Ready for the Snow

Despite the snow delaying our arrival... it was pretty fun to see a real snow storm coming down. Not like the little flurries in Texas where if you blink you may miss the one flake that trickled down... The kiddos were so excited to get out in the snow. Here they are all bundled up... I didn't get any pictures of them playing in it yet as they were back in by the time I got home from running errands. Drew apparently took the gloves off and touched the snow. That was slightly cold and he cried that the snow hurt him. He and snow aren't on the best terms now. Hopefully we will be able to brave the cold one more time to go out in it and make a few more snowballs and slide on the ice. Maybe even a little sledding or snowman building too.

SeaWorld

We went to Sea World one last time with our passes and to see all the fun Christmas setup. We had a great time there. We were able to feed the dolphins, build a "Lowes" gingerbread house. Only one hammered daddy finger in the process of that one. We also saw them feed the fish and stingrays and saw scuba Santa. We saw the Christmas Shamu show which was wonderful and then we made our way through the character Christmas display. Madi was so excited and wanted a picture with everyone. Drew did pretty well. He went right to Dolly the Dolphin & Penny the Penguin. He was a little hesitant about Shamu but with daddy with, he went and hugged him too.

Christmas Tree

So here is the Christmas Tree that took us SO long to get. Christmas has been ready for quite some time but no tree. After we got back from our trip there were slim pickings in terms of trees but Madi was getting a little concerned about where the presents would go and I was starting to get a little Bah-Humbug with no tree. Anyhow -- to say the least, Marty was not too excited to pay so much for a tree that we only were going to have for a couple of weeks once it went up. To top it off it was too heavy for him to really lift by itself. It would not be able to go up on the van as we have in past years. Thanks to The Rose's for letting us bug them that evening, we did get the tree home and up in the stand with hopes that the branches would fall so we could decorate it. The branches did not fall right and Marty had to hoist Madi up by her legs and on tippy toes to wiggle the angel on only to find out it was no longer working. Therefore we had an unlit angel this year. We also ran out of lights and had to run out for more and more and more.... Didn't find everything we needed after 4 different stops and numerous phone calls to many different Lowe's stores. To say the least the tree was our tree and we had 2 weeks of enjoying it and now it is the sad Christmas tree abandoned the day after Christmas... left to dry out and make an even bigger mess across the house when it goes out. So the tree saga will end hopefully without too many more bumps in the road. So here's hoping that the steam cleaner holds out for the after tree cleaning and that the tree gets out of our back yard before this summer.... maybe then the tree will redeem itself.

Coming soon... The Christmas Tree Saga

With the lovely trip in the mix, getting ready for Christmas has been quite the event this past week. Needless to say getting the laundry done from the trip was almost a week long job... and I don't know if I can officially call it done as it is cleaned but not so much put away as of yet. The Christmas tree was priority after getting the laundry "cleaned" -- it is finally up but it didn't happen without some bumps in the road... as I said coming soon!!! :-)

Cozumel 2009

Our Mexico trip was timed nicely this year... just in time to escape an unusually long Texas cold snap this winter. We did miss the snow flurry by our house while we were there which is kind of sad but it was nice to be in the gorgeous 80 degree sunshine of Cozumel. :-)

We had 7 days this year... 7 days of the good... sunshine, swimming, sand castles, snorkeling, shell collecting, lots of eating, card playing, great picture opportunities with the kids and so much more. Okay, okay for those of you that are slightly jealous at this point there were some unfortunate parts of our 7 days too... tired kiddos, one big swollen knot and bruise to Drew's head, mosquito bites galore, jellyfish stings, sand, sand and more sand everywhere and 2 kids with excema covering them after our return... OUCH! The good definitely made the bad worth it though...

Madi did boogie boarding this year... the small waves made it hard for even the big kids to get going on their own but we all managed with pushes from the guys.

Drew, on the other hand, played it safe in the sand.

The resort we stayed at had a kid's mini waterpark with two slides and a lot of spraying things... since it was so slow at the resort... we had the entire area all to ourselves so we all had fun there... well almost everyone...

...Of course Drew was not a fan of the play area because of the big pirate that dumps all the water and all the spraying but we did convince (or force... depends on how you want to look at it) him to go down the slide a few times. See below for a picture of that.

Madi snorkeled off the boat this trip... first stop didn't go so well. The waves from the boat were a bit intimidating... after watching from the boat and seeing a baby sea turtle... she decided to try again at the second stop. Here is her and Marty -- she did actually snorkel but didn't have her mask and snorkel on in this picture.

Drew watched from the comfort of the boat... he say maybe in a few years.

Watching the sunset from the boat

Okay... so not too many other exciting events... here is my favorite part... getting some good pictures of the kiddos. Here are a couple of my favorites... it is taking all my restraint not to post like 15 pictures here.

