the world is ending for her), and then she would say "dog poop" in this chipper little voice it had me rolling on the floor laughing. Also, Jacob was using the potty and Gwyn decided to go sit at the doorway and wait until he was finished because she wanted him to play with her, and I hear Jacob tell her to go away, that bathroom time is alone time. I thought that was hilarious because he doens't practice what he preaches! HA! Jacob also told me the other day that some people don't poop and they wear diapers...who knows where he gets this stuff!

It was Jacob's Thanksgiving lunch at school this week, Brian was able to go to his party with him, and he had alot of fun. He loves it when Brian is able to go to the school with him for things. His school brought a real turkey in this week, Jacob and Gwyn thought it was great. They also had a canned food drive, and Jacob was asking why we were taking cans of food up to school. So, I told him how some people didn't have food to eat, so we were giving them some of our food, so that they could have some food. I was trying to explain it really well about giving to others in need and such...well, when I dropped him off he walked right up to his teacher and said, "Here, this is for people who don't have dinner." I was a little embarrassed because here we had had this meaningful conversation and he goes and says that to the teacher. He also asked me if I knew the story of the chicken who ran away from the cook on Thanksgiving. I said, do you mean the turkey? He said yes, the turkey hid from the cook on thanksgiving, but they found him and put him in the oven. I think he is going to like Thanksgiving this year. Here are some pics of the kids this week:

Brian did finish this BEAUTIFUL piece of furniture for Gwyn's room, since she is moving into the old office, it doesn't have a closet...he did a REALLY good job!

Thanks to Jason, here are a few more videos...these were taken last week, I've got to buy a software to convert all the videos from my camera to upload to Youtube, so thankfully Jason did it for me again. The one of them trying to pull down the tree was hilarious!