We LOVE our grandparents...!

Just some fun pictures of grandparents visiting with the kids... or helping Mom around the house. : )

Catherine's actual birthday

This post will be mostly pictures I think. : ) Of course as a true lover of birthdays in all forms we celebrated Catherine's birthday on the actual day of her birth too (November 17th, 2008.) In the morning we have the tradition of unwrapping gifts from Dad and Mom and then consuming cake (or cupcakes) for breakfast! : ) Then that evening we had our friends, the Schubert's (Dad and Mom: Stefan and Kirsten, oldest: Carl, next Theo (with Jacob), and youngest Richie) over for pizza and you guessed it - more cake!

The month of December

The month of December too has brought a flurry of activity. And while the weather has oscillated from the 40's to in the 70's it still feels "a lot like Christmas!"

We have attended several fun Christmas parties (just the parents this time while our dear Laura babysat) one at T-Bone Tom's for Greg's work and the other at an amazing house in Bay Oaks - so large in fact it had its own movie theater and panic room! Jacob had his Christmas Program at school ("Silent Night, Holy Night") in which they sang "Away in a Manager", a song about a donkey, and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." He looked very cute with an over-sized Santa hat on. We also attended a "Birthday Party for Jesus" at church which was really neat. There were lots of crafts to do, cupcakes to decorate, and Catherine was particularly taken with the Fisher Price nativity scenes with "Baby Jesus." We have loaded up into the car several times to see the Christmas lights all through the neighborhood which the kids LOVE to do and have ridden "The Christmas Train" in Alvin twice. We even attempted a gingerbread house together which Jacob enjoyed very much. He carefully decorated the entire roof while Catherine attempted to eat all the candy up at a very rapid rate! : ) Another first this year was the kids helped decorate the tree. Jacob most enjoyed hanging the ornaments on the tree while Catherine helped to carefully unwrap them and hand them off or sometimes not and just carry them around. There were several ornament casualties, however, with some Superglue all was well. : ) And of course we visited Santa at the mall (see the super cute photos on another post.) One evening we were invited for pizza and the celebration of St. Nickolaus - different from Santa Claus (December 6th) - at our friends' house from Germany. The kids left one shoe on the porch and then Nikolaus knocked at the door and there was a small specially wrapped gift for each child in their shoe. There were also yummy Germans chocolates and cookies. Very interesting to learn the traditions of other countries.

Jacob and Catherine also have some new favorite movies for the holiday season: "The Polar Express", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (Rankin and Bass), and "The Grinch" of course. Some favorite holiday books are: again The Grinch, Silent Night, and The Donkey's Christmas Song - Catherine LOVES this one and it is very sweet. They also really like Christmas music. One of Jacob's favorites is "Alvin and the Chipmunks" of which he does a pretty funny impersonation of and Catherine loves "Silent Night" and when she sings her version she is darling. : ) They also like "Frosty the Snowman."

For Christmas Eve we plan to go to the family-friendly service at church and celebrate Christmas day at home. For New Year's we will head to Grampy and Grammy's and ring in the new year with the Whitney clan.

Pictures with Santa

The kids were so well-behaved for their trek into the mall yesterday to see Santa! We had a bumpy start (two round trips to the mall due to people falling asleep on me in the car), but they were good regardless. Due to our poor timing (again sleeping!) we arrived right as Santa was going on lunch break at 12:15. He wasn't returning until 1:30! So we had some time to kill although the kids didn't seem to mind. We poked into "Build a Bear" where we discovered they sell merchandise for the Rankin and Bass "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" movie (which the kids and Dad love) and so that was very exciting. Catherine kept saying "Bumble," "Bumble" (the name of the abominable snowman.) Then we got our free suckers at See's Candy and headed to the busy food court for pizza. We got in line to see Santa around 1:05 pm. The kids waited patiently the entire hour we were in line and Jacob was hilarious! He kept doing little songs he has learned in preschool complete with hand motions, shared his Buzz Lightyear toy from Gramma Toria with the little boy in line next to us and in general was just amusing in his antics. Catherine had people so enamored with her little red outfit and was extra cute as she brought her baby stroller and baby along too and pushed it beside me in the mall. : ) When she got bored in line she just took her baby out of the stroller and sat in it herself!

I've posted my favorite pictures - I think Catherine peering over the fence at Santa is pretty sweet and at the end of the picture set Jacob still sitting on Santa's lap and telling him what he'd like for Christmas in detail is "pretty stinking cute" as I like to say. ("A Buzz Lightyear bike, a Polar Express toy AND the movie", etc.) Catherine only cried at the end partly I think because I took the coloring book and her pacifier from her to in theory get a better picture. It was actually a really fun outing and I was proud of them for doing so well in the long, slow line.

The month of November

November brought an Open House at Jacob's pre-school, a trip to see Grampy and Grammy's new house in Austin (see pictures from that visit on another post), along with a trip to Jumpin' Jungle, which was especially fun since Catherine is a little bit older now and therefore able to keep up with Jacob better. There was also Catherine's birthday and 2-year check-up with the pediatrician (plus two shots - ouch), the conclusion of soccer, and then the much anticipated Thanksgiving visit with the Taylor side of the family. We also were invited to a kid birthday party every weekend of the month!

It was so wonderful to have my entire side of the family visit for the holiday: my Dad and Mom, my brother Shane, wife Jenny, and Cousin Lily, and finally, my youngest brother ET (Eric Jr.) The kids LOVE their Cousin Lily (3) and she and Jacob in particular are good chums. This was the second year in a row we deep fried a turkey on the driveway and it is always so nice to have help in the kitchen from my mother and Jenny. Mom's Ambrosia and yams with marshmallows and Jenny's family recipe stuffing are all yearly favorites. This year we had a "kid-table" just like when I was little, only this time I didn't sit at it - my children did! They had a good time with Play Doh before the meal. : ) We had several games of Scrabble going throughout the visit and although several mis-spelled words were accepted as valid (not naming any names) I