Happy New Year!

Tonight marks the 7 year anniversary of the night I met my best friend, love of my life and father to my children. Who would have know in that tiny bar that night that both of our lives would change forever. This past year has been amazing, we greeted our sweet angel McKennon into our lives and have watched our darling Houston turn from a baby to a little boy... I can't wait to see what blessings 2o10 will bring us..... Happy New Year!

Christmas 2009

On the eve of Christmas Eve Houston and I baked cookies for Santa's early arrival and left him a glass of milk to wash them down, I may have been more excited to leave cookies for Santa I felt like a kid again this Christmas with the anticipation of Houston's reaction to all the fun!

I think one of my favorite memories from this Christmas was Houston's reaction to seeing Santa's cookies gone the next morning... His eyes lit up and he whispered "wooowww!"

It figures the one day we want Houston to wake up early he doesn't... Brooks and I were actually waiting on him... I was too excited to sleep. When he rise and shine he was a little groggy for his initial look at the tree and the gifts under it... you could see the wheels turning in his little noggin wondering where all this stuff came from and who it was for... but I have to tell you when he locked eyes with his very own "grill" it was love at first site and to be honest didn't care much about opening his other gifts... McKennon was all smiles and giggles that morning.... Life doesn't get much better than this!

Houston looks a little embarrassed by his Sesame Street big boy underwear Santa left in his stocking!

Daddy was a good boy too this year!

Christmas Eve... all dressed up for church! After Church Martha and Chipper joined us for Dinner.

Christmas day Brooks was Mr. Mom and took the kids to Ginna and Pooky's for the Jones' Christmas. Then on Sunday we concluded our festivities with a visit from Nana, Jason, Charlie and Kelly. By this point Houston was a pro at opening gifts and even had appropriate reactions. While opening one of McKennon's gift he pulled out an outfit and exclaimed "Cuutee!" It was hysterical!

All in All we had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to 2010!!!!

Christmas 2009

Christmas was great and a little scattered this year. I had the pleasure to work Christmas Day (Unfortunately the hospital doesn't close on holidays and you can't put patients on life support on auto pilot) so we changed things up a bit to work around our schedules. We made a special request to Santa to visit our house a night early which worked out great for all of us... Santa was able to lighten his load a little and we were able to enjoy the "Christmas morning" chaos of having a toddler!
These are just a few pics from after decorating the tree and a project I did with Houston. I really want him to learn the true meaning of Christmas and the celebration of Jesus' birth. Although we have talked about it quite a bit I also wanted to learn that it not only about receiving but giving. In the spirit of giving we made homemade ornaments and Houston was able to give them to a couple neighbors and as his personal gift to family members. He was SO proud!!!!

Gingerbread House

Okay so we definetly would not win any awards but it was so much fun making our own homemade gingerbread house as a family... even if we ate more candy than we put on the house! Our little Santa Baby Mckennon even joined in on the fun!

Satterwhites

Every year Brooks and I have made it a tradition to get of Christmas tree from Satterwhites here in Columbia. Houston was able to help with picking out the perfect tree this year and although it was quite chilly that day I think he did a great job!

Chrissy Light!!

Houston's favorite part of this holiday season.... "CHRISSY LIGHTS!!!!"

Sesame Street Live

Houston and I recently had a Mommy/Housy day and went to Sesame Street Live with our friends Jana and Andrew! Since Houston has a "small" obsession for Elmo I thought this would be a great time and it absolutely was a Blast. Our little man sat still during the entire show, waved at all of the characters and clapped after each song. He even shook his little booty to the music!
Enjoying popcorn before the show!

I took this during the performance so I could show you how into it he was!

We had such a great time and it was nice to spend some "alone" time with my little man! Love you Houston!

4 Months!!

Another month has flown by in this sweet baby's life!! She easily can hold her head up and do little baby push ups on her tummy, smiles and coos most of the time, and is quite the little wiggler! She still prefers her Mommy but definitely loves her Daddy, brother and grandparents too! Recently she has become much more laid back however still HATES the car! When I say hates I mean screams when we go anywhere... whether it be 2 minutes away or an hour rest assured she will cry! Other than in the car she rarely fusses unless hungry or tired.
I may be bias but isn't she precious!!

We started cereal this week! What a big girl! She still hasn't decided whether she likes it or not... can you tell? She looks terrified!

Houston of course had to help Sis eat her first bowl of cereal!

Happy 4 month birthday Sweet McKennon!

Delicious!

Houston's new favorite phrase.... "MMMM "Licious"!!!! Obviously he is enjoying his chocolate here!!

Big Boy Bed!

Well, Houston has officially graduated to a big boy bed!!! 2 weeks ago we decided Houston was ready and we should convert his crib into a toddler bed. I had mixed feelings about the whole process.... there was that part of me that wanted him to be in his crib because then I would feel like he was still a baby and there was that other part of me that knew he would enjoy the "big boy bed". I was nervous still though if he was going to fall out of the bed or worse not sleep in it and sneak out at night... I didn't want to go through the whole repetition of chasing him back into his bed at night and refuse to have him sneak in our bed! But our little man has done amazing!! He never has fallen out, calls for me to come in and let him come out of his room in the morning and loves hoarding blankets and stuffed animals all over the bed! He actually has begun calling it his "nap" and has been excited to show everyone when they have come over. Yesterday my Mom came by and he burst with excitement at the door to see "Nana" coming, when she got inside he said "ome (come) on Nana... my nap!!" Mom followed him to his room Houston bounced all over that place showing her his big bed... He is so proud! He also loves for McKennon to lay with him in his bed and listen to stories!

