Meeting the Cousins

Brooke & Phinny (she was loving making him laugh!)

Phinny (with Hallie checking him out)

"Baby" Jack, as Brooke calls him

Over New Years we went to Dallas to spend Christmas with George's family. While there we got to meet our new nephews. Hudson, Hallie & Brooke will love having cousins so close in age as they grow up... I did!! It was a fun time, but we can see how crazy and hectic family get-togethers will be in the future having so many little ones running around. Jack was only 2 weeks old and Phinny was 5 months (and his momma is pregnant with baby #2) so next year will be really wild!!

Brooke the Photographer

Brooke has taken a new interest in taking pictures. We used to only use a big Canon Rebel camera but recently bought a new one that is smaller and easier to travel/carry. So, she can easily take it around and snap some shots. Of course, there are the typical ceiling and floor shots, but she's gotten decent at actually taking pictures where you can see the subject. Here are a few that she took over Christmas. Maybe we have a budding photographer on our hands.

Hallie, Nanny & Uncle Ryan

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Our church had a great event called A Night in Bethlehem this year before Christmas. The church was decorated and people were in costume to look like Old Bethlehem. It was so great! With all the busyiness of the season and gifts and Santa, etc., it is really nice to have something to take our kids to to remind them the true reason for the season. We loved it and it was a blessing to our family. Hudson & Hallie were a little too small to enjoy all the events, but Brooke enjoyed making a nativity scene with stickers, painting an ornament and pottery. There was even a lady making real pottery on a potter's wheel. It was really well done (Great job, Sherry and team!). Here are a few pictures from the night.

Brooke w/ Mary & Joseph (they had the kids put hay into the manger for Baby Jesus)

Brooke painting her ornament (she LOVES painting!)

Working with the stickers for the Nativity scene.

Another event that we had was our playgroup had a "Happy Birthday, Jesus" party. It was really nice of our friend Amber to host this for us. The kids watched a video with the Christmas story and had cupcakes and had coloring pages too.

Eating her ONE bite of cupcake (whose kid is she anyway??)

Coloring Mary & Joseph

Did you miss us?

We are still here... I realize it's been a while since I've updated my blog. I'm sure all our diehard readers have been wondering where we have been (ha ha!). This month has been crazy with traveling and getting ready for Christmas, etc.

George performed his first wedding in Dallas mid-December. I wasn't able to go with him so I've yet to hear how he does it. I will get my first chance this coming weekend though as he is officiating another here in College Station. For those of you who know me -I get super nervous when he preaches, etc. So, this will be interesting for me too. You'd think it was me up there in front of the crowd because of how nervous I am.

We took Brooke to Disney Playhouse Live this month too. She loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Manny on the Disney channel. Her favorite thing to do is dance to the "Hot Dog" song. We thought she'd enjoy seeing these characters in person. She took it all in very cautiously. When it came time for the Hot Dog dance - she started to do it and when she realized everyone else was doing it too (and doing it differently) she quickly stopped. We were so disappointed because it is so cute to watch her. But, at the very end they were playing music and she let loose and got her groove on. It may not have been the song she was familiar with - but she at least participated some.

Hudson & Hallie are 10 months old now. They are pulling up on all the furniture and starting to move holding the couch. Hallie has found a new facination with the fireplace (and the rocks inside) which has caused me to move our ottoman in front of the fireplace to block her path!

George and I got a Wii for Christmas and after acting like 12 year old kids when opening it we are loving it!! George is dominating me at tennis (just as in real life) although I am trying to get better. I'm determined to beat him for one game...

We'll be going to see George's family this week. We are excited to meet George's sister's babies - Phinny (5 months) & Jack (2 weeks). The house will be full and loud - but it's exciting to have playmates for our kids!

Snow Day Part 2

That's my footprint (so you can see how much there was)

I checked my zip code again... yes, it is College Station and yes that IS snow!! Tonight as I was driving to church I literally felt like we were back in Colorado. It felt just like it used to when it would snow on my way home from work. Of course it stopped sooner than it usually does in Colorado, but we got quite a bit of snow. As you can see by these pictures I took tonight. It's crazy! What is most bizarre to me is that it didn't snow in Dallas or in Oklahoma where my brother is. I also never imagined our ice scraper/snow brush would be useful in Central Texas...but I pulled it out tonight to clear off my car. It's been fun!

Snow Day

Yes, that's right. It really snowed in College Station. I can't even believe it. This morning we woke up to it and that was a surprise. But this afternoon it started sleeting again -- and then turned in to real snow. I just had to get Brooke out there to play in it. At first she wanted nothing to do with it because she thought it was raining - and she hates getting wet in the rain. But, I guess I finally convinced her that it was different and then she was ready to go. Maybe it took her seeing me go out there several times to take video and pictures that convinced her it couldn't be that bad. I am really in the Christmas spirit now!! I even had to get online and start streaming audio to listen to Christmas songs.

Hudson and Hallie didn't get out in the snow today...I'll take the blame on this -- I'm just not Supermom enough to hold them both at the same time and take the much needed pictures/video. OR maybe my Supermom powers stop when it comes to getting three kids outfitted for the cold only to stay out a few minutes. You decide...

SANTA!!

We visited Santa the day after Thanksgiving this year. It was our 3rd time to see the NorthPark Santa in Dallas. Every year Brooke has done really well and never cried so our pictures have always turned out really well. This year with three kids was much more difficult. Brooke has been in this "no smile" phase and Hudson and Hallie weren't sure what to think. Hudson just kept looking at him and Hallie started to cry some. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery just after I took this shot, so I wasn't able to try and get another one with the kids all looking and smiling*!! The professional photographer wasn't much more successful. The shot that we ended up with was pretty much the same as this one. Hopefully we can keep up the tradition and continue seeing this Santa for a while. We'll have to time our visits to Dallas accordingly!