A Second sign that Advent is here

Look what I found.
I love that our children completely unprompted put all of these little people (including Santa) around the (two) baby Jesus.

The first signs of Christmas

We got out the kids trees for their bedrooms. They were so excited to decorate them. Since Campbell has moved into Alex's room, we put both of theirs in his room. Unfortunately, we didn't test the lights, and now Campbell's pink tree doesn't light up. We'll have to work on that one...

Cranberries, Pilgrims & Turkeys

Alex proudly told me last week that he ate pumpkin pie and cranberries at school. He was excited about eating them for Thanksgiving. So, Campbell, Alex and I were doing some pre-Thanksgiving shopping. I offer to buy some whole berry cranberries for him. He is ready to indulge in them with his peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch...so excited!

The horror! Imagine a five year old boy sounding like a tiger with a look on his face to match. I have failed. "These are NOT the cranberries, mom!" He went on for no kidding, 10+ minutes completely having a meltdown at our house. I couldn't help but laugh. There were no tears just a crazy, mad sound. He even told me that I was the worst mom because I got the wrong cranberries! Man, motherhood is a tough ride sometimes.

I offered to go to the grocery store before we picked up Conleigh from school. We go. Of course, I find the same can of whole-berry cranberries, but I'm not making that mistake again. I put a package of real cranberries in our basket and think, "I cannot believe that Ms. Elva would make these for the kids." We make our way to the deli and I try to explain to the deli lady that we are looking for cranberry sauce with the berry. The very kind woman offers to open a can of whole-berry cranberry sauce (just to confirm that this mom bought the same thing and it isn't correct for Alexander). She opens, and he does indeed confirm that it is NOT the right stuff. She then offers to open the fresh cranberry sauce that the deli makes. He again, turns up his nose and tells us no. "Mom, they are supposed to look like raisins!!" The deli worker then walks him to the bakery and points at a cake and asks Alex if they look like that? Eureka! We hit the jackpot!


Craisins! Why would I have guessed anything else? Why did his preschool teacher say those were cranberries?

My Pilgrim who loves Cranberries!


And one of my turkey's too...

Thanksgiving

We are on our way back to Austin after a good visit in Houston. We drove in Wednesday night with the rest of the population that was leaving Austin. It was a long drive, but that dvd player in Peter's car is a beautiful thing.

Thursday morning my nephew Spencer and BIL got to my parents house early after Spencer ran in a 1.1 mile race. Our children were so happy to see him. Not too long afterwards, Ryan & Susan arrived. Let the silliness and playing begin. The kids had a great time together.
It was nice to see my cousins on my dad's side. They are all much older and we only see each other on Thanksgiving. Food was delicious. My favorites are dad's dressing and mom's chocolate pecan pie.

About 4:30 we loaded up the crew and went down into Houston to Peter's dad's house for their Thanksgiving get together. They had a large group at their house this year. Uncle Kyle was the highlight for the kids. I'll have to do another post about Kyle and his friend and their entrepreneurial endeavors.
A little after half-time of the A&M/UT game we headed back to North Houston to stay at my parents house. The cats in the Hardin's house really get to me fast. My nose gets stuffy & I start sneezing pretty quickly.

I volunteer to drive. Peter is asleep in the front seat, the kids are enjoying the awesome DVD player, and I am into listening to the game on the radio. I was so much into the game that we ended up at the Houston ship channel!! I completely missed the I-45 turn off and we were in NE Houston. Ugh. We made it home with about 4 minutes of the game left. The Ag's did a great job of playing the undefeated Longhorns. It was a good game even if we ended up on the short side of the scoreboard.

Friday morning Peter & I did a little bit of Black Friday shopping. The doors had been busted by the time we got to Target, but we did find a few good items to put under the tree for the kids. We also stopped at Academy for Peter to buy some waders for hunting. We scored at Academy and the big gift from Santa has now been purchased. You'll have to wait and see what it is on Christmas Day. We also drove to Toys R Us. Thankfully, as we picked up the first thing to buy, an employee started saying, "the end of the line is here!" Well, the end of the line snaked to the back of the store through the aisles. We put down the toy and left.

When we got home, "the girls" went shopping. We went to Michael's and to Bath & Body works. It was a good outing. I told Campbell she had to act like a big girl if she wanted to go with us. As we were leaving my parents house, she had her window down and was yelling out the window, "Goodbye silly boys!" It was cute.

Peter boogied down to Blessing, Texas, and stayed in a hotel for $25. He met up with a friend early this morning to go duck hunting. I have a duck sitting next to me right now in the front seat. It is in a Jack In the Box cup, soaking in ice. Nice!


The cul-de-sac at my mom & dad's house is just perfect for our kids. Mom played tennis with Alex. He is a serious sports dude. They rode their bikes and played games out there all weekend. Now, we are on the road again, back to Austin, and ready to start the celebration of the Christmas season.

Wordless Wednesday

Time, Time, Tickin'. Tickin' away

I guess the fall has been busier than I realized. I haven't kept up with the blog as well as I would like, and I know we haven't just been sitting around doing nothing!
Soccer still consumes our Saturdays. Conleigh actually had a game today but it was rained out and will not be rescheduled. We have been having Saturday and Sunday games because of the rescheduling due to rain. Thankfully the seasons are over next weekend. Conleigh has depleted her enthusiasm for soccer for awhile. Alex still loves it but he is going to play basketball in January and maybe t-ball after that.
I'm so excited that we purchased a new couch on Friday evening. It is a sectional and will be delivered on Thursday. How are we going to get rid of our 15 year old nasty from formula, juice and kid food couch out of here? It is heavy and who would want it? Detail, details. The 'front' room as we call it is coming together. I had some friends over last night to make Shutterfly photo books and several people complimented the room as they walked into the house. Yay! It has only taken 4+ years, but maybe I'll start to like that room. I also purchased a table on craigslist. It is perfect in that it has 2 sides that can prop up to make it a decent size (38x60) for extra seating if we ever have a need. Now, it just sits behind the couch and has some fall decor on it. I believe it was a good purchase. Time will tell.
The absolute best part of last week though was celebrating my good friend Bridget's 40th birthday. She & I have been friends since the first week of grad school at the University of South Carolina. It meant so much to me when her husband emailed in September to say he was planning a trip from Baltimore for them to come to Austin for her birthday. They stayed at a resort and we met up. She & I went shopping, Peter made dinner at our house and she blew out a candle on some delicious cupcakes, and on Friday night just the adults went out. Geez. I feel so old. Everyone was hip and cool and I was not! We had a great time checkin' out the night scene in Austin. I loved every minute that we got to spend together. I wish it could have been two weeks longer! Love you Bridget!!

Cake Walkin'

Look who won the cake walk at the Spicewood Carnival!! I like this picture. Alex wouldn't smile for the picture. He wants to win a cake walk so badly (today wasn't the day). And, Conleigh is watching something else. So funny! Congrats Campbell.

We had a good time at the carnival on Halloween afternoon. Even Daddy got in on the gory Halloween action at the Trauma Center tent. He had fun grossing people out at stores late in the day.

Good fun.