Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Well it's a bit late but we wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! We had a hectic yet wonderful Christmas this year. We spent the weekend before Christmas painting and redecorating Kristen's kids' rooms and surprised them with the results on Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas morning at our house before heading up to my parents' house to open gifts with my Dad and sister. After a yummy Mexican lunch, we headed over to the hospital to visit my Mom for a little while. We ended the night with a delicious Christmas dinner at Kristen's house. The kids all got to show each other what Santa brought them and play together for a while. We got up the next morning very early as Brian and James had an 8 am flight to catch to Tucson. They had a wonderful visit there with Brian's family members who live in Arizona. They got home on the 30th and then headed up to Granbury to visit Brian's sister, Sally, and her husband, Jason. I stayed back in Katy to be able to visit my mom in the ICU after her surgery on Monday afternoon. We hope to have my Mom back at home recovering early in 2009.


Opening presents at MawMaw and Poppa Steve's house

Opening presents at Gammie and Grandpa's house

John all done opening presents from Santa

Santa brought James a Darth Maul lightsaber

Checking out the gifts from Santa

First Disney Vacation

The day after Thanksgiving we left for our frist ever trip to Disney World. We broke up the drive into two days. The first day we stopped in New Orleans for some yummy lunch and to see the aquarium. It was a nice break for the boys. We stayed the night just outside of Mobile, AL. The next day we finished the drive and ended up at our rental home in Kissimmee, FL.

On Sunday, November 30th, we all woke up bright and early and headed to the Magic Kingdom. We had breakfast at the Crystal Palace with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. We spent the rest of the day riding various rides and collecting character signatures. It was a really long day so we headed back to the house to get a good night's sleep.

On Monday we had breakfast with Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Daisy at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. The boys had a blast visiting with the characters. After that we did the safari ride where the boys got to see lots of animals just roaming around. We did lots of other fun activities and nature walks at Animal Kingdom.

We had a free day planned on Tuesday and decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom. There were so many rides we missed and a few that James really wanted to do again. The boys had a blast but the lack of naps finally caught up to John. He slept for 3 hours in the stroller while the rest of us did some rides and caught a few shows.

Wednesday we spent the day at Hollywood Studios. The first thing they rode was Star Tours since James is such a huge Star Wars fan. John and I went to get fast passes for the Toy Story ride since he wasn't tall enough to ride Star Tours. James loved it so much, he rode it for a second time. Here we had lunch with the characters from Playhouse Disney. We met JoJo, Goliath, Leo and June. We spent the rest of the day catching various shows like Playhouse Disney Live, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones and Beauty and the Beast.

Our final day at Disney was a very memorable one. We rode in the very front of the Monorail on our way to EPCOT and got co-pilot cards. We did the new Nemo ride and show at The Seas and also did the ride and video at The Land. After that we ate lunch with the Disney Princesses. We met Belle, Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty. John was in Heaven!! He hardly ate any lunch because he was watching them walk around to all the tables. After lunch we visited all of the countries and got our passports stamped. We rode Spaceship Earth before catching the Monorail back to the transportation center. Brian took John home to bed while the rest of us headed to the Magic Kingdom for one last special treat.

We ended our Dinsey vacation with Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party Thursday night. James had so much fun. We were able to get into the Magic Kingdom before the party began so we rode James favorite Buzz Lightyear ride for the third time. After that we grabbed some dinner and headed to Main Street to get seats for the parade. We saw two really awesome shows before the parade started. It was the only parade we were able to catch so James was on cloud nine watching all of the characters go by. After the parade, we caught the Twas the Night Before Christmas show. It was really cute and James enjoyed it. Aunt Jocelyn took James on the Buzz Lightyear ride for the fourth time while I did some shopping. After that, the fireworks show began. It was spectacular!!! We were really tired after a long day so we headed towards the exits. When we got close, I happened to hear that Santa was close by. The line was short so James got to go see Santa. He told him what he wanted for Christmas and took photos.

After five fabulous days at Disney World, we had to make the long drive back to Texas. Unfortunately we didn't have any fun stops planned for the way back so we were stuck in the car for two days. Thank goodness for rear DVD players. All the boys could talk about was the trip, who they saw and what they did. They are already asking to go back!! We'll probably make the journey again in a couple of years.

To see all of our pictures, click on the link below.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v715/mjhadley/Disney%202008/?albumview=slideshow

To see the photos the Disney photographers took, click on this link. Unfortunately the photos are only available for 30 days so go see them soon.

http://www.disneyphotopass.com/photoshareviewer.aspx?share=6392e656-823f-4457-9378-cf6504b0703c

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well it's really late but we wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! We had a great day full of yummy food and fun with friends. Kristen and I split the cooking duties and we all sat down to a wonderful lunch around 1. After we got everything cleaned up, we played cards, watched football and played outside. Some of us even took naps. :) After everyone headed home, I cleaned up the house and finished getting ready for our Disney vacation. Here are a couple of photos from the day.

The spread!

Katie and Cameron playing upstairs with Jocelyn

Naptime!

Playing poker

Happy Halloween!!

