Top 50 Memories of 2010 (in no particular order)

1. Seeing the kids teach Annie things.
2. Watching Annie take her first steps.
3. Hearing Annie's first words: Daddy, Momma, ice, dog, hi, bye.
4. Celebrating Annie's 1st birthday party at our house.
5. All the rest of Annie's 1sts: Sitting up, rolling over, crawling, walking, running, climbing, getting her ears pierced, end of formula, bottles, baby food.
6. Annie excited and running to the door when Brian gets home yelling, "dadda, dadda, dadda."
7. All of Annie's funny faces she makes to make us laugh.
8. Seeing Gwyn turn into such a sweet, kind-hearted little girl.
9. Finally seeing the end of Gwyn's pacifier addiction thanks to the Pacifier Fairy.
10. Taking Gwyn to her first movie, Toy Story 3, where she didn't move a muscle the entire time she was so awestruck.
11. Gwyn's 1st day of preschool, how excited she was to walk right in because she got to go to school like Jacob.
12. Dressing Gwyn and Annie in matching outfits.
13. Celebrating Gwyn's 2nd Dora birthday party at our house.
14. Gwyn riding a bike (with training wheels).
15. Celebrating Jacob's 4th birthday party at Chuck E Cheese.
16. Jacob and Daddy getting to go to St. Louis to go to a Cardinals baseball game and visit Great Grandpa.
17. Watching Jacob as a King in his Christmas program at school.
18. Jacob learning to swim.
19. Going on field trips with Jacob's preschool class.
20. Watching Jacob be such a big helper and a sweet big brother to his sisters (most of the time).
21. Moving into our new (old) house.
22. The enjoyment of having our own pool and being able to get in it April - October in Houston!
23. Summer trip to Oklahoma to visit family and friends.
24. The many trips to the park, library, play dates, bounce places, etc.
25. The excitement of the kids over light up sketchers, "they are awesome!" says Jacob.
26. The hours of playing outside with the kids, catching bugs, riding on scooters, writing with sidewalk chalk, getting every toy in our garage out.
27. Seeing how close the kids are becoming to their Nana and Papa, G and Grandpa, Jason, Justin and Stacy.
28. The kids trick or treating dressed up as Batman, Tinkerbell and a princess.
29. Easter egg hunting at our house.
30. Watching Jacob and Gwyn get proficient with an iPhone.
31. Cooking with my little helpers Jacob and Gwyn.
32. Daily crafts with the kids.
33. The weeks of family visiting us for Christmas:  Nana, Papa, Susie, G, Grandpa, Stacy and Justin.
34. Early morning kid shows of Dora, Max & Ruby, Wow wow wubbsy, and Yo Gabba Gabba.
35. Saturday morning breakfasts at Jason's.
36. Great Grandpa coming to visit us in August and playing hide and seek with Jacob and Gwyn.
37. Taking the kids to the pumpkin patch, Gwyn getting a medium pumpkin, Annie getting a small one, and Jacob getting the biggest one there.
38. Brian's ultimate landscape lighting project.
39. Trip to the beach in Galveston with the Mulsow's, Brian and the kids swimming, roasting hot dogs and making smores on the beach.
40. Monthly date nights thanks to Jason and our babysitter Savannah (or as Gwyn calls her, banana).
41. Trip to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving, first time to travel without bottles/baby food.
42. Neely flying down to visit us.
43. Brian and I celebrating 10 years of marriage with a weekend trip to the Hill Country.
44. Claudia visiting from Florida and Brian visiting John in Florida for a guys weekend.
45. Mommy getting consistent full nights of sleep (I find I'm much nicer!).
46. A year's worth of Brian's decorated birthday cake masterpieces:  Dora for Gwyn's birthday, Spiderman for Jacob's birthday, and Hello Kitty for Annie's birthday.
47. A new car for Mommy for Christmas!
48. Christmas morning and the kids so excited about their presents.
49. Mommy getting a new computer that works...hello iMac!
50. The blessing of having such great kids and a loving family to share them with.

A recap of a very Merry Christmas!

It has been a little hard to keep up with the blog the past few weeks, we've had family in for over 3 weeks and my computer had a heart attack and I got a new one...it is an iMac so I am trying to figure out how to operate it and get in my posts to complete this year.  I'm doing two tonight, just so that I can reach my goal of 1 per week, so I'll have 52 this year...yes, I'm doing this at 11 pm, but I still have an hour!

