Christmas 2007 - Whew!

Here is a picture we took with the auto shot feature! Not too bad! Christmas Eve we were thrilled for the festivities to begin! We began our evening with a candle light service at our church. It was amazing. They had an actual ice patch on the stage and two girls ice skated while the choir sang. Then it ended with candles being lit from the stage across the whole church. It went from a single light to hundreds in minutes. It was beautiful. A single light lit was the soul source of the hundreds finally lit. Very powerful! Well, Santa had only one gift to put together on Christmas Eve. After my stockings are filled they never stay on my stocking holders. So they ended up in the kid's car for safe keeping until the morning.
The remaining gifts were all wrapped up! I love the suspense of the kids opening their gifts.
The first glimpse of Christmas morning. 5:30 AM! The best part is after all the gifts were opened HC said "Well, there is one more thing." Hubby and I thought 'no there aren't anymore gifts!' and HC said "NOW we need to go outside and see if Santa brought our SNOW!!!!!!!" We walked out with the video camera in hand and searched high and low for snow. We even had to check the neighbors yard! JB finally said "I don't think Santa brought any Snow for us sister!" JB's big gift was this train table. After visiting friends and noticing their kids' train tracks and trains everywhere.... we decided that JB may be best suited to start with a train/car table that cannot have key pieces lost. :)

Here is his table with the top on it. JB can use the table top for building blocks or whatever!
HC was beyond thrilled to have her Barbie house! She was delighted!! This one was a 2 hour job for dear old Dad!! He heard "Are you done yet Dad?" at least 100 times! :) Oh the joy! Outside driving the new wheels!! It has been so cold lately!! I love it!

Then on December 26th, we woke early in the morning and headed for Houston. Of course, Hubby drove since HC can drive well in a circle and JB crashes into everything! WE thought that Dad was our best bet! We arrived at about 6 pm and opened MORE presents!!! Here is JB playing with the guitar HC received and HC was playing JB's keyboard.

Here are my kiddo's with Uncle Michael. Grandmother aka 'Mudder' and my Mom aka 'Nana' are in the background.
JB checking to see if he and PopPop are doing the same pose still or not.
Here is Grandmother and Grandfather (JB renamed him Godfather). They eat lunch everyday at this Whataburger and wanted to take us so they could show off their family. It was a fun lunch.
Later that evening my Uncle and his family arrived. So all the Grand kids took a picture with Grandfather and Grandmother. My two were the only Great Grand kids in attendance. My brother Michael's wife "Uncle Jill" as my kids call her is pregnant. She is the first female on the left. She is due in April! We cannot wait! We were only missing my other brother and his family to have everyone together.

Here are my Grandparents with my Mom and her brother and their spouses. Later that night my brother and sister decided we should all get away alone. We headed off to Chili's and had a fun time being silly, like kids. My parents were on babysitting duty. We took full advantage of their services! ha ha! So below is (from left to right) my baby brother Michael, his wife Jill, my sister Stephanie, me and my husband Steve. After our grub we headed back to my parents to play a little Wii Bowling! I can't wait to get a Wii!!! We had soo much fun!
The next day we had lunch and headed to visit family in Baton Rouge. Uncle Michael is really tall and he toted HC around in this plastic chair. She was scared but thrilled!
We arrived in Baton Rouge around 5 pm and then the kids played and ran around with their cousins. They took the mattresses off of the beds and pushed them together. They put their sleeping bags on the mattresses and slept on the floor. What a fun time they had NOT sleeping and giggling!! Nothing better than kids laughing together.

The next morning we were thrilled to meet the newest addition to our family. Here is Beau! What a cutie he is! Can't wait to see what personality he will bring to the table!!

The kids played a little hide and seek. I caught them all switching out who would hide and who would seek. The hiders would remain under the table while the seeker would count and pretend not to know where they were hiding. After much needless seeking they would finally find the others. They giggled and laughed so much! Truly fun times! (Pictured below is Lauren, JB, and HC) JB was dressed cute too but had a few accidents on this day. I guess all the traveling and activities were too much for him to remember to go tee tee too! This was his first go of accidents in weeks! Oh well, he still had fun!

HC, PawPaw and JB
HC, Mimi and JB!
My husband's brother, sister, and Hubby!
Here are all of the cousins playing together with JB's train set he received from PawPaw and Mimi!

