Merry Christmas! 2008

Christmas is so much fun with kids. Emma got a kitchen and a real digital kids camera from Santa. Although she saw the kids nativity scene first and she played with it for 10 minutes before we convinced her to open her other presents. I'm glad she liked it. So last year I learned a lesson about Christmas, take all the toys out of packaging before Christmas morning, which I did this year and it was great!! Emma could play with her toys immediately and I didn't have to fight with packaging. Well, this year I've learned another lesson for next year, wrap the presents before Christmas Eve. I think Kevin and I crawled into bed at 3am! Uggg. Luckily our kids aren't old enough to wake up at the crack of dawn on Christmas, I think we got up at 9am, which was great. Of course Jackson didn't care if he had presents or not. He just liked chewing on the bows and wrapping paper.

Christmas Eve '08

Getting ready for Santa. Reindeer food. Cookies and milk for Santa. Reading The Night Before Christmas, Cranky baby ready for bed.

Gaylord Texan Resort

The Gaylord does an amazing job at Christmas time. We only drove around looking at the lights but I hear that the inside is amazing. Next time we'll take the time to go inside.

Christmas at the Bass Pro Shop

The Bass Pro Shop does all sorts of fun things for the kids at Christmas. They even have free pictures with Santa. I know I had some professional pictures done but I wanted individual pictures of the kids with Santa, particularly Jackson since it is his first Christmas.

Cookie Making Take 2

My friend Amy invited us over to make cookies. Emma got into adding the sprinkles. Mmmm, sugar overload!

A Mothers Love

I absolutely love this photo! Jackson had fallen asleep on me after nursing. I was holding him and was thanking God for this moment of holding him. I was thinking about the future and sitting at Jackson's wedding and wanting to remember this very exact moment of holding him as a baby during his wedding. I know my self well enough that I would forget so I called for Kevin to take a picture. I'm so glad I did. My husband is such a talented photographer. Thank you baby!

Santa Picture 2008

This year I had the kids picture done with Santa at a photography studio. On one of my forums someone mentioned that they had gone and had their kids pictures done and loved them and the prices were reasonable. So I thought, what the heck, I'll go too. I did get more choices to choose from and I didn't have to stand in any long lines, which was nice. We didn't have much luck getting Jackson to smile but at least both of the kids are looking at the camera and they aren't crying.

Santa, I'm three..

Ummm, I'd like a camera that takes real pictures and a big kitchen.

At least this year she smiled.

Jackson: Ummm, who are you? Can I chew on that white ball?

Cookie Making

I thought I would do a fun project with Emma while Jackson took a nap. So we decorated cookies. We only decorated a few because my frosting tasted nasty, I added to much vanilla extract. Emma still ate her cookies and liked it.

Jackson's First Cereal

Num, Num.

I started Jackson on some cereal today. He is a little over 6 months old. Interestingly enough I started Emma on cereal at 4 months old. Even starting Jackson at 6 months seemed to early for me. I think I would prefer just breastfeeding for a few more months and then start solid foods, but everyone keeps wanting me to start the solids. I think it's interesting the difference on how I feel about starting food. I realize now that it's so much easier just to nurse but with Emma I was so excited to start Emma her on solids because it was all so new.

Catching up, part II

Ok, I've decided I'm never going to get caught up. So, I'm going to start my blog post from now and hopefully I can gradually add a few older post while I go. I feel sad that 6 months of Jackson's life will not be documented, but the longer I go without doing it the more overwhelming it seems and I'll never get caught up. So, here are some resent pictures and post. Enjoy.

Gifts

My sweet friend, Nikki, from work and I have been exchanging gifts throughout the year. We started last year when none of our coworkers wanted to do a secret santa gift exchange. We were totally bummed that no one wanted to do the gift exchange so we started giving gifts to each other and we kept it up all year long (Valentines, Birthdays, Easter, Halloween, ect). Nikki is so sweet because she always includes something for Emma. I love bringing home a gift from Nikki that Emma can open, she is always so excited. After we open the gifts we call Nikki at home and thank her for the gifts. Emma has gotten pretty good at talking on the phone and leaving a message saying thanks. Emma got a book today and we called Nikki and she said "Thank you Ms. Nikki, I love the book, it's great." It was so sweet.

Cooking Class

Emma's friend Katie invited her to go to a cooking class. It was a lot of fun, they made pancakes, fresh strawberry syrup, and hot cocoa. Then they got to eat it afterward!

Sweet Boy

Boy, do I sure love my little man. I love him so much sometimes my heart physically hurts. Which I'm so happy about because I didn't love him this much when he was born. How could you not love this face?

Pumpkin Picking

A local farm had a pumpkin picking event. I took the kids and Emma got to pick out pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. Did you know the pumpkin vines have itty bitty sharp little stickers on them? Well, take my word on it. Anyways, we also got to ride on the trailer pulled by the tractor. I think that was Emma's favorite part, we rode the tractor 3 times, and we probably would have done it more if I would have let her. It was fun. I love doing fun things like this. I hope Emma looks back one day and remembers how much fun we had.

This is the pumpkin we picked, pretty huh?
Look, a grey pumpkin, isn't that unusual?

Family picture (Wow, I look tired, oh yeah, I forgot we had spent about 4 hours at the park that morning with some friends)
We also got some yummy delicious hot chocolate, see our chocolate mustaches?
Tractor ride

Fresh Okra. It was a little late in the season so it was borderline edible but Emma liked it. I didn't know it grew on long stems.

Jackson had fun too!

Catching up

I'm so excited, an acquaintance of mine (my scrapbooking consultant) invited me to come to a local church twice a month to work on crafts and child care is included for free! When she suggested I come I was all over that idea. The first time I came I brought my card making supplies and made out a few cards. I noticed that another lady brought her laptop and was working on projects online. So this time I decided to bring my laptop so that I can have 3.5 hrs of uninterrupted blogging time! Now maybe I can actually get caught up! So check back frequently for new blog posts.