Christmas in CA!

Both my mom and Ross' mom came for a visit to celebrate Christmas. They were able to join us Friday for Jackson's school assembly where he was named "Citizen of the Month."

Then on Saturday we made our way to Martin Ranch Winery for a picnic and some wine tasting. It was a little overcast and wet due to all the rain we've had recently, but it was still a lot of fun! The wine was wonderful too!

After the picnic, we exchanged gifts with my mom and enjoyed a delicious, pre-Christmas meal of gumbo! The kids were SO excited about their gifts. Jackson is blurry in the picture below because he was jumping up and down with excitement over his message bear, which he'd been wanting so everyone can leave him messages...we're still working out the bugs, but let us know if you want to send him a message. He'd love it!

We all went to church and brunch on Sunday morning. Then we split up to enjoy some different activities. Ross and Susan went to a bowling alley to watch the Cowboys game, which they won, and my mom, the kids, and I made our way to San Francisco to visit the zoo and Union Square.

My mom left early Monday morning. I took the week off with the kids and Susan while Ross worked most of the week getting ready for the Consumer Electronics show in January! We spent the early part of the week wrapping presents, finishing shopping, baking cookies, and playing around.

On Christmas Eve, we spent the morning decorating cookies for Santa. They were good!

We had a delicious meal cooked by Chef Ross before heading to the Christmas Eve service. Jackson said our prayer before supper that evening, which included thanking God for making Santa so we could celebrate Jesus' birthday in such a fun way...so cute! The kids loved both the music and the message at church, and they went to bed faster than I've ever seen when we got home! They are at such a fun age to enjoy the Christmas season right now!

Jackson was the first one awake, and he waited patiently in our room for Audrey to wake up. Once she was up, it was a mad dash to their stockings!

We were all pretty spoiled this year. It was so fun to see the pure joy on the kids faces as they opened their gifts, screamed in excitement, and jumped up and down in celebration over things as simple as a new bath scrubber!

The picture above where it looks like Jackson is choking Audrey is actually him hugging her for the gift she chose for him...a flying Iron Man! After the chaos settled out, Jackson and Ross both got to play with their new remote controlled toys (Ross got a car that drives and flies). We were impressed with how well Jackson did with it!

Audrey was most excited about her makeup set, which she quickly started using. I love that her first application included blue blush...after all, blue is her favorite color right now!

As the day progressed, some of the more complicated toys were opened. Jackson LOVES Snap Circuits, and he got two new sets for Christmas (lights and a rover). He put the rover together and had lots of fun recording and delivering messages on it, as well as shooting discs at Audrey!

Audrey put together one of her Goldie Blox sets, which was really cool to see! It teaches engineering principles in a way that engages young girls really well. She was so proud of her work!

At the end of the day, the kids were wearing their head-lamps from Grandmother and measuring things with Jackson's new measuring tape, which broke fairly quickly and provided entertainment for the adults and kids as we took it apart and fixed it. The adults ended the day playing games and laughing at ourselves. It was a wonderful Christmas!

If you didn't get enough, there are more pictures in the album!

Spring Break at the Zoo

As part of our spring break, we took a trip to the zoo! There was lots of fun had by all!

I may have spoiled them a little and even let them feed the giraffes!

It was worth it! We had a great day!

Animal Crazy!

Last Saturday, the kids and I spent the day in Shreveport with Grandmother, Aunt Leslie, Uncle Philip, and Mitchell while Ross was in meetings at LA Tech. They had some fun activities planned! We started the morning at Chimp Haven. The chimps were fascinating to watch. We learned all kinds of interesting facts about chimps on our scavenger hunt, and Mitchell and Audrey had fun learning to walk like a chimp!

We then made our way to Gator & Friends where we saw LOTS of alligators and exotic animals. They loved getting to feed all of the exotic animals!

After lunch, they each had the opportunity to hold a baby alligator. Their eyes were all twinkling with delight when it was their turn, and thankfully the gator was very well behaved. The caretaker said it was because it was cooler outside that day.

We rounded out the adventure with a pony ride. Jackson rode a horse named Socks, and Audrey rode Spot. They went around the circle twice, and then we headed back to Grandmother's to meet up with Ross.

It was so great to spend some time with family! There are more pictures from the weekend in the album!