Overall our trip was super fast but we had so much fun at both of our stops! It was so fun to see the kids play together. Such a rare event! The boys later went out to play a little football together. I have that on video. I hope to share that vlog with you another day!! We miss you all and cannot wait for our next trip! Much love!!

Merry Christmas Then and Now

Here is a glance back at prior Christmas' with our family! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!



We certainly wish you and yours a truly Merry Christmas! We pray you will enjoy your family time! Many blessings to you!

My Birthday Pics & Vlogging for Christmas Eve

My birthday was so great! Very relaxing and fun! The kids love birthday's because birthday's = cake to them! :) JB kept asking when we were going to the party. Once they blew out my candles they felt all was well!



The sugar turned them into giggly monsters!! (above) :) Even the moon was cool on my birthday! See the teeny star next to it??? Cool huh?!?
In honor of Christmas Eve, and since yesterday was my birthday, I decided to post my first vlog! I have not found the device thingy that allows our video camera to connect to our computer and so I used the photo stick feature instead. Sorry that it is a bit gritty in quality but the audio is good. I hope we will find the necessary connector thingy for our video camera (so next time I will use my video camera)! Here is HC singing a few Christmas songs for me! Don't be fooled by the t-shirts. My kids prefer short sleeves when indoors. Our high has been in the high 40's and low 50's this week. (Finally!) Sunday was especially blustery! Anyway, onto the vlogs!!!!




Now for a little singing by JB (in the beginning HC is singing her own song; so you have to listen closely to hear JB)!! We had a good day yesterday! Thanks to you all for sending me birthday wishes!



You obviously noticed a twang in JB's voice! He just started saying things like "yay-yah" instead of yes and "over they-yer" for over there. It is funny but disturbs hubby and I just a teensy bit. We have slight accents I am sure but nothing like the accent JB has suddenly (overnight) taken on! It is fun!

Happy Birthday Morningsong!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, 35 years ago today the love of my life was born. We met when she was just a tender 24 and she has blossomed into a beautiful, vibrant, incredibly talented, superbly gifted wife and mommy. Why just in the last two days she has sewn 12 dresses, some for HC and others as Christmas gifts. She always has time to play with HC and JB - not to mention she homeschools them. She has endured my long business trips with gladness and is never too tired to hear the boring details of my work world. She rarely tells anyone "no" and she is always quick with an encouraging word. I have seen people's lives change with the words she has spoken! She has kept me encouraged through some tough times and has always reminded me that God has His hand on our lives. I LOVE THIS WOMAN!!!!!

She is MY BEST, she is my precious wife, my sugarbear, my lovely bride. I NEVER want to do life without her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sugarbear, I love you bunches, you are amazing!!

She will post pictures of the celebration later, I can't figure this stuff out :)

Steve (hubby)

Hot Chocolate-Polar Express

In honor of my birthday I wanted to share this fun song!!! It is so peppy, it makes you want to dance around like you are a kid again! I hope you all are having a great day (and while you're at it have some Hot Chocolate)!

Blessings!

Playing "Alone"

First I must say "MY HEADER'S BACK!!!!! MY HEADER'S BACK!!!!!!" I had to change it b/c it suddenly shrank last week. Now I hope to have my smiling little ones back up top as they should be!!!!! On to my post now:

Normally when I take the kids out to play in the backyard I hear a lot of this: "Look at me Mom. Do you want to play ball with me Mom? Help me Mom." Etc. I know when my kids are 15 or 25 or even 10 I will wish I stopped to play once more, but today I want them to play without my assistance ALL the time. When we go to the park, they eagerly run to play without me but when we are in our yard they wear me out! It is nearly impossible to sit back and watch them play together. They want me to do it all with them!

The other day the kids wanted to play outside and I was not up for going out. I decided to let them go outside without me watching over them. They were thrilled they were able to go out at all. They agreed to the rules: No fighting/arguing, we will be friends while we play. No running in and out! (They only came in/out once. That was a record!) These pictures were taken from inside!
I watched them from the window. They played together for about 45 minutes without my assistance or my help. This was the first time I let them out without me. I did watch them for about 30 minutes but the key was I could watch them play. I wasn't being pulled every direction. I am pleased that I can trust them to play alone (at least alone in theory). I am sure I will watch them on their next go "alone". I had a ton of fun seeing them try things they usually need me to do for them. Like "help me climb up"

Or, can you get this ball for me mom? He managed to get the ball, but never did climb up on the swing horse.They do all of these things while I am outside with them, so I was NOT surprised at any of their... methods of exploring! :) It was so nice to sit and watch without the constant asking for something. It was really nice! They cooperated a ton more without me too.

