Not so sure about Santa

This year I decided not to take pictures with Santa at the mall. I really don't like the mall Santa's here at all and they charge entirely too much for a picture. The best Santa I've ever seen is at the Stonebriar Mall, but that is in Frisco and we don't live there anymore. We have a program here in Hutto that my church helps run every year called Orange Santa. To raise money for this program we did two different nights of pictures with Santa with all the proceeds going to buy gifts for the kids that we help. This first night, our friend John was Santa and he does a great job. I thought for sure Peyton would sit with him figuring that it was John and I would just have to explain that he was helping Santa out that night. Well again, she was having none of it. This is the third year in a row that she hasn't liked Santa....I even told her it was John and she still wouldn't go near him. Ryan on the other hand was trying to grab his beard and pull since he and John are buddies and I'm sure Ryan recognized that he knew him.
My mom runs a daycare program for the school district here in Hutto and she had her own Santa come to school to do pictures with all of her kids. She told me to bring Peyton and Ryan up to her school and try again with pictures but I didn't have very high expectations. Especially since Peyton protested as soon as I told her what we were doing. I asked why she doesn't like Santa and she looked at me as serious as could be and said "I just don't trust him mommy!" Where in the world does a 3 year old come up with that? I guess I'll have to tell John that Peyton thought he looked a little shady! :-) Anyhow...to my great surprise she decided to cooperate with the 2nd Santa try and smiled for a great picture. But as soon as the picture was taken, she was outta there. Grabbed her candy cane and headed for the door with no Santa chit chat! The picture of Ryan was taken one second before he launched himself out of Santa's lap and started crying. So now I have a picture of each of my kids with Santa for 2008! Hopefully next year we'll all look forward to the experience!

gingerbread fun

I have always seen the little gingerbread kits at the store, but hadn't felt like Peyton was old enough in the past to try one. Well, we bought one this weekend and she had a blast putting it together. It was a challenge keeping Ryan from destroying it every few minutes as we were building it. I didn't succeed in keeping them from eating the candy though...they were both eating it as fast as we were putting it on the house. So we had a big sugar high at bedtime but other than that, it was great! Looking forward to doing it again next year!

My sweetie pies

It has been a long 2 1/2 months with Brandon being gone. We have about another month until he is home for good. He has been able to come visit more weekends than I expected so that has been nice. Unfortunately he won't be home this weekend though and I'm a little bummed. Peyton has really had a hard time with it this year. She is a bit of an emotional roller coaster these days. She really misses her daddy. She understands he is in Dallas, but I don't think she really gets why he is gone. Hopefully his job will be really slow in December and we will get to spend lots of time catching up. As hard as it has been being a single parent the past few months, I still have really been having the urge to have one more baby. Ryan is getting so big..I can't believe he will be 2 in March! My dear friend Gina just found out she is pregnant and my friend Stacy is about to have her first baby so I have babies on the brain. Brandon unfortunately does not have the same desire. Any time I mention it he scoffs at the idea and really won't even discuss it with me. We have one of each and they are great...why make Ryan a middle child...they both drive you insane everyday...he has a whole list of reasons why we don't need another. I suggested that we both think and pray about it because I would like to make a decision around Ryan's second birthday. I'm not getting any younger and I don't want a huge age gap between the kids and a new baby. Plus, with Brandon's crazy time of year every year we have to kind of be specific about trying so I'm not due during that time. I would love to have another girl! Anyhow...don't know why I am putting this all out there, but there you go! I'm just really praying right now that if it isn't God's plan for us to have another that he will totally kill that desire in me. If it is though, I hope that he changes Brandon's heart and I hope something happens within the next year. My babies are so awesome, how could I not want another. These pictures are from this morning. Peyton is really into tinkerbell and little mermaid right now. She woke up and came downstairs with her tinkerbell wings on looking so cute. She said she went to sleep as Peyton and woke up as tinkerbell this morning. I love these kids!