The boys had a wonderful Halloween this year. We carved about a million pumpkins at Kristen's house Tuesday night after dinner. I didn't get any pictures because it was dark by the time we started. All the pumpkins turned out really well. Friday the boys and I went up to my parents house so they could see them in costume before trick or treating. They had a blast and were not happy about taking off their costumes. That night we ate pizza and then waited for Kristen and the kids to come over before heading out to trick or treat. The boys had so much fun. James stopped wearing a lot of his costume after the first 30 minutes or so. John quickly caught on to the fact that you only go to houses with lights on. He had a great time walking up to the door and saying "trick treat" and getting candy. The bucket quickly got too heavy for either boy to carry so I held it down at the sidewalk. They'd both run down the driveways saying "I got candy!" Here are some photos from the day/night.

One of the first houses we visited.



All the kids dressed up and ready to go.



James and John all ready to go Trick or Treating



Dressed up for Gammie and Grandpa.

Four Day Weekend with Daddy!

Because Brian has been working in Kansas so much this year, after his most recent trip he took Thursday and Friday off so we could spend quality time together as a family. We had several days of fun outings with the boys. On Thursday we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The boys had a blast. First we hit the butterfly exhibit and then we did the exhibit halls where they have dinosaur bones. We ate lunch before heading home for nap time. On Friday we went to the Children's Museum. It must have been school field trip day because it was packed. We only stayed for a little while because there was not a single area that didn't have a group of 20+ students in it. The boys did have fun for the hour or so we were there. Then on Saturday morning we went to Zoo Boo. The zoo was all decorated for Halloween and the boys had fun trick or treating, decorating their own mini pumpkins, and making animal masks. After that we ate lunch at Freebirds before heading home for James' soccer game. After church and Sunday school, we went out to Dewberry Farm to play and pick our pumpkins. The boys had a BLAST playing in all of the different areas they had. The only downside to the outing was that the line was horribly long and it was HOT! Now we know for next year to either buy tickets online or pay ahead of time at HEB. Here are some pictures from the weekend.


James and John on the hayride at Dewberry Farm



John on a tricycle at Dewberry Farm



James and John outside the lion area during ZooBoo



James and Daddy playing a computer game at HMNS



James and John looking at the dinosaur skeleton at HMNS

Trip to KS

As many of you know, Brian has been working in Kansas off and on a lot this year. His last trip was for three weeks and so the boys and I decided to make a road trip up to see him during his last week there. We had a wonderful time seeing Daddy but also doing fun things in and around McPherson. The first day we went to a wildlife center and got to see MANY animals that our local zoo does not have like rhinos, kangaroos, and wolves. Stupid me forgot my camera that day so I didn't get any pictures. The next day we went to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson. It was really cool and the boys had a great time. We saw a show at the planetarium, Fly Me to the Moon on their IMAX and a super cool science show about rockets. The final day we were there, James had to see a local doctor to have his stitches removed so we just hung around town. We went to a nice park, ate lunch with Brian and then hit the hotel's swimming pool for a while. The boys finally got a much needed nap that afternoon and I got to rest. Friday morning we got up and made the LONG drive home. It was definitely a good trip to get us ready for Disney World at the end of November.

Here's the one picture I took the entire time we were there. This was before the rocket science show started.

First stitches

Well James suffered his first head wound requiring stitches this afternoon. He was getting into position to help score a goal at his soccer game and he accidentally ran into the goal post. I was sitting with John and didn't see what happened. I knew he was hurt but from the look on the coaches faces, I could tell he was bleeding a lot. Thankfully one of the mothers had a washcloth on hand and I used that to get the bleeding stopped. Kristen pulled out her trusty first aide kit and we got the wound closed with a couple of butterfly bandages. Another wonderful parent bought James a snow cone for being such a brave kid. After the game was finished we headed over the Katy Urgent Care to have it looked at. They took the bandages off and determined it needed stitches. They put some numbing gel on it hoping to avoid the litacaine shot but in the end he needed the numbing shot. He cried the entire time but thankfully it was over quickly. He got a sucker and was immediately better. He took a good nap when we got home and has been fine ever since. No complaints and is playing like nothing ever happened. I'll post some pictures when I get them off of my camera.

Here are two pictures I took. These were taken a couple days after the incident so it looks much better than it did the first day.

Close-up



The brave soldier.

Blue Bell Creamery

Well the schools remained closed for an entire week after the hurricane and we were getting tired of playing at the park. So I decided to take the kids on a field trip to the Blue Bell Creamery up in Brenham, TX. It's only about an hour away from Katy. The kids had a wonderful time learning how they make their super delicious ice-cream and when the tour was over, we all enjoyed a big scoop of our favorite flavor. After we finished our ice-cream, we headed over to a local park to eat our lunch and play on the playground. The kids had a wonderful time and were tuckered out by the time we got back home. I'll be sure to post pictures soon. I still haven't downloaded them off my camera.

Ok, as promised, here are some pictures.

The kids on top of the statue out front.



Enjoying some ice-cream after the tour. Super yummy!!!

