The First Post of 2010!

It is 2010 and I feel good. Great, actually! Yesterday was a very typical New Year's Day for me; it is admittedly my least favorite day of the entire year. We always leave our decorations up from the day after Thanksgiving (or a bit earlier!) until New Year's Day. That always leaves January 1st a bit of a downer...the parties are all over and the fun is coming down and being packed into boxes. It is never a great day for me, but it was even tougher this year because Colin was cognizant of what I was doing and asking over and over why we were taking down the beautiful lights and Christmas trees. It was a rather blah day. Today, however, is a new day! I liked waking up to the fresh clean house and the bright winter sunshine coming in through the windows. I found myself making a mental list of new household items that I would like to get for the coming year and thinking about re-doing one of the extra bedrooms as a playroom for Colin. I feel initiative washing over me, the type of which can only happen at the beginning of a new year; a fresh slate. I sat down at the computer with my cup of tea (Jer is out of town for work and I am too lazy to make a pot of coffee for one person) and began checking email while Colin watched Olivia. He walked into the office, holding his bowl of dry cheerios and a serious face. He wanted to tell me something and began forming his words. "Mommy, I dropped Cheer-we-woh's on the couch...but...I....um...I picked them up....and...um...I picked them up and put them in the bowl!". I got down on his level and hugged him hard, thanking him for picking them up so nicely. Watching him standing there in the hallway, concentrating very hard on telling me his story using all his words and forming a perfect and complete sentence was a wonderful moment for me. It reminded me how far we have come since 2009 began and Colin was still saying only a couple of words. He is such a little boy now in comparison and I find the change that occurred in one short year to be awe inspiring. I can't help but think about how different things will be next year at this time and wonder what amazing new things I am up for, but can't fathom now. I think that big things are in store for our family this year...I feel it!

I also want to get back to my original blog style, which was more day to day updates about the little mundane things we do. My goal in starting the blog was to record the small stuff that we forget so soon and relive it down the road when my children are long past trips to the library for story time and runs to McDonald's for nuggets and playtime. As I get busy, I tend to blog about the big stuff and write big picture "philosophical" kinds of things that are important to me, but I get away from the little stuff. SO, let's get back to boring, shall we? :-) Colin is going through a stage that baffles me at the moment...he hates getting dressed. HATES IT. He screams and flails around every single time that I try to get him dressed. It has gotten so distressing that on occasion we don't make it out of the house until after his afternoon nap, simply because I am so loathe to go through the dressing process. That is not a good thing. Spending the day in pajama's is fun every now and then, but I can't get into that habit. Life is better when we are active and busy, so I need to power through. Once we go through the kicking and screaming of getting dressed, he calms down and things go back to normal. It seems strange to me, but I figure that it is just a stage. He also fights diaper changes with a vengeance including the same kicking and screaming. I think potty training may be around the corner, but I continue to be on the fence about starting it. I keep looking for the clear and obvious signs that he is ready, but they remain elusive to me. He does not mind having a dirty diaper in the least and shows absolutely no interest in the potty or using it. We have had the fluke moments of success, but those are rare and not consistent. I thought to leave it up to Colin and not set up for disaster by starting him on my time clock instead of his, but I think we will go ahead and try it regardless this spring. I think about this a lot!

In other news, I got the worst haircut of all time two days ago. My lovely long layers, which I spent a YEAR growing back out, are now hacked up and look almost exactly like this:
Looking like Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett in 1982 is not what I was going for. To make matters worse, it only looks like that on ONE side...the haircut is an uneven shambles with one side clearly and horribly longer than the other. I have spent the last 48 hours in a ponytail and trying desperately to will time to rewind so that I could run from that girl and her scissors. It is only hair, I know, and will grow out. I have an appointment with the salon manager on Tuesday for her to hopefully fix the crazy lopsided haircut (free of charge, of course) but I know that fixing it will mean that I will be right back in a short haircut, which is exactly what I did not want. I am so upset about it. Last February, I got a heavily layered (but good) haircut that I immediately did not like and wanted to grow out. I spent almost a year doing so, and thus had a mess of split ends that needed a simple trim. I am really unhappy that one year later, I am right back where I started. Probably even SHORTER since the hack job on the right side of my head starts way up top. Lovely. I am trying hard to stay positive, so...Happy New Year, friends! :-)

