Merry Christmas!

Opening presents:

We like to hug:

Ready for Santa

Our Christmas jammies are on:

Christmas stories have been read:

Cookies have been decorated and left out for Santa:

The children are nestled all snug in their beds:

The stockings have been filled:

The presents have been wrapped and put under the tree:

We're all set.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Sam is Thankful

I forgot to post this video on Thanksgiving...

Celebrating Noah

Noah was Student of the Month at his elementary school for November. Yay for Noah!! I am so proud of him. To celebrate, I told him that this weekend he could choose what we did. I was not at all surprised when he chose to go to his favorite mall with the crazy play areas. First we rode the Carousel (is this post sounding familiar?)...

Sam was not in a merry-go-round mood and opted to sit out with my dad instead (my mom and dad are here visiting for Christmas and it is WONDERFUL):

Then of course the boys spent some time at the play area, after which we went out to dinner and introduced the boys to the concept of "toasting." We toasted Noah's student-of-the-month-fabulousness and he and Sam got really into the clinking of the glasses. They also quite enjoyed our cries of "Tallyhoe!" which is a toasting necessity in my family.

To top off the celebration Noah got to do some rock climbing. The kid is seriously good at this. I took him to the rock wall at the gym a couple of months ago and he would scurry up the wall like it was nothing and then he'd look down at me (barely half-way up) and say encouraging things like, "Come on Mom, you can do it! Just keep going, you're almost there!" Here's the little spider doing his thing:

Good job Noah!

(That reminds me... Yesterday when I came home from work I saw that Noah had left me a picture on my bed that said "Good goob [sic] Mom!" with a behavior chart like the ones he gets at school from his teacher. He gave me all blues and purples, thank you very much. I am evidently a very well-behaved mother.)

Noah's Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

I really want a trampoline, a big bouncy ball, a toy zebra, two coloring books for my brother and I, and a teddy bear, a bacugans, and a toy giraffe for my mom. Star wars toys, and a toy caterpillar. I have been a good boy and I think I really deserve it.

Nut's Hat

The other day the boys and I were walking through Hermann Park. Sam, whom we have called Peanut or Nut since before he was born, was excited to find acorn tops on the ground. He picked one up and exclaimed, "Look Mama! It's a nut hat!" He then proceeded to put it on his head and say, "Cause I a Nut!"

Welcome Jane!

Yesterday my little brother Tom and my sister-in-law Aly had their first baby - a little girl named Jane. We are so thrilled to have a new addition to our family!

When I showed her picture to my boys they both gave their approval by saying, "I like her." Then Sam observed, "She's cuddling in her bed."

Welcome to the world, sweet baby Jane! We're so happy you're here!

Let It Snow

Note: I realize that this post will make my friends in the Midwest, on the East Coast, and in Colorado roll their eyes. Rest assured that I do understand the absurdity of it all. However…

It snowed here in Texas the other day!! This was a very exciting event for us as it very rarely snows here (as in, next to never). It started out as wet-almost-like-fluffy-rain snow but as the day went on we actually accumulated enough to stick on the ground. Granted, we could still see an awful lot of grass so it was more like snow patches but we’ll take what we can get.

The absurd part is the level of panic this “snow storm” created. My office closed mid-day. Several schools in the area closed. My college sent out an “emergency” correspondence and cancelled classes that day and the day after (despite the sunny skies and the fact that everything had basically melted by then). Seriously, people. It was pretty ridiculous.

In any event, my kids had a blast playing in the snow. It was so funny (and kind of sad) because Noah was totally psyched about making a snow angel but when he stood up to admire it, he looked down and said, “Hey, where’d it go?” Poor guy; snow angels are pretty elusive when there isn’t enough snow to completely cover the ground.

Here are some pictures from our very exciting snow day:

Because it rarely snows here, the Museum of Natural Science hosts an annual Snow Day and actually brings in 80,000 pounds of snow for kids to play in. Coincidentally, it fell this year the day after our real snow day. Because my kids had so much fun playing in the snow on Friday, I brought them to the museum to play in the snow some more the next day. Can you believe that I actually paid $10 for my kids to get 15 minutes of play in this??