I also wanted to ask one tiny question of my friends from up North! Do you make your kids wear a hat when the high is in the 50's?? I noticed several of you mentioning the t-shirts we are wearing and wondered "What do they consider cold enough to require a hat and gloves??" :)

Thank you Mr. Uncle Mike

I came home Monday to find this in my back yard! A friend of Hubby's gave us this swing set. His kids are too old for it and they wanted it out of their yard! YaHOOOO!!! It needs a little TLC but we will gladly nurse this swing set back to full strength. HC & JB were more than thrilled to take this off of their hands. Hubby worked hard putting it together while I went to a Christmas party. We all had a win that day! I am sure you can hear the repeated cries of "Are you finished yet Dad?? Can we swing now Dad??" They were so eager to play and they stayed outside for a few hours after it was complete.
Thanks Mike!! We are truly grateful! The kids can't get enough of outside now!!! HC began calling Mike "Uncle Mike". I guess if someone gives you a gift this big they should be called Uncle! :)
"Uncle" Mike also brought over a desk his daughter no longer uses. HC loves this desk because it has an overhead light and the white section on the desktop lights up too!!
Christmas began 8 days early in our home!!

Wednesday Hero

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Leo

SSgt. Mike Mills


On June 14, 2005 SSgt. Mike Mills's life was forever changed. The HETT(Heavy Equipment Transport System) he was riding in was hit by an IED. The attack resulted a cracked clavicle and scapula bones, dislocate shoulder, broken left hip, 4 out of 5 bones broken in his foot and being set on fire. The driver in the truck behind him ran with a cooler of melted ice which he threw on Sgt. Mills to put him out.

He spent three months in the Brooks Army Medical Center at Ft. Sam Houston, TX with the injuries listed above plus 2nd, 3rd and deep tissue burns to 31% of the left side of his body. The first thing he remembers thinking after the attack was that his soldiers needed him and he needed to get back to them.

"Then the guilt set in about what I did to my family. I've totally screwed that up. Look at me, no don't. I look hideous. How can I face my kids looking like this. They'll be embarrassed to be seen with me. What if they won't love me anymore? Speaking of love, my wife, oh my god. How can I expect her to stay with me. I'm not a man anymore. She's not going to want be intimate with a freak. What if I can't work, how do I support myself, my family.

I had the nightmares and couldn't sleep. I wasn't eating and was loosing weight. I didn't really care. If I didn't start eating, they where going to put the feeding tube back in. Who cares, I've totally screwed up my life anyways."

But he found out just how much is wife loved him, when she stood by his side throughout the entire ordeal. She was there for every wound dressing and even learned how to change the dressings herself.

SSgt. Mike Mills now runs the site For The Veteran... By A Veteran in which he helps veterans, soldiers and their families find information they may not have been given after their medical discharge or retirement.


Some may say that Mike gave his country more than enough when he was severely maimed by an IED on that fateful day of June 14, 2005, but Mike continues to give to his fellow servicemen, as well as to his nation!

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Mary at Not Before 7 is hosting Tiny Talk Tuesday. You should visit her blog for more details on the contest she is hosting as well!! She is giving away a kids Christmas music CD to one lucky participant!!!

We watched our Christmas video from last year and on Christmas morning my husband asked HC "Did Santa come to our house?" She looked around, a little confused, and said "Nope!" Husband said "Yes, Santa DID come to our house. Look at all of the presents." HC looked around and said, "I don't see Santa. (begins to cry) I WANT to see Santa." We decided to change the subject and open presents instead! :)

And here are more answers to the questions Mary posed: (answers by HC)

1.Tell me about your favorite ornament and why it is special.
The Snowman, because I like Frosty the snowman and he is really nice. He is nice b/c he takes us wherever we want to go and he melts and we don't get to see him again. And Santa shows us how Frosty can come back. So whenever we cry Santa will bring Frosty back to us.
2. What should daddy buy mommy?
A new computer.
3. What should mommy buy daddy?
An angel.