The Last Picture of 2009

Here it is, folks! Hot off the presses!! The last official picture of 2009. We set the camera up with the timer and managed to get this one on the first try. We are celebrating at home exactly as we did last year...we decided to have our second annual seafood party with our little family of three. It was wonderful!! We had shrimp cocktail, filet and scallops and some wonderful brie. Tonight has been the perfect ending to an amazing and eventful year. I spent the morning in heaven; Jer gave me a day of pampering for my Christmas present and today I cashed it in. I had a pedicure, hair cut and color. The pedicure was sinful and I don't remember the last time that I have relaxed like that. Our night has been peaceful, fun and full of good food. Colin is now sound asleep and Jer and I have popped the cork on the champagne. We are sitting here in bed, watching "Steven Segal; Lawman" on the DVR and waiting for Dick Clark to start at 10:30. Yep, just another wild New Year's Eve. ;-)

2009 has been a year of blessings; new friends, new niece, and good health. I lost my uncle, but I am happy to know that he is watching over us from heaven now. My little baby has become a funny and wonderful little boy. Overall, the joys and gifts have outweighed the challenges. I am excited beyond words for 2010...the start of a new decade. When this decade started, I was a girl of 22 going to college. I had yet to leave my hometown in East Texas. I has just gotten my first job in aviation...a very low level position greeting private jets. I had yet to meet Jeremy. The 2000's ushered in the career that would be my life and livelihood. It took me to live in Pennsylvania, California, and New York...and finally back home to Texas. It brought me some of the greatest friends of my lifetime. I met my husband, married him, and had our first child. We bought a house in the suburbs and finally settled down. I gained a nephew and niece and brother-in-law that I adore. It is hard to sum up 10 years in a blog post, but suffice it to say that I was blessed beyond measure during the last ten years of my life and I cannot wait to see what the next have in store for me. Happy New Year!!!

One year ago: The Last Picture of 2008

Three Christmases

This is going by just a little too fast...

