Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve at our house today. We woke up this morning and ate breakfast at Denny's, hung around the house and played all day, and got some Christmas cookies for Santa. We told Ava that Santa is coming in the house through the fireplace. She keeps saying, "Santa, fire?" I'm afraid she may think that Santa's going to blow up. We've been watching Indiana Jones movies and the original Superman, and there's lots of things that blow up. She's always concerned when something blows up and wants to know about the fire. Maybe when she sees the toys he left, she'll know he wasn't blown up! And Max, he has no clue what's going on. He's just glad to be feeling better!

Christmas Time

It's Christmas time and we've been super busy, just like everyone else! We've had parties, shopping, baking, and sickness to deal with. Max is getting over his first ear infection, he was a very sick little boy! The ear infection rearranged some of our shopping plans, but luckily we got it all done. Here are a few pics from our past few weeks.


All smiles


Ava wanted her picture taken with Max in front of the tree.


Max was done


So tired she needed to take a nap on the kitchen floor. Isn't our floor lovely?


PJ Day at school. I think Max was starting to get sick here, you can see his eyes just don't look good.

9 Months Old

Max is now 9 months old. He is 28 inches long and weighs 23 pounds, a short and stocky boy. He's a very happy baby and loves to play. He plays with Ava's toys more than she does. His favorite game is peek-a-boo and he loves to pat things and wrestle. He likes books and enjoys being sung to. He also likes his friends at school and church, I think he's going to be a social butterfly. He pulls up and walks around everything, as long as he's holding on to something. He will stand on his head and play "dead bug" with you on the floor. He takes 1-2 naps a day, about 3 hours napping total, sleeps from about 8pm to 8am, usually waking up once a night. He loves his mama. He eats 5 7 oz bottles a day and his favorite food is any veggie. Max has two bottom teeth and four coming in on the top! Fun times!

Christmas Cookies

Ava's friends Colton and Ellie came over to our house and helped us make Christmas cookies. They had lots of fun, and lots of sugar. Ava did better this year than last year. She quit eating the m&ms and icing after she was threatened with a spanking and actually decorated her cookies.



Playing dress up


Ava's finished cookies

Breakfast With Santa

Today my mom took Ava, Max, and me to have breakfast with Santa Claus at Northpark. Micah and I have been preparing Ava all week, telling her that Santa was going to talk to her and she needed to tell him what she wanted for Christmas. We asked her what she was going to tell Santa she wanted and she said, "Toys". We guided her a little (we are getting her a tricycle) and asked, "What about a bicycle?" and she said "Yes!" We asked her "What about a tricycle" and she said "yeah, tricycle". Then she said, "What about a motorcycle?" We told her maybe when she got bigger she could ask for a motorcycle. Then she decided that Max needed a motorcyle.

Eating Breakfast, waiting for Santa



The Elf came by and gave Ava a cool balloon bracelet


Santa's here! Max loves Santa. He watched him while he walked around the whole room


Ava warmed up to Santa pretty quick. She told him she wants a tricycle, Max wants a motorcycle, and daddy wants a teddy bear.




Ava loves trains, so after we had breakfast Grammy took us to see the trains. Max and I didn't see them all because it was really crowded and our stroller didn't fit well. And Max was hungry. But Ava and Grammy really enjoyed the trains.



Thanks Grammy for a fun day!

Funny video of a little bug and Ava.

The Lake and The Zoo

A few weekends ago we went to the lake (aka Grammy and Papa Jack's House) for the weekend. We had a great time just hanging out and playing outside, as you can see!





We also went to the Waco Zoo with Lanette, Colton, and Ellie. We all dressed for cold weather, since it is the end of November, but were surprised when the temperature was in the 80s! Ava wanted to be carried most of the time because she was too hot. The kids loved the zoo, and they also loved our trip to Arby's afterwards.

Ava and Ellie look at the Jaguar


Max enjoying himself


Such a happy butterfly!

8 Months Old

Max is 8 months old. Well, at least he is in this picture. He's almost nine months old now, and I'm just really far behind on my blogging. At 8 months old, Max sleeps all night long (most of the time), goes to Tuesday/Thursday school and loves to crawl around all over the place, eats very little solid food (he likes mainly veggies and bread), drinks 5 7 ounce bottles, takes two naps a day, and is a really happy baby!!

Halloween/Iowa

Halloween weekend we made the not so long trip to Des Moines, Iowa to visit Andrea, Karl, Leland, and Kaden. It was not so long because we got to fly! The flight was only two hours, much better than the 12 hour drive we normally take. Ava and Max did great on the flight. Going through security was another story. Ava freaked out and threw a huge fit the whole way through. There were all kinds of people trying to help us get all of our stuff through. When we finally made it, I took Ava to the bathroom. She kept saying, "Ow Mama, I don't want a shot!". Apparently something about going through security made her think she was going to get a shot and she was not into that. Once I explained to her that she wasn't going to get a shot, she was just fine. She did worry about her car all weekend long though. She kept telling me that she didn't want Jake to take her car, she wanted her car back. When we got back to Dallas, Jake picked us up in our car and she was overjoyed!

Ava dressed up as The Cat in the Hat. Minus the hat. She wouldn't wear it, but she did use it to collect her candy.


Max was a lobster


We took the kids trick-or-treating at Living History Farms. They have an 1800's town set up so the kids went trick-or-treating through the old town. They had a great time and got tons of candy.





The next day we went to some farm in Iowa with lots of corn. I know that narrows it down quite a bit. There was a cornfield maze that we trekked all the way through. Ava and Kaden enjoyed picking up the corn cobs and pulling all the corn out.

Children of the Corn



Micah, Ava, and Max rode the go-karts.


Trick-or-treating Midwest style. In Des Moines, everyone goes trick-or-treating the day before Halloween. And instead of saying "trick-or-treat", you have to tell the people a joke to get candy. Since we had been trick-or-treating the night before at Living History Farms, we decided to stay home and hand out candy. And watch the Rangers in the World Series. Micah, Andrea, Kaden, and Ava did a great job handing out treats.


Max and Leland had lots of fun bouncing




On Monday we went to the Des Moines Science Center. This was lots of fun for all of us. Ava and Micah built rockets, dropped eggs from huge heights, and we built a Catenary Arch.





We had a great trip and were glad that Andrea and Karl let us invade their home. I was glad Mary made coffee every morning. Ava and Max were glad that we got miles from Grammy and Papa Jack to fly instead so they didn't have to sit in a car seat for 12 hours. And Ava was really glad that Uncle Jake brought her back her car.

What Used To Be Our House

When we first moved to Rice two and a half year ago, here is where we lived.



This is what that house looks like today. Trees were snapped, the house was blown off its foundation, the roof is messed up, and windows were broken.


Our house was a "mother-in-law" house to a big two story house that sat about 30 yards to the north of it. It had a big detached three car garage between the big house and our little house. Here is what's left of that house today.


The lady that we rented from had just recently sold the property, moved out of the big house and into the little house where we used to live. The new owners had moved into the big house. The owner took shelter in a closet under the stairwell. That was all that was left standing of that whole house.