Santa, and other holiday fun

Wow...December is busy! There have been so many things that I would have loved to blog about, but "spare time" is so limited this time of year. But the yearly Santa pictures must be posted! This year we went to Six Flags to see Santa, and it was great. The kids have all been working on their lists, but it is always interesting to hear what they come up with when they talk to Santa. So here is how it went. First of all, the big question was how Ruby would do being put on a large bearded man's lap. I couldn't imagine that is would go over real well. But honestly, she did great! She saw that nobody else was afraid, and so she just hung out. It was pretty cute. Ella was next. Now, this year Ella has been hoarding the store catalogs that have been coming in the mail, and has been busily circling and marking them up. She has ended up with quite a list, none of which Santa actually thinks that Ella would really enjoy that much. So, after hearing that her list to Santa was going to be a guitar, a camera, and a computer, I convinced her to tell Santa that she wants him to pick out whatever gift he thinks she'll like. And she did it! And I have a feeling that Santa has a few great ideas for her. :) Next came Tyler. This happens every year to Tyler - he draws a blank! He's spent so much time thinking about what everybody else would like, that he can't think of a thing for himself! This year he said, "A stuffed animal and a..............." and that was it. Easy customer! Spencer, on the other hand, had an entire speech planned. He began by telling Santa that he has been really, really good this year. Then by explaining the reasoning behind his gifts (that he's a "sport's fanatic, so everything has to do with sports"). Then began the list: "First I want three lacrosse sticks - one for me, Tyler, and dad. Then I want two street hockey goals and three street hockey sticks - for me, Tyler, and dad. Then I want a professional soccer Wii game and a professional ice hockey Wii game." Santa told him good luck!!
Then last week we all went to a friend's house to decorate gingerbread houses. It was a lot of fun, and Ruby ate more candy that night than should ever be consumed by a 1 year old! The problem was that Ella is such a perfectionist that it took her forever to finish her house! In the meantime, Ruby just ate and ate. Tyler was also working really hard toward perfection, but had the unfortunate luck that Bryan made his initial house. It's a good thing Bryan didn't try to be an architect, because he's got no skills! Tyler's house kept tumbling down, despite his careful decorating. (Thus the very sad picture.) Finally I built it myself, and he had no problems after that! :) Spencer is the opposite of a perfectionist, and was done with his house in 5 minutes. It also broke several times (Bryan made it too), but he really didn't care. He brought home a plate with crumbled graham crackers, layers of frosting, and random pieces of candy...and he couldn't have been happier!

The boys also performed in their Christmas piano recital last weekend. It was a "pajamas and pancakes" recital last Saturday morning, and they loved it. Tyler played Away in a Manger and Spencer played Silent Night. They both did a great job!

And lastly (whew!!!) Tyler had his Second Grade Economics Fair this morning. Each 2nd grader had to make and then sell a homemade non-food item to the rest of the school during their unit about economics. Now, normally I would really complain about having to come up with ONE MORE THING during December, but he has been so excited about this project and really worked hard to do his best. He sold fuzzy scarves, and they were a big hit! He made 36 scarves, and kept home 1 of each design for a different person in our family. He took the "sports" scarf for himself, and wore it to model it while selling (as seen above). By the time the girls and I left the school, he had only 4 more scarves to sell...and had sold the one he was wearing!! He had so much fun. And all the money that they earned, they donated to charity. So it was a great day.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was great this year! We were lucky enough to have my mom, step-dad, sister, and brother come down to San Antonio to spend the weekend with us, and we had a great time. I don't know why I didn't take my camera with me to the places that we went, but I guess you'll just have to trust me when I say it was fun. We actually went to SeaWorld on Thanksgiving Day, hoping that it would not be busy. It was perfect! There were actually more people there than I was expecting, but it was still not busy at all. We went to shows, rode rides, and enjoyed a great day there. On Friday we had our big Thanksgiving feast, and I'll talk more about that in a minute. But first, on Saturday we went to Six Flags in the afternoon and evening and my mom and I went to do some Christmas shopping on Saturday morning. Both were great! We got too spoiled at SeaWorld, though, because the kids really complained about having to wait in line at Six Flags for rides. But oh well. Now back to the food. Seriously, the highlight of the weekend was the food. Bryan has been researching and practicing "smoking" on his Weber grill, and so the big treat this year was the smoked turkey. He worked on it for two days - first brining the turkey with a salt/apple juice/cranberry juice mixture (plus some other spices), and then smoking it all day on Friday. He bought several different wood chunks to smoke, and he used apple wood and something else for the turkey. Oh my! That was one outstanding turkey! I mean usually turkey is a little dry, but not this bird! It was delicious. My mom and I made the pies - coconut cream, banana cream, chocolate cream, and raspberry - and they did not disappoint. I think they were the best pies I've made in a long time, so I was thrilled. YUM! Ella and my sister Mary made the cute place cards, and the boys and Masen just played and played outside. It was a really great weekend!

