IC(E)y start to the Holidays

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving was a little unusual because all my cousins and my sister were out of town. We didn't have a 20+person meal with lots of kids, dessert and football. But my parents and my family made the best of it and had a grand old time!

Besides having my favorite meal of the year (turkey, dressing, all the trimmings, SWEET POTATOES and Pumkin Chiffon Pie), we went to the Gaylord Texan to see ICE over the weekend. We could have skipped the ICE exhibit and still had a great time. The Gaylord is an incredible place to stay...but ICE was Amazing! Here we are with my Mom about to go into the ICE exhibit.

Amazing what people can do with a big block of ice....2 million pounds of ice to be exact!
I spent a few hours Saturday trying to get a Christmas Card picture in the picturesque holiday setting at the Gaylord. I discoverd that getting a good (OK, I admit I really wanted A GREAT picture) of my three kids was far from easy. Here are some failed attempts...


Luckily that was the only hard thing about our trip. The hotel was amazing. We hit the traffic just right. (Sorry to any of you who got stuck in the hours long 1-35 traffic jam Sunday that was right by the exit to our house!) We Also learned that, yes, we can take seven people in the van out of town! My parents may never be the same as it was a little crazy...but over all we had the most wonderful time!

Despite how it looks in the above pictures, Ella Kate was a little angel for her first over night trip away from home. She slept and ate at all the right times and was so good! Since we don't go out of town much anymore, I forgot how much you have to pack when you have a baby! I'm still unpacking and doing laundry. I miss that maid service and clean little hotel room already!

This picture is from the hotel room. My kids enjoy a hotel stay more than anyone I have ever met. One of my favorite parts of this (and any) trip was watching the kids ooh and ahh over every detail of the hotel...like when Rhett ran out of the bathroom saying "They even have shower caps!" Honestly I feel the same way. I once traveled for a living and I never stopped feeling the thrill of checking into a nice hotel! I'm older now so I don't squeal or "ooh and ahh" like my kids, but I totally understand why they love it so!

As you can see from the pictures above my girls wore a few of their matchng outfits this weekend. ( Gotta love Children's Place!) Even though they are 8 years apart Kolby begs for clothes for EK that match hers. She says she "has waited her whole life to be able to match a sister!" In a few years she won't want to anymore, but in the mean time...aren't my girls cute! :)

Rhett loved the reindeer at the Gaylord, and thankfully, this one did not bite him like the fake one did last year! Notice the hat, gloves, and scarf...it was almost 80 degrees outside but Rhett was determined to wear his new winter duds to see the reindeer and ICE! He is so excited that it might actually freeze here in the morning so he can bundle up!

I'm going through that litte "let down" feeling that I always have after a long anticipated trip or event is over. Back to the real world! This week is the deadline week for the PTA newsletter so it will be busy. For the first time in years it's "after Thanksgiving" and my Christmas decorations are still snug in the attic! YIKES! We won't even talk about Christmas shopping. I haven't even made a list...let alone started checking it off! BUT I swore I would not let the hustle and bustle of the season get to me this year. I just want to enjoy the cooler weather (which is supposed to hit tomorrow) and the joy of the season. Anyone care to join me???

Hope your holiday season is filled with love, family and friendship! Happy Holidays!

Little Miss Thing

Had to share the four month pictures. Hope to have time to blog more soon.

Baby talk

Ella Kate is 18 week old today! Click below to hear her discuss this milestone!

Halloween 2006 Wrap-up

This was our little pumpkin's first Halloween. We had a great time! I think Halloween is really my favorite time of year ! The colors, the weather, the costumes, the smell of cinnamon and pumpkin spice...I even LOVE the color orange!! I just love all things FALL! Then you add cute pictures of kids in costume and fun family times...What could be better? Now if I could just get rid of some of this candy!
This Halloween, Jack ~of Jack in the Box fame~ came to stay with us! That Jack is really down to earth considering he is a fast food mogul. He's just an all around nice guy....and I had heard that he had a big head! :)
He went with me to a costume party last Saturday and then stuck around to take the kids trick-or-treating last night.
This year was also the first Halloween for our "Great Pumpkin" in the front yard. This was one of my "week after = 75% off" purchases from Target last year...I've been waiting all year to see if it would even work! And it did! Many a trick-or-treater stopped to get their picture in front of our pumpkin last night. It was a big night in the neighborhood for trick-or-treaters!

We had SO MANY trick-or-treaters! I started out with a huge kettle of candy and was down to a handful when we turned off our porch light at 7:45. We also did it to enjoy a big family dinner and birthday party for my Uncle Rick "doorbell" free. I hate it that I missed some kids but this year we seemed to have lots of grown-up kids...and they didn't even dress up. OH well... All the little trick-or-treators below were part of our celebration. These little cousins and friends always have so much fun together.



Even the babies seemed to have a great time. Here is Ella Kate hanging with Elvis and his cute sock hop side kick.

I think we wore the baby out! She almost wore her thumb out dozing off to nap today! Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Halloween 2006

Here are this year's Halloween pictures! These are a bit blury as they are from the Sears website. It is really hard to get a good picture of three kids!!! If you would like to see the previous 7 years of Halloween scroll down



Wonder Woman is 8 Superman is 5 and Wonder Baby is 3.5 months old!




1998 This was our first Halloween with our little pumpkin...or Strawberry in this case. Don't we look young!

1999 Kolby is 20 months old and would not get her picture made at Sears. She was totally terrified of photographers. My friend Kristi snapped this one at a Halloween party. 2000 Our Hot Pink Leopard picture from whenshe was 2. (finally found it!)2001 Dorthy is 3 Toto is 6 weeks old. 2002 Tink & Peter Pan.


