Christmas in San Angelo

Santa found us way out in west Texas and brought plenty of gifts. Robbie and Jack both got mini mp3 players, Jack got a Leapster and Robbie got a ton of princess dress-up amongst a myriad of other things.

Grandma reading stories before bed

Robbie's jammies were mine when I was little :)

Look at all those presents!!

Listening to music

Playing the Leapster in Time Out

So he REALLY loves me!!

Or I'm just really annoying but I got to open one present early and it was this:


I'm SOOO excited!! If you know me at all, you know how much I love coffee. I've been wanting to try the Dunkin Donuts coffee since they started marketing it but just never have (and who wants to challenge Starbucks!?) so I open up my present and it's that orange and pink bag!! Big deal, right? Not to me! Well, the bag said 'whole beans' and I was so disappointed because I was REALLY wanting to try it and we don't have a grinder and I thought he picked up the wrong bag at the store. So then Nath tells me to open up the box and in it was a Cuisinart bean grinder!! YAY!! I'm beyond excited!!

Wow, Christmas already?!?!

Sooo much to catch up on! We've been so busy with visiting pumpkin patches to Halloween, then the end of Jack's baseball season and their party, Thanksgiving feasts with trips all over Texas and now it's time for Santa to visit. I'll try to be as brief but thorough as I can.

Every year we try to go to a holiday festival they have in North Richland Hills (the next town over) and the kids have a blast. This year they held it at NRH2O (a huge waterpark) and had a snow hill the kids slid on with inner-tubes...sadly, they flew down so fast I couldn't even snap a picture! But we did get a pretty good family shot at one of the backdrops they set up.

The Saturday night after Thanksgiving we went to our friend's Drew & Holly's so the kids could play with their son Wally and we could catch up. We even snuck in a game of Rock Band and the kids LOVED IT! Robbie was helping Mr. Stephen on drums...

and here she is on vocals...look for the tour coming soon!

Jack's class had a Thanksgiving feast and dressed up as either Pilgrims or Indians.

He was very excited to be an Indian.

Modeling hats from aunt Becky

http://www.waitingforthegirl.blogspot.com/

If you helped Jack out by purchasing some of his fundraiser goodies, you'll be happy to know that he sold just enough to go on a LIMO RIDE!! It was the cutest thing--it took them to the McDonald's down the road and they all had Happy Meals.

He was more than excited...thank you all who helped him out!!

Jack's last baseball game of the season...and it was COLD!!

Fall 2008 N.A.Y.A. D-Backs

Halloween!!

A pirate and a princess (Cinderella, to be exact!)

At another festival in NRH...it was about 75 degrees that afternoon!!

Jack's first class fieldtrip and mommy went to to help chaperon a bunch of Kindergarteners.

We went to a pumpkin patch that also had a petting zoo.

Robbie and I went with our friends Rachelle and Morgan and our MOMS Club to a pumpkin patch also. She loved the baby goats and playing with Morgan...they're two peas in a pod!

Check out my other blog!!

The Little Bird blog is up and running...go check it out and tell all your friends!!

www.littlebirddesigns.blogspot.com

Thanks!!

Six Flags!!

A great friend of mine had a few extra tickets to Six Flags a few weekends ago

(she's a season ticket holder so she gets them free periodically) so on a whim we

decided to go. Jack's been before last fall with a friend and it's been a few years since

Nathan and I were there. The kids had a blast and we did too. We stayed until well after

dark and we could hardly walk anymore. We took it easy on the first few rides but

ended up riding some pretty scary ones (to me at least!!) And Jack rode his first rollercoaster!!

Me and the kids on the Looney Tunes ride

Sadly, this ride was a little too much for me!! Man, I'm getting old!!

Robbie LOVED the swings!!

Hot air balloon ferris wheel

With their prizes from the midway that ended up costing about $42

This was the scariest thing...it takes you WAAAAAY up and then drops you down.

You don't realize how high up it really is!!

And we saved the carousel for last

Baseball pics, as promised

Daddy took Jack to his last baseball game so Mommy and Robbie could go to a craft fair and he took some great pictures. He's really getting better at hitting but outfield is still a struggle...he just can't resist the dirt!!

Waiting for our girl...

No, not us but my great friends (who also happen to be my aunt and uncle) are going through the process of adopting a baby girl from Kyrgyzstan. It is a very expensive process and she is selling her wares and photography services (in Minnesota!) to help differ the cost. I just added her blog to my blog list so go check her out and help their family. Can't wait for my newest little cousin to be here!! http://waitingforthegirl.blogspot.com/

Weekend in San Angelo

We made a quick trip out west to visit Nathan's parents while Ike was looming over north Texas. We figured if it was raining and we were without power we'd be miserable so we got outta dodge before it started.

We took the kids to the San Angelo Art Museum and they had a great time. It's right off the Concho River and they have it beautifully landscaped with some neat structures.

We also went to the Trees house who are close friends of Grandma and Grandpa. They have three children right around Robbie and Jack's age so they have a wonderful time going over there. They have goats galore and plenty of room to run around in. Jack had so much fun playing out in the country...Robbie did too but she was butted in the face by one of the goats and didn't like that too much!!

I forgot to add that we didn't see any of the storm up our way. They were predicting 4 to 5 inches of rain and power ot be out everywhere but we came home and couldn't even tell that it had rained at all. Some of our friends down in Lufkin were out of power for quite a few days and had some tree damage but thankfully nothing serious (Heather and Hunter in my blog list). To see some of the pictures of the devastation around the coast area, go to:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html

Homework already

Jack had his first take home assignment this week. He was very excited about it

and finished it right away. They're learning to write in lower case, "sight words" like "the"

and "all" and working on numbers to 100. He's been doing a wonderful job at

school and has a green smiley face everyday (the best on the behavior chart).

Baseball's started!!

Jack had his first game of the fall season on Saturday and did an awesome job. He's been practicing some over the summer and his coach said he can really tell a difference. We're on the Diamondbacks again this year (we wanted to stay with our team and coaches since they were so great last season) and everyone's doing a great job with coach pitch. I'm so proud with how far he's come, especially since he doesn't have depth perception due to his eye condition. We played a double header and didn't keep score but I'm sure we had it in the bag!! And sorry, but there's no pictures because I was running the line-up (which is about like herding cats!) and Nathan was home running our garage sale. I'll post pics from the next game in two weeks.

Robbie's first day of pre-school

Our girl has gotten so much better at adapting to situations. She used to flip out at any sudden change in routine or schedule but she's quickly grown out of that and has become quite a big girl. At school today she just walked right in, found her spot next to her friend Stephanie and was ready to kiss me goodbye. She fell right back into place as though she hasn't been gone for three months!! She's in the two's class now and her teacher is Miss Jenny. Most of the children in her class last year were all put in the same class again since they all know each other and Rob was excited to see them. She was so interested in what was going on around her and wasn't real interested in me hanging around taking pictures!!