Be Mine

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Here are pictures from some of our festivities over the week. Our play group had a Valentine's party on Wednesday and one of our mommies, who is an amazing photog, did a great job capturing the moment!

The goodies; the bears and the puppies on the bottom right are from us!

My silly little valentine

The kiddos, aren't they cuties?? Mine was not too happy!

photography by Amanda Green Photography

Sesame Street LIVE!

That's what his face looked like for the majority of the show, jaw dropped in awe that Elmo and friends were right in front of him! It was, as miss Abby would put it..."magical!" To see such joy and innocence in your child's face is truly a perfect gift from up above and definitely a memorable one.

Cancun 2010

Honey, we are all so proud of you and your success in 2009. We thank you everyday for working so hard to provide for our family. Thank you grandma and grandpa for watching David so Mommy and Daddy could celebrate another great year in Cancun!! We had such a good time with food, friends, and much needed r&r.

Our first day was spent mostly traveling, but it worked out okay because it was raining in Cancun when we got there. That night we had regional breakouts and dinner.

Dave and I before the meeting started

Allison, Dave's boss's wife, and I before the meeting

The Roser's and The Volpe's

The next day we had some sun, but it only lasted for a few hours. This is our first year that we have been in Cancun with an actual beach; they are still in recovery mode from the hurricane that hit in 2005. So we spent the time we had on the beach sun or no sun. That night we went to dinner with other Houston contest winners and their spouses. We went to a restaurant called Harry's and enjoyed delicious surf and turf!!

On Tuesday I was treated to spa services while Dave got to play golf. That night we had the usual office dinner at a yummy restaurant and even made it out dancing full bellies and all!!

Houston Contest Winners 2010

The Wives

We spent our last night as a date night, since we don't get those too often. We enjoyed a lovely dinner at one of the newer restaurants in Cancun. The best part was the dessert; they leave this tray on your table and it is literally all you can eat.....dangerous!

Overall, it was a great trip! We were ready to get back to our little nugget, though. It was 4 1/2 days away from him! He did great for grandma and grandpa, but was not too happy with mommy. He refused to speak to me on the phone while we were there and gave me the cold shoulder for about 10 minutes once we got home....payback!! Mommy and daddy made up for it though with a trip to see Elmo on Saturday; I should hopefully get those up mid-later this week but he had a blast!!

early riser = sleepy mommy

Okay, so first.....we are still here. I know, I know its been a whole month since I last blogged or close to it, but it has been a busy month that has just flown by. The time that I usually get to sit down and share my thoughts, document milestones, or just let y'all know whats been going on, a.k.a nap time, has been spent searching for beach attire for our upcoming trip to Cancun, projects around the household, planning our little nuggets upcoming birthday (I cannot believe he will be two soon), and taking a little time here and there just to have some mommy relaxation time. Oh, and I cannot forget to leave out cleaning the house! We have also been busy visiting and applying for colleges...okay not really, but it sure feels that way! Seriously, who knew that there was such a demand for MDO programs; mothers get in line at 3am at some of these churches just to make sure their kiddo gets a spot! Crazy. We are applying to 3 different churches that are on a draw system; our first choice being our church but there is no guarantee. We will find out February 17th which ones he gets accepted to for the 2010-2011 school year. I'm telling you....crazy!

On another note, David turned 22 months this week and the terrible twos have officially hit the Roser household. Generally, he is a well behaved and bright minded little boy (well, I like to think so), BUT these little tantrums of emotional/angered screaming must stop!! If someone angers him or things do not go his way...watch out and be prepared for the loud and I mean awful scream that my child can and will produce anywhere! Now I have tried telling myself "it could be worse, at least he does not hit or bite like some little boys are doing right now," but I don't know it's pretty bad. So, for now "no David, it is not nice to scream" is being heard a handful around here! Along with the terrible twos comes the need for independence and control, which in turn has caused some long evenings and early mornings for us. My child, who has practically been one of the best sleepers since he was 10 weeks old, has started to fight going night-night. I swear he thinks his crib is a jungle gym; he feels the need to run around it during nap time and at bedtime instead of sleeping in it. Oh, and let me not forget the kicking...yes, kicking the wall, which happens to be mommy and daddy's wall. This occurs at night and early morning, and when I say early I mean 6:10 am EVERY morning. I don't know what it takes to get this kid to sleep in, but it is like clock work no matter when he goes to bed. Needless to say, after much research, we are led to believe that this behavior is due not only to the need for control, but over tiredness so we have started to lay down the law around here. The rainforest (fisher-price) has been removed because the "soothing" sounds and "peaceful" lighting it once brought to my infant boy is now a bright obnoxious distraction to sleep! Nap time is set for 12:30 and bedtime is set for 7:30, no earlier and no later....lights out, and mommy and daddy are out of the room. Instead of rockabye baby lullaby renditions, we have natural white noise ALL night. Last but not least....NO watching Elmo after 4:30 in the afternoon! Anyways, you get the point; this is serious business.