Busy, Busy!

I can't believe how busy life has been for us lately! Last Wednesday Brooks underwent orthoscopic knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus. The surgery went well and he took a week off of work to recover. He is still hobbling around with a swollen knee and in some pain but hopefully he will get a good follow-up from the doc on Monday. Since Brooks has been out of commission I have had to go into super mode and I have to admit I have been quite exhausted. This experience has just shown me how much we work together to get things done around here! On top of Brooks' surgery we also had a project started in the backyard. The retaining wall around the patio had been falling over for some time now so we finally bit the bullet and are having it replaced with a new rock wall.... Here is just some of the mess in our backyard right now.

Along with building a rock wall comes sand and lots of it! Houston has thoroughly enjoyed the big piles of sand and for hours has been entertained. He also has enjoyed looking out our bedroom window watching the men work.... he gets so excited and yells through the house, "Momma yook they fix it... hamma Momma hamma!!!!" ... The man doing the job has called him his little supervisor!

I'll have to post pictures of the finished product next week!

Confessions of Motherhood

Okay so I have a confession to make... well maybe not a confession just a tidbit of what I did this morning.... you may ask why I am sharing this little story but it is only so one day I can see all the crazy things I did as a Mommy.... I woke up before the kiddos this morning absolutely famished. So I made myself a large bowl of raisin bran, used the last of the milk and proceeded to watch the morning news. The kids woke up soon after, and we went along with our normal routine; changing diapers, chasing Houston around the house with his clothes (one of his favorite and mommy's least favorite games), brushing our teeth... you know normal morning things. Houston soon alerted me that he was hungry so we went to the kitchen and I began offering him all of the breakfast foods in the house that did not require milk... oatmeal, waffles, eggs, pancakes, granola bar... but he insisted on cereal with milk... I kept trying to offer him something else with no luck and as I stood looking in the fridge "yogurt?"... "no, cereal, milk!" and then I saw it shining bright, like a beacon of hope guiding us away from the oncoming tantrum, a 4 oz bottle of pumped breast milk! Now in my mind I thought should I do it? No... well, he did nurse for 7 months, No that's weird... well no its not, some people breastfeed till their kids are 2 or older...still no... and then I just did it... I poored 4 oz of breast milk on Houston's cereal, stuck him in his highchair and stood there wondering if he would notice. Well, he didn't, he ate the whole bowl and when he was finished proclaimed "ALL DONE!". After spin class this morning I did buy cows milk and don't plan on feeding Houston "Kemma's milk" as he calls it again...although it could be a funny trick to play on Brooks... hmmm. Just kidding!!!

Too Cute!

After enjoying dinner out with our friends the Bakers these two hams cheesed it up for a picture. They held hands the entire way out of the restaurant catching the attention of most of the people enjoying their meals... I heard many "oh how cute are they... and ohhhh look they are holding hands!" Hilarious! Houston and Riley you two are just TOO CUTE!

3 Months

Happy 3 month birthday to our sweet little girl! 3 months ago today Brooks and I became the parents of 2, Houston became a big brother and Elizabeth McKennon stole all of our hearts! Her little personality has quickly become apparent and my little diva has arrived! We definitely have a momma's girl on our hands... She prefers for Mommy over all and recently graced us with a little bottle strike... so that meant I couldn't be too far! She is smiling and cooing, oohing and grinning.... she even has a little dimple just like Mommy! She adores her big brother and watches his every move... he loves her too... his "weet girl" and "Kemma Sis"!

Happy Birthday Sis!

Daddy's Helper

Houston loves to do whatever Daddy does.... so this week he helped Daddy with the leaves and pushing the garbage can to the street. I also caught Houston taking a sucker break in a pile of leaves!!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was such a blast this year!! We started the weekend off with a costume party at our friends Philip and Rachel's House where Brooks and I went as a couple bunches of grapes! I really wanted to do something silly and creative for our costume and this is what I came up with. We looked ridiculous but had a great time and Brooks was such a good sport about the whole thing! Saturday turned out to be a perfect fall day for chili and trick or treating! Years ago Brooks and I started making chili on Halloween, friends would come over and we would pass out candy. As the years have passed, we all started having kids and Halloween at our house has become a tradition. Every year our numbers are multiplying!! Houston was so much fun this year, I don't think he totally understood what everyone was doing dressed up in their costumes but he enjoyed the whole night none the less! Here is our little man after he passed out candy to our first trick or treater... he was so proud!

Making sister smile and telling her she looked pretty in her flower costume!

MeMe, Aha, Aunt Kadi and Eric also joined in on our Halloween fun!

Aha and his sweet little flower!

Our annual picture on the front porch before heading out for treats!!

Charlie and Kelly came along too! Charlie's mask made Houston a little uneasy!

Some of the crew traveling up to see if they were going to get a trick or a treat!

Houston and Cowboy Jonathan rode from house to house in the wagon.

UT Cheerleader Lainey took a ride too!

My sweet little chicken with his pumpkin bucket!

After getting lots of treats we posed for a quick family pic!

Happy Halloween!