The innocence of Christmas

This has been my favorite Christmas season ever! Heidi understands what's happening this year and it is so much fun. Anytime she sees a Christmas tree, an ornament, Christmas lights, or Santa she gets this soft voice and says what it is. It's such an innocent tiny voice she uses. It is so much fun to experience Christmas through her this year.

We've been talking about going to see Santa and sitting on his lap to tell him what she wants for Christmas. Saturday at our church is Saturday with Santa, so she'll get a chance to see Santa. She is still convinced that she's not going to sit in his lap, but on the couch to see Santa. I'm not really sure how this is going to happen. Last year at Saturday with Santa she wouldn't even come close to sitting in his lap, in fact, she would not let go of her daddy. I'm hoping things will be different this year since she knows who Santa is and that he brings presents to the good girls and boys.

I really want to take a day to bake cookies with the kids so they can leave them for Santa on Christmas Eve night. I think I'll keep it simple this year and buy the ready to bake cookie dough. Last year I tried to bake gingerbread men and it was just a huge mess. Heidi had a lot of fun using the gingerbread men cookie cutters, but they just didn't taste so great in the end. This year I have my wild Noah walking around everywhere, so I think I'll take the pressure off this year and make some simple cookies. I am going to look for the gingerbread cookie kit I got last year where Heidi was able to paint the icing after they were baked. She had an absolute blast with that last year.

There are still a couple of weeks till Christmas, and I can't wait to see what Heidi learns each day. I really hope she sits in Santa's lap even if it's just for a couple of seconds.

Trick or Treat

Today was Heidi's first time to go Trick or Treating. She's just over 2 years old so we thought it was time for her to experience her first trick or treating. We were a little surprised when our doorbell rang at 6:30 with the sounds of kids yelling "trick or treat". So we got Heidi dressed in her Pumpkin Princess costume to go score some candy. Before she could leave, I had to get my pictures... after all I am the mommy and it's my right to take as many pictures of her life as I want.

Heidi and her daddy took off to go trick or treat. Noah stayed home with me to pass out candy. Noah and I sat outside and gave out candy as the kids came to the house. Noah was happy sitting in his stroller watching all the kids. We also got to watch Heidi and her daddy walk from house to house. It was adorable and my heart melted as I watched her. After about 30 minutes Noah was done sitting in his stroller. It was his bedtime and his little body was telling him to start fussing. At the same time I saw Heidi and Ben start walking home. It was perfect timing. When the two got home Ben took Noah inside to feed him his bottle and put him to bed. Heidi stayed with me to hand out the rest of the candy.

While handing out candy Heidi dug into her pumpkin to see her treats. She had a few non-candy items so we opened those to eat. She started with fruit snacks and said "this is my favorite snack". Then we opened the pretzels and guess what, "this is my favorite snack". After the pretzels we opened a lollipop. It was her first lollipop. I told her to eat it like a popsicle and she slowly licked the lollipop. She never finished it, just licked it for a while. Eventually she was done and ready for bed. Now both kids are in bed and Ben and I are watching college football. It was a fun Halloween and I can't wait till next year when both kids will be going trick or treating with their daddy.

Visit to Kingwood

n Friday Ben said he was stressed about all the work that still needed to be done at work before Monday. I asked him if he wanted to work over the weekend and you could see a huge amount of stress just release from his body. He said he would see if the others at work could work over the weekend and if so then he would work and I would take the kids to Kingwood for the weekend. At 1:00 he gave me the final decision and I packed up the kids and off to Kingwood we went.

It turned out to be a perfect weekend to come visit. The weather was absolutely gorgeous all weekend, just perfect for all the outdoor play we do around here. Not much happened on Friday. We got here about 5 and Heidi's "cousins" came over to visit for a few minutes before leaving for Austin's baseball game. Everyone left for the baseball game but I stayed here to feed the kids and put the to bed. Noah fussed for a little while before falling asleep, but once he did fall asleep he slept all night with no problems (love my little 12 hour sleeper).

Saturday started out with lots of fun. We went another one of Austin's baseball game at 9:30 am and Heidi loved cheering for her cousin. His team lost but we got to see Austin get a great hit and make a few good plays. He's only 6 right now, so his team is still learning the basics. It's so cute to watch this age group. Then we came home, had lunch, and put the kids down for their naps. After nap time I woke the kids and dressed Heidi in her Halloween costume to go to a Halloween costume birthday party. The kids had a lot of fun over at someone else's house, with someone else's toys. Noah crawled around in the grass the whole time while Heidi tried out all of Meg's toys. Meg is 3 days younger than Heidi, so her toys were the perfect aged toys for Heidi to occupy herself with. After we came home we had dinner and put the kids to bed.

Sunday was full of fun too. We started off the day by going to the park. My mom stayed home with Noah so he could take a nap while Karen, Tristan, Austin, Heidi, and I went to the park. We stayed there for about 3 hours. After being there for a couple of hours Karen went back to my mom's to pick up lunch and she came back with lunch and my mom and Noah. We all had lunch at the park! Absolutely wonderful! The kids played for a little longer and then we came back home to put the kids down for their nap. While they were napping my friend from college, Tanya, drove to Kingwood to come hang out for a while. My dad made the most awesome BBQ for dinner and we all were stuffed.

We were suppose to leave to go back to Austin this morning, but it is storming like crazy. Instead of driving in this yucky rain we're going to have a relaxing day and hang out at my mom's. I love coming back home for visits, it's so much fun!

