McKinney Falls State Park

Dwaine and I have always loved the outdoors and hiking. He even proposed at Pedernales Falls after hiking to a beautiful secluded scenic area (that technically was probably on private property being that we crossed through some barbed wire fencing).

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Anyway, we haven't been able to do much hiking over the last 3 years for obvious reasons. The last attempt we made was when I was pregnant with TJ and Alli was about 16 mos old. Let's just say it didn't go well.

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So, I was a little hesitant when Dwaine suggested we go hiking at McKinney Falls State Park the weekend after Christmas. But it sounded better than staying home (our goal for 2008 is to get out more- cross some things off of that "fun things to do" list- yes we really do have one of those).

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To my surprise, the day went exceptionally well. Both the kids absolutely loved hiking and exploring. It's a good thing 'cause we plan on doing a lot of it with them. I forgot how much I love getting out in nature, hiking around, exploring new places, enjoying beautiful scenery, etc. Thank you Dwaine for sparking my interest in those things when I met you so many years ago.

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Here are some pics from the day...

Checking out the view

Dad and TJ next to the ginormous cypress tree (the picture doesn't do it justice)

Exploring the rock shelter

Cool underwater rock formations

Mom and Alli enjoying the waterfall

Dad and TJ enjoying the waterfall

It says we should go that way Dad!

More important things to do

I was blogging while Alli was watching a movie. She came to find me and tell me she wanted to work on her workbook.
I said "OK, you want to do your workbook now?"
She said "Yes, stop looking at the peuter"
So, who is feeling like a neglectful parent right now? That would be me. Gotta go. I'll get back to that post later. More important things to do like teach my daughter!

Christmas Morning at home...

Our Christmas tree with all the presents Santa brought
Playing with the Diego rescue set- a very popular toy especially now that it's new and improved. Daddy krazy glued everything together so that it quit falling apart everytime the kids played with it. "A rescate!!" We hear that a lot around here.
Enjoying some of the goodies from their stocking.

T's new giant t-rex and friends. Alli calls the blue aquatic dinosaur a "dolphin whale"
TJ, say "cheese"
You can't tell in the picture (he was tired by this time), but he really loves his new bike. We had a hard time getting him off of it to open any other presents.
Candy cane in the hair- not fun!
Alli catchin' butterflies or trying to at least. We'll have to work on her technique a little. She just stands still holding the nets in one place in hopes that a butterfly might by chance land in one- occasionally it happens and she gets very excited! Lots of Elefun! (I know that was goofy)

Holmes Family Christmas

It was a Holmes family Christmas year, so we headed down to Pearland the friday before Christmas and spent a few days at Grandma and Pawpaw's house.

We had a great time visiting and playing. Alli absolutely loves getting to spend so much time with all her cousins. As a matter of fact she was very disappointed when she realized after our 4 hr drive home on Christmas Eve that we were turning into our neighborhood. She said "NO, turn around. Don't go home. Go back to Grandma and Pawpaw's."

TJ on the other hand was beside himself with excitement to be home- running around like a fool. Don't get me wrong, he had a great time too, but 4 days of a disrupted routine apparently has more of a negative effect on a 16mo old (not sure exactly where that fine line is but it's somewhere between Alli's and TJ's age).

Maddy and Alli enjoyed playing dress up (not sure what the skirts on the head are about but it looks cute)

She would NOT take that Tinkerbell dress off (a new hand-me-down from Lainey). She even insisted on sleeping in it that night.

Alli with Wilson. He's super lovable and always wants to play, but he doesn't know his own strength and needs to learn a bit about personal space. The kids loved him, though!

The grandkids waking Pawpaw from his afternoon nap (he can sleep through anything). "Come on Pawpaw. We're ready to open presents!"

The first time we have been able to accomplish a group photo of all the grandkids- YAY!

From left to right: Gavin (3 almost 4), TJ (16mos), Maddy (5 as of Christmas day), Cade (6), Lainey (3), and Alli (2 almost 3)

2 yr olds...

Before we took our trip to Pearland for Christmas, I had to clean out the Jeep. I had to get rid of all the old food particles, random toys, trash, extra clothes, diapers (clean ones at least), etc. You other moms out there know what I'm talking about right?- please tell me I'm not the only one.
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Back to the story- I decided to let Alli hang out in there with me while I was working. I heard her messing with the coins in the center console (we had saved up a LOT of quarters for the toll road) and told her to stop a couple of times. The clinking of the coins continued and I decided I would deal with it after I finished the task at hand- bad decision!!!!
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When I got up to the front seat and looked around, I saw the empty coin slots in the console and no sign of any quarters anywhere. When I questioned Alli about what she did with them, she said "I put them in there" pointing to the shifter.
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In disbelief that she could have shoved ALL of the quarters into the space where the shifter slides I said "ALL of them?" and she promptly and somewhat proudly said "Yes!"
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Sure enough when I started messing with it, there were lots of rattling coins down in there, but I was only able to pull 4 back out easily.
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So, Daddy had to deal with it when he got home 'cause after messing with it for quite sometime I was afraid I was doing more damage than good.
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Thankfully, after disassembling the console and reaching up through to the space under the shifter, we were finally able to recover all of the coins. No worries about not being able to get into 4wd if needed- phwew!
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And of course, knowing I would want to blog this one, I got the camera out during the operation. I just don't feel right about a post without a picture...

The look on Daddy's face says it all about how he felt about this little situation.

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Thank goodness our little 2 yr old is about to turn 3 and these little mishaps will miraculously stop- right? Alright, stop laughing. If only parenting were that easy and predictable!!!

