Santa

Warning!Santa spoiler alert!!!

This year my kids are VERY excited about Santa!

Izaac has been dreaming up Santa traps...we even had a bubble wrap floor for awhile.

He has been analyzing all of the Christmas specials and you can see his brain working. At one point he turned and looked at us and said "Is that how it happens?" Tobie and I only managed that parent head bob we all know to well. The only saving grace is that he believes in magic, and truly believes that Santa is magic. I don't have a problem letting him believe that because the memory and true spirit of Santa is truly magical. When the time comes, and he asks "THE" question, I will tell him. Tobie and I had this discussion the other night and we decided that the correct answer is "In the spirit, memory and love of Santa, your Dad and I put the gifts under the tree". I will cry that day...

Ivy was all worked up before we saw Santa, because she really did not know what to ask him for. She was in tears, not because she was frightened, but because she did not know an answer to the questions "What do you want for Christmas?" Of course we provided her with answers;-) We also told her is was OK to tell Santa to bring her what ever he thought she might want...see how we did that...


Just seeing this picture makes me get teary eyed. I hope it is not the last one where Izaac "believes". Luckily Ivy had calmed down by this time.

Both my kids understand that this is Jesus' day. Izaac came back from the children's mass last Sunday and whispered in my ear that he wants to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus on Christmas. And Ivy is fascinated with babies's, so baby Jesus is very interesting to her.

A healthy mix of God and Santa is what I am shooting for.

Gingerbread House

Every year the cousins get together at Gran and Papa's house to make a gingerbread house. This year Kyle missed because he was sick. So this time it was just the three younger cousins. We never partake in the eating of said gingerbread house...there are always waaaaay too many germs floating around on the thing. The kids have been known to put on a piece of candy, lick fingers and continue...there is a bit of an ick factor to the whole thing.

This year the base structure of the house was a chocloate cookie insead to the typical gingerbread...but I still will refrain.

Needless to say, they always turn out to be master pieces, and they are so proud of their creation.

Yummy!

Happy Birthday Ivy

It seems just like yesterday that Ivy came into our world. Now she is 4!!! Time is moving way to fast! From an infant in our arms...

to a big girl blowing out her candles.

Lalaloopsy doll happiness!

Monster House

This is a video taken one night before Tobie had the whole show ready.

Halloween 2010

Halloween is always a big decoration event at our house. This year Tobie stepped it up even further with a mouth that "moved" with the music. Tobie gathered some of the neighborhood kids to take a few photos before he took down all of the decorations.

The house in mid-song.

The kids could not resist getting in a morbid picture. Their idea, not Tobies:-)

Ivy was Jessie this year. She fell in love with the boots that I bought her to go with the outfit, and now she wears them all the time!

Galveston Beach House '10

My parents rented a beach house in Galveston again this summer, and we had a wonderful time. The kids enjoyed being beach bums.

Crabbing was an ongoing activity...we ate A LOT of crab!

This was a group picture gone bad:-)

Ivy loves playing in the sand. She would spend the whole day digging and building.

Isabel has turned out to be a good beach dog. She stays right with us, plays in the water and bird watches...

Beach Trip With The Swanson Trio

Early trip to the beach this summer. Fun in the sand.

Working together.

Tea Pary

Ivy was invited to a Tea Party birthday party for a friend on our block. You can't tell from the first picture, but she did have a good time.
One of the games was to see who could build the biggest sugar cube tower...as you can tell, it was not Ivy;-(

Learning how to use a tea cup.

Party hats were made. Yes, those are birds on top.

Bring Your Child To Work Day

Izaac always has a great time during "Bring Your Child to Work Day" with Tobie. They really seem to have a great day planned for the kids...Good marketing for future scientists:-) Izaac with a future Lunar Rover...Might be in the scrap yard now:-(

Visiting with an Astronaut.

Trying on his future work uniform. He has a little bit of growing still to do.

