Christmas 2009

Christmas morning started with biscuits and gravy

I think it is obvious the kids were waiting to open gifts :)
Afterwards Grandpa took Gabe and let him pet Daisy.
Jeremy, Brandy and now Kien have a BIG trampoline again!! YAY!
Both kids are musically talented and wanted a Keyboard for the past couple years. It was an immediate winner!
Snow on my wreath!
Jeremy was smiling! But of course!
For some reason I just can't get it into my brain that I need to take photos of EVERYTHING!! The kids were pretty much at the end of gift opening!
These photo's are a bit out of order, but here is Kien inspecting the gifts! He was our little Santa and made sure all gifts (that he could carry) were brought to the right person!
Stockings! All of them were full! Even Duke and Daisy had a bone each in there!
We also want to thank everyone who sent cards and gifts also! We are very grateful!! :)

Christmas Eve Snow

Texas is in a region of the US that doesn't see much snow at all. We have a couple ice storms every winter and maybe an inch or so of snow usually occurring in the month of February. We definitely received a white Christmas this year!! We did have 9 inch drifts and the snow really came down hours after this first "dusting" earlier in the day. The wind was blowing very swiftly by mid afternoon to portray a blizzard.

Jeremy braved the snow but had to borrow Greg's gloves because he realized it WAS cold after while of being outside! The snow was too loose to make snowballs.
Kien loved the snow. He got to play in it with Jeremy, Grandma and Daddy.
Grandpa of course was enjoying holding Gabe and keeping toasty warm!
Later that evening Gabe was exhausted but cried himself to sleep. Poor baby must have had a tummy ache. Gotta LOVE his little outfit! He looks like an elf with santa feet!

Happy Birthday Greg!

Here is Greg's favorite cake!

YUMMERS
Brandy and Jeremy were ready to dig in!
Kien had to finish his roll before he could dig in to cake :)
Birthday boy has first dibs!

For Greg's birthday his parents flew to Texas to spend Christmas with us this year. We had reservations at Saltgrass Steak House ~YUM~

Gabe doesn't sleep much at restaurants any more. He has to be with all the action. Of course!
Brandy was caught dozing!! Swimming REALLY takes all her energy!
Jeremy loves steak too!
Grandma and Grandpa holding the children so we could eat too!
The photo that is NOT included that SHOULD have been included was when Greg opened his gift from us. He knew RIGHT off the bat what it was. Why is it soooo difficult to surprise him?! *sigh* haha

I found them!! Jeremy's Winter Concert!

Here is my handsome young man! Can you believe he wasn't embarrassed to take a photo with his mom!! :)

Jeremy is usually the silly guy who makes all kinds of silly poses in photo's. We wanted him to have a serious one of which really tried hard! Wow, he is SOOOOO grown up!
As a mother has the ability to locate her child, it was difficult to take a photo because he was hidden behind music stands and students. Here is a photo of the symphonic band at Jeremy's school. Their band directors are incredible!!

More events

I am not sure where this photo of Gabe was taken, possibly at Greg's work? Either way, Gabe was not very happy to have been in his car carrier. Note how HUGE he is in his carrier now!!

For some strange reason I cannot locate Jeremy's photo's from his concert. I will have to research more files so I can upload them also. After Jeremy's concert we took him to his choice of dinner and he chose CiCi's pizza. Brandy happen to have a swim meet this same night which is so difficult to each and every activity. At any rate, after Brandy's meet she was able to catch a ride to CiCi's as well. Wish she could have gone to Jeremy's concert though to say hi to her previous band teachers!
Here is the video clip of Jeremy's concert! Jeremy has been playing clarinet now since 6th grade. He is also taking private lessons once a week. Summer of 2009 he participated in band camp offered by his band directors of which he learned 3 songs in a week and did VERY well!! We are very proud of him for his accomplishments. We hope he will continue on in music. :) :)

Brandy's Winter Concert

As many of you know Brandy has been playing the French Horn since the 6th grade. When she entered into high school she signed up for Marching Band which placed her playing the mellophone. A mellophone is a brass instrument that is typically used in the place of the French horn due to how big it is and it's difficulty with marching.

These are photos of Brandy and her Band Director. The band director's in this district are phenomenal and we stand amazed at how well these kids are taught so quickly with such accuracy! We put Gabe in the photo because while meandering children's clothing websites, I came across a onesie that said "I'm with the Band". We couldn't resist. Gabe wasn't crazy about it, but Brandy was proud to show off her littlest brother!

Here is a small clip of the concert. Unfortunately we didn't think to charge the video camera prior to the event. So most of the video's we did record were on Greg's iPhone.