Halloween

So this will be a short post. This past week has been a blur with Halloween and all the other stuff we've had going on. We had a trip to crowes nest farm which I didn't post about although will try later since I got some cute pictures. Brandon got home Friday afternoon and took the kids trick or treating Friday night while I worked at Treats on East Street at our church booth. We had a good time serving the community and things went very smoothly. Then I left early Sat. morning for our first ever women's retreat at Camp Buckner in the hill country. That was an amazing experience as well that will be it's own post. We had a halloween party two weeks ago that was a blast as well along with tons more pictures. As you can see, I'm a little busy these days so maybe if I'm having any trouble sleeping at night sometime soon then you will get to hear all about. As for now...I'm frantically trying to finish all the day to day stuff that I can't ever seem to do while the kids are awake. They are napping early since the lovely time change this weekend now has them getting up sometime during the 5am hour the past 2 mornings! So I will leave you with a few costume pictures. Brandon, Ryan, and I were pirates. Peyton was also suppose to be a pirate but decided (after the pirate costume was already purchased) the she really wanted to be little mermaid. That is what she is everyday around here since that is her absolute favorite disney princess but I guess she couldn't give it up for one day and match the rest of the crew. She is a cute Ariel though and we just pretended we captured a mermaid! Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Wow! This dress is amazing. Check it out!

cutie pie

We got haircuts this past weekend. Peyton got about 6 inches cut off and it looks so cute. I probably could have had them do her bob a little shorter, but I'll know now for next time. I was just really nervous about cutting it short because I love long hair on little girls. My mom always had me looking like boy with my short styles and I hated it. But, I think this style shows off her adorable little face. Ryan had a little more cut off than normal and I think he looks older too. They are growing up so fast!

Odessa and Back

I know it's been a long time since I have blogged. To be honest, I havn't had a lot of wonderfully positive things to say the past month so I thought it better to just not blog. Nobody wants to read a lot of "poor me" crap so sorry for the drought! September has been rough being a single impatient parent of two extremely needy and energetic and rebellious little ones. Brandon was out of the country for the first week and half and then in Dallas for the rest of the month and that is pretty much where he will remain until closer to Christmas. This is his crazy time of year that happens every year and I always know it's coming but still hate it! Anyhow, he is hopeful that this year he will be able to come home on weekends and I am praying that that will work out. He was here this past weekend to keep the kids so I could go to Odessa for my little brother's wedding.
Steven finally got married to a girl that he's been dating for almost 3 years. I really havn't gotten to know much about his new wife since they live in Odessa and I had met her 2 times before the wedding. Her name is Heather (she's in the red wedding dress) and she is really sweet. It was a really fast weekend...I flew in late Sat. night, they got married Sunday afternoon and I flew back Sunday night. I think they had a good time and I was glad that I was able to be there for the wedding. Here are a few pictures. For those of you who have never been to the wonderfully beautiful town of Odessa, the picture of the oil rig was what our hotel balcony opened up too. We could admire it anytime we looked out our window!

Just call us crazy!

Yes, the boat you see above will soon be in my driveway. After hearing my husband dream about having a boat for the past few years we jumped off the deep end and got one today. I guess you can't live 30 minutes from Lake Travis and not constantly be reminded that you could be partying on the water if only we had a boat. Brandon has a whole list of reasons as to why owning a boat makes perfect sense! My favorite one is how this will be a great way to bond with new people coming to our church. Our networking tool will be to hold people captive on the lake until you decide we are really cool and Jesus rules! (Just kidding) It will be a great way to make connections and spend time with people though. I can't wait to take all our friends out for a weekend. Brandon grew up with a boat and is determined to make championship skiers and wakeboarders out of Peyton and Ryan. I really thought a boat purchase would be a few years out since both the kids are still so small! But, both of mine are absolutely fearless and I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't both skiing and tubing like little pros in the next year!

Can't believe Peyton is 3!

We just celebrated Peyton's 3rd birthday on Sunday with a wonderful party at the Hoppin Hippo! We had family fly in from California and best friends in from Dallas. It was a crazy fun filled weekend. I even got Peyton to sit for her 3 year pictures which I did not expect! The past few times we've tried to have pictures made she has absolutely refused to cooperate so I was excited to get some great shots. I'll try and post birthday party pictures as soon as I can find my camera!

Peyton's first hair cut!

I know you are getting sick of seeing so many pictures of the kids, so I will take a break after this post! Peyton had her very first hair cut today. I was so proud of her because she did a wonderful job. I was apprehensive about taking her because we are going through a shy phase again where she is completely uncomfortable talking to strangers much less letting one touch her. I found a hair salon just for kids and decided that would be the best place to go if they provided fun distractions. Peyton sat in that chair like a big girl and did exactly what the lady asked her to. Her hair had gotten pretty long and was just looking really ragged and uneven. I love her long hair so we just had about 2 inches taken off to even things out and make it look healthier. The staff was really nice, but I don't think I'll go back to this particular hair place. It took about 5 minutes total! They sprayed her hair wet with a spray bottle, did the quick cut, and then charged me $15. Yes, that was $15...no wash or style. I guess that is the going rate for dealing with fidgety children these days or the built in compensation for dealing with brats who don't want their hair cut. My child was neither of these on this particular day so we should have gotten a discount! :-) Anyhow...sorry I don't have any after pictures of Peyton. My camera is currently in China with Brandon so I had to borrow my mom's camera and it has some issues. Like I said, it was just 2 inches so she doesn't look that different. We did get a neat keepsake certificate for our haircut as well as the first lock of hair that was cut.