Fall in Texas

It doesn't seem like there's been anything too exciting going on around here, and so my blog is really getting outdated! We've spent the last couple of weeks finishing up the kid's soccer season, and so it has been nice to have that wrapped up. Don't get me wrong - it was really fun to watch, and they all loved it - but it will be nice to have our evenings and weekends back! And I also want to mention just how beautiful the weather has been these past few weeks. Slightly cool in the mornings and evenings, but highs in the mid-70s during the day. The other night Bryan and the boys were out playing their street football game, and I noticed the amazing full moon in the background. I thought it was definitely worth taking a picture of! We're now gearing up for a week off school and Thanksgiving! We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Halloween 2009

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Another great Halloween in Texas! Oh the weather here...it has just been gorgeous!!! As you can see from the pictures, Halloween day and night were absolutely beautiful. I love Halloween, but I can guarantee that the kids love it even more. The dressing up, the candy, staying up late...it is the perfect holiday for kids! Well this year I got off really easy and did not need to buy a single costume. Not one! Tyler and Ruby wore hand me downs from years past, Ella wanted to wear her dance recital costume from last year, and I borrowed the Harry Potter cape from a friend for Spencer. I'm not sure why I find these details blog worthy, but I do love to get a bargain!! So anyway, the kids all looked great and had a blast. Bryan took the older three trick-or-treating around the neighborhood, which I feel I must comment on the fact that I love our neighborhood. It is a really young crowd, so the trick-or-treating started at 6:00 and was totally done by 8:00. No random teenagers ringing the doorbell at 10:00, nothin'! So that was great. Plus somebody on the next road down from us turned their entire house into a haunted house, complete with hot cider in the garage afterward. So that was fun, too. Ruby stayed home with me to pass out candy, and she has never had more fun. I was afraid that she would just beg for candy the whole time, but she just loved putting candy in the other kid's buckets. And of course she was the cutest thing ever!! It was a great night.
***Oh, I also put a picture of Tyler all dressed up for his Greek wax museum at school for Halloween. You may recall this crazy "end of unit dressing up" that our school does, which always happens to fall on Halloween, so I get to come up with TWO costumes for the kids each year! Thankfully the 5th grade did not participate this year.

Poor Tyler!!!!

Prepare yourself for some sad photos to follow! These are the pictures I took of Tyler this morning as he headed out the door for school - a full 16 hours after the accident took place. But let me start over...yesterday was a beautiful Fall day here in Texas. One of those days that's just a shame to waste by staying inside. Well, Bryan took the boys outside to play one of their favorite games out in the street. It's a homemade game called Bootball, which is a cross between football and baseball. So anyway, they couldn't find the soft T-ball that they usually play with. Of course the boys weren't about to give up that easily, and Bryan finally succumbed to the pressure of two pleading boys to play anyway, with the hard ball. They were having a grand time, Tyler was playing some great defense, and then the scream heard round the world came. Tyler was clocked - and I mean CLOCKED - in the face with the baseball. Spencer missed the ball entirely, and it hit Tyler right in the mouth. I rushed outside to find Bryan running inside carrying Tyler, who is holding a handful of blood. Oh poor Ty! That ball hit him right in the side of his mouth, directly on one of his not-even-remotely-loose baby teeth. That tooth, and it's giant root, is now dangling from his bleeding gums and needing to be ripped the rest of the way out. I've included a picture of the tooth if you don't believe me! It was so sad, and so traumatic for poor Tyler, but honestly he was out in the back playing soccer with Spencer just an hour later. I would be in bed for a week if that happened to me! And really we were so lucky that the baby tooth took the brunt of the hit, since his permanent front teeth were directly next to the baby. But can you believe that his lip still looked that bad this morning?? I was shocked when he walked downstairs looking like that! And he was so self-conscious about going to school like that, too. "I look horrible!!" he kept saying. I hope his classmates were nice to him today!

