Merry Christmas!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Here's more pictures on facebook.

Houston Zoo/Anniversary Trip

This past weekend we celebrated our 12th anniversary. We brought the kids to the zoo before we left them with Aunt C. It was warm and sticky at the zoo but it was still a fun trip. After the zoo, we went back to Chrissy's and got the kids settled. Then we stopped at Central Market for food for the weekend. It was crazy there on a Friday night! We stayed in a cabin outside of Columbus for the weekend. It was very nice and quiet but I did get antsy on Saturday. We took a walk out to the gazebo and later in the day took a drive. Apparently I don't "do nothing" well. The bed in the room was uncomfortable (we call it a banana bed in our family since you roll into the other person in bed) and I was ready to see the kids so we left around 8:30 and headed back to Houston. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast which took a good bit of time and then went to Jeff's house to meet Chrissy and the kids. Coralee had a great time with Aunt C. Last night, she cried at bedtime because she wanted to sleep in bed with Aunt C. Ken gave in and they called and talked to Aunt C & Mr. Jeff. Of course, that was her same excuse for not taking a nap this afternoon. We left overtired kids and while Chrissy did a great job trying to keep them on schedule, they are super tired. Coralee gives me the most grief about nap time (and bed time for Ken) when she's super tired. It's never fun getting back to "normal" but at least we don't have a lot going on this week.

Seeing Santa at the Mall

I finally took Coralee and Lincoln to see Santa. She was so excited! She drew Santa reindeer pictures which were too cute for me to just leave them with Santa. Lincoln wasn't too keen on Santa for the picture. I haven't scanned the picture but trust me, it's hilarious.

Zilker Trail of Lights

Note that Lincoln is wearing short sleeves in the crazy Christmas pictures and none of us had on jackets. That was Sunday night and we went to the trail of lights on Tuesday. This weather has been so wacky! It was SO cold. Lincoln had on his full coat (a fleece jacket that fits into a bigger jacket), his Elmo hat and lined corduroy overalls. I think he was the warmest out of all of us... especially since he was right next to Daddy in the backpack. He stayed awake the entire time looking at the lights and saying "ooo, ooo". Coralee enjoyed it as usual. Her favorite part was the pink lights.... wherever they happened to be.

Crazy Christmas

Last year we didn't get to do crazy Christmas because it rained. This year, we were back home for Thanksgiving. We invited some friends along for the trip and added Main Street Bethlehem to the mix.

We stopped at Storm's for dinner which took a lot longer than expected. Lincoln refused to drink his milk once he saw our cokes. He really enjoyed the Cherry Lime Squeeze! After seeing Bethlehem, we went to Marble falls for their light display and finally Johnson City for the Pedernales Electric Coop. The big kids ran around like crazies since it was way past bed time. Lincoln really liked shaking the horse & carriage and was unhappy if we made him move away from it. It was a super late night.... we got home at midnight but it was kind of nice to get it all done in one night.

Handbells at the Capitol

Ringing in the rotunda has become an annual event. It seems like the weather is always an issue. Last year, it was really cold and rainy. This year there was no rain but it was really cold. We met our friends, the Deans, for lunch beforehand and then it was time for ding a linging. Ken walked the kids around the capitol after they got squirmy and Lincoln eventually took a little nap.

Georgetown Christmas Parade

We went to the parade with our friends the Zamoras & Eagins. We got there early and it was cold, so we found a coffee shop which kept us warm for a while as well as giving us something warm to drink and a clean bathroom. Coralee has to have "coffee" when we do. This time it was raspberry hot chocolate. We really enjoyed the parade. One of the cool things was that there were so many churches represented in the parade.... not what we're used to seeing in Austin. After the parade, we ate lunch and walked around the square a little bit. The girls got to decorate cookies and of course, Lincoln had to have one of his own, too.

Putting Up the Christmas Lights

We have a tradition of taking pictures

of the kids with the lights as Ken puts them on the house. This year was no different.

It's another.....

GIRL!!!!! I had my appointment last Tuesday; sorry to be late in the big reveal. I had intended to print transfer paper with the words "Ditto" and "One of a Kind" for each kiddo but couldn't find the transfer paper. Who knows, I probably threw it away. We did labels instead. It was fun to make everyone wait this time and even more fun to make them figure out what on earth Ditto and One of a Kind were.