What Bluebonnets?

Friday afternoon we decided to take a roadtrip with some friends to the little town of Burnet, Texas. This is about an hour drive from where we live in Hutto. I had heard that Highway 29 from Austin to Burnet and Llano was suppose to have some of the prettiest bluebonnet displays in the state. The Bluebonnet Festival was going on in Burnet starting Friday and that is why we decide to take our road trip because I look forward to bluebonnet pictures every year. So I got my kiddos all decked out in cute WHITE outfits and loaded up the van. The trip there was torture as Peyton has decided she doesn't like riding in her car seat again for some reason and cried or screamed almost the entire hour there. The friends who were following us are new friends so I resisted the urge to pull over on the side of the highway and beat her. I didn't want them to think I was crazy or ever have them be fearful of me watching their kids so I tried to tune her out with the radio. My poor mom was riding with me and I'm sure she was wondering why I wasn't taking care of the situation. Either that or she was laughing inside thinking there is justice in the world after all (I supposedly was a little bit difficult the first half of my life!) Either way, we finally made it to Burnet. I expected to see signs everywhere for this festival but that wasn't the case. So I stopped at a gas station to ask directions and was surprised to find out the owner had no idea what I was talking about. So, I asked the least scary looking motorcycle man filling his tank outside and he told me to turn around and go back 3 blocks. Hmmm....no signs for what is suppose to be the biggest event in their town all year. How good of a festival is this going to be???
After driving around a little while, we found a small fenced off section of streets downtown and that was the festival. Mainly a bunch of vendor booths with all kinds of overpriced goodies. The carnival wasn't open yet so that was a bummer. So, we drove all that way to sit and have lunch at a little cafe in the town square. I did enjoy visiting with our friends and Peyton managed to behave during our little lunch. It dawned on me though that I didn't see any bluebonnets on the highway on the way there. We all wondered where the heck we were going to take our pictures. That was my main goal for this trip. Surely there was some hidden majestic field around there that we hadn't discovered yet! I asked the local security guy and he told me the bad news that we didn't get enough rain this year and there weren't any pretty bluebonnets anywhere around Burnet. Well, that is just great I thought to myself...not that it mattered since Peyton's dress was no longer white and pretty after lunch. On that note, we decided to load up and head home. Peyton was tired enough that she feel asleep 15 minutes into the drive so we had some blissful quiet on the way back to Hutto. I hate feeling disappointed and defeated when I've spent time and energy planning something and then it doesn't work out. That's the kid in me that pouts when things don't go according to MY plan. That is the only reason I decided to take my cranky and exhausted children to a park 10 minutes up the road from home to see if they had any small patches of bluebonnets to take a least one picture! So before we went home from our road trip we stopped at Settler's Park and managed to find a small field with a few bluebonnets. How much easier the day would have been if we had just done that first instead of trying to drive an hour somewhere to get the best pictures! The pictures above are definately not wonderful, but hey, you can't see the stains on Peyton's dress and at least neither of them is crying! Maybe we'll get enough rain next year to have the "magical fields of bluebonnets"! I don't think I'll be going back to Burnet though!

One of those weeks!

Now before you feel the need to call Child Protective Services and report me I must tell you this was his father's fault! (Of course the bottle is empty, but I am surprised he even put that nasty smelling thing in his mouth) I leave the house for 10 minutes to visit a neighbor and come home to find Ryan walking around the living room with Daddy's beer bottle just grinning because he has something he knows he's not suppose to touch. Brandon was so involved in the Final Four games, he didn't see him sneak off with it. So of course I had to grab my camera! As I sat there watching him proudly show me his new "toy" I had a vision of him 17 years from now holding that beer standing around with his buddies at a frat party giving all the pretty girls his adorable flirty little grin and it freaked me out a little. I have days with these two kids of mine that feel like they last a month, but I am amazed when I look at them sometimes as to how fast they are growing and changing!
Ryan is walking now too, as I mentioned above. He still prefers to crawl when he really wants to get somewhere since that is so much faster, but he walks more everyday. He is very concious of sister though since she will knock him down in a second so that may be why he has taken a little longer than I expected to get going. Poor baby has had a rough week...he's had a cold and I think we are getting a 4th tooth right now. We've also gotten rid of the formula and are trying to get regular with milk so that has had his tummy a little upset. The boy won't give up the bottle though and to tell you the truth, I'm going to let him hang onto it for a while since he'll be my last baby! I was so set on following the "rules" with Peyton that I had her on a sippy cup as soon as she turned one and the baby food was gone at that point too. Funny how much more relaxed we are with the second one...we even let him have a beer now and then!