And speaking of Tyler, I have to post this picture of Tyler from Friday night. The boy's school had their annual Fall Festival Friday night, and Tyler wanted to use one of his tickets to get his hair dyed. He had this whole elaborate striped pattern planned out, but when it was finally his turn he was told that 1 ticket means 1 color. So he scrambled and chose red. Well, as you can see, the "red" looked an awful lot like pink!!! He about died when they held that mirror up for him to take a look! Sheer horror on his face! So for the rest of the night he explained to everybody that even looked our direction, "I asked for RED!!!" I could hardly take this picture I was laughing so hard. It was a rough weekend for Ty!

Ruby's 18 month pictures

I can't believe my little Ruby is 18 months old! Well, and in all fairness, she is actually 19 months old now. But these pictures were taken a few weeks ago, and so I thought I'd post them for all to see. Do you notice what she is holding in the top picture? Yes, that is my cell phone. She dug it out of my purse just moments before we were to begin the photo shoot, and so my options were pretty limited: either take the phone away from her, and have her crying in all the pictures, or just let her have the phone. The phone won out! Plus, really, it will be a great reminder of her at this stage. As I mentioned in my last post, Ruby is all about the imaginative play. This morning she was walking around the house with plastic Cinderella heels on, pushing a stroller, and wearing a knight's helmet. I should really have my camera with me at all times, because by the time I go get it she has moved on to something else. At her 18 month appointment, she was saying only three words: yeah, uh-oh, and hot. Well, in the month that has passed since that appointment, she has mastered several new words, with new ones cropping up each day. Here are all that I can think of right now: ball, baby, bubble, uh-uh, mama, mommy, dada, daddy, car, and "go go" (let's go). She waves good bye, gives kisses and loves, uses the "all gone" signal, and will occasionally throw kisses (although she's a little stingy with those). Oh, and I'm pretty sure she tried to say "mine" the other day when I tried to get her to leave Ella's lunchbox at Ella's pre-school. She held it close and said, "Ma!" I'm no dummy...I knew exactly what she meant! Even when she is not talking, she manages to make her wishes known! And she knows exactly what she wants. She is in the 5th percentile for weight (20 lbs. 3 ounces), and about the 60th for height. So she is destined to be built like Spencer - long and lean! I can think of worse fates. :) She is, and always has been, a joy to have in our family. We love you Ruby Jane!

My Little Helper

That little Ruby of mine. She is just the greatest thing ever. She is now 18 months old, and she has entered the phase of imaginative play - which I love!! And she is a multitasker! A usual day of play for her always involves a phone of some kind (preferable my cell phone - it seems to be her favorite) and a purse on her shoulder. She is usually carting around a baby or a stuffed animal, either in her arms or in a stroller, and she also really likes wash cloths. She can either "clean" with them or use them as a blanket for her baby or stuffed animal. So she strolls around the house, with a purse on her shoulder and a phone on her ear, while pushing the stroller or cleaning the house. Oh, and she is usually wearing mismatched shoes, which come from all the members of our family. So this morning I was realizing that I very rarely take pictures of her in these get-ups! So I decided to just put the camera in my pocket while I cleaned. I was not disappointed! True to form, she quickly grabbed that wash cloth, a phone, and a purse and got to work. Her outfit varied, as she found one of my shoes, and she also added the baby and stroller (and a different purse, of course) when we went upstairs. I just want to remember this phase!!! I also want to note that Ruby recently broke the 20 pound mark at her 18 month check-up!! She's on the chart!!