2003 Ariel and Cpt Feather Sword

2004

2005 (These pics are from the Sears website and are very blurry!) Padme & Anikin

"My little Doll" or..."Birth of a Bow Head"

You Decide!
I held out as long as I could. EK was three months and 4 days old before she wore her first bow. All it took was three people in one afternoon saying what a pretty little "BOY"! So I broke out the bows! Now there is no mistaking!

You know I never really played with baby dolls growing up. I never really got into the whole dress up thing. But now, with my real babies... I am having a blast! Kolby quit wearing bows last year. Just didn't want to do it anymore. I was a bit sad to be honest. So now little EK inherits the big bow drawer..and I get to play real live dress-up for at least seven more years! :)

EK laughed a big belly laugh for the first time the other day. I can't imagine, this side of heaven, a more delightful sound than baby laughter. So sweet, so precious! Wish I could bottle it! We are all cherishing every minute with this baby girl!

Picture Update

Blogger won't let me post the traditional way so I am posting pictures from Picasa. Our big pumpkin!
Our little Pumpkin!
Going to church EKG sleeping in her own bed! Yes, we have a thumb sucker!

The mighty, mighty Tigers!

Happy Girl!

Our little Brownie!

The sun will come out Toe-morrow

When I was very young I had a major kidney operation. You would think that my first memory of pain would be from all my kidney issues. The first time I remember feeling excruciating pain should have been from one of my numerous hospital stays. It could have been one of those awful antibiotic shots that went in so slow and deep into the muscle tissue of my three or four year old leg that I walked with a limp for the rest of the day. Nope. My first memory of real pain is from an everyday incident that happened in the hall of the house I grew up in when my Mom accidentally side swiped my pinky toe with a huge Hoover vacuum cleaner. I remember a flap of skin, blood, great pain and lots of tears...both mine and my Mom's! I think my toe nail even came off. Thirty six years later and I don't think either of the nails on my pinky toes have had a chance to grow back properly!

I'm not sure why God gave me pinky toes because it seems life has been trying to knock them off of me ever since. I am a toe murderer. Just my own toes though. I frequently run my toes into to the corners of walls or the legs of chairs. I stump them on curbs, bumps in the sidewalk, or anything I can. Lately the legs of the baby swing and high chair have reeked havoc on my littlest digits. However, Saturday was a red letter day in the history of my toe torture. As proof of this I am sitting here days later with a throbbing, very purple, perhaps broken pinkie toe.

It all started Saturday when I somehow caught my left pinkie toe on the blue wire like legs of the baby bouncy while cruising through the living room on my way to answer natures call. It hurt so badly that nature decided to leave me a little message right then. (I know TMI>>>But this is my blog) An hour or so later after the first bruise was forming and the pain had yet to subside, I limped by the highchair and somehow rammed the same little toe into it's gangly leg . Now I understand the highchair legs need to sprawl out to insure stability...but seriously! I think there is high chair designer out there somewhere calculating how many toes his design will mutilate!!!

If that were not enough for one day, a few minutes later I stumped the same little toe on the legs of the portable swing... That cute little swing is two feet tall and my kids love to move it around. However when you are rushing around with a baby in tow, it's easy to miss! Three times, one day, one toe and, judging from my inability to move it and it's deep shade of plum, I'm guessing multiple fractures! OUCH!!!

So I'm hobbling around with my littlest left toe taped to its neighbor. No shoes fit, not even flip flops. And did I mention I had just started walking a few miles with a friend every night last week? That's out for a few nights. I'm really bummed!

However, since I don't feel like running around town in my house shoes, I get to stay home all day and get about a dozen things done I have had on my to do list for week or so now...including write this post! Ahhh the feeling of marking something off my list! Off to write thank you notes and finish up a few loads of laundry .... Happy Monday blog world! Be sure to appreciate your toes today!

For Susan

As requested here are a few pictures "at least!" and an update on us.
Ella Kate is now 11 weeks old and full of smiles! She is especially happy when she sees the baby in the mirror! Our little Ella Bella Katie slept through the night two nights in a row this week and (big breath) even moved to the crib in her room!!! She is holding her head up unaided for long periods of time and seems to recognize us all when she hears our voices. At her two month check-up she weighed 12 pounds and is almost 23 inches long! That is a lot of growing in just two months! Ella Kate is cooing so much and loves to just sit and "visit". We are all blown away with how verbal she is. Kolby says she is musical because it sounds like she is singing all the time. EK has become accustomed to her carseat as she spend lots of time in it. She is just a joy!


Rhett and Kolby are both doing great and keeping us on our toes! We are in a good place in life with these two, even though I have begun to feel more like a taxi cab driver than a Mom! Kolby started back to dance this year and loves it...Though it isn't as easy as she remembered. She also joined a Girl Scout Troop and feels like she has discovered a new world! She really enjoys every aspect of scouting so far. Kolby loves her teacher at school and is happy to go to her tutor at Baylor twice a week. My Mom and Kolby came up with a checklist for chores etc. Every day and it is really making things run smoother. Kolby continues amaze me with her creativity and her strong spirit. She is a very sweet girl.

Rhett is doing great in his pre-school class. He is becoming such a little man! He is up, dressed, and ready to go every morning before the rest of us are up. He has already started talking about next year when he gets to leave with Rob and Kolby every morning. Rhett is playing soccer with his best buds and loves it. He has issues, but overall, he is a happy, fun loving boys boy. He cracks me up several times everyday with little Rhett-isms. I love that little boy!

More to come...blogger is being a bit honoree this morning!

REVISED OK You want to know why I don't blog often....blogger won't let me! I could not get blogger too post pictures any other way so scroll down to see the rest! :)

Singing to mommy.