Christmas Eve

We started Christmas eve day by baking cookies for Santa! Brinley really enjoyed helping roll out the dough, using the cookie cutters and then putting the sprinkles on! She was very proud of her final product...especially when it was time to eat the leftover sprinkles :)

I took this picture before we left to head to my parents house

That afternoon, we headed over to my parents house for Christmas dinner and present opening. We joking call my mom "mamaw claus" due to the large amount of presents she gets her grandkids....this year was no different. We enjoyed a yummy turkey dinner and then the craziness began! Brinley's favorite present was the Snow White dress up costume Reese got her from Disney world. Clayton's favorite toy was the sports center from mamaw and pops. He is playing with it right now as I type this!

Brinley, Clayton & Reese----I guess we should have tried this picture before we announced it was time to open presents!

Lets open some presents!!!!

Too much food and presents for these guys!

The big 3-0!!!

Sunday was my 30th birthday. For some strange reason this birthday has really hit me and I now realize I am getting old :( In order to cheer me up, Jason threw me a birthday party in which he completely planned and did such an awesome job! We started the evening at Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant downtown for some yummy food. Several of my family and friends came to help me ring in the new year.

My little boy LOVES to eat
Part of the crew that came to celebrate with me

Me and my girl

After eating dinner and cupcakes, my parents took the kids to their house and the adults headed upstairs to Lucky Strikes bowling. This is not your ordinary bowling alley. It is very classy with a dress code, full kitchen, bar, big screen TVs at the end of each lane and great music! It was so much bowling, drinking and eating with everyone.

The boys- Bruce, Jason, Chris, Craig and Rob
The girls- Tara, Callie, me, Melody, and Becky

Time to bowl!

Me and Melody-no clue what we were doing

It was a great night and I had so much fun! Thanks sweetheart for planning such a great evening and helping me start my 30s with a bang :)

Clayton is 1!!!!

Yesterday was my little man's birthday party! It is hard to believe that he is already a year old. I thought time was flying fast with Brinley, but with Clayton it is happening at warp speed! We don't go to the doctor until Tuesday for the official stats, but 2 weeks ago he weighed 21 lbs. Clayton, you are such a lovable little guy. You are crawling all over the place, pulling up to stand and cruising like crazy. You can't stand by yourself, nor do you have any interest in walking because you arch your back every time we try to make you practice. You love to eat and growl at us when we don't get the food in your month in a timely fashion! No more baby food for you because you love table food....especially blueberries, grilled cheese, bananas, and crackers. You have 8 teeth with plenty more trying to work their way in. You love chasing your sister and laughing at everything. You are so sweet and we are glad to have you in our lives!

We had his party last weekend to try and avoid the Christmas rush! I never realized how crazy it would be to try and plan a bday party and get ready for Christmas. I have already vowed that next year his party will be totally planned and supplies bought before thanksgiving! Overall it turned out to be a beautiful day and a good time was had by all! Clayton LOVED his smash cake and devoured it! It was quite a sight to see. Here are some pictures from his big day.





his monkey cake I made

let the Christmas festivities begin

We kicked off the holiday season, Thursday, with a trip to the mall to have our picture taken with Santa. Brinley had no problems going to sit on the big guys lap and she was sooo anxious to tell him she wanted a Cinderella castle and bike for Christmas. Clayton sat on his lap and let us get one picture before he realized he did not want to be there. I calmed him down several times and tried again, but he would get hysterical. So here is our Santa picture for 2009

Friday was a cold and snowy day. Yes it snowed in Houston and yes it snowed at our house ALL day long, but it did not stick. Other parts of Houston (including a friend who lives 10 miles west of us) got 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. Brinley was very upset that she couldn't build a snowman. We were able to scrape together enough ice off the sheets covering our plants to build two golf ball sized snow balls. Brinley threw her snowball at Daddy and Clayton decided to try and eat his.

