Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas in round rock this year with my family. Once again it was exciting to celebrate the holiday through the eyes of a child. I think he understood a little more this year, but most of this occurred after the fact. He will tell you what Santa brought him and has been talking about presents for weeks now! Charlie Brown's Christmas is still playing once a day, and instead of getting in bed and cuddling with mommy in the morning he prefers playing with his new toys. So I guess I can say the excitement of it all has not worn off yet, which we love and feel blessed to be a part of.

Christmas Eve 2010

We enjoyed the 4 o'clock "kid friendly" service at the First United Methodist Church on Christmas Eve. Like usual David was a handful and was not cooperative during most of it, but the pastor did make a good point about the memory that is established even when you feel like your child is not listening; whether it's the music or part of a story they will take something away from it and will have that memory of being there even if it wasn't easy on mommy and daddy! This made us feel a little better about the whole situation. Afterwards we joined family at my brother's new house to celebrate and then got the little one home and down to bed so that Santa could get to work!

Our little family before service.

Getting milk and cookies ready for Santa with daddy.

Christmas Day 2010

We were up bright and early Christmas day to see what Santa had left behind. David was shocked to see all the toys underneath the tree and noticed right away that the cookies and milk we left the night before were all gone. He was super excited about his bike, and his buzz lightyear and woody characters that Santa brought for him. After having a practice round while grammy and pappa were in town he was a pro at handing out presents as well as opening them. To our amazement, well we knew he would be happy but words cannot explain how excited he was when he opened up his new Toy Story 3 dvd that mommy and daddy got him. His eyes lit up and he yelled out "I got my toy story 3 dvd!"; needless to say it also has been playing on the television at least once a day.

Blessed...

So much to be grateful for this Christmas season!

we have been a busy bunch since my last posting and I honestly don't have too much time to post about everything, but here's a shot at a summed up version. after finding out about our two little blessings we decided to put our house up for sale and take a leap of faith and purchase a new one that could accommodate these two little beans and our growing family. we were scheduled to close on the new house on december 13th and with many prayers we got an offer on our old house exactly one week before! it was truly amazing that it sold so quickly and that we were saved from the grief and stress of trying to sell a house and possibly taking on two mortgages in the new year. we truly believe that someone was looking over us through this whole process; and although we are sad to leave the house that we moved into two weeks after our honeymoon, the one that started our family, our first "home," we are excited to embark on this new chapter ahead. i have yet to get a picture of the new house because the last two weeks have been crazy hectic, but in the process of moving we were able to get up what we call our "charlie brown christmas tree" (let's just say the options are pretty slim the weekend before christmas)!

in the midst of all of this we had david's first christmas program for grace preschool. we couldn't be prouder of our little man and his musical talents. he did so well that it brought mommy to tears (I literally could not stop crying and I attribute some of this to double the hormones). he was not shy at all; he sang and participated in every song that they did. i was impressed with the show that his music teachers put together. how they got a group of two and a half year olds to stand up on stage, dance and do gestures to christmas songs beats the heck out of me but it was probably one of the cutest things I have ever seen. seeing the the look on my sweet boys face when he figured out mommy and daddy were there to watch was priceless!

we were also blessed to have some christmas visitors throughout all of this chaos. dave's parents have moved back to the states and came down to see us for a few days before christmas. it was so nice to spend some time catching up with them and to have them around to help out with things accompanying the move. we are excited that they are only a quick plane ride away from seeing us (and viceversa, however I don't know how much traveling we will be doing with three kiddos). thank y'all for coming to see us and baring with us throughout all of the mess!

we are officially on our "twin vacation." we had our last visit at 13.5 weeks and both babies are doing great and growing perfectly; as is my belly! goodness...this thing is out of control! i am almost 16 weeks, but I think I look about 20+ weeks pregnant. from what I read it is common to measure 4-6 weeks ahead with twins, which seems about right by the looks of things. we have our next visit on january 3rd; we will get some measurements then and hopefully hear both heart beats. we are scheduled for the big anatomy scan on january 26th, so stay tuned!

