SNOW!!!!

We just got over a foot of snow! We've never seen snow like this in our lifetime here in Texas. It was incredible & so, so beautiful. Joel and I felt like kids again playing in it. I loved just laying down in it and listening to the quiet. Emily liked to eat the snow. Jonathan liked to dig holes in it with sticks. Joel liked to photograph it & throw huge snowballs at the kids. It was so fun. We still can't believe how much we got. It snowed the day Emily was born & now, 6 years later, she had snow for her birthday again. What a gift!

Birthday Girl

Emily LOVES birthdays. She's been talking about the party we had for her last year ALL year. And she's been talking about her 6th birthday for weeks now. I think it may even top Christmas for her. She just really loves to be loved on & feel special. There's a book titled The Five Love Languages of Children. I don't have to read it. I already know Emily's love language: gifts & surprises. Needless to say I wanted to make her day special. It started with a birthday cookie cake. She was then treated to her first pedicure & manicure thanks to Grandma. We grabbed lunch at Red Robin, headed home for a quick nap & then had a birthday party/dinner with my side of the family. She had a blast & lit up anytime someone wished her "happy birthday!" She's the kid that made me a mom. I can't believe she's already 6! Love you, sweet, silly, smart, creative & fun Emily. I can't imagine life without you in it!

Test Subjects

Joel loves photography & he's really gifted at it. He often uses us as his test subjects for various techniques he wants to try out. These photos are examples of this. He put up a white sheet outside our kitchen windows & fired a flash through them to replicate daylight. The lights in the house were out & it was dusk outside. Pretty cool technique! He wanted us to be doing something everyday & natural so we were pretending to be mixing cookies. Em, always willing to play along for make-believe, totally got into it. Jon needed some water in the bowl to stir to become believable on film ;-)
I like them all, but I am especially fond of the one he snapped of me and Katherine.

Christmas Season 2009

Here are some highlights from our Christmas season 2009:

Our annual Christmas Eve Eve.
The movie this year was The Polar Express.

Joel put up some very nice red & white lights on the house.
The kids thought he was Superman for doing so.

We saw Avatar in 3D. It was an experience.

We had a great visit with Joel's dad & his step-mom, Jan.
To get to see them for Christmas was a real treat as they live in Virginia.

It SNOWED on Christmas Eve & stuck around through Christmas morning!
Enough said!

And my baby, Katherine, was almost 3 months old.
I can't believe it!! (She really is cute, isn't she?!?)

ICE!

We had the opportunity to visit the ICE! exhibit this year at a local hotel. (Thanks, Leslie!) This year's theme was How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was tons & tons of ice sculpted into scenes from Dr. Suess' famous Christmas story. The whole thing was kept at a very chilly 20 some odd degrees so it wouldn't melt. Thankfully they hand out parkas! We all had a great time checking out the impressive display.

Lunch with Daddy

Joel went up to have lunch with Em at school the other day. Can you tell she LOVED it?!? He had a great time interacting with her classmates & Emily had a great time showing off her daddy. Joel said anytime one of the kids asked who he was & he'd say "I'm Emily's daddy," Emily would get a huge, proud smile across her face. Too cute.

Helping Out

I came in the kitchen yesterday to find this: Jonathan "making a bottle" for Katherine. He did a pretty good job getting most of the formula in the bottle. I thanked him for his help, but told him that mom & dad are the ones who need to make the bottles. To that he told me "no, boys make bottles." Gotta admit it was pretty darn cute and sweet. This boy really loves his little sister. One of his other favorite things to do right now is to hold her feet. He'll ask me "hey mom, can I look at Katherine's little feet?" It's gonna be fun to watch their relationship develop as she grows.