My dad came in early and stayed about 2 1/2 weeks.  It was great having him here, although I don't think he got too much sleep and he went back with a very bad cold from the kids, so I don't know when we will be able to talk him in to coming back down.  The kids got used to having him here and would go wake him up in the morning.  They loved to play outside, and yes, he did catch them some slugs if you saw that from a post earlier this month.  Dad also got to see Jason quite a few times and stayed 2 nights over at his apartment.  My mom and Aunt Susie came down the Tuesday night before Christmas, so they were here about 5 days, and then my mom, dad, and Susie all drove back to Oklahoma the day after Christmas.  Rick, Sue, Stacy and Justin came down the same day and stayed through the 29th, and the kids had a great time with them too.  We had Brian's Aunt and Uncle in from the Woodlands, the kids got to go see Tangled (to which Jacob has talked for days about a sword fight scene being the best part, and of course Gwyn agrees it was her favorite part even though she slept through it), everyone went out to Maggiano's for dinner one night, and of course, we had round 2 of the Christmas present extravaganza!  Gwyn has a little crush on Justin and it was funny seeing her make all googly eyes at him!

I'm embarrassed at how few pictures I took while everyone was here.  It has been a crazy few weeks with just about every one here getting sick, so I'll use that as my excuse.  The kids had a great Christmas, I regret not having the video camera ready to record everything as they came down the stairs on Christmas morning.  Jacob was the first one down and he peeked his head from around the stairs and started yelling, "he came, he came!"  Santa brought Jacob a razor scooter and light up sketchers.  Gwyn got a big chair like Jacob's and light up twinkle toes, and Annie got a few baby toys.  When they saw the shoes they started screaming, "they light up, they light up, these are awesome, they are so cool!"  It was great.  They were also SO excited over their stockings and were practically screaming over a batman toothbrush or princess stickers.  The unwrapping festivities seemed to go on for hours, the kids wanted to play with whatever they opened right then and would forget about the rest of the presents.  Annie just wanted to walk all over and sit on everyones presents.

We have been having so much fun around here.  With the kids being out of preschool, we have been filling our days with lots of fun things.  Here are the pictures I got from the past few weeks, Santa's milk and cookies:

Jacob on his new razor scooter.  He is surprisingly REALLY good at this thing.  He said, "I didn't even tell Santa I wanted this."  I told him that Santa must have known how much he would love it.

Gwyn on her princess scooter that Jason got her.  She was really excited about it, especially since it has a princess pouch on the front that she can fill up with some toys.

 Jacob and Gwyn ask to do a craft multiple times per day.  Here are a few of the things they did:

Playing with the lego city that Rick and Sue got Jacob.  This is a pretty cool set, but it has some tiny pieces and since Annie is still in her eat-everything phase, we have to be very careful with it.

 My dad with Gwyn.

 Annie has discovered Brian's old rocking chair that she loves.  It is now "Annie's chair" and she thinks she is super cool since she can get in it and rock by herself.

 Jacob and his decorated Christmas cookies:

 Gwyn and her decorated Christmas cookies:

 Susie and her decorated Christmas cookies:

 Annie loves her some Oreo cookies!

 The kids outside playing on the play set.  Annie was so excited to be up on top with Jacob and Gwyn without Mommy or Daddy.  The weather was so nice most of December, only a few days got down into the 40s and we had weeks of weather in the 70s and 80s.

 This was just such a cute picture.  Gwyn loves her little sissy.

 You can really see Gwyn's cute haircut in this picture.  She really wakes up with it looking like this, I've loved her haircut!

The kids setting out the reindeer food.  On Christmas morning Brian lifted Gwyn up to look out the window and you should have seen her little eyes when she gasped at the site of the mess the reindeer had made on the back porch.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Since Phoebe put it in writing on the blog a few weeks back that I would be writing a blog before years end, here goes.  It's probably only fair since she's written over a hundred and this is my first.

What a whirlwind of a time getting ready for Christmas and its only hours away.  The kids are decked out in their new PJs.  They have set out some cookies and milk for Santa.  They got a hot tip from Papa that Santa is quite fond of milk and cookies.  Jacob thinks he likes chocolate milk since that is what he drinks.  Annie thought the cookies might have been for her and as a result wasn't too interested in having her picture taken. 

They also put out some reindeer food on the back porch.  Since it's raining, Gwyn thought that the reindeer would prefer to wait under the covered patio where it was dry while Santa did his business inside so that's where we put the reindeer food. 

Our past mornings have been filled with the whereabouts and mischief of Kong Kong the elf.  It's become a race to see who can find him first.  Gwyn has become very good at spotting his latest location that Kong Kong has been hiding himself a bit more discreetly lately.

In no particular order of his appearances, the following are a few of Kong Kong's recent activities.

Jacob was very interested in how Kong Kong drove that car up on top of the curtain rod.  We concluded that it had to be Christmas magic because you can't drive a car up the wall.

One of his more obvious locations hiding out in a candle holder.

I guess Kong Kong got a bit lonely and struck up a friendship with Gwyn's Tinkerbell.  It probably makes sense that an elf and a fairy would get along well.  Gwyn was really excited that Kong Kong liked her Tinkerbell.