Yummy!

Usually on the weekends we are not too busy or too tired we will cook yummy foods! Everyone is a fan of french toast! We also make eggs, bacon and fried potatoes! I can never make enough!

Looks and Decorations..

Jeremy is notorious for having his eyes locked into a game or a book, so as he was walking by when unloading my Christmas decor I said his name very firmly and so THIS is the look of "Am I in trouble?"

This is the "RELIEF" look when he found out I just wanted a hug. :)
Here are some photo's of the kids decorating the Christmas Tree. Notice the door open and the shorts and t-shirts being worn on this day. I think this was the day the weather was spring-like!
Kien really had a fantastic time adding decorations. He was VERY gentle and VERY particular on which branches to put them on. So so sweet!
Here is Brandy helping him with the part that connects the ornament to the branch. He was a bit confused at first.
I believe I spent a couple hours assembling the tree, then applying 5 strings of lights. My tree is very old and has been through 3 generations now. :)

Just Photos

It has become a Sunday morning ritual for us to eat donuts together before we head to church. Greg seems to take photo's randomly, so here is our donut shop!

Here is Kien wanting to sit in the huge 6 seater stroller at church as we are leaving. Mommy of course said no AFTER daddy had put him in too quickly. It was time to go and I didn't want to start a trend among the other kids as they were leaving.
And, here is Kieney bean taking his shoes off. He just so happens to just have his shoes off as it is a regular occurrence when we are in the car for BOTH shoes and socks to come off his feet. I have invested in double knots to no avail. I have even purchased Velcro so it would be a quick recovery before we have to get out of the car. Either way, I could duct tape them on and he would still figure out how to take them off. haha
So, it is a difficult situation to grocery shop. You think with 4 kids and a hubby it would be done in a flash eh? Oh no sirey! So, THIS grocery shopping was just Gabe and the hubby. Only because we had to purchase a Christmas gift for the kids. We survived, but Greg was being sneakertive. We separated as I headed to the baby section for diapers and wipes while he was purchasing the gift. Then, he sneaked up on me in the isle and took a couple photo's from different angles. Then he would text them to me one by one to give me hints on where he was. He's such a goof!
Later this evening after all the shopping was done, Brandy gave Kien a bath with bubbles. He was eating them! Looks like a mini Santa!

Brandy Swimming Meet

Here is Brandy at her swim meet. She had 3 performances. The first performance was a 200 yard freestyle. The second was 200 yard freestyle relay. The third was a 400 yard freestyle relay, however, it was cancelled due to a swimmer not being present. So proud of her!

Kien Driving/Gabe's Indian Call

Here is Kien driving his own car! He did so well!

Gabe learns little things all the time. He learned that if I pat his mouth, he can make a noise and I guess he likes the noise! So cute!

Kien's first day of MDO!!

This is an exciting day for Kien! He is going to Mother's Day Out 2 days a week! Here he had his coat on ready to go when Jeremy gave him a snowball!! My friend Amy came over to watch Gabe while I took Kien to "school" so I didn't have to get Gabe out in this weather, and to have this special time with Kien. She is such a sweetheart, and even was the one who took this photo!

I was making sure I had all the stuff we needed for Kien, and he was showing the snowball to Rebecka, Amy's daughter. :) Then Amy took and put it in the freezer :)
Here we are! I had to bring all Kien's stuff and carry him to the front of the building because it was raining/snowing and didn't want him to fall or get too wet. So I had him pose once his backpack was on and he held his lunch box!
So cute!!!
Here we are inside the building. Kien was SO excited, although I couldn't catch him smiling! GRRR
Here is the entrance, Kien knew from our previous visit on where to go!
On our way to the classroom.
Around the corner down the hall.
So CUTE CUTE CUTE!!! I ended up having to carry his back pack because he just can't seem to keep it on with the coat.
Here is Kien's room!
We were standing outside of the room for a bit because we were a bit early.
The first thing that his teacher did was turn on the fish tank. It's plastic fish that when turned on the air blow bubbles and makes the fish swim. He was so interested in it! If you look on the left hand side there are some "cubby's" where the kids are assigned to put their jackets, backpacks and lunches. I am so glad we taught him what a cubby was at home for his shoes. :)
He was a bit hesitant at first. Clingy for sure. He kept walking to the toys and then coming back to me and holding on to my legs.
I think he knew I was not going to be staying.
Kien and I were the first people there, and so when the first little girl came to class, I left the room and watched him through the window. He was just fine! We go back and pick him up at 2 PM. I will have an update about that later!