Jackson's 5th B-day - Part 1

Yes, Jackson is 5 years old now!!! I was traveling on Jackson's birthday, so we've been celebrating for 2 weeks! The weekend before his birthday and before I left town, we declared Saturday his family celebration. We started the morning with a breakfast of his choice. He chose chocolate chip pancakes. They were delicious, but we learned you shouldn't put candles in hot pancakes...they melt and fall over! Ross put a little whipped cream on his nose, which Jackson thought was pretty funny. I thought it was pretty funny to watch him try to lick it off!

After breakfast Jackson got to open his gifts from us and Audrey. Jackson has definitely started getting into specific characters now. Those characters dominated the gifts this year, and he was a little excited about it! His favorites right now are Mario, R2D2, and angry birds. Before this day he had not really seen much of any of these in shows or movies...

Can you see the excitement on his face about getting the Star Wars movies? He literally did a happy dance after this picture. He has now seen 4.5 of the 6 movies and plans to finish one of them tonight. They watched most of them while I was out of town, and apparently, he's been asking lots of detailed questions to make sure he fully understands what's going on. It was SO much fun to see him so excited about everything he got!

Jackson got to decide everything we did for the day, so after opening presents we made our way to the zoo where we met up with Pop for a few hours. We had fun checking out the animals, playing on the splash pad, and riding the carousel.

Jackson's request for dinner was corn dogs while watching episode 3 of Star Wars, which he was happy to pause for a little cake. It was a great pre-birthday celebration!

President's Weekend with the Tims!

The Tims family arrived for a visit the day I returned from my first MLLP training trip. We spent most of Saturday morning visiting before we headed to the neighborhood snow day! It was so much fun that it deserved it's own separate post with pics, which you can find here!

The guys were amazing and let Barbara and I shop the new outlet malls without the kids for the afternoon. We had lots of fun finding deals and catching up on life!

Sunday afternoon we made our way to the zoo. It was an incredibly gorgeous day, so everyone else in Houston had the same idea. We had a tough time finding a parking spot, so we dropped everyone off while I circled the surrounding area for over 45 minutes trying to catch a spot. I was ready to give up just when a spot became available, so the fun quickly continued from there. Since it was such an ordeal to get there, I was determined to see and enjoy every moment!

We saw as many animals as we possibly could, enjoyed some popcorn and monkey tails, hugged and brushed some goats, played on the playground, and eventually wore ourselves out!

The next morning Jackson was excited to play a little Mario Kart with Carter before they headed home. Poor Audrey wasn't feeling great at this point, which we discovered later in the week was because she had the flu. Unfortunately, Jackson got it later in the week as well, so we got some extra time together, which made up for the week I was gone before that!

We loved getting to spend some time with one of our favorite families for the weekend though! There are more pics of the fun in the album.

Christmas Weekend

The weekend before Christmas we had most of our family at our house. Our brother-in-law, Philip, was the only exception, so we had a full house! We had an early Christmas gift exchange on Saturday morning with Leslie, Mitchell, and Nana since they wouldn't be here on Christmas day.

Then we decorated some sugar cookies for Santa! There was a little finger licking going on in the process, and I'm guessing almost as many sprinkles were eaten as were put on the cookies.

After lunch and naps, we made our way to Hermann Memorial Park for a picnic! The weather was great for outdoor activities, and the kids loved waving to the train and passengers as it went past while we ate our dinner. After the sun set, we made our way into the zoo for Zoo Lights!

The kiddos loved seeing the lights and a few of the animals! The lions and giraffes were walking around getting ready for bed. Some of the lights were in shapes of animals or were projected onto animals, and some of the lights were set to music, which the kids thought was really cool. It was a wonderful day filled with lots of joy!

There are more pictures in the album

San Antonio Trip

A few weeks ago we met our good friends, The Tims, in San Antonio for the weekend. We rented a great house and spent a day at Sea World and half a day at the San Antonio Zoo.

The Olympics were going on at the time, so we had lots of fun talking about how amazing the athletes were and teaching the kids about the different activities. Jackson and Audrey were beyond excited to see Carter and Graham. Jackson and Carter showed each other their dance moves while Audrey took care of Graham. If you can't tell Carter and Audrey seem to like each other too...

Saturday morning we made our way to Sea World and started the day with Shamu! We were all impressed by how amazingly strong, powerful, and smart the killer whales are.

At this point we were all hungry and ready for a little break from the heat, so we found a place to eat. Then we made our way to a playground and checked out some alligators along the way. From there we watched a little of the ski show before heading to the Azul show! It was another incredible show with dolphins, whales, birds, acrobats, and entertainers. It was also at this point that I realized we might already be in trouble with Carter and Audrey...

