Our Christmas Day

After starting off half the day at Dad's house, we drove down to my Mom's house for Christmas day and dinner. My Aunt Kathy and Uncle Randy were there with my cousins Josie and John and John's roommate from college. Everyone had a great time visiting and playing. A lot of time was spent shooting baskets outside and also playing Molly's new game, Rockband for her Wii. Lillian even loved to play the drums for that. We also spent some time with Mamaw and Papaw who were also in for a few days.

Left: Lillian plays Rockband, Right: Opening gifts

Left: The Ho Ho Ho girls, Right: Andrew and Papaw

Left: Aunt Kathy and Andrew, Right: First ride in their new wagon from Katy and Clay

Left: Lillian drives Ron's Gator, Right: Cousin Josie and Andrew

Our Christmas Morning

We celebrated Christmas morning at my Dad's house. We were up early, not just because the kids were up, but Tory and Molly were already scoping out the stockings! Here are some pictures from Christmas morning...as usual, there are none of me since I'm always taking the pictures!

Mole opening up a gift. Clay got a Red Rider gun! Just like the Christmas Story!

Left: Katy and Andrew, Right: Dad and Tory play Wii

Left: Geneva rocking Andrew to sleep, Right: Lillian and Daddy





Andrew looks so pretty with a Christmas bow!

Our Christmas Eve

I just made it back yesterday evening from Alto and have been unpacking and cleaning ever since. Since I'm so behind on my blogging, I'm going to try to do a few pictures each day for the next couple of days to share our Christmas with you.

Christmas Eve:
We hung out with the Pearman clan on Christmas Eve. The kids were passed around and enjoyed seeing everyone. Then we enjoyed a rousing evening of karaoke! I'm sure the neighbors were wondering what in the world was going on. Everyone was slow to start, but once we got going, no one wanted it to end! We sang and danced until late late! Lillian finally crashed on the couch watching and Andrew we put in one of the bedrooms to sleep on a bed. It was great to see everyone and a lot of fun. Even Bob got a few songs in and Dad and Kelly were his back-up dancers!

My Montage 12/29/08

Hajek Family Christmas

We drove down to Shiner Sunday morning for the Hajek family Christmas. That is Brandon's mom's side. They rent a hall each year for us all to get together and visit and eat all the goodies. It was really great to see everyone. We got to meet our new little cousin, Zachary. His parents are Brandon's cousin, Brian and his wife Melissa. Zachary is a little over 2 months old and just a little sweetie! Lillian also got to see Santa for the 3rd time this season. She actually got close to him several times and after she got her present from him, she openned it and gave the present back to him! ha ha...I did catch one picture of her with Santa when someone handed her to him...that was a one in a million shot. Andrew enjoyed chewing on his gift and crawling around with it. Here are some pictures from there.

Austin, we have a crawler!

After 10 months and a lot of coaching, Andrew started crawling last night! We were getting ready for church last night and had Andrew on the floor in Lillian's room while we were getting her dressed when he did 3 full paces of crawling to get to a marker on her floor. We cheered and he laughed at us! Then we were in Shiner today for Brandon's mom's side Christmas get together and he crawled all around that floor. So when we got home this evening, I filmed him a little so I would have proof. Here he is! I'm so proud!

Andrew is a crawler

Santa came

Santa knew we would be in Alto during Christmas, so he stopped by early here last night. Lillian and Andrew love their new kitchen!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Playhouse Disney Live

I anxiously loaded a screaming Lillian into my friend, Irene's van yesterday afternoon. I think she was scared I was leaving her with them since she hasn't ridden in their car before. As some of you know, Brandon and I took Lillian to Playhouse Disney Live last year and it was a disaster. She was just at the wrong age and fussed the whole time. I was a little worried if she was even ready this year.

Well, we got there and she immediately was looking at all the set-ups in the lobby area telling me, "Einsteins, Manny, Mouse!" She was excited. We finally got to our seats and as the lights went out and the girl came out on stage, she just let out an "ohhhhh!" and she didn't take her eyes off the stage. She sat in my lap and would say the names of all the characters to me. It was so sweet! She really enjoyed it. Of course, I got her a souvenior...something she wanted last year, but we just got a tshirt last time. It is a light-up wand and she has been carrying it around all day. I'm glad I went ahead and took her. We didn't bring our camera because last year they searched bags and wouldn't allow them in, but this year, they didn't do that and my friend, Lauren took a picture of us there.

As we left, she was saying by to Mickey and Pooh! It was too cute. She had a great time! Her friend Natalie, that we rode with was in tears because it was over. Oh, to be 2 again! How exciting!

New Pictures

Lillian actually was loving on her brother yesterday, so I took the opportunity to get some rare pictures of them together. Here are some of those and some other random pictures.

