Christmas Eve Traditions

Now that we have a family of our own we started a new tradition that we always spend Christmas Eve at our house with our family. We attend Christmas Eve service at church, eat Christmas Eve dinner, open presents, and watch our favorite Christmas movies – It’s a Wonderful Life and Love Actually while we eat the treats I make earlier in the day and drink homemade hot chocolate. Afterwards we prepare for our visit from Jolly Old St. Nick! We write a letter to Santa, set out a plate of milk and cookies, and say our goodbyes to "Nose" the Elf. We check the Santa Tracker and when we see he’s in Texas we put out the reindeer food and then hurry off to bed to read the Night Before Christmas. Afterwards it's lights out and time to close our eyes so that Santa will be sure to stop at our house and leave us lots of goodies for Christmas morning.

You Raise Me Up

One of my favorite pictures of my Dad with Meredith. She was so happy! This picture reminds me of all the times he carried me around on his shoulders when I was a little girl. The funny thing is, his hair is the same shade of white as it was back then.

Another cute picture I took of Meredith in my parent's yard.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Riley really gets into the holiday spirit. Can't you tell?

Off to Opa and Oma’s house he goes…

Jonah went and spent a couple of nights with his Opa and Oma. This was his first trip to a grandparent’s house without us! He was very excited especially since his cousin Kayla was also going. They played and even took a trip to the Zoo.

*Thanks Oma for the Zoo pics*

Monkeying Around

My sweet little Christmas monkeys.

Ice Ice Baby

We took Jonah to visit the Ice exhibit at the Gaylord Texan. It was amazing and very COLD! This year’s theme was How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Jonah really loved going down the ice slide. So did his dad and uncle!

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It’s Gettin’ Hot in Here

We took a tour of the fire station with our MOPS group. The highlight of the tour was the fireman demonstrating how they slide down the pole when the alarms go off! The boys loved it!

 

Why you should not let children dress themselves

Jonah’s Self Portrait

Jonah loves taking photos with my camera. Here is his self portrait.

It snows in Texas??

Yes, sometimes we get snow. It’s rare but it does happen occasionally. We had our first taste of true winter weather with a mild snow storm the other day. Jonah was so excited. I could barely get him dressed fast enough before he was running out the door!

Christmas Card Time

Just to give you an idea of what parents go through to get that “picture perfect” pose for the family Christmas Card.

Picture number 27

 

Picture number 53

Picture 89

 

and finally a picture with both of them smiling!

Picture 105

Exceptional Eight

Eight months old today.

Two front teeth. (just in time for Christmas)

Loves Puffs and Earth’s Best Organic Gourmet Meals.

Started sitting up on her own.

Falls asleep listening to Lifescapes Lullabies. (so does Mommy)

Cries when Jonah leaves the room.

Her favorite games are Peek-a-boo and “Super Merdi.”  Josh flies Meredith around chasing Jonah while yelling, “It’s Super Merdi to the rescue!”