Clayton eating his snowball
Brinley holding her snowball
Here is all snow that stuck

If you enlarge this one you can see all the snow falling

We also had Wyatt at our house on Friday, since it was not a fun filled day of playing in the snow, we made a gingerbread house instead. The hardest part was keeping them from eating all the candy before they put it on the house. They were also very rough in putting on the candies so it made the ceiling collapse. We pieced it back together with tooth picks so they could finish decorating it and we could take a picture.

Saturday evening, we bundled up and met some friends at the League City Christmas Parade. They had lots of crafts booths, amusement rides and yummy food before the parade. Brinley loved the parade (especially the dance teams, drill teams from high schools and cheerleaders). We braved the cold all evening but had to call it a night after 2 hours into the parade and still no end in sight. With pockets full of candy, frozen fingers and toes, we headed home for hot chocolate and bed.

Brinley with the blue Santa

Brinley had the best view of the parade

Me and my little man all bundled up

Brinley and Maddy ready to ride some rides

This week will be crazy with Clayton's first birthday party, Jason's company Christmas party and Christmas with Jason's family. I am tired just thinking about it :)

Happy 30th Birthday!

Last Thursday was Jason's 30th birthday! I think it is a very big deal to be leaving your twenties (although he doesn't) and I am certainly not looking forward to mine in a month!!!! It just seems so old....anyways!

We started the day by making daddy his favorite kind of cake...cookie cake. Brinley helped in decorating this year. I only had to show how to use the piping bag on three squirts and then she went at! I think I have a natural little cake decorator here!

Brinley filling in the "30" with chocolate icing

She was very proud of her cake decorating skills.....me too :)

Grandma and Paw-paw came over with cousin, Wyatt (who is visiting from Switzerland) to babysit while Jason and I went to dinner at this yummy Brazilian steakhouse. The basic concept is they come around with meat on skewers and cut you a slab to taste. They have 30 meats ranging from steak, pork, chicken, duck, frog and alligator. It is Jason's idea of heaven! I ate so much meat that my fingers started to swell and I had a hard time getting my rings off! We came back for ice cream and cake. It was a great day and we love daddy so much!

Brinley and Wyatt eating cake and ice cream

They were jumping so hard they knocked over the bounce house

Disney on Ice

My dad wanted to celebrate his birthday by taking all the grand kids to see Disney on Ice this weekend. Our seats were in the 2nd row, so we got to see all the characters up close and personal (and get hit with ice shavings from their skates too!) Brinley was absolutely in awe of the entire night. She is very much into the princess thing right now and has to dress up, role play and watch any show with Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping beauty and Snow white. She had stars in her eyes watching all the princess in person skating around. She even didn't eat her popcorn she was so entranced!

Brinley and Reese with their Minnie mouse ears

Clayton enjoyed the first 45 mintues, then he was ready to crawl around!

The whole gang from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (another exciting moment for her)
Nemo, Dori and the shark

Snow white with Ariel and Belle in the background

After the show, we headed to Buca Di Beppo for some yummy Italian food. We left very tired and stuffed. Happy birthday pops!

Halloween

Our Halloween week started on Sunday with trick or treat at the park. We got everyone all dressed up and headed to practice trick or treating with Brinley and her friends.

Brinley (Ariel) and Clayton (Sebastian). Brinley chose his costume and we figured this was the only year we could get away with it.

Thursday night, we carved our pumpkin. Clayton really enjoyed pulling out all the gooey stuff. He even tried to teethe on the opening of the pumpkin.

Friday, we co-hosted a Halloween party with friends. We had lots of delicious dips, deserts, chili and yummy treats. There was a bouce house with a slide, hay ride for the kids, pumpkin carving contest, games and lots of socializing. The weather was perfect with just enough nip in the air to make it feel like fall. Brinley spent the entire night on the hay ride...she loved it!

Us (Jason was Popeye for Halloween)

Saturday we headed over to my brothers for another halloween party and trick or treating. Brinley had so much fun trick or treating with Reese and her friends. She kept up with them really well, but we ended up leaving before they finished because she was exhausted!!!

Sunday was spent recovering from our halloween activities!