Caleb has a prayer request....

This morning I had a conversation with Caleb regarding Santa and snow. Last Month he was a little concerned that there was no snow and it was getting close to Christmas. Now he is even more concerned. Here is our conversation from this morning:

Caleb: Who decides if there will be snow on Christmas?

Me: God does.

Caleb: Well then lets pray and ask for snow.

Me: Dear Jesus, I pray there would be snow in Texas for Christmas

Caleb: So what's the answer?

Me: We'll have to wait until Christmas to find out

Caleb: Okay.

I thought that satisfied him....and it did....for FIVE minutes!

Caleb: Mom, Santa only likes the snow and cold, that is why he lives at the northpole. If there is no snow and it's not cold he won't come here to deliver my presents

Me: I'm pretty sure Santa will go anywhere to deliver presents

Caleb: Can we just go to Minnesota, it's cold there?

Me: No, darling we can't. Besides you told Santa you live in Texas now, we don't want to confuse him.

Caleb: Well if he doesn't come here, I know there are presents already in your closet.

I couldn't help but laugh! At least all the presents in my closet are wrapped! :) I think I am going to enjoy another year of Caleb believing in Santa while I can. Simply because it is fun and this time of his life will never return.

Reactrix

The mall that we frequent way more than we should has this really cool thing we have never seen before. It's a screen on the floor with a projector up above by Reactrix. Whatever the object is being shown reacts to the kids movement. The one with the balls is one of their favorites. It looks like they are kicking balls around! There is also a fish one and if they try to step on a fish or grab it, the fish swims away. As always....here are a couple pictures!

Erika & Daddy enjoying a game of golf! :)

A New Tradition

This year we built and decorated a gingerbread house! This is the first year we have done this as a family. Both of my sister in laws did them (or are going to) which was what made me decide to buy one. I think this is going to end up being a new Christmas tradition for us! It was so much fun! I don't know who had more fun with it....daddy or the kids! I think Erika had more fun eating the candy than putting the candy on the house! In fact when we were all done she snuck back up to the table to pick some of the candy off of the house! Little stinker! Here are some pictures....

Notice here the empty candy bowl, the piece of candy in her right hand, and you can't see it but she has a piece of candy in her mouth...which explains the little smirk on her face!The finished product! It's not perfect, but that is the fun part! We'll get better and better at this as the years go on and we will be able to look back and see how they started out! The red icing didn't turn out as cute as we were hoping. The little window on the left looks a little gory!

So tell me...what is your favorite Christmas tradition???

Aren't they cute???

I think they are! But then again, I guess I am a little bias!

I have a blog goal...

I am going to try and blog more each month than I did the previous month! I am going to start in January! Why am I doing this? I don't know. haha. Just for the fun of it! Because I like to blog. So now here is your challenge.....if you have never left me a comment on here...leave me one! Just one. That's it. That's all I'm asking for! I want to know that I am not bloggin in vain. (however feel free to leave me as many comments as you'd like!)

The Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children's Parade

Last week I took the kids to downtown Dallas to watch the Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children's Parade. It started at 10, but we got our spots around 7:40! We were told to get there early in order to get good spots! I am so glad we did. You can see in the first picture that there is no one behind us, but by the time the parade started it was packed. This parade is nationally televised so if your family is the parade watching kind, check your local listings to see when it is going to be on. I believe most places it will be on Christmas day. We were a couple of blocks away from the cameras so we didn't get on tv, but we didn't go to get on tv...we went to have a good time and that was what we did! Here are some pictures!This was Erika's favorite! She loves anything pink and recently received her very first My Little Pony toy, so she was ecstatic!
Larger than life size Cabbage Patch Kid dolls.....SO COOL! We have two CPK fans in this household so we (we as in Erika & Mommy!) liked this one too!This was hilarious (at least I thought it was...) Elvis impersonators came after a group of horses to clean up the horse poo and put it in their sparkly garbage can.
Last but certainly not least....Jolly Old St. Nick...aka Santa
Overall, it was worth the early and cold morning. The kids had a blast and it was fun to do something different!

A few random things....

Only ten days till Christmas

Haven't mailed my Christmas cards yet

They are ready to go minus stamps

All Christmas presents have been wrapped

Exept for David's....haven't bought anything for him

Probably won't until next week

I would feel bad, but I know he hasnt' bought anything for me yet.

I still need to make a couple gifts to mail

Probably won't do it till later this week

Yesterday it was 70

Today it is 28!!!! BRRR

Still warmer than good ol Minnesota!

I am going to make candy today

I am thinking I need to do the dishes first

I am cold...time to go warm up with a cup of hot chocolate

Four in all....

That's how many Thanksgiving's we had! We made a stop at my mom's house, my aunts house and then my dad's house on Thanksgiving Day. Then we had Thanksgiving with Nate & Jodi on the following Saturday.

Grandma Mary & Grandpa Matt with the kids

Auntie Melissa with Erika & then Caleb.

Uncle Lee & Caleb
Aunt Teri & Caleb

Papa Ole & Grandma Deb with the kids

Nate, Jodi & all their boys with all of us. :)

Erika and her bff Allie

Erika had a blast playing with Allie while we were in MN! These girls are crazy together...I can only imagine what the teenage years hold for them! You'll notice in the last picture that the pj's Erika has on are way too small for her. That's simply because they are Allie's and not hers! Allie put her pj's on and Erika wanted pj's too. Erika is sitting on my lap as I post this blog and screaming "Allie where are you".....she misses her friend!

Fall pictures

We certainly did not miss having to deal with all these leaves this year, we did however miss the photo ops that come with fall raking!!! When we stopped by our old house to check on a few things the kids had a blast playing in the leaves!!!! And I got my fall pics that I wanted! Enjoy!

Dylan's 4th Birthday!

November 24th marked Dylan's fourth birthday. It's hard to believe it's been four years since we said hello and goodbye to Dylan. It's seems like it's been a life time since I held him in my arms and kissed his sweet cheeks, yet I remember every minute with him like it was yesterday. Here are a few pictures from his special day!

Balloons all ready to go!

Daddy taking care of Dylan's headstone.

I didn't do this on purpose, but I took this picture of Dylan's headstone and captured Daddy and Uncle Nate looking down at the headstone.
We sang Happy Birthday and sent the balloons off!
Watching the balloons make their way up to Dylan.

Just curious....

So I made the background that I currently have. (well I put it all together from a digital scrapbooking kit, I didn't create the background and other elements) So I'm just curious how it looks on your end? Does everything look right? Does the border go to the edges of your screen, or is there a white background on the sides? Of course I only know how it looks on my computer, so that is why I am asking. :) Thanks!!

We are home!

Well, our home in Texas that is. We drove back yesterday and got home around 1 am! We made it in 16 1/2 hours! That was also how long it took me when I drove up there last Saturday. We had a great trip! Thanksgiving was great! We made three stops that day, but it didn't end up being as stressful as I thought three stops would be! We got to see two of our nephews be baptized on Sunday, and we were so glad to be a part of that. I have a few more highlights from our trip on the camera that I will share very soon! Just wanted to update real quick that we are home!