When that show was over, Jackson and Carter played a little hide and seek in the trees before we made our way to the Rockin' Elmo show. Audrey managed to pass out in my arms on the walk. She caught a 20 minute nap before the show started, which was perfect timing for her and gave me a great workout. The kids loved seeing the Sesame Street characters in person!

After watching Elmo and his friends rock it out, the kids changed into their swim suits and played on the "splash pad," which was HUGE! We should have brought our suits as well because there was really no way to stay dry and keep up with your kids, which is also why there are no pictures of the water play. Somehow we managed though. It was an extremely hot day, so the water was a must!

When we were finally able to get the kids out of the water and back into their clothes, we went to watch the dolphins playing in the water just before their feeding time, which meant they were jumping and playing a lot!

Our final show of the day was the sea lions. They were a great way to end the day, especially since they made fun of a lot of the other shows. We were all exhausted and laughter was what we all needed!

We all crashed hard that evening. When we awoke, we headed to the San Antonio Zoo to check out some land animals. First up was a train ride through the surrounding area, which the kids loved! One of the highlights of the zoo, which I didn't get a picture of, was the hippos. We don't have hippos at the Houston Zoo, so they were fascinated by them, and also thought they were pretty funny...good thing they were behind glass! They loved it all, but mostly we all loved getting to spend some time with Heath, Barbara, Carter, and Graham!

There are more pictures of all the fun in the album.

Jackson's 4th Birthday

I can hardly believe our little boy turned 4 last week! Some people say not to make a big deal out of birthdays, but I don't get that philosophy...I like to make a big deal out of something any chance I get, especially birthdays! This year was no exception.

We started the day with a little pretend play since we weren't going to actually have cake for breakfast. We sang Happy Birthday, and then he "blew out" the candles and served everyone a piece.

Then we moved on to presents from the family...I think he liked them. ;-)

Jackson has decided he wants to be an "Astronaut Doctor" when he grows up. He says he wants to fly into space and be a doctor for people when they get sick. Sounds like a great plan to us! He already has some doctor toys, so now he can really pretend to be an Astronaut Doctor with his Astronaut flight suit that Mommy gave him.

Audrey picked out the Spiderman mask that talks, and Daddy gave him a really cool remote control stunt car that you control with a light ray. He was genuinely excited about each one and thanked everyone very sweetly.

After playing with the toys for a little while, we had a moment of grumpiness that we all tried to help resolve in our own way...

Jackson's birthday fell on a Tuesday, so I took the day off work and arranged for a friend of his choosing to spend the day with us. He choose one of his best friends, Clara, and he decided on the zoo for his birthday destination. Ross took Audrey to school,and Jackson, Clara, and I made a quick stop at Riley's for donuts before heading to the zoo, which quickly solved the grumpiness problem.

We got to the zoo just in time to watch the elephants get their bath and learn a little more about each of them. Then we made our way through the cats and bears and into the African forest exhibit where Jackson and Clara got to feed the giraffes!

After feeding ourselves too, we wandered through one of the gift shops where Jackson picked out a couple of small African drums to add to his music collection before we headed to the carousel for a quick ride.

We wandered around a little more and decided to cool off with some ice cream and a 4D Dora and Diego Adventure film. Then the kiddos changed into their swimsuits, and we headed to the newly opened splash pad. It was a blast and just what they needed!

To round out our long, fun day, we met up with Ross, Audrey, and Clara's parents at a fun restaurant for dinner where the wait staff sang happy birthday, and we had a real cake! The kids each made a wish in the fountain before heading home and crashing hard.

It was such a fun day! There are lots more pictures in the album, and more to come about the actual b-day party!

The Zoo

We spent the afternoon at the Houston Zoo with our friends, Emma and Clara, today. We always have fun when we get together, and today was no exception! The kids walked hand in hand to the entrance of the zoo...such sweethearts!

We picked up a wagon, and everyone had a turn pulling it around.

It's been a while since we've been to the zoo, so this was really the first trip where Audrey has recognized the animals by name or sound or both, which was lots of fun! They were all simply fascinated by everything.

There are more pictures of the all the action in the album!