Big time mischief here when Kong Kong downed a juice box one night.  Those things are like gold in our house.

Kong Kong thought Annie's elephant was a chair.  He fit quite nice.

This was the first night he really got into some mischief.  I'd been telling Jacob and Gwyn that elves are partial to marshmallows.  Kong Kong filled his hat with them one night, though instead of wondering how he got into marshmallows, Jacob was more interested in Kong Kong's hair and whether it was more girl hair or boy hair since he had never seen him without a hat.  After a thoroughly presented debate where each party took turns articulating their points, Jacob decided that Kong Kong's hair was boy hair and Gwyn concluded that it was girl hair.

Some of the marshmallows spilled onto the table.  Kong Kong tried to take more than he could carry.

When not properly sealed, marshmallows get stiff fairly quickly which was pointed out by Jacob.  Kong Kong must have heard this and the next morning he was spotted trying to microwave some.

Hanging from the mistletoe.  Strategic spot for Kong Kong to choose. I tried to repeatedly stand under Kong Kong to remind Phoebe where he was and was only successful on a kiss once.

Upside down in the A/C vent.  His hat fell off, and everyone was very concerned about it that we had several conversations with Kong Kong to remind him that his hat was placed on Mommy's computer so he wouldn't forget.

 

 Kong Kong likes to read.  Jacob really thought it was neat that he chose to read a book about plants that eat bugs...one of his favorites.

The kids were quite enthusiastic about this one.  Kong Kong must like crafts as much as they do.  Although he needs Gwyn to give him sticker lesson. She is in the process of learning that "Stickers only go on paper".  Kong Kong also drew a picture of his boss, Mr. Clause himself.

 One night he toilet papered the dining room.  Gwyn is often up first in the morning and we can usually here her little feet pattering around.  She spends several minutes in each room checking things out an often plays with a toy for a few minutes, turns on the Christmas tree, and looks at the North Pole village, before she tiptoes in to our room.  This morning we could here her whispering  "look what Kong Kong did,  he decorated the lights."

It took them a while to find him this morning.  Kong Kong gathered a few of his friends and set up to watch a movie.  Jacob thought it was cool that Kong Kong wanted to watch a kid show.

Kong Kong showed up several other places throughout the past month, but wasn't always photographed.  I blame that on Phoebe, she is the family photographer.  Somehow every picture I take is blurry.  I can say that having Kong Kong with us the past month has been quite a pleasure and I will be sad to see him go.  He is scheduled to return to the North Pole with Santa tonight.  We'll miss you Kong Kong.  See you next year.

Merry Christmas everyone.

12 Days of Christmas

 On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gave to thee, a little red nosed reindeer named Jacob.

On the 2nd day of Christmas God blessed me with, 2 sweet sisters, and a little red nosed reindeer named Jacob.

On the 3rd day of Christmas we luckily received, 3 kids who love to play and have fun, 2 sweet sisters and a little red nosed reindeer named Jacob.

On the 4th day of Christmas our preschool gave to us, 4 hours of Christmas parties, 3 kids having fun, 2 sweet sisters, and a little red nosed reindeer named Jacob.

On the 5th day of Christmas Papa found for us, 5 slimy slugs, 4 hours of Christmas parties, 3 kids having fun, 2 sweet sisters, and a little red nosed reindeer named Jacob.

On the 6th day of Christmas good hygeine gave to thee, 6 cheeks a brushing their teeth, 5 slimy slugs, 4 hours of Christmas parties, 3 kids having fun, 2 sweet sisters, and a little red nosed reindeer named Jacob.

On the 7th day of Christmas cool cuts 4 kids gave to thee, 7 inches of hair from Gwyn's first haircut, 6 cheeks a brushing, 5 slimy slugs, 4 hours of Christmas parties, 3 kids having fun, 2 sweet sisters, and a little red nosed reindeer named Jacob.

On the 8th day of Christmas Daddy gave to thee, 8 books at bedtime, 7 inches of hair, 6 cheeks a brushing, 5 slimy slugs, 4 hours of Christmas parties, 3 kids having fun, 2 sweet sisters, and a little red nosed reindeer named Jacob. 

On the 9th day of Christmas kong kong gave to thee, 9 minutes every morning of searching for Kong Kong, 8 books at bedtime, 7 inches of hair, 6 cheeks a brushing, 5 slimy slugs, 4 hours of Christmas parties, 3 kids having fun, 2 sweet sisters, and a little red nosed reindeer named Jacob.

On the 10th day of Christmas Target gave to thee, 10 new sets of lights so Santa can find our house, 9 minutes every morning of searching for Kong Kong, 8 books at bedtime, 7 inches of hair, 6 cheeks a brushing, 5 slimy slugs, 4 hours of Christmas parties, 3 kids having fun, 2 sweet sisters, and a little red nosed reindeer named Jacob.

