Happy New Year!!!

here's our new year's eve party, complete with fake karaoke and a fake countdown at 6pm. even mary showed up for the occasion (she was lost all christmas season).

3rd (and final) Christmas

Merry Christmas, Y'all! Enjoy the plentiful blogs that follow. :) Love, Me

2nd Christmas

this one with my family (minus one-missed ya, dad!) saturday morning before we traveled home.

Blog Potpourri

here's dave and me getting ready to go out for our 8th anniversary, our fam celebrating christmas with granny & johnny and the kids playing with brooke (who, btw, cracked me up when she called jack & mia her white cousins) at this awesome bump n' jump/race car/all-around-fun place in houston.

Visiting our "Cousins"

this is my uncle tim's family. jess, ben and nick are my cousins and jack thinks they're his cousins, too. no one this side of the family has been able to figure out what their actual relation to him is, so i am declaring them his cousins til someone tells me different. nehoo, he was sooooooooooooooooo excited at the chance to see his cousins again, and they didn't disappoint. they had train sets, hot wheels and presents ready for the kids. and leslie fed us tacos with onion-less guacamole so yummy that i am still craving it.

1st Christmas

here we are celebrating our first christmas of the season with the froehlichs and grandmother.

Day of Uncles

first day of vacation: visiting dave's uncle chuck in the a.m. and surprising the kids' uncle stephen at his 26th birthday party that night. check out the link to my mom's new blog (winnie world) if you want to see videos of bekah & me doing the robot at the party (yeah, we're pretty awesome!).

sick day

it never fails. by the end of the season (and just in time for visiting lots of family!!), the kids are sick and almost always miss the last day of school. they're not really sick (check out pics) but they have coughs bad enough to keep them home. on the schedule for today: cleaning the house, kid shows, pizza & ice cream. not too shabby! right now they're having fun just being snuggle bugs.

la posada

we got to go with chris & bianca tonight to the grundys' (see blurry picture) party on the incredible deck of their home. boats decorated with christmas lights paraded by as we cheered and waved. they had some pretty great food, too, including cream puffs, chocolate pecan deliciousness and chili/cheese dip. oh yeah! life on the island is mui bueno!

Chuck E. Cheese Mania

the kids have a love/hate relationship with chuck e. they love to go to parties with him as long as he stays far away. once he gets to close, he scares the tuna salad out of them and panic sets in. at yesterday's party, jack did really well. for the first time, he didn't hide under the table when chuck e. came out. mia- not so great. he got a little to close to her and she had a meltdown, demanding to sit in my lap for the rest of the time. when he finally left, though, she yelled, "good bye, chuck e!!" really sweetly, like they were best friends. they always love him after the party, especially when they get their party favors home. here they are with their chuck e. cheese fangs.

haircut

here's my new do, courtesy of pat at dolce divino. i love it! she cut out most of the blonde, so you can expect me to start saying smart stuff now. the sad thing is that i took 44 pictures of myself before i shot one that was bloggable (i was practicing taking pics with no flash by the window, just like you taught me, C!). i really need a job. and a life. maybe i can get those with my new fabulous hair. :)

bah humbug.

consider this our christmas card. i just plain do not feel like doing them this year! don't know what is wrong with me. hopefully next year i will be more in the mood. our trip to see santa was good. the kids were a little shy at first, but got over it, obviously. they totally blanked on what they wanted, though. so funny to me since jack's been telling me what he wants every day for what seems like a year. also, last night we got to visit the most awesomely decorated house i've ever seen. i think this is the 3rd year we've been to it. you actually have to get out of the car and walk around to see everything. they guy even has a website: www.thechristmaswonderland.com. he built all the displays and they are amazing. am sure we'll go back a few times this season.

Christmas Program

this is always one of my favorite nights of the season. i almost NEVER get decent pictures of the performances, though. sorry! first up was mia's class. she did pretty well. she was sort of quiet during the first couple of songs but got pumped up when it was time for "jingle bells." the boy next to her is named jackson, and he has a crush on her. he always manages to find a spot next to her, and he is soooo sweet. she doesn't seem to notice. and maybe you can make out fish-faced claire in the blue dress. yes, she did that pretty much the whole time. and to the far right of the other picture are jack & gwen, christmas program superstars. :) they bobbed their little antler heads in unison, sang all the words and did all the movements to their songs. dave and i just sat there like big parental dorks, grinning & cheering. oh, happy night.

old school

got inspired by crissy to blog some black & whites today (she's the black & white QUEEN). and though they're not crissy status (sun-i can already see your "uh huh" face) i like 'em. and i'm bound to get better, right? mia loved wearing her new footy pajamas last night. can you tell? the other pics are of jack's new haircut, but since he did NOT want his picture taken much today, i snagged one of mia's crooked pigtails for ya, too.