Soccer Saturdays

This is a very exciting time, indeed. This fall we have Spencer, Tyler, and Ella all playing soccer. It makes things a little...well, interesting I will say! We have practices every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings, and then of course the three 1 hour games spread out across the day each Saturday. I have to admit that we have been a little frightened by this prospect, and have actually been dreading it a little bit. Well...no more!! The kids each had their first games this past Saturday, and it was so incredibly fun! First of all, look at that little Ella! She had the funnest time, and did not stop smiling the entire game. And she ran her little heart out! But listen to this! ALL THREE KIDS SCORED A GOAL IN THEIR GAMES!!!! I was hoarse by the days end, due to all the cheering I was doing on the sidelines. It was so exciting. I'll give you a brief play by play, and then you can see some of the action for yourselves. First came Spencer's game. Spencer has played a couple of seasons of soccer in the past, but he's really never been an animal on the field. In any sport. He's always been too timid to really be aggressive enough to hold his own. But as we've been watching him practice soccer this season, it really seemed that he was pretty darn good. And not real nervous or timid out there. So anyway, he is playing his first game in years and the coach puts him in as right forward. He is really doing awesome out there! He is dribbling and passing and running...really tearing it up! And then his team gets a free kick. His teammate kicks it to Spencer, and Spence just wails on it! Right in the net! He was so shocked that it took him a minute to realize what had happened. He looked over at us, with this shocked look on his face, and of course we were jumping up and down like a couple of wild animals. It was so great and memorable. I don't think he'll ever forget the day of his first goal. Very cool. Unfortunately I was not filming at the time (I know! I'm so mad at myself!), but I did have Spencer re-live the moment on film. So here is his c0mmentary.
Next came Ella's goal. Little peanut!! I was so worried that she would be too shy to even get on the field, but she ran straight out there. She loved running around after the pack, and if she got near the ball she would kick and kick and kick! And as I mentioned, she had the biggest grin on her face the entire game. I hope you can see it in this video! So onto her goal - she got the ball, broke away from the pack, and dribbled it right into the net. Little sweetie. She was so proud, and so were we.
Now on to Tyler. No pressure for poor Tyler! He has just watched as his brother and sister both scored goals in their games, and so he was feeling like he would break the streak unless he scored. Of course we assured him that scoring goals is not the most important thing, and that frankly they don't really happen that often. And of course it has been two years since Tyler has played his one and only season of soccer, so we didn't know what to expect. Oh my word...that kid is an animal!!! He is fast, tough, aggressive, and he does not slow down. He was in on almost every single play that took place out there. They don't really stress "staying in your position" at his age yet, so he was all over the place. Defending, throwing in, dribbling up the field, taking shots in the goal. He did it all. At one point his coach asked him, "Now, how many years have you been playing soccer??" Tyler says, "Only one time, two years ago." Wow. He was awesome out there. Well, after a few near misses into the goal, he got his chance to take his team's free kick (after the other team touched the ball with their hands). He faces that human wall without an ounce of fear, and puts it right in. The goalie deflected it, but it still went in the corner of the net. Woo hoo!!

And I am going to make a blanket apology for my screaming and cheering on the sidelines - and I assure you that you're not seeing the worst of it - but I love to cheer on my kids, and I'm sorry if that's annoying to anyone around me. But I love soccer and I love those cuties out there. But I do wish that the video, which of course I'm taking, didn't pick up all of it. Oh well. It was a fantastic day, and the season has only just begun!

Labor Day in Galveston

We haven't really taken a family vacation since we've been back in the states, with the exception of going home to Idaho during the summer, and so we decided it was time. I mean, I realize that Galveston, Texas isn't Paris or Rome...but it was a darn fun weekend! We left on Friday after school, and came back home on Labor Day (my birthday!!). Bryan has a friend from work who has a guest house in Galveston, just three blocks from the beach. He offered to let us use the house any time we wanted, so we decided to take him up on it. The four hour drive was not bad, and Galveston was a lot of fun. Here are some of the highlights, in reverse order. (I forget that blogger adds the pictures in reverse order, and I don't want to go back and do it again.) These first few pictures were taken on our last night in Galveston at The Rainforest Cafe. Definitely the coolest restaurant ever! The kids loved it. Even after waiting 90 minutes for a table. For real.


(What is that smile, Tyler? He must have learned that from Aubrey. :) )
Just waiting for our table to be ready... Ruby biffed it just after this picture was taken, and scraped her entire face up, but that is a picture for a different post.
We spent our second day in Galveston at a place called Moody Gardens, which had an aquarium, rainforest, IMAX theaters, a paddle boat ride, and a big pool. And it is humid in Galveston! So we were ready for a fun swim at the end of that day.


Isn't she darling? Just hanging out - watching the big kids.
So cute. These two have a good time together. That is, when they're not teasing and harassing each other.
On the boat!
Can you see Ruby's little half-smile? Little cutie. And now the beach pictures. I love the beach!!! Except for the sand you track home afterward - I could do without that. We had a great day at the beach, with lots of frisbee, sand castles, and wave jumping. And Ruby had not one bit of fear. She strutted straight out into the water and hardly even looked back.