Baby A, 13 weeks 3days

Baby B, 13 weeks 3 days

so i cannot say we are officially settled at this point, but we are currently in round rock visiting my family for the christmas holiday and enjoying a nice break away from the chaos in houston. christmas shopping is complete and we are looking forward to celebrating the holiday with those we love. we want to wish our friends and family a merry christmas; we hope each and everyone of you are as blessed as we have been this past year!

"hi santa"

So we managed to get through our sitting with Santa this year without shedding a single tear! We are so proud of our big boy. I think the fact that Santa was handing out suckers to all the kids helped a bit, but like everything else...whatever it takes, right?!?!

TWO more things to be thankful for this holiday season....

Baby A- 11 weeks, 1 day 4.7 cm

Baby B- 11 weeks, 1 day 4.6 cm

David is going to be a big brother and it looks like he will be gaining more than one playmate in the process!! We were completely thrown off guard when we went in for our first ultrasound at 7 weeks and my doctor told us "two for one!" Dave's response "you got to be kidding"; mine "how did this happen?" Needless to say we have been in complete shock since and are still amazed how this came about (apparently it runs on Dave's side of the family, but evidence is uncertain to whether or not the male can influence multiple births). Three ultrasounds later, we are coming to terms with the whole idea and excited about our new family of 5! The babies are growing exceptionally well, as our doctor says "perfect, couldn't get anymore textbook" and are making mommy pay for it in the process. I should have known something was different when every symptom in the book kicked in at 5 weeks! It is gradually getting better as I approach that 12 week mark this week, but I am afraid that it probably will not last long considering this belly that has suddenly popped over the past few days. We are currently seeing my OB every two weeks, which means we get to see these little beans quite often! If everything looks good at our next appointment we will get what they call the "twin vacation" and will have a month off before we start back on a two week schedule with our OB and a specialist. We look forward to keeping you all updated throughout this crazy journey! Please keep us and these two little blessings in your thoughts and prayers in the mean time.

doughnuts with dad

These pictures were taken by David's teachers at school on Doughnuts with Dad day a few weeks back. David really enjoyed taking daddy to school, just a much as he enjoyed the doughnuts (maybe more). It is safe to report that we are finally past the initial shock of life without mommy two days a week. Tears are rarely shed and mommy is not getting phone calls during the day, whew! We had our teacher conference last week and his teacher said that he is doing great! His favorite part of school is when they go to music class on Wednesdays (which comes as no surprise to us) and he loves running races on the play ground. It is amazing to see the changes that have occurred just from a few months of MDO. He is socializing with kids more, which is huge for him although he prefers older children. He recites things from school and is getting very good at following directions, especially when mommy tells him to pick up his toys...yeah!!

"trick-or-treat"

David had a blast this year on Halloween! Again, we were a little worried that he would not be interested in wearing his costume (which he picked out all on his own), but he wore it like a champ and caught on very quickly to the whole routine. He was a little hesitant at the first few houses, but then it was game on. All we heard the rest of the evening was "next house" and "more candy!" It's all he has been talking about since; well that and the scary house with bones and scary noises, haha! Definitely an unforgettable experience-Halloween through a two and a half year old's eyes. We look forward to so many more!

Dewberry Farm

We super sized our annual pumpkin patch trip by adventuring out to dewberry farms. Our friends Katie, Mike and their daughter Lachlann joined us again this year to continue the tradition. I will have to say dewberry farms was definitely a step up from the place we visited last year! If you live in Houston and have not been it is worth the trip. We all had a great time, however the only thing that could have made our day better was some cooler weather!

Little Farmersville

Fort Dew Hickey

Rubber Ducky Races

Such a cute picture minus the nasty rotten pumpkin next to David!

It was a tough day for getting the little man to smile for the camera. He was exhausted within in the first 20 minutes, so we struggled a bit. Still, it was a great step up in our annual tradition!