Broken Leg

We've really had a busy and fun-filled weekend with one minor exception. Jackson broke his leg on Saturday! We started the day by heading to the day care to help fix up the play ground. Ross and I enjoyed getting together with some of the other parents and staff to take care of some much needed work. Just before lunch, Ross had to leave to work the shuttle mission. I stayed to help finish things up!

After the work day fun was done, we headed to a crawfish boil hosted by our friends, Alene and Chris. The crawfish were wonderful, and Jackson and Audrey had a blast playing around in their backyard. They both especially enjoyed bouncing around on the trampoline! Just before 5 PM, Jackson let out a serious cry. He'd landed wrong on the trampoline...a no-fault accident. Externally, he looked okay, and he's usually quick to brush off a bump or bruise. However, I couldn't get him to stop crying or to stand on his leg. At this point, I still wasn't sure it was serious, but I decided it was time to pack up and head home. Getting out the door with both kiddos by myself was a challenge without Jackson walking, but Alene was a huge help!

After getting home and talking a little more with Jackson, I decided to call my friend, Emma, for a second opinion and a little help. At this point he'd stopped crying unless you touched his leg, and he still refused to stand on it. I was able to put Audrey down for bed, and after talking to Emma and our doctor, I decided to take Jackson to the ER.

We got to the ER around 7 PM and waited. They took his vitals, and we waited some more. Then they took some x-rays, and we waited some more. It was a busy night, and the pediatric section of the ER was packed! At some point in here, our friend, Heather, came to our house to relieve Emma and her daughter, Clara, who were with Audrey. Ross was also able to get to the ER after his shift ended, and we were both grateful to see him! Jackson was quite the trooper, but the later it got, the harder it was to be a tough little man. At one point he said, "I can't stop crying." We tried to explain that it was okay to cry, but he was insistent that he needed to stop.

When we were finally able to get into a room and see a doctor, it wasn't long before the fracture was found on the x-rays, and a splint was being applied to his leg. We knew the splint was helping with the pain because within minutes Jackson was asleep.

We made it home a little after 10 PM, and Jackson went to bed in the clothes he'd been wearing all day. They gave us some strong pain relievers and instructions to visit a pediatric orthopedist on Monday to get a more detailed evaluation and a cast.

In the mean time, Jackson can't walk, which is somewhat frustrating for an almost 3 year old, so we decided to get out of the house this afternoon. We met Emma and Clara at the Houston Zoo for a fun afternoon. It was a little hot, but everyone enjoyed seeing the animals! Jackson propped his leg up in the stroller and just enjoyed the ride. I don't think it really slowed him down all that much, and as you can see in these pictures, he doesn't seem to be in much pain.

As usual, there are more pictures in the album.

Every time we say Jackson has a broken leg, it doesn't feel like it could possibly be true. Neither of us have ever had a broken bone, so we can't even begin to understand what it must be like. We're hopeful it will heal quickly and not be in a place that could cause problems as he grows! We're going to try to get an appointment with the pediatric orthopedist tomorrow, so we should know more soon!

Mother's Day Weekend

We had a fun-filled Mother's Day weekend. My mom came down Thursday night so she could be here for Jackson's field day. Ross was in Ruston for advisory board meetings at Louisiana Tech University, so it was just the four of us on Friday and most of Saturday. Friday evening we spent some time visiting with friends from our Life Group and talking about prayer. Then we headed to the zoo early Saturday morning where we met up with Pam and Jace.

Here they are stopping to check out the birds.

We quickly made our way to the monkeys, who were awake and ready to play!

After seeing the monkeys, the giraffes and rhinos were next on JD's wish list, so that's where we headed! Here are some pics that were taken along the way.

Jace & Audrey checking out the pelicans.

"Can I look in here?"

African drums are fun even while eating crackers!

We found the giraffes!

Next on the agenda was a carousel ride! Audrey wasn't so sure about it...

Then we made our way to the children's area where the kiddos got to brush some goats.

We finished our visit with a little lunch before heading out.

JD and Audrey both took good naps after such a fun trip, and then we headed to Stephen and Sara's for a crawfish boil. My mom was sweet enough to put both kiddos to bed and babysit so I could hang out with friends a little longer. Ross even made it back into town in time to join us for some good food!

On Mother's Day, I got to sleep in a little. Jackson greeted me with a card he made (with a little help from Dad), which was followed shortly by a delicious breakfast in bed. My mom headed out after church, and we spent the rest of the afternoon running my kind of errands...shopping! It was a great weekend!

There are more pics from the zoo in the album.