We're excited to have another girl. Honestly I'm not surprised since I've felt pretty similar to how I felt with Coralee and we've always agreed on the name for the correct sex and this time we weren't in agreement about a boy name. Then he saw everything again and confirmed it's a girl (with exclamation points... his trademark). He'll still give me a free look at my next appointment just to be 100%. Oh yeah, her name will be Lauramae Kathryne. Laura Mae was my great grandmother's name. We always called her La La since one of her siblings couldn't say "Laura". La La stuck. She was such a neat lady and we even have some of her costume jewelry which will make neat accessories in Lauramae's room. My sister and Mom have also offered a couple of her hats for decorating, too. Very cool! Of course, not only was Laura my great grandmother but she's also my favorite aunt's name so it is in honor of her, too. Kathryne is Ken's Mom's middle name and I have always loved the way it's spelled. My Mom has kidded that her name should be Lauramae Kathryne Anne so that she's included, too. That might be a little long, though. Maybe next time. ;-)

Veteran's Day Parade

We went to the Veteran's Day Parade on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately we were running late since I looked at the time wrong and it was raining but we still saw most of the parade. Lincoln was pretty serious at first but got into it once he got a flag. Only in Austin would you see all the Veterans from the different wars and then people for a universal living wage (umm, hello, if you pay that, all the salaries will go up to accomodate and no one will be better off) and Iraq veterans against the war. It was an awesome parade and Coralee was saying afterwards that she wanted to be a veteran. I missed the conversation she and Ken had in the car but Jody, you'll be proud, she said she wanted to be in the Air Force. :-)

Our First Family Camping Trip

The AWANA Campout was last weekend. To say I'd been worried about how that would turn out would be an understatement. I had visions of not sleeping at all because of an unruly baby boy. But, much to my surprise, it went great and I'm looking forward to doing it again although hopefully on a slightly warmer night! We had to make two stops along the way... to Randalls for ice, jiffy pop (which we didn't use) and marshmallows. Then, I realized I didn't have any foil for the hobo packets for dinner plus it was our usual dinner time by then and Lincoln was getting cranky. We made it to the campsite before dark, though, and got set up. Next was getting dinner fixed. It was one of those times where I was thankful Lincoln isn't walking. Ken kept putting him in one of the lawn chairs (the short one) to keep him away from the fire. He'd stand up and knock the whole thing over on the ground. I learned quickly that meeting Chrissy & Jeff when they went camping was probably a bad influence. Jeff went all out with what he cooked and it seemed like a good idea to me. I made green beans with onion and bacon, biscuits (that got burnt on the bottom) and hobo packets with ground beef and potatoes that didn't get cooked all the way. After dinner we headed down to the big campfire for Smores and warmth from the fire. Next was bed time which like I said went much better than I expected. Lincoln flopped around several times, put his feet in our face and started snoring. Let's just say Coralee wouldn't have done that at his age. Bed time away from home was always such a challenge! Everyone else slept well but I kept waking up and hoping it was morning. I'm already getting up once or twice in the night to go potty and the bathroom was way too far away for that. Somehow I slept through the most exciting thing of the night.... a domestic disturbance. Our friends were camped next to us with their girls and the Mom woke up hearing people yelling. She was disoriented and thought that it was coming from our direction. The yelling got louder and things got physical. She was ready to come kill Ken but when she got up, realized it wasn't coming from our direction. So, Ken was safe. :-) Later on that night, I did hear the same guy throwing up except I thought it was our friend's husband. One of their daughters had complained of a tummy ache and I was a little concerned that he had whatever she had. I plugged my ears so I couldn't hear it but it seemed to last for a long time. The last thing I needed was to have any sympathy puking which is always my fear. Close to six, I woke up because I heard someone say, "Keep it down, people are trying to sleep!" Umm, yeah, like your neighbor who is now awake! By then my bladder was beyond ready for the trek to the potty! Coralee woke up because she was cold (Ken looked at the temp in the van and it was 36!?!) and Lincoln woke up shortly after that. After the bathroom trip, I fed the kids some snacks and milk that was too cold for Lincoln (he kept spitting it out) and then got them dressed. Let's just say wrangling a one year old on the floor of a tent is not easy work. We headed down to the big campfire for fat free donuts and sausage and some more time with friends. We had decided to go to Longhorn Caverns with the kids afterwards but unfortunately forgot the camera so no pics of that. Coralee enjoyed the cave but said she wanted a shorter cave next time. Lincoln was excited at first but fell asleep at the last little bit.... just enough so I had to carry him up the 50+ steps back up to the top instead of passing him to Ken. We finished our day off with lunch at Storm's and headed home for baths. Boy did we need them!

Halloween/Fall Festivities

I know some of you have been waiting and I apologize. Here are some pictures!

Sweet Berry Farms

We went out to Sweet Berry Farms this weekend with friends from church. It was a blast. I've been looking forward to this trip for weeks. We did the hayride and the corn maze in addition to spending too much money on pumpkins. We bought one for each family member including Oscar (wonder whose idea that was). One of the highlights for me was being able to pick zinnias for $1/cup. Zinnias are some of my favorite flowers. I'm running out of space for adding pictures so these are some of the highlights. You can see more pictures here.