4. Why was there no room at the inn?
Cuz too many people were in the way.
5. How does Santa get into our house?
By opening the door.
6. Do you think you've been good so Santa will bring you a present?
Yes. I really would like him over to get a present. It never snows and I really like snow. I would like Santa to bring us snow b/c it is really cold and I have mittens to go in the snow and a hat to go in the snow. I just don't know what is in the snow.
7. What food should we leave for Santa?
Um.. Christmas food. Like that Christmas cookie up there in the cabinet. I really want that today! 8. Will you get to see Santa?
Yes. Soon b/c he is still making toys for us. He is at the North pole making toys for us. He gets tired and sleeps at the north pole. Then he wakes up and still makes toys and then we get him some food b/c he is really hungry.
9. How does Santa make it to all of the houses?
By um.. The reindeers, his sleigh that goes in the snow.
10.Why does Santa wear red?
So he can look like Santa Claus.
11. Tell us a Christmas story (or THE Christmas story)
The angel told Joseph that Mary had a baby. The baby was born. Really really born and Mary named him Jesus. You don't know Him buddy (talking to JB) but I am going to see Him. So, see ya later.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS!!!

Christmas Angel Breakfast

What a fun morning our Saturday was!! As a Mommy, I have been looking forward to a moment like this since the day I discovered I was pregnant. It was HC's first opportunity to perform. Here she is after getting dressed. She decided that today she didn't need a bow. She wanted to wear her hair down like mine! (Can you say "AWWWW"!?? I was thrilled to oblige.) Doesn't she look gorgeous?? She decided to tote Gigi around with her and so Gigi had to be photographed too! Then it was my turn to pose with my sweet girl!
Ok, I know! But this was at the party! We HAD to get another shot at the party! HC was eating her pastry. YUMMY.
Enjoying the company of friends!

The beautiful Christmas trees!!
Countdown to go time!
HC looking at the screen (they showed the pics from the book) as Mr. Tim read the story Christmas Angels. I must get this story! I loved it and so did HC!!
HC smiling! She was ready for her big moment! She was one of the first 4 year olds to dash to the risers and get in place. The song they were due to sing... We Wish You a Merry Christmas!! She practiced her song with enthusiasm and was ready for the big day. Then the unthinkable happened. I looked down at my video camera to make sure I had everything set, I looked back up and my child was not in her spot. She had turned around, curious about the stage behind her, and her foot slipped into the gap between the risers and the stage. Did I mention I have been looking forward to my child's first performance since she was in my imagination???? I was devastated and sad that my baby was hurt. I was composed but my heart sank as I realized she would not be consoled in time to sing.

The lady who saw her fall, the one on stage who was supposed to be watching the kids and didn't... she was still there when the 5 year olds began getting set on the risers. I asked her if HC could sing with them. They were singing Go Tell it On the Mountain and Jingle Bells. She knew Jingle Bells and was familiar with Go Tell. She agreed and so here is take 2:
Notice the red eyes?? She is the one on the bottom row. She was such a trooper and did fantastic! She sang along as though she had been to all the 5 year old rehearsals!! :) She even got to sing Jingle Bells WHILE shaking sleigh bells. Who could ask for anything more??? She was thrilled and drained by it all!!! I am so thankful that they let her sneak in!!Here's our lovely table decor! The Preschool team at our Church really did a top-notch job!! Thank you all for all of your hard work!
HC after her big performance! She is such a trooper! I just adore her!! I adore her spunk! I adore her strength!! I adore this little girl like I cannot even say! I love that she is willing to try again! She isn't scared to get back up there and give it a go, even when she isn't familiar with the songs. I tell you that God knew what HE was doing when He chose to give us HC first. If I were telling you this story about JB, I am sad to say I don't think he would have been consolable nor would he have tried to sing with the other group. He gets mad when things go wrong and unless he outgrows this in the next year or so... I dread when something similar happens to him. But HC was a dream. She got back up there and tried her best! On the way home she fell asleep, but after her nap we went on a few errands. I told HC how proud I was of her willingness to try again!! I even made up a song for her:
"My HC will never give up, she never gives up! She always tries her best!" OK, maybe it isn't a song. More like a chant but it is true! I pray JB outgrows the meltdowns when he is in a moment of crisis!! I pray I am wrong about him and I pray he too will keep trying to do things, even when they are a challenge or when conflict arises! (I more than adore JB too, whether he fights the urge to meltdown for another year or many more! He is fantastic too I tell you!! I am way blessed!!!!) I love you HC and I can't say how proud I am of you!! You are truly a ray of sunshine to me and I loved watching you perform. It was an honor to stand there watching my baby girl be so brave (and being so Big)!! Your light is always shining my sweet angel girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Her name means Gracious and Bright! She is indeed!)