Easter

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We enjoyed a fun afternoon on Saturday hunting eggs and playing with our friends at the Resonate Community Church preview party. On Sunday we had breakfast with our church family and took Peyton to see her first movie in the theater. She went and saw Horton hears a Who with daddy and uncle Cary while mommy and aunt Natalie hit the outlet malls. Brandon said she did great! Watched the entire movie and scarfed down half a bag of popcorn and a soda. That's my girl!

Where has March gone?

Wow! This month has just flown by. We've had so much going on this month that it has just been a blur. We had Brandon's mom out to visit for a week and then Brandon's brother and his wife came to visit this past week so I havn't been online very much lately. Tons of stuff going on with church...we had a wonderful preview party this past weekend that went excellent. I'm looking forward to our first service which will be happening at the end of next month. I filled out my calander for April this morning and it is going to be a crazy month as well. Brandon will be gone to China for 2 weeks during April so I am definately not looking forward to that! Hopefully I will make time to write more often in the future. Here are a few pictures from Ryan's first birthday. For some reason Peyton has decided to call me mama instead of mommy now. It just makes her seem so much older! I guess I'll really cry when it just cuts down to mom!

Ryan is One!

Man, this year has flown by! I can't believe my baby is one today. He is such a wonderful boy and brings us all so much joy. His little personality is so precious and I can't imagine my life without him. I feel like his first year just passed me by. I don't remember feeling like Peyton's first year went so quickly. I guess that's what happens when you have more than one child to take care of everyday. We had his birthday party yesterday afternoon and I'll post pictures of that later on. He seemed to have a great time and really enjoyed his birthday cake. Thank you to all of our friends who came and celebrated with us yesterday! So, today I'll post the video I made of Ryan's first year so you can see my little cutie who has grown into a handsome one year old! Happy Birthday baby! We love you so much!

Day at the Park

After a week of cold and rainy weather we decided to take advantage of the warmer temperatures today! Even though we were dealing with wind gusts strong enough to knock the kids over, we still had a fun day at Settler's park.

Frosty the Snowman and Attitude...

Are the two things I am so sick of right now in my house! During the month of December we tivo'd the original Frosty the Snowman cartoon when it came on television one night. Usually I love that show and I have watched it every year since I was a kid, but I must say that these days I would be happy to never see that show ever again. Peyton loves it and insists on watching it everyday sometimes several times a day even though Christmas is long gone. Several times I have been tempted to hit YES, Delete Now when the show is over and I am prompted by the tivo system, but I can't bring myself to get rid of the one sure distraction I have for Peyton. That is the only way I can have any kind of conversation on the phone these days since she usually starts a temper tantrum the minute I get a call. So, my friends, if I havn't phoned you lately it is not because I don't love you and have plenty to tell you. I just can't talk over the pterodactyl cries that begin with Peyton and then Ryan feels the need to try and trump.
Peyton is almost 3, going on 13 these days as far as our attitude goes too. I know she looks so sweet in all the pictures you see on this blog but don't let those fool you! Poor girl had to have a 2nd set of tubes put in her ears again about a week ago. I hated to put her through the surgery again, but we had about 6 ear infections in a 4 month time frame and we were strongly advised to go ahead and repeat the procedure since her first tubes fell out around this time last year. Anyhow...the nurse brought us back in the recovery room where Peyton was waking up and was saying how beautiful and sweet she looked as she was cuddling her pillow. I was just thinking to myself that Peyton hasn't yet realized where she is at this point or what just happened to her because she wouldn't have those nurses thinking she was a little angel. About 5 minutes later, I'm sure those nice ladies thought otherwise! We were trying to get her dressed to go home and all hell broke loose. She didn't want anyone touching her and was flailing around so much that it took a couple of us to get her shirt on. She is yelling and screaming so loud that I was trying to get her out of there as fast as we could. We were in the recovery room where about 10 other people were coming out of anesthesia and I was just thinking what a horrible sound that would be to wake up too. I think it would actually freak me out to wake up from surgery hearing so much crazy shouting. So Peyton is hitting anyone she can reach and Brandon tucks her up under his arm and heads for the door. Peyton is kicking so hard that she sends her shoes flying off her feet and I'm scrambling to grab all our stuff and Ryan before we create any bigger scene leaving the hospital. The nurse comes up behind me and tells me that I should call the doctor if Peyton doesn't calm down and is behaving like this later in the day. REALLY? Well he would be on my speed dial if I had to call him for this kind of behavior because it happens almost everyday! I assured the nurse that she was fine. "She's two" was the explaination I gave her as we left. That poor lady still called me the next day to see if Peyton had finally calmed down and was feeling o.k. Anyhow...we are going through the hitting stage and saying no to everything mommy asks her to do. If any of you have advice as how to deal with this until we outgrow it I would definately appreciate it! Spanking and time out is not working with this stubborn girl. I dread the teenage years already. I know she is at the normal age to test her independence but I am needing a lot more patience these day. We are also dealing with our newfound freedom from being in a big girl bed but that is for another blog! I'm too exhausted to talk about it right now!