Surviving our first hurricane

I know it's about a month late but we managed to come out of the hurricane better than most people in the Houston area. In preparation for the storm, the boys and I went up to my parents' house and moved all of their patio furniture in the garage. We also moved everthing from our back patio to our garage. Friday was actually a wonderful day. The weather was just perfect. The sun was shining and there was a nice cool breeze. The boys enjoyed playing with their friends at the park and riding their bikes. We lost power around 9 pm on Friday even though the storm didn't arrive until the early hours of Saturday. Man, I never realized just how much I depend on the ceiling fans to keep me cool. We all had a very warm and uncomfortable night. Thankfully our lovely patio cover kept a good portion of the patio dry so we were able to spend a lot of time outside on Saturday instead of in the hot house. We finally gave up around 3 pm and headed to Georgetown for some air conditioning. We checked in with friends Sunday morning and found out that we had power again so we loaded up the van and headed home. Brian's office still didn't have power on Monday so he got to take the day off. We were so lucky that there was no damage done to our house, fence or landscaping. I know God was watching over us that night.

New Tradition

Brian came up with the wonderful idea of purchasing a really nice watch for the boys when they are young and then handing it down to them when they graduate from college. Brian will wear the watches until the boys are ready to receive them. He spent many many hours searching for the perfect one for James. This past weekend, they went to Ben Bridge together to purchase the watch. Brian selected the Omega Seamaster 300 M Diver Chronometer. They had a wonderful outing on Sunday and then we all went back as a family on Monday evening to pick it up (Brian needed some links taken out). Here are some photos.


Brian and James outside Ben Bridge.




James in front of the Omega watch section.




James with the wonderful lady who sold us the watch.




Brian and James picking up the watch.

SOCCER!!!

The Fall 2008 soccer season has begun. This season James is playing the the Katy Youth Soccer league. Thus far we've been pretty pleased. For James' age the teams only have 8 kids instead of the ~12 kids the YMCA had on a team. The coaches have to attend several training sessions so it's not parent volunteers who may or may not have any experience with the game. Also they split the team into two groups and play on two fields at once. There are only three kids from each team on the field at any given time so the kids get to have a lot more contact with the ball. James seems to be understanding the game a lot more this time around. He's getting much better at dribbling the ball and passing it. Plus he is actually paying attention during the games and staying with the ball instead of being off doing his own thing. Here are some photos from his first game. This past week's game was cancelled due to Hurricane Ike. We're really hoping he gains some more skills and has a great time playing this season.


James and his teammate waiting for the other team to kick the ball off.




James getting ready to kick the ball into play.

Children's Museum

We had our first ever visit to the Children's Museum a couple of weeks ago. The boys had an absolute blast. It was so hard to get them to move from one area to another because they were having so much fun. I think we managed to see most of the areas while we were there but I think we left some sections unexplored. We'll definitely be going back again!!


John selecting vegetables at the grocery store.




James playing with the cash register.




James playing in the area that teaches kids about polution.




John standing next to the baby chicks.

RETIRED!!!

I know it's about a month late but I wanted to post that as of August 8th, I'm officially retired. While I don't have to get up and go to work every morning, I do work at home as a stay at home mom. Thus far we are all having a wonderful time. They FINALLY finished (well very close to finishing) the park next door so we've been spending a lot of time outside playing. We've been going to the library to play on their computers and check out books and movies. The boys have enjoyed playing with play-doh, painting, coloring, and learning letters, numbers and words. I've learned that James is a whiz at computer games. All I do is get him to the right starting place on Disney's website and he takes it from there. He can navigate through all of the different shows as well as the games and activities for each of the shows. I have to really watch it because he could play for hours if I let him.

Here are some photos of the boys.

John watching James play computer games



James and John painting

Good-bye Summer

To celebrate the final day of Summer vacation, I took the boys along with Katie, Aly, and Cameron to the zoo. All of the kids had such a great time. I think we saw all of the animals and even hit the Children's Zoo for a while. It was really hot so I let the kids cool off in the little splash park area. The were soaked from head to toe and were barely dry when I dropped them back off at home. Here are some photos from the day.

The kids watching the sea lions playing.



The kids sitting on the log in the splash park after cooling down in the water.



Sitting on the rocks outside the prairie dogs in the Children's Zoo

Schlitterbahn pictures, volume 2

Here are a few more from the day.

Everyone in the lazy river in Surfenburg.


Jayna in the lazy river.


Gino going down the slides in Surfenburg.


James going down the slides in Surfenburg.


James passed out before we hit IH-35 to drive back to Austin.

Schlitterbahn pictures, volume 1

As promised, here are the pictures from our trip to Schlitterbahn.

Waiting in line for our first tube ride.


James LOVED the tube chute!!


All four of us before our second tube ride.


James going down the slide at the wave pool in Wavefest.


James and Gino at the Kiddie Park in Surfenburg.

More fun with the Wii

We've been having a lot of fun with our Wii lately. Now that Kristen's kids are back, we've set it up so we can play each other online. Granted, they are much better at Mario Kart that I am but we still have a great time. James is getting better and better at bowling and really enjoys playing Mario and Sonic at the Olympics. He likes the swimming and running events. Here are some photos of the boys playing.

James lining up his shot


James got a STRIKE!!


John pretending to play too.