This day is a BIG hit with Izaac! Can't wait for next year.

It Has Been Awhile

Well I have not been blogging lately due to a computer issue. My computer got a virus, had to start computer from factory settings and it has been taking awhile to get it back to a functioning level for me:-)...now that it is resolved I have to go back and blog.

We have eggs!

So we have been raising our chickens for about 6 months now. And we have one chicken laying eggs. Unfortunately we lost one of the ladies today. We believe that a hawk took her. All that we found was a small tuft of feathers. No blood, no sign of a struggle. We figured if a large mammal got her we would have seen some mess. So we have decided that it must have been a bird big enough to carry her away.
So I guess we are on the market for a new hen...

Epic Battle

So we have been having an ongoing battle in our backyard that includes Nolan our cat, the chickens, mocking birds and any one of our many crops we are growing.

The pictures are not great because I keep taking them with my phone, so I might have to break down and use the real camera, because it is just too funny to miss.

Nolan of course is interested in the chickens. When they were smaller he would hunt them and grab hold of them. Well, they have gotten bigger and he tried to get one and it put up so much of a fight that he has given up. Well, not completely. He will lay in the grass watching them and every now and then will make a lunge, we think just to keep them on edge. It seems that he is aware that they have become too big for him

In come the mocking birds. If Nolan or any other cat is in our yard, we know it. The birds, (I have seen 5) will sit in various places screaming and diving bombing Nolan. We think that Nolan has harassed or killed some of their some of their babies so they are constantly watching him.

The birds have been stealing many of our fruits, they were grabbing the blackberries before we could get them, now they are picking the grapes off of the vines. We are leaving the bunches that they have already gotten to on the vine, hoping that they stick with those and don't go after any of the others. We have also had them pick holes in our tomatoes. Rotten birds.

You have to look closely to see the bird sitting on the back of the chair. It is amazing how close they will get to Nolan.

Our garden.

This year we are having more luck in our garden. I have never grown gladiolas before and got pretty lucky.  I will definitely grow them again. I really have enjoyed fresh flowers in the house...I will have to convince Tobie to bring me some home when these stop producing. 
Our tomatoes are also doing well. We had something called flower end rot last year that pretty much wiped out our crop. We are also growing black berries,  grapes, peppers and potatoes.  So I hope to have more pictures of our bounty soon!

Summer Fun

So summer has started. We have made it to week two and we have been busy so far.
In a week and two days we have had a doctors appointment, a car appointment, went to the library, had the Gallaghers and the Swansons visit,  started gymnastics team, went to the beach, rainforest cafe AND the museum of nature history . Wow, I am tired. 
Have a feeling this whole summer is going to be this busy.

Gymnastics

Tonight was Izaac's last gymnastics class until he starts on team this summer.

He has been going one hour a week for the past year but on the 8th of June he starts going for an hour and a half two days a week to get him used to the new hours...then he moves to two hours, three times a week. He will start in level 4 boys team and hopefully we will get to see him in a meet in September.

Mother's Day Breakfast

The yearly Mother's Day breakfast was held recently at Ivy's school. We did have a good time but I could not resist taking the pictures while she was pouting.

Ivy was sad that she was not getting candy for breakfast. ..

Urban Farming

Why? Because we thought it would be fun and we thought our kids just might learn a few life lessons.

Like where do eggs come from (yes they are egg layers not fryers ).

And the kids got to see a bit of the food chain last night when one of the chickens got a hold of a worm...Ivy was upset for awhile then came to realize it was OK for the chicken to eat it. Ivy is a fan of worms,  so that was a bit hard for her. She rescued the worm at first...then gave him over for a snack.

Sun Dresses

Mom has started making Ivy some sun dresses for the coming warm weather. 

Ivy picks them out on school days to wear, and the rule at school is that they have to wear tennis shoes in order to play outside. So it is always an interesting outfit on sun dress days. I will try and get a picture next time with the shoes on...they really make the outfit.