Christmas 2007


Christmas 2008


Christmas 2009

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree

I love Christmas. I am sure this comes as a major shock, what with me saying that about 300 times in the last month of posts. This year was probably the best one yet and I only say that every year. Well, not every year. Christmas 2006 was not good...I was newly pregnant with Colin and very VERY sick...but other than that small glitch, I ALWAYS LOVE CHRISTMAS. We got to my parents house in Tyler on Wednesday evening, the day before Christmas Eve. I think the moment that I walked into that house made my whole year. Everything was warm and cozy, bathed in soft lights and the glow of decorations. Nothing in the whole world beats my childhood home dressed up for Christmas. It smelled like home...cookies, fudge, apple cider and egg nog. Every corner of the house was covered in family memories; ornaments spanning decades, the stuffed reindeer that my dad adores, and my mother's Santa collection just to name a few. Her tree is always the most wonderful thing that I have ever seen and this year did not disappoint. There were presents EVERYWHERE and my sisters were in the middle of the living room floor with wrapping paper and ribbon strewn all around them. Cory was on the couch with a sleeping Pryce in his arms, my mom was helping wrap and Jackson was building with blocks on the kitchen floor. My dad arrived home at the same moment we did and his booming voice filled the air with happiness. My immediate family all under one perfectly decorated sweet smelling roof. Perfection. We spent that night eating chex mix, fudge, tea cakes, cracker cookies, and Chick-Fil-A while wrapping presents and playing with Colin, Jackson and Pryce. It was after 10:30pm when Colin got to bed, which is insanely late for him. We were just all having too much fun. The grown-ups stayed up late into the night putting together the giant Thomas trains that my mom got the boys and wrapping more presents. Christmas Eve dawned bright and COLD and we spent the day drinking hot spiced cider, eating everything we could get our hands on, watching Christmas specials from the DVR and having a blast. We were all sitting around when it happened...SNOW. IT SNOWED!!!!!! We were running around like little children, taking pictures, hugging and even jumping up and down at one point. (I should say that my sisters and I were jumping up and down while Jer shook his head in disbelief) :-) I have only witnessed one white Christmas in my whole life, the year I could not get home from PA. It was wonderful, but I was very homesick at the time. There has been no snow in Texas on Christmas in my lifetime at least. It was like magic and it made my memory of this year one of my most treasured to date. It was like every Christmas song was coming true before my eyes. That night, my sisters and I put on our annual Christmas pj's and we had a huge feast cooked by my mom...chicken spaghetti, baked beans, potato salad, seven layer salad, cornbread salad, two kinds of cheese dips with crackers, and the half ton of desserts. HEAVEN! We stayed up super late that night after Colin went to bed (getting ready for Santa) and Christmas Day was upon us in what felt like an instant. I slept with Colin in one of the extra bedrooms because we forgot to bring his bed rails and Jer slept in the living room. That morning, Colin sat straight up in bed and said, "Mommy! Big presents?!?!". It took my breath away....he got it!! I alerted Jer and we walked into the living room to see the spread from Santa. A work bench with lots of tools and equipment (including a working drill!), car sets, a battery operated train that was chugging around the track when we walked in, and a giant fire truck...not to mention the stockings and other goodies. Colin gasped and ran for everything, shouting "Look! Look at this!". He also ran over and noted that Santa ate his cookies and drank all his milk, which was insanely adorable. By the time my sister Meredith and her family arrived, I had my famous "monkey muffins" cooking in the oven and the cider and coffee were flowing. We had the most wonderful day opening presents (my parents got me TWO cast iron skillets and a deep fryer!!), eating and just loving each other. Oh, and laughing hysterically at Cory and Jer at any given moment. Those two are keepers. ;-) I know that I get long winded when talking about Christmas, so I will end this post for now, but don't be surprised if I wax poetic on the subject again. There are so many cute little individual moments that I want to remember. What a spectacular holiday!! Happy Birthday, Jesus! Here come the pictures...

Sitting with my sisters on Christmas morning in our matching pj's...may we never get too old for this. :-) My mom was so proud of herself because they have little white kittens on them that look just like Musette, which is an old childhood movie that we obsessed over. As you would imagine, they were a hit.

Colin with his awesome new work bench on Christmas morning...Aunt Alieson in the background on the laptop.

Colin and Jackson opening presents together. They were SO PRECIOUS in those pj's from my parents.

My mom and Colin opening gifts...my dad is sitting there in the chair.

Colin and Jackson went absolutely INSANE over the Thomas trains from my parents. You have never seen such joy. I will never forget this moment!

Colin and his precious baby cousin, Pryce. He loves her SO MUCH. He is also rocking a pretty messy spaghetti face. :-)

Hugging my wonderful husband in the SNOW. ON CHRISTMAS EVE! Did I mention the snow? ;-)

We were such dorks...this was when the snow first started and we were running around in the driveway jumping up and down. :-)

Colin and Mommy in the snow outside my parents front door.

It would not be Christmas if I was not acting silly. Nice antlers. :-)

One view of the tree when we walked into my parents house on the 23rd. There are no words for how much I love this tree and every memory on it.

Kick-Off to Christmas!