Also, go to Andrew's website. I added a new journal entry and photo album because he turns 10 months old today. Make sure you vote in the new poll as well.

Lillian's Christmas Party

Andrew and I went early to pick up Lillian from school today for her Christmas party. Lillian and her classmates were already busy decorating ice cream cones into Christmas trees when we got there. Lillian didn't do much decorating.

She was just licking the icing off of the cone and eating her toppings.

She had a good time and Andrew had fun playing on the floor in the classroom while we were there. During school, before I came, Santa came and passed out gifts. Of course Lillian yet again wouldn't take her picture with him, but was happy to get her gift which turned out to be a plush Ming Ming from the Wonderpets that she loves!

New Discoveries

Not much to report in the past week. It has mostly been cold, so we've been staying in and haven't met with our playgroup in a while. The kids get tired of being in the house all day, but I hate to take them out to get sick. It is sad when our big outing is to drive to get the mail down the road!

The kids have made some new discoveries while being stuck in the house the past week or so though. Andrew is growing and although he still won't crawl, he is scooting places. He will end up on the other side of the room somehow, not on purpose. He likes to try and pull up now on toys and on the coffee table in the playroom. He worries me that he may end up with a Lillian head scar as well.

Lillian discovered mom and dad's big bath tub this week. Andrew was in bed and Brandon wasn't feeling well, so I decided to put her in my bath so she could play while I showered and could watch her. She loved it! She was so excited when the tub filled with bubbles and when I turned on the whirlpool jets! She had a big ole time!

In other news, Brandon took Lillian to get her stitches out this morning and she did okay, but this afternoon, she ran into a door knob and we had more blood! Go figure. We put on a bandaid and hopefully it will be okay.

Update on Lillian's ER visit

Brandon said she did fine. She screamed when they cleaned her up, but I guess they gave her a Popsicle to eat while she waited because her shirt came home full of blood and orange stains. They had to wait a really long time there but finally got her stitches and she is fine. She had 3 stitches and doesn't seem to even notice they are there. I feel bad that I wasn't there with her, but it was just better that I kept Andrew home. I'm just glad she is okay. Now we have a little Frankenstein for Christmas

Lillian's first ER visit

Brandon came home this evening with some business he had to take care of online, so he was upstairs on the computer while I was still watching the kids. Andrew and I were playing on the floor and Lillian was playing around on the couch when all of a sudden, she flipped off the side of the couch. She cried and I asked her if she was okay since she falls a lot and cries about everything...well she just started screaming. I ran over to her and scooped her up and there was blood everywhere. She must have hit the edge of the coffee table. It was all over her face and going over her shirt. I brought her in the kitchen and screamed for Brandon and he came down. I could see a huge gash in her forehead. Brandon said he needed to take her for stitches. I'm waiting to hear from them now and am wondering how she is reacting to her first trip to the hospital. Say a little prayer for her and us.

Happy St. Nick's Day!

I hope everyone had a great St. Nick's Day! Lillian and Andrew were visited by St. Nick last night and enjoyed their goodies in their stockings!

Lillian got a few Christmas books and the Pixar short films collection and Bugs Life dvds. Andrew got a Christmas taggie book and some fun balls to play with.

For those of you who are wondering what in the world I'm talking about and why my kids are opening their stockings today:

Brandon grew up celebrating St. Nick's day and they always opened their stocking then. I noticed it first when I went to his family Christmas several years back that his little cousins were playing with stuff they said they had gotten from St. Nick in their stocking. I assumed since they were Catholic that it was a Catholic tradition because I'd never heard of it, but after my mom asked some of her Catholic friends about it and they don't celebrate it, I researched it a little and found out it is a German and Czech tradition, which makes since because Brandon's family is both and most of his home town is as well, so they all celebrate this holiday. It is based on St. Nicholas coming and leaving gifts in childrens' shoes.

So, my kids are lucky as my sister has said and get a little Christmas early. Happy St. Nick's Day everyone!

Andrew's new pictures

I just posted Andrew's 9 month photos from JC Penney on his website if you want to go look!

Water Problem Update

So, here is an update in our water softener story. Brandon got it all fixed and running well. We have nice soft water now, but last week I started noticing build-up again in our dishwasher...not good. I ran it to clean it a few times and it just wouldn't clean the dishes. It got worse and worse and so the last few days I have been handwashing all the dishes...which I know isn't a huge deal, but when your husband is used to using every pan in the kitchen for cooking plus baby bottles and sippy cups galore, it is a big job. I guess our problem before ruined it after all. Brandon finally decided last night that he would go this morning and buy a new one. It is so sad because we bought the other one 3 and a half years ago when we moved into the house probably for the same reason we are getting a new one now, but we didn't know. Brandon spent all morning installing the new one and it looks great. I know we will be taking extra special care of it and the water softener now. What a headache! So that is the update here for now.