Merry Christmas!

I think this might be the last post that I do until Christmas! We have been quite busy this weekend. We had some our friends over this weekend to make ornaments and for some playtime! We had a great time. Today we went over to another friends house and made some Christmas cookies! A little more than we normally do for a weekend! It was so much fun! I have attached a video that I took today of the kids on the way back to the house. Evidently, Jake has learned how to say "Merry Christmas!" It's so cute!

I have also attached some cute pics of Hannah and I. She actually wanted to take pictures last Wednesday before her tumbling class. Notice her leg warmers....can you believe they are bringing those back?? YEA!!! I had some when I was a little older than her! We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! Love to you all!

Party Time!

Last night was Brent's Christmas party down in Dallas. As always it was very fun and exciting, no not really! This will be the last Christmas party for Club Marketing in Dallas and I'm sure Brent is thrilled! Since we hardly ever have any pictures taken of Brent and I, I thought this was a good opportunity since we were all dressed up. Don't get me wrong, I will take any time to get to be with my husband, even though he doesn't really care for the party! I still had fun just being with him!

Where's Hannah??

The past couple of naps that Hannah has had, she has ended up in the plastic storage box that we keep her stuffed animals in. At first, we would come into her room to wake her from her nap and would find her nestled in her curtains on the floor. When you would first walk in the room you couldn't find her. It's been kind of funny to go in and see where you will find her! The other day Brent was home and got the chance to wake her up from her nap. When I got home he said "you're never going to believe where I found Hannah." He told me that she was in the box! So that last 2 days she has wanted to sleep in the box! Whatever it takes to get her to take a nap...I don't care! I got a couple of snap shots of her in the box!! Now when she takes a nap she says "Mommy, I want to sleep in the box!" I guess it like her secret hiding spot that we all know about now! Cute,cute,cute!

yesterday at nap time!

today at nap time!

My Q & A with Hannah

Hannah decided that she didn't need a nap today. Instead, she came out to the living room and talked to me about the Christmas tree. After a couple of minutes I thought...this would be a cute video! There is a little added bonus of Hannah's version of singing Jingle Bells. Check it out!

Deck the Halls!!

Today I accomplished quite a bit! Hannah was in school today and Jake was home with Mommy. We had a late start but, I soon came up with the great idea of wrapping presents. I started about 10 a.m. and finished about 11:15. I had already finished all of our Christmas shopping last Friday and now I thought it was time to conquer the world of wrapping. I did pretty good and got all of Hannah's gifts wrapped except for the kitchen, of course. That will be assemble by her Uncle Robert in his free time over at Dad and Mom's. I don't even think we're going to wrap it. We can't wait to see her face Christmas morning. Anyway, back to wrapping...I started on Jake's gifts since he was busy watching CARS! He didn't really notice me grabbing his gifts that were nicely hidden on the top bunk bed (It has to be used for something...storage works well for now). I had one more gift of his to wrap and I went in and grabbed it and all of the sudden I heard this loud gasp! I thought, "on no, he's in here!". I turned around and his mouth was wide open and he had the look of amazement on his face. I had in my hands....his firetruck! I ran into the kitchen and tried to cover it up with paper as fast as possible(while he is trailing fast behind me). I got it covered up and thought...he has short term memory loss right now, he won't remember as long as I distract him with something else. As I was trying to cover the firetruck up with paper, I ran out of paper and the roll was left behind. I handed him the roll and he thought this was the best thing ever!! He started running around the house, in typical Jake fashion, whacking whatever he could with it! Problem solved!!!

After most of the gifts were wrapped we headed out for some more shopping! For the past 2 years I have bought the kids their very own ornament for them to put on the tree. A little late this year but, I got it done. I got Jake a choo-choo train and Hannah a frosty the snowman! I also found some great silver and red jingle bells! Our tree has never been very creative, just the plain-jane balls you get at Wal-Mart! But since the kids have come along, they really get into putting their very own ornaments on the tree. It will be fun in 20 years to look back at each and every ornament that we have collected over the years. It may looked a little funny right now with not so many ornaments over here but plenty in just one spot. That's the way we like it...because those little critters did it themselves. Our little elves!