We are spending Christmas in Tyler this year, so the night before we left, we had a little party at our house with Jer's parents. It was a wonderful night and the PERFECT way to start the festivities! Mom Mom and Pop Pop gave Colin his present from them...a TRAIN TABLE AND TRAIN SET! Colin has been wanting one for ages and it was the most wonderful gift. They surprised him with it when they arrived at our house and he was so excited that we were completely unable to get him to eat dinner! He was beside himself over it and ordered us to play with him throughout the evening. We have it set up for the time being behind the dining table, which is probably where it will stay for awhile. Our need for a bigger house just keeps growing! ;-) I decided on a whim to cook something special for dinner and I am so glad that I did! I served a sweet and spicy brie (recipe and ingredients courtesy of my wonderful friend Kim), seafood gratin and baked apples for dessert, all of which turned out far better than I could have predicted! Seafood has been my final frontier when it comes to cooking. I have been a bit fearful of cooking it myself, especially since the good stuff is expensive and I don't want to mess it up! I threw caution to the wind after stumbling upon a mouth watering recipe and ended up in Central Market stocking up on halibut, scallops, shrimp and even saffron! I think it turned out to be my favorite thing that I have ever cooked, which reminds me that I need to continue to test myself when I feel daunted. It was so great! The baked apples were the perfect ending to such a rich dinner and afterwards we stayed around the dinner table chatting and drinking coffee while Colin laughed and played. It was a cozy and really lovely evening and I could not think of a better way to kick off Christmas! Here are some of the pictures:

Colin and his awesome new train table!

Laughing with Pop Pop


Mom Mom was being so silly...look at Colin laughing!

One happy little man!

Daddy and Colin playing with the trains. It took FOREVER to get Colin in bed that night!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly...North Pole Express!

The weekend before Christmas has come and gone and I can't believe it. Saturday night we went to a party at our good friends house, The Roberts, and had such a wonderful time. It was the perfect evening of great friends, great food and Cowboys Football! I must say for posterity's sake that the Saints were undefeated...until now. ;-) As I sat around watching all the toddlers running around together and all of my amazing new friends, I was reminded how extremely blessed I am. This year brought very special new people into my life and I don't remember what I did without them! I feel like my heart has grown with all the happiness they bring into my life and I feel like they are one of the best blessings that I have received in 2009. We got home pretty late from the party (10pm is late now) and Colin crashed FAST. I was very happy that he made it home and into his bed...perfection!


Sunday was a very interesting day, to say the least. We had originally planned to ride The North Pole Express in Grapevine with several of our friends, but almost all of us waited too long to order tickets. Once sold out online, you must wait for the "first come first serve" tickets sold the day of the event at the station. We left Colin in his Christmas pj's and headed over to attempt the 11:00am train with no luck, sold out. We purchased tickets for the 6pm train and went to have brunch. We went back for the evening ride and very strategically did not mention that we were waiting to get on a train. Colin is nervous about getting on anything he considers a ride and we decided it would be best to just get on the train without freaking him out first. The whole experience was mixed...it had wonderful and not so wonderful parts. When we thought we were boarding the train, we were actually being ushered into a big tent where there was a 30 minute "show" before the train ride. Let me tell you, I was NOT happy. I read the entire website before we went to this event and nowhere did it say anything about a show; it only mentioned the train ride. How on earth they left this out is beyond me. Colin is extremely sensitive to loud noise and chaotic crowds and I would never have put him through that if I had known. The volume in that tent was insanely loud and the "show" consisted of a singing conductor and three teenage girls who wished they were Britney Spears singing songs in what can only be described as ear piercing soprano. Colin, who was in great spirits while in line, dissolved into tears while holding his ears. Lovely. Even the big kids around us were holding their ears, so you just knew that was too much for Colin. Jer and I were so disappointed, but we did everything we could to keep Colin together until the show was over so that we could get to the good part. The walk to the train was so cute; they had a ton of real Christmas trees lining the way and snow blowers overhead so it really felt like the North Pole. Colin loved that part and was so happy to be out of the tent from hell. :-) Once he saw the train and realized that we were boarding it, the meltdown started in full force. He was screaming crying, arching his back and yelling "Don't want to ride Mommy!!". It was one of the moments where you just have to laugh and realize it will make a funny memory down the road. It was too late to get off, so I had to hold Colin down and try my best to make it better. Sure enough, once the train started moving he calmed down and actually decided it was awesome. Thank GOD! Then comes the announcer talking over a very loud microphone and playing super loud music while making the crowd stomp their feet in the floor to the beat. Guess who that was too much for? Yep, Colin was again not pleased. I am really upset with myself over the whole thing...I don't know why I was picturing a quiet picturesque ride. In my head, it was a beautifully decorated train with soft music playing in the background while we all pointed out the window and drank hot chocolate. I should have known better...the volume of the whole event was that of a rock concert and pretty much the opposite of what Colin would enjoy. He was a trooper and seemed to like seeing the lights out the window, so that was nice. The best BEST part of the whole thing was when Santa came into our train car and started making his way down the row to greet all the kids. When I saw him, I started to pray that Colin would not pass out from fear. After everything that we had put Colin through that night, I thought this would be too much. I could not have been more wrong. When Santa turned to Colin, that little boy lit up like the 4th of July! His eyes turned into saucers and he grinned from ear to ear. He looked at Santa with all the wonder and awe that you see in the movies. It was priceless and the sweetest thing you have ever seen! So THAT made the whole fiasco worth every crazy moment. I will say that we will probably not attempt a train ride again for awhile though. Whew! ;-)

