Happy Father's Day

To the best daddy's around!

Easter 2012

Rangers Game; great weather; Egg Hunt at the Lawrence's; Brunch with the Allen clan
Easter 2012

Happy Valentines Day!

From our house to yours!
Charlie- 2 yrs, 11 mths



Valentines 2012


Collier- 12 wks

Christmas Videos 2011

Pretty exciting stuff! Pictures to come soon.

Christmas Eve 2011

My little elves on Christmas Eve 2011:

Now that Charlie is almost 3, I am all about starting traditions for Christmas. Here are a few that we started on Christmas Eve... We completed our Advent ornament tree:
We made a peppermint platter...in the shape of a "C" so that Santa knows the Charlie and Collier live here.
We made gingerbread cookies:
And left the cookies and milk for Santa to eat:
And, Santa created Charlie's new costume closet.

December 2011

We had a quiet Christmas around here. It was the first time that we have just stayed in Dallas... and the first time that we have spent a Christmas with just our little family. I still tried to do something "Christmas-y" every day of the month with Charlie... same as I did last year.

We went to Northpark one day and saw the trains, went to Santa's storytime, heard some singers, and listened to Scrooge's Puppet Show. (It was the first time I had taken both boys anywhere... it was a big outing! Luckily, Patrick met us for lunch to help out.)
I still decorated for Christmas:
We made a gingerbread house:
Our elf "Chippy" made an appearance:
We decorated the tree:
And hung Christmas Cards:
The finished product:
And, we added ornaments to our Advent tree:
We also did an advent calendar on the iPad everyday, went to a couple of Christmas parties, and went on many Christmas light seeing expeditions. We are creating memories and traditions around here!

Christmas pics

These are the chosen pics from this year's Christmas/Birth Announcement card.


Update on baby Collier... he is now weighing in at 7.14 lbs., so we have officially passed his birth weight of 7.9 lbs. This means I am letting him sleep at night. Last night we fed at 11pm and he woke up at 4:30am to eat... I am LOVING that this man lets me get a good 5 hr. stretch at just 3.5 weeks old!

Back to Thanksgiving

We had a "thankful tree". Each day we would write down something we were thankful for and hang it from the tree.

Here is Charlie's list:
Mom, dad, hank
Toy snake
Baby Collier's bed
T-ball, baseballs and bats
Bailey (the Allen's dog)
School
Baseball horse (the Rangers mascot)
Milk
My doggy
Thomas the train
Cooper, Isabelle, Sophia
The bird house (random gift that my mom gave us)
Toys
Baseball shirt (he owns 3 Rangers shirts; not sure which one he was refering to here)
Chick-fi-let cow (even though he is terrified of that thing each time we see it)
Micky, Minnie, Donald duck, goofie

Excuse the delay... with a newborn in our lives I'd much rather sleep than update the blog.

Thanksgiving 2010

It was a great week filled with family and fun in Spicewood. It was our first holiday with my future sister-in-law, Tandra... which made it much more special. Patrick's grandparents came out for Thanksgiving lunch. I cherish our moments with them and am in awe of how youthful their spirits are. Charlie enjoyed throwing the ball with Pops, golfcart rides with Babo, a 6am breakfast at The Bluebonnet in Marble Falls with Dada, playing with his second favorite dog- Bailey, and the many wonderful walks around the neighborhood.

Patrick and I decided to make an early departure. After 4 nights of Charlie waking up between the hours of 4-5 we were done. We were all sharing a room and, needless to say, it did not go well. Coming back one day early was actually the best plan for all of the Christmas decorations that got put up on Sunday!

Thankswigging

Every year my TCU friends and their families get together for "Thankswigging". We originally started it about 5 years ago and all wore wigs for the big event. This year not one person showed up in a wig... I think we should pass it along to the kids to wear wigs every year. This year was at our friends, the Horsch's, gorgeous new casa. Instead of cooking our traditional turkey and sides, we grilled steaks, had some roasted winter veggies and other various sides and drank some yummy wine. (The wine somehow always makes its way to the table no matter what we are celebrating.) I did a sub-par effort of getting pics of all the kids...
Jack (4 yrs)

Sam (2.5 yrs)

Lauren (15 mths.)

Oliver (9 mths- right A?)

Nathan (2.5 yrs)

Charlie (20 mths.)

I LOVE this tradition we have with our friends. It marks the beginning of the holiday season and I look forward to it year around!