Catch up!

Well, I am going to try and play catch up on this post. Since last Wednesday we have had a lot going on. On Wednesday morning we got the results back from Hannah's allergy testing and it came back negative. She's a perfectly healthy girl! So, since that exciting news, I got together with 2 other mommy's (from the tumbling class) and we took all the kids to the park! I think that there were 6 kids total, all the same ages as Hannah and Jake. There is even a little boy Jake's age. It was perfect. I think we spent 2 hours just playing at the park. We had been waiting for a couple of weeks on taking Hannah outside, just for the fact that we didn't know if something outside was making her sick. She and Jake were so excited to get some fresh air.

Later that day my in-laws came into town for Thanksgiving. We enjoyed some yummy lasagna and chessy bread from Papa Murphy's. If you haven't tried them yet, they are outstanding and pretty cheap! I started a couple of things for Thanksgiving and then we called it an early night, since I was running the next day. I didn't end up running in the Turkey Trot in downtown but, did an awesome 8.5 miles here in Mckinney. Dad had spent some time in the ER earlier that morning and he didn't think he could make it down there with 30,000 other runners! For someone who has a pinched nerve, he did fabulous!!! Way to go Dad!

Friday morning came around and Randi and I got up at 5 a.m and hit the stores!! I can't believe that I got out that early to shop! We actually had a great time and didn't really run into too much mayhem! Then we got to Toys 'R' Us...that place was crazy! We had to wait in the check out line for 1 hour! But, I have to say they were very organized! I got home at about 10 a.m. and enjoyed some time with Brent's family before they left! I think we had a pretty good Thanksgiving! No fires (remember Randi??), nothing was burned and every thing was done about the same time! Very relaxing, good company, and a very easy clean up. Thanks to Brent for the great idea of buying paper plates and plastic silver wear! That was the best clean up by far! Brent ended up having to fly on Friday and got back late last night. We didn't end up doing too much while he was gone. Just chillin'!

Today has been a fun day. We took the kids outside to ride their bikes. And much to our surprise, Hannah has picked up riding her bike really fast. We have been working with her off and on for a while and she just couldn't get the pedaling part down! I think that it helped a little that Jake got a tricycle for his birthday and she has been practicing indoors on that. We got a lot of pictures and even a video to share!

working hard to get up the driveway

She's so proud of herself

Aren't they super cute?

Almost a collision...thankfully Hannah got out of the way!

We hope you enjoy the video!

Poor Hannah!

Yesterday, Hannah was playing with one of Jake's big Tonka trucks when her face met the floor! Bless her heart, she bit her lip really good and skinned her nose up! We didn't even know about the nose until this morning! I guess it took a little while to appear! We felt so bad for her. Jake runs around the house and is always running into or bumping into something and really never sheds a tear! Usually the next day there is a scratch or bump or something and we're both like...where did that come from. Hannah on the other hand is pretty dramatic when she gets hurt. This time she had reason for the dramatic crying....she was bleeding pretty good! She seems fine today but, I had to share the picture! She smiling though!

We've had a pretty lazy day for the most part! I got out and ran with Dad. We ended up running 8.2 miles!! Pretty crazy, I didn't know I could actually go that far! But, good news is...I can run the 8 miles at the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day. I was a little worried that I might not have it in me to do it! Turns out, I was wrong! We have really enjoyed having Brent home this weekend. We accomplished a lot. The kids got their pictures taken for the Christmas greeting card and school pictures....you'll see them soon! I got to take Hannah to her very first movie! We went to see Madagascar 2! She seemed to have fun but, couldn't really sit still! Oh well! Anyway, that's it from us! I have added a couple of pictures that I took this weekend! Enjoy!

Prior to her little accident...in her new sweater!!

The little man eating applesauce and chessin' it up!