Poor Heidi

My poor little Heidi is a little under the weather today. She's got a stuffy nose and a yucky cough (yes those are technical terms). She's so tired that she's just laying around sucking her thumb. Normally she's running around bossing her little Noah around, but not today. She just doesn't have the energy.

We spent the morning laying in bed watching Dora and Diego shows. Noah spent the morning playing in his exersaucer and then playpen. It's almost his nap time so I decided to let the two play in the playroom for a little while. Noah's crawling around having a good time, but Heidi is just laying on the couch.

Today is definitely a pajama day. Normally I get the kids dressed right after breakfast, but today all 3 of us are still in our pj's. I might look online for some crafts we can do today so Heidi will have something to do that doesn't require a lot of energy besides just watching tv. I'm hoping this will pass quickly and not turn into anything worse.

Heidi's Birthday Party

Heidi had her 2nd birthday party on Saturday. It was much more of a success this year than last year. Last year she was sick so she didn't want to eat any of her cake. We missed out on that "dive into the cake" moment so we tried again this year. My mom bought a beautiful white cake with chocolate icing and we covered her in her art smock. She never did dive into the cake, but instead used her fork and ate a good amount of the cake.

The party itself was just ok. An August birthday is not the best time of the year for a birthday party here in Texas. We had the party at our house, but we don't have a very open house. It's a large house, but there's no "dead space" where people could gather and mingle. I would love to do an outdoor birthday party, like at a park or something, but it's just too hot. The only way an outdoor party would work is if we did the party early in the morning before it gets too hot.

I was so thankful that our families took the time out of their schedules to come to Heidi's party. I was sad that our friends from our small group at church didn't make it, but oh well... it's over now. I'm looking forward to Heidi's party next year and open to any ideas for a 3 year old's party.

Date Night

Ben's birthday was at the end of June and on his birthday I made a special dinner for just the two of us. I made steamed crab legs and a couple of side dishes for us to eat after putting the kids to bed. I had so much fun having a special dinner where the two of us could sit and have a peaceful dinner that I decided every Friday night would be our date night. Every Friday night we will have something special for dinner, something that would not be good for Heidi to eat. This week we're ordering sushi! I also rented a movie from Netflix for us to watch together. Dinner and a movie, what a fun night!!

A Rainy Day

I was a little worried when I saw all the dark clouds this morning. I knew we needed the rain but I wasn't sure how the day would go with 2 kids stuck in the house. At least most days we have the option of leaving the house or playing in the back yard, but today we were going to be forced to stay inside. The day turned out great. Heidi discovered the joy of pushing her shopping cart around the upstairs. It was really the first time she "went shopping". She even put her "opie" bear and baby doll in the cart and pushed them all around. We also played downstairs for a good chunk of the day. I moved all the couches and table out of the way and made an obstacle course for Heidi to run through. I put throw pillows on the ground for her to walk on to practice balance. Then I rolled up some towels as her speed bumps to jump over (she's so cute when she tries to jump, just can't get both feet off the ground... too cute). Next she had to go through the hula hoop and finish by going under the blanket that laid across two chairs. So she did all the basics, over, under, through, and on top. It was fun and she giggled her way through.

Noah, my wildman, kept trying to follow her and pull down the hula hoop. Boy he's a handful. I love my Noah. He was no problem keeping busy today. He had a good assortment of shoes to chew on, tables to pull up on, and dog toys to chase after. Why is it he chooses these dirty yucky things over the nice colorful noise making toys we have for him? Come on, mom's flip flops over a 4 key piano? Why do we even bother to buy toys for him?

All in all the day was great. Even though I did manage to get the kids dressed, I never made it that far for me. I love a good lazy day every once in a while. Although, now my definition of a lazy day is not laying on the couch watching Lifetime movies all day. The new definition of a lazy day is giving the kids just enough to occupy themselves so I don't have to spend the day driving them around to activities to keep them entertained. Wow, what a change!

Cooking with Heidi

I love cooking with Heidi. Every time I say "I need to go cook" she runs into the kitchen and says "Heidi cook. I need chair." So I try to figure out what simple jobs she can do to help me cook. Last night we made pizza and salad. For the salad she took the lettuce out of the bag and put it into the bowl. While she did that I chopped all the veggies and then gave them to her to put into the bowl. She is so serious and focused while "cooking", I have no clue where she got that from. Next we made the pizzas. I put 3 pitas on a baking sheet and then put the pizza sauce on the middle of each pita. She spread the pizza sauce around on each pita. She mainly just pushed the sauce around and mommy came over and helped spread it evenly on the pitas. Then she put all the toppings on and overloaded daddy's pizza with olives. He pretty much had an olive pizza, but it was made with Heidi's love so it was the best pizza ever. Of course I chopped up some veggies, like squash and zucchini, real small and had her add them to her pizza, it was a good way of sneaking some veggies into the pizza. After that we added the cheese and I popped them in the oven. She absolutely loved her pizza and we'll do it again real soon.

I think it's important for the kids to help out in the kitchen, whether it's cooking, setting the table, or even cleaning up afterwards. Plus, it keeps her busy and is a good learning experience for her. The first thing Heidi helped me cook was her daddy's birthday cake in June. Now I'm always looking for ways for her to help me. I call her my little sous chef!

New blog

I've started this new blog to keep people updated on the kids and also as a safe place to vent on anything going on in our lives. I've realized through reading other peoples' blogs that these can be very helpful, both to the writer and to those who read it. So here is my new blog, I hope you enjoy it.