Just a reminder!

Someone sent me an email this weekend with the following message and even though it is very brief, it was a great reminder that God can use me if I just allow him to!

The next time you feel like GOD can't use you, just remember...

Noah was a drunk

Abraham was too old

Isaac was a daydreamer

Jacob was a liar

Leah was ugly

Joseph was abused

Moses had a stuttering problem

Gideon was afraid

Samson had long hair and was a womanizer

Rahab was a prostitute

Jeremiah and Timothy were too young

David had an affair and was a murderer

Elijah was suicidal

Isaiah preached naked

Jonah ran from God

Naomi was a widow

Job went bankrupt

Peter denied Christ

The Disciples fell asleep while praying

Martha worried about everything

The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once

Zaccheus was too small

Paul was too religious

Timothy had an ulcer..AND

Lazarus was dead!

And Don't forget

Jesus Helped them all!!!!

Catching Up

Well, I completely intended to blog during the holidays but just got too busy with family and playing Rock Band. We've had a lot going on the past few weeks and I can't believe Christmas is already over. I feel like it just totally passed me by this year and I'm still a little sad about that! We had a good Christmas. Our church, Resonate Community, helped head up a very successful Orange Santa program here in Hutto and we were able to give toys to about 220 kids. That was extremely rewarding and I'm looking forward to doing that again next year. All of my family came and stayed with us for several days during Christmas. My mom and dad bought a house here in Hutto, just 2 miles away from us, and they will be moving here from Abilene in 2 weeks. I am so excited to have grandparents so close! Maybe Brandon and I can start dating again and have some time for sanity to return!
Ryan just turned 10 months old and has FINALLY gotten his first tooth. I think Peyton had 5 or 6 by the time she was this old. He started crawling at 9 months and he is into everything right now. He's also pulling up on anything he can get a steady grip on. He has quite the personality and is so much fun to play with. Peyton is in the midst of the terrible two's. Hitting is our newest thing these days and time out isn't working much. She doesn't listen at all and I'm having trouble with her eating habits these days too. You may see us on an episode of Super Nanny here soon if things don't improve! She is a smart girl though and she is talking a ton now. Her favorite friend is Kylie who she calls Kyie and she is always wanting her to come over and play. We just moved Peyton into a big girl bed this past weekend and so far it is going great. Much to my surprise she actually stays in bed when you put her down. I don't think she realizes how free she is now...I"m sure that battle will start soon enough! Who knows, maybe she'll surprise me again like she did with the potty training and things will stay great in the bed department. She is completely potty trained now...has been for several months...and she 9 out of 10 times holds it through the night as well. We sleep with pull ups on but usually they are completely dry.
Well, enough about the kids! Brandon's job finally slowed down just before the holidays and it has been nice having him home. He still goes to Dallas usually once a week and that is just part of a new role he has at TI. We are going to try out the South Beach diet starting next week. Unfortunately we have both put on the pounds. I still have baby weight to get rid of from my pregnancy with Peyton. Ryan of course added several belly rolls as well so I've got some work to do. I did get motivated enough yesterday to do one of my Firm workouts! Of course I havn't been able to move much today since I rolled out of bed feeling like I got hit by a car. But, for me it is usually all or nothing. Maybe I need to work on moderation this year! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!