Don't be scared Jack

Visit my friend's blog site for a post with pics of the day Alli accompanied her friend Jack to see Santa. It was after she had already been to see him once, so she figured it was her job to "prepare" and comfort Jack before his big, sometimes scary moment. She's so motherly sometimes...

http://themomologue.blogspot.com/2007/12/blog-post.html

Here are a few other pics from the day...

Jack and Alli- say cheeeeese!! Oh well, that's good enough.

Checking out the giant tree

Our attempt at getting a pic of everyone next to the big tree. That's Grant with the big smile on his face and his little bro, Jake in the stroller. Alli and Jack are too busy enjoying their candy canes to stop for a pic and notice TJ is a blur- could somebody please make that kid stand still!

Supermom with her pride and joy (I told you I would let that one go to my head Melissa!)

Hopefully, there will be more pics of the day coming soon 'cause we spent the rest of the afternoon at the bounce house in the mall- lots of fun!!

Merry Christmas Halloween Day!!

All the holidays right in a row have Alli a little confused. I think she is still processing Halloween and we've already blown past Thanksgiving and are on to Christmas. So it makes some sense that she can't seem to separate them. She either says "Merry Christmas Halloween Day" or "Happy Halloween Christmas day." Her poor little 2 yr old brain just can't keep up!

Anyway, we went to visit Santa Claus today and it went amazingly well!!! I was shocked because for the last few days I've been asking Alli if she wants to go see Santa and she says "Yes sir" (yes, she was talking to me not her daddy- we need to work on that. "you mean yes ma'am") Then I would ask her if she wanted to sit on Santa's lap for a picture and she very quickly would say "No, I don't want to."

So, I was convinced that neither one of them would sit with him and that I would for sure be in the picture again this year. So, I put some nice clothes on and did my make-up to be ready for my Santa picture and to my surprise, it was for nothing (well, there was that nice lady who said I couldn't possibly be old enough to have 2 kids- that was definitely worth it! what every mom needs to hear right?) The point was that the kids sat with Santa all by themselves!

However, it was a good thing that we were the only people there cause we spent LOTS of time talking to and warming up to Santa first (he and his elves were so very patient). And the first photos looked a little something like this (or worse)...

Notice Santa seems to be the only one smiling. So after another 15 or so pics and mom sitting on the floor acting a fool playing peek-a-boo, we got this...

Yay- I think I see some smiles! I still can't believe they sat there long enough to finally get a good one. Then when it was time to leave, Alli could not quit looking over and waving at Santa. Now she keeps asking when we will go see him again.

On the way to see Daddy at work after visiting Santa, she started misbehaving and I told her Santa was watching and he wouldn't bring her presents if she wasn't a good girl. Her response was "Santa's not here anymore." Ha!

In no particular order...

I'm back!!!! It's been a rough few weeks- cold and flu season hit hard, but I think we're on the road to recovery- FINALLY!! Now, I'm terrified to go anywhere for fear of catching something else. But, I think we might venture out to visit Santa this week.

I spent today explaining to Alli that Santa was an old man - "like Pawpaw" I said :-) For some reason she was convinced Santa was a lady. Anyway, be watching for some upcoming Santa pics. Hopefully she'll sit with him, but it's not looking promising. She says she does want to go see him, but she does not want to sit with him and she is pretty adamant about it.

So in no particular order, here are some pics of stuff that I didn't take time to post while we were coughing up lungs around here...

CHEEESE!!!

Bath time fun!

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Thanksgiving at the Dement's

Cousin Lyndee and AlliTJ was not feeling too well that day which explains the constant thumb in the mouth.
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A visit from Julianne and Mary- the daughters of mommy's very dear childhood friend, Rebecca...
Just a swingin'
Aren't these two girls just beautiful. If you've seen their mommy, you know why!

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More bath time fun....

Alli's new obsession...

This is a little game called Bee Safe or Bee Sorry (thank you so much Ashley!) Mommy and her cousin Ashley played this game a lot as kids. Alli insists on playing it every evening after TJ goes to bed. Funny thing is she won about the first four games we ever played (and we make sure she plays fair). She calls it the buzzy bee game. It's fun but I think mommy and daddy are ready for a new game. Right now this is the only one we have and it's getting a little repetitive.
Alli sleeping with her new "titty tat" pillow and blanket. She LOVES them. Thank you Uncle Roger, Aunt Christie, Lyndee and Meg. Awesome gift!
Taking the babies for a stroll.
Notice she was sure to pack everything- fake tarantula and all. The basket underneath is full too! Gotta be prepared.
TJ just couldn't wait for his bath.

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Making play dough!

FYI: the stove was not on. Mommy took over for that part.
Blowing on the play dough.
Yay! Now we can play with it!
There- I think that's it. For now at least!

The Candy Wranglers

My little cow people went trick-r-treating and made out like bandits. This was the first year that we all really had a lot of fun. Even TJ caught on after a few houses and knew just what to do after that. Mommy's favorite house was the one with 2 Japanese women that handed out origami and Japanese "bubble candy." How neat!

This pic was the last of many failed attempts. FINALLY! Now, let's go do this thing!

Cheeeese and YEEHAW!

The hatless cowboy...

There was NO keeping that thing on. Even when we tried to just hang it around his neck, he chased it like a dog chasing it's tail- pretty darn funny!

And, my sleepy cowboy. I love this pic cause it really shows off his curly locks...

"Alli show us your boots!"

We stopped by Alli's friend Jack's house for a pic...

It was well worth it- the friendly Cajun neighbor invited me over for some gumbo, spicy crackers and spinach-artichoke dip- YUM!!! Oh yeah, and because we got to visit with Jack and his mom and dad too.

Enjoying their treats after the big night. Only one boot left for TJ, candy all over their faces and hands, and hair in Alli's face.

I think it's time for a bath and a couple of beds! Can't wait till next year!