To leave on a lighter note, or should I say less negative, he is growing up so quickly and we do feel blessed to have such a wonderful child (I do mean this, lol). He is super-scary smart; counts to ten and knows all but 5 letters of the alphabet! His favorite game right now is "what's that." I will draw letters on the etcha sketch that Santa brought him for Christmas; he loves to ask "what's that" which in turn he wants me to ask "what's that" and he will then shout with much excitement the letter that I drew! He does this with all of his Melissa & Doug fruits and vegetables, too! He has an amazing memory; every time we drive by the pool he shouts "pool, dada, weeee" in regards to going down the big slide with Daddy this past summer! He loves to sing and dance. He is very talkative; I think the only time he is not talking is when he is watching Elmo. He is always looking for a response and requires a lot of attention. Sometimes, in the middle of playtime he will just come up to me and give me a kiss or hug for no reason, which melts my heart. Through all the yelling and screaming, I do know that he loves his mommy and no matter how tough these times can be I love him more than anything, he is my baby boy.

countdown to 2010

Happy New Year!!

christmas 2oo9

To start the holiday off right, we headed into Austin to see our dear friends Melanie and Travis and their new home!!! Now a trip into Austin would not be complete without dinner at our favorite mexican restaurant, Maudies!! David takes after his mommy in the fact that he enjoys mexican food, and he shows a favoritism to queso. It is funny because, just like his mommy and daddy, he ADORES maudies queso. We had to order another large bowl so that he could have some more! We really enjoyed seeing you guys; the new home is fabulous. Y'all are such wonderful friends and we are thankful to have you all in our lives!

We had a wonderful time celebrating christmas with our family in austin this year. It reminded me of the traditional Christmas's' that I enjoyed growing up. Dad made peanut brittle and egg nog, we enjoyed appetizers and mulled wine on christmas eve and just spent time as a family. We even got to see a hint of snow flurries on Christmas eve day!

Christmas Eve Family Pictures

(with an uncooperative little boy)

Christmas morning was exactly as predicted...unforgettable! The look on David's face when he saw what santa left him under the tree was priceless. Watching him brought back the excitement and those special moments we cherish from past christmas's as a kid. It can only get better from here, right? He is truly the most precious gift we could have ever received!!

"santa came!!"

Introducing his elmo to the "real" elmo...elmo live encore

my little chef

lovin him some elmo

his own personalized chair

Our family, Christmas 2009

'tis the season

It's officially the week of Christmas and we are ready! We got the presents under the tree last night...just in time to pack them up in two days for our trip to Austin! Although our visit with Santa did not go so well, David is loving the Christmas decorations and is definitely in the spirit. He will turn 21 months this week and I thought I would post the top 10 favorite holiday memories thus far!

1. Every morning when we come downstairs he runs to the 'kismas tee" and trys to plug in the lights, with mommy's assistance of course!

2. We had our outdoor lights installed before Thanksgiving and he was extremely involved in the process. He monitored every move those men made on top of our roof and learned within five minutes that they were putting up "ights." Now every time we are outside he points to the house and says "ights"

3. The infamous line from our Santa visit "Ma'am...it works best if you drop the child and run!"

4. Oh the cookies....we made Russian tea balls and peanut butter kiss cookies a week ago (mmm...mm....mmm..) He likes the powdered sugar on the tea balls, but will not actually try my peanut butter cookies, so we are going with the traditional sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles this evening just for him...and maybe Santa!

5. You can't have cookies without milk!! That's right, at the end of this week we will be sans bottle for two whole weeks. You see, we had the baby-baba, big boy-sippy cup talk and he has done great! No throwing sippy cups, no screaming....he has only asked for his baba once and that was when he was overtired at lunch.

6. When you ask him what does santa say, he will reply "ho, ho, ho"

7. We have to read The Night Before Christmas to him at least 3 times a night because at the end of it he always says "agin"

8. His favorite Christmas song is Frosty. We sing it around the house and he will grab the snowman that sits on the bench in our entry way. I've been on the look out for when they would be airing Frosty on ABC, but somehow I think we missed it. He has had no interest in the traditional Christmas movies, but I thought that he may enjoy Frosty. Oh well, there is always next year.

9. We took him to the Kids Krazy Christmas Show at Second Baptist Church this past weekend. If you live in the Houston area with kiddos and have not been it is AMAZING. I was soooo worried that all he would want to do is run around, but he proved his mama wrong. He loved it!! Sat in our laps the whole time watching the puppets sing and dance. When they disappeared he would say "were de go?" It was truly fun for the whole family and cannot wait to see it again next year!

10. The presents have been under the tree for a day now, and although he does not have many under there for him just yet he knows which one is his and will not keep his itty bitty fingers off of it! I have a feeling Christmas morning is going to be unforgettable!

We hope that all of our friends and family have an unforgettable holiday as well!

Merry Christmas!