Here is my favorite picture of the season so far...Colin fell asleep on the couch with Enzo and I managed to get this wonderful shot. This is what joy is all about!

Colin and Mommy after the train ride...glad that we made it! :-)

Colin decides he likes the train...finally!

He was singing Jingle Bells here...very sweet!

Look, Daddy!

Colin LOVED the walk to the train with the trees and snow!

Colin doing his own performance while waiting in line.

Easily his favorite moment of the night...eating a corn dog. ;-)

Christmas Colds and Other Updates

We have had a giant cold virus running rampant in our house for the last week or so and I am ready for it to be over! Jer got it first, then Colin got sick, and now I am a sneezing, sniffling mess. I actually think I have it worse than the two boys did, which is usually not the case! We missed three parties last weekend because of illness and a few play dates to boot...ugh! The good news is that we all three managed to get sick BEFORE Christmas instead of during, so I am looking forward to next week with my healthy family. We will be heading to a Christmas party on Saturday night at the home of our good friends, so I am thrilled with the prospect of finally feeling better and doing something fun! YEA! Sunday morning we are supposed to be going to ride The Polar Express, but in my genius move of the season, I did not try to buy tickets until today....you guessed it, they are sold out. They apparently sell a limited number of tickets on the day of as a first come first serve thing, so we may still make it. I really hope so because I have REALLY been looking forward to it!!

Next week is shaping up to be fun and very busy! We are having Jer's parents over on Tuesday night for an early Christmas celebration. They will be presenting Colin with his present from them and I am so looking forward to it!! They got him a train table and train set, which is exactly what he has been wanting. I think he will probably die from joy. :-) On Wednesday we head over to my parents house for Christmas and I am literally giddy with excitement over it. We are almost completely done with presents; I am missing a couple of Thomas trains, which I plan to get this weekend. I cannot wait for Christmas Eve...Colin will get to leave milk and cookies and Jer and I will get to stay up by the light of my parents giant cozy fireplace and get ready for Santa. ;-) This season has been so full of joy that I am loathe to see it go, but I am chomping at the bit to see Colin's face when he sees Santa's spread!

Colin has been his usual merry self and as usual continues to change before my eyes. He loves to sing and dance more than anything and has been putting on performances several times a day. The other day, we were watching "So You Think You Can Dance" on the DVR and he took notice of a particular dance that featured a technically beautiful dancer who was doing stunning pirouettes. Colin started doing them, too!!! It was so adorable and I must say, this kid has talent. :-) He danced right along with them and when the dance was over, he clapped for them and yelled his familiar "again! again!". He turns everything in the house into a microphone and sings constantly. He speaks in full sentences that sometimes shock me...like "Mommy, come sit on the couch with me, please" and "Mommy, we need to go see Daddy at work". It always amazes me when he talks in such perfect sentences, not to mention that he comes up with thoughts that I did not realize he had! I took him to get his hair cut today and while in the chair, he said "Excuse me, I need to get down now". I was rolling with laughter!! He was very polite about the fact that he was done with that woman cutting his hair! HAHA! Just before his nap, we were watching "Little Bear" in my bed and the cat jumped up in front of the TV. Colin said "Excuse me, kitty...I can't see the TV!". Oh my heavens, this child is too much. :-)