Madi and Drew had a great time climbing the lifeguard stand so we took a lot of pictures there.

Photo Book on the way with the rest of the pictures... unless I get through weeding out the bad ones from my shutterfly account before it comes.

Happy Halloween 2009

Madi and Drew had a fun Halloween... Madi was Silvermist, the blue Disney fairy, and Drew was a baseball player. Love having the boy to get 2 years out of 1 costume since they aren't fussy!!! :-) They, of course, loved having Grandma and Grandpa here...

COWS

So I am slightly late with this post. Madi and Drew have this great fascination of feeding farm animals... so in the fall when we go visit the relatives in northern Wisconsin, we see what the neighbors of Marty's aunt has to feed. 2 years ago it was a horse and he ate apples. Last year it was a couple of cows and they fed them corn. This year there were cows again and we tried out the apples on them. We even added in a few pears too. It again was great fun with a lot of good giggles. Here are Madi and Drew petting the baby cow.

Drew actually attempted to hand this one to the cow. He usually threw them (yes.... he did knock one of the cows on the head) or he would drop them as soon as they got close.

Here Madi got to feed the baby cow an apple. Of course everyone wanted to hold out for the baby. :-)

Fall Wedding in Wisconsin

We went to a wedding this past weekend in northern Wisconsin.... Fall in Wisconsin is always beautiful with the leaves all changing colors and all. I, personally, love the opportunity to throw my jeans and a sweatshirt on -- it is most definitely my outfit of choice. What we weren't quite ready to hit yet this October was SNOW. We literally crossed the Minnesota/Wisconsin border into Wisconsin and the ground was covered. They had just gotten a pretty good storm a few hours before we arrived. Madi and Drew were asleep when we got there but were super excited when they looked out the window the next morning!!! They went and stepped in it and threw snowballs into the parking lot. They even made it snow on daddy a little. Madi's biggest excitement was eating the snow.... By the time I actually had the camera out... most of the snow had melted. Here are the kiddos throwing snowballs in October...

... and all ready to go

Warm and snuggly inside. The kiddos all ready for the wedding! Thanks Katie for Drew's look!

Playing in the Rain!

I don't even remember what weekend this was... but the kids were excited to get out and into the rain to play. They raced boats down the rushing water in the street, splashed around in the puddles and just had a blast getting soaked.

Here are my happy, wet kiddos.

Drew's First Day

Getting ready to go. (And showing his love for Wisconsin -- Go Brewers!)

Drew was SO excited for his first day of school this year. He kept on asking me what day he got to stay with Ms. Laura by himself as he had been with me in my room ssetting up quite a bit. He was so excited when the day came. He was all smiles when I would run into him in the hallway this year waving to me and telling me he will see me later... we've come a long way from last year when I had to duck under his door because if he saw me it would be unpleasant when I left. He is off to a great start to the school year and he has grown so much!!!

Getting in his room.

Playing with the playdough. He checked it all all right away!

Kindergarten... Oh My!!!!

Madi outside of school.

The big day has arrived.... Madi is officially a Kindergartener. She was so ready... mommy is sooooo sad to give her up all day every day. She was so excited for today --the kind of excited that makes it hard to sleep at night. She was ready to get to school this morning and we got there quite early. She got her stuff into her room and then sat outside the room to read with her friends. We were so ready to pick her up at the end of the day. She said she had fun and told us about some of it. She was pretty tired so we didn't get too much detail. She was excited to get home and just run and play! Now off to get ready for another day tomorrow!




Madi and Mrs. Gunn

Fiesta Texas

We went to Fiesta Texas with the Rose's the weekend before school started. It was a lot of fun. The kids had a blast. They really had a lot of fun in Wiggles World. Madi rode the Tony Hawk roller coaster... she wasn't so sure about it but said she wants to try it again the next time. I missed her expression for this one as I was trying to keep Drew occupied. Drew LOVED the Wiggles roller coaster and the airplanes. Madi can't wait to go back again.

SeaWorld

We went to Sea World as a little side trip before school started and to celebrate Madi learning all of her 100 sight words... well actually 102 words. Drew learned 20 words too so they both got to get GIANT Shamus. We fed the lorikeets and the dolphins... watched a show and hung out at the water park. Drew went down his first big boy water slide. He was conflicted... he told me he cried because he liked it. Good Story Drew! :-)

Madi feeding the birds... Drew wanted nothing to do with that!

Feeding the dolphins... also known as Sea World's intelligent budgeting.

Brewers/Astros

We had a lot of fun at the Brewers and Astros game in Houston. The kids are excited to go back again next year.

Fun at the Lake

We pretty much finished off our trip to Wisconsin with a visit to the lake. The kids had sooo much fun.

visiting Grandma's new place

Riding the jet skis

riding the tube behind the boat

Boat Ride

fishing off the dock

hanging out by the dock.

...and last but not least roasting marshmallows.