On the 11th day of Christmas Brian gave to me, 11 minutes of crazy dancing from Mommy over my new Expedition, 10 sets of lights, 9 minutes every morning of searching for Kong Kong, 8 books at bedtime, 7 inches of hair, 6 cheeks a brushing, 5 slimy slugs, 4 hours of Christmas parties, 3 kids having fun, 2 sweet sisters, and a little red nosed reindeer named Jacob.

WAIT...that hasn't happened yet...but when I do get my car, I will be dancing crazy with excitement (hint, hint, Brian!)

On the 12th day of Christmas my precious family gave to thee, 12 months of treasured memories, 11 minutes of dancing, 10 sets of lights, 9 minutes every morning of searching for Kong Kong, 8 books at bedtime, 7 inches of hair, 6 cheeks a brushing, 5 slimy slugs, 4 hours of Christmas parties, 3 kids having fun, 2 sweet sisters, and a little red nosed reindeer named Jacob.  Merry Christmas!

Jacob and Gwyn can swing!!

It has been a rather eventful week.  We are into the Christmas season, so we have been very busy.  Jacob had his Christmas program at school where I said he was a wise man, to which he quickly corrected that he was a King.  Here are a couple of pictures:

 Jacob walking down the aisle above, and standing with his class below:

He was so cute all dressed up!  He was carrying a gift for Jesus, and he dropped it while he was up there.  I was glad that my dad got to go too. Jacob was so excited to see us, he did so good! Here is a short video:



I took Gwyn and Annie to church for the Women's Christmas Luncheon, it was pretty good and nice to visit with some of the women at my church.  I forgot Gwyn's lunchbox at church that day and Jacob's jacket at school that same day, sometimes I don't know where my head is at!  I was also able to go shopping with Annie and a couple of friends to get some Christmas shopping in while I could.  Annie was such a good baby, and even let us sit down for some lunch too!  She is saying a few words, mainly dada, mama, dog, ice, but sometimes it is hard to tell. 

The weather has been great and we've been playing outside for quite a while every single day.  This is now our afternoon ritual, to go outside around 3 til around 5.  Here is a picture of Gwyn on her trike:

 Annie ready to play:

Jacob making one of his famous trains.  He can sometimes have every toy we own strung out across the yard and driveway making a masterpiece!

Here is a video of them on their scooters:



Rick was in and out for a night for work, and my dad has come to stay til Christmas.  So, Dad is trying to teach the kids things while he is here.  So far, he's taught Jacob how to chew gum (yes, it is sad to say the kid didn't even know what gum was), and now both kids are swinging!  Hooray for not having to constantly push at the park anymore!  Gwyn has gotten really good and can do it for an hour at a time, Jacob gets frustrated but is getting the hang of it.  Here is a video of them swinging:



Oh the sickness is upon us!  Annie came down with it on Thursday, Brian got it Friday, and I got it Saturday.  We are still feeling miserable here, I did take Annie to the doctor this morning and they checked her ears and said it was just a really bad head cold, but she is taking it very hard.  She is basically walking around crying all day, she does nap pretty well, and on top of that, she broke through two more teeth, poor baby!  She has started to feel better today, so we'll keep praying everyone gets better around here and that it isn't passed along to Jacob, Gwyn, or my dad.  Brian did get out to take Jacob and Gwyn to Smashburger, what Gwyn calls the "hot dog store."  They each got smashburger stickers on their jackets, and Gwyn wore hers to school the next day.  Apparently, a little boy tried to take Gwyn's coveted smashburger sticker on the playground.  I can just imagine the tsunami of emotion that poured out of Gwyn, and she said her teacher told the little boy not to take her sticker.  She was still upset about it when we picked her up!  Here is a picture of poor little sick Annie:

Sorry so short this week, but everyone here has been miserable, the weather did change and it got down to the 40s (I know, not that low, but it is killing us here!). 

Funny things the kids said this week:

Gwyn (as she is sobbing):  Mrs Zarse thinks I'm Annie! (since she had to use Annie's lunch box one day since I left hers at church)
Jacob to almost anyone:  You are on the naughty list.
Jacob:  Where is Santa going to land on our roof?  Where is our chimney?  Where will the reindeer be?
Gwyn (right after she got a candy pack from church):  I'm going to share this with Jacob. (she's so sweet!)
Jacob:  What are those on your shirt?
Me:  I think they are supposed to look like flowers.
Jacob:  They look dead.
I overhead Jacob and Gwyn talking about what they wanted for Christmas, and I heard Gwyn say this:
Gwyn:  I want a real baby, but one that doesn't bite like Annie.