Let the Festivities Begin!

And we're off! The festivities have begun! We had some friends over the other night. The kids had fun making stockings, cookies and...funny faces!

The next evening we celebrated Christmas with Nene, Uncle Jay, Lynette and Jordan. Jordan got a trip to Disney for Christmas so they are already there having a great time. The kids had so much fun giving and getting gifts! Matt said his favorite gift were a pair of UnderArmour baseball cleats Dad purchased for next season. And Marlie liked anything! Each time someone gave her a gift she said "for me?". She would have been happy with just one thing!

Matt had a Christmas program at school. The boys dressed up as Joseph and the girls as Mary. They sang some really great songs...our favorite was of course "take me out the stable" in the same tune as "take me out to the ball game". It was too cute!
Then of course we had a blast at our Christmas parties at school. Matt's class had a party to celebrate the birth of Christ! Marlie's class attempted a few Christmas carols but I think 1, maybe 2 of the kids actually knew the words. Marlie was too busy just being silly!
We wish everyone a blessed and wonderful Christmas!

San Diego Pics - Part II

So we got our pictures back from our photo shoot in San Diego. There are a few really good ones. But the best are of course of Matt. The session started out great and after about 30 minutes everyone kind of fell apart. While we were trying to calm Marlie down (after a wave snuck up on her and she fell in the cold water...white shirt now brown) the photographer captured Matt being Matt...silly and having fun on his own. I love these pics! We got a few good family ones too. The next one is by far the best shot of Marlie. My little Princess! You can see more in the slideshow!

Some Catching Up To Do!

It's been awhile I apologize. I have been sick for over a month now. Marlie has been sick and even our dog, Hannah, has been sick. It's times like this when we are so thankful that we are generally healthy!

Happy belated Thanksgiving to you all! We actually had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Gram and Aunt Dani came to pick up both kids so Doug and I had a weekend and a few days to ourselves. It was our first time without little Marlie, but she did great!

Doug and I are lucky to have some good friends that like football as much as we do. They invited us to the ATM vs. Baylor game in College Station and to see the Texans play - Monday night football! We tailgated with them at both events and had SUCH a good time. Walking into Kyle Field was so neat. It's been so long since we've been to a college football game and it's just awesome. My mind was on the kids and so I was obviously fast forwarding to the day they will be off to college. Hopefully the will go to Rice University which is not too far and.. .well... they have a great baseball team too.

We are all home now and guess what? It snowed in Houston!! And I mean snowed! The kids loved it. Here's a picture of our backyard...look at it come down!

M&M had fun making snowballs. Matt would get a good one and get about 2 inches away from you and throw it!

Dad helped them make a snowman and they were so excited. It was neat because even after most of the snow melted, their little snowman stood proud a few more hours.

Ironically, the next day was "snow" day in our neighborhood. Each year they bring in snow for the kids and Santa comes to visit. Matt was so excited to see Santa.
Marlie talked about Santa all morning and then froze when she saw him. She was hanging on to me for dear life!
So we went to play in the snow with our friends for awhile.
We tried one more time with Santa, but Marlie still insisted I go with her to see him. She looked at him like he was crazy! Of course when we went home she said "I go see Santa"...and when I asked if she would sit on his lap she smiled and said "YES!". So we might have to try again!