New Traditions

This December we stayed here in Houston the whole month and did not travel at all.  This was a big deal for us as we always go to New Orleans for Christmas.  While we missed our extended family (big time), it just felt right to start this new tradition of spending Christmas day in our home.  Another tradition we started was adding a second advent calendar into the mix. We have a traditional 25 day count down calendar to christmas day but this year we added 25 small little envelopes that the kids opened each day.  Each day we read a new story from our Jesus Storybook Bible and really tried to have an intentional Christmas. By intentional, I mean keeping Christ in Christmas and retail out.

Brian and I were amazed to see such a massive change in Logan from last year to this year.  He was 100%, completely obsessed with Santa Clause.  He wanted to read and re-read any book we had about Santa, reindeers, snow, lights, sleighs, stars, Jesus, and trains (b/c all trains do end up at the north pole).  He would keep count of his good deeds and how he was on Santa's good list while informing Catherine (and others) when they were on the naughty list.

Brian's parents came up for three days the week before Christmas and it was such a fun visit.  We cooked all sorts of delicious meals and did various holiday things.  We went to Zoo Lights and my children were completely entranced.  They were so into MiMi and Popi's visit; it was almost like Brian and I did not exist.  Which I was completely OK with.

All in all, it was a beautiful Christmas and we are very thankful for so many things.

Breakfast at St. Rose

A dear friend gave me this book and we love it

The best cosmos ever

Mimi and Popi

I made every one where matching t shirts all day

One of so many adorable gifts

Our chefs

Phillips 66

Last Wednesday Logan skipped school for a date with mommy. We went to the dentist (for him) and then the ENT (for me) and lastly we went to meet Dad at work.  Brian was not at his normal office but rather was working with the Phillips 66 private fleet at Bush.

This trip sealed the deal as far as Logan worshiping dad and dad's work.  We met Brian at the hanger and had our own private tour of the jets with our very own pilot.  Logan is completely obsessed with air travel and it was so much fun to see him walk through the planes.  As we were leaving, the pilot offered Logan a candy bar and he was completely obsessed from that point on!  It is so much fun to see and feel a child's energy as they explore the world around them.

YoYo

Endless Energy

Three is such a fun age; I absolutely love it.  Because Logan is my first child, I have no idea what to really expect with each year.  I know kids grow up and I see examples all the time but I never realized how fast my own child would grow.  I did not realize that my little baby would be having conversations with me, telling me not to worry about Santa’s sleigh breaking down because Santa could use his green rocket.  Or, when I came home from my sinus surgery, Logan told me that he did not want to be a pilot anymore, instead, he wanted to be a doctor so he could take care of me.  Or, that he would ask me to marry him.  ( I explained that I could not because I was already married to his dad so he said that was ok because he was going to marry his teacher, Ms. Aimee.) 

When I drop him off at school we have to do a hug, a kiss, high five, high five under armpit, and then another kiss.  If anything disrupts this, we have to start all over again, in the exact same order.  I love this little routine.  I know it won’t last forever, obviously, so I am enjoying while I can!

When Logan was 2 ½ and Cat was 1 ½ it was almost like they were the same age except Logan talked a lot more.  But now that Logan is 3 ½ and Cat 2 ½, I feel like they are lifetimes apart.  Logan understands the reasoning and logic behind certain rules or concepts (Catherine, well, not so much).  For example:

• Holding hands in a parking lot because you might get run over (It is not a power        struggle as it actually makes sense)
• Mom can’t pick up anything in the back seat while she is driving (because both hands have to be on the wheel)

Last but not least, I am learning that young children are so impressionable.  Logan’s oldest cousin, Kayne, came to Houston for Thanksgiving.  From the second he got in our car, Logan was obsessed!  It was so darn cute.  Conversations were like this:

Logan: Do you like chocolate milk?

Kayne: Yes

Logan: I like chocolate milk too!

Logan: Do you like Chick-fil-a?

Kayne: Yes

Logan: I like Chick-fil-a too!

Logan: Do you like root beer?

Kayne: Well, actually I like sprite.

Logan: (long pause) I like sprite too.  Mom, I want a sprite…

Christmas Photo Outakes

We took a lot of photographs this weekend of the kids to try and get our christmas card sorted.  Logan's favorite book is currently One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Suess.   They talk about winking in the book and man oh man he likes to wink.  But truth be told, he can't really wink, he just kinda wraps his hand over his eyes and loves it.  Anyway, about 98% of our pictures had a winking Logan.  

We were able to add Winston back into the mix this year which was fun.  I can't say that Winston was as excited as we were about his addition.  We really do love our skittish Ton.

I don't even know what is going through Yo Yo's mind!

Wink

Wink Wink

Catherine is actually Winston's greatest fan

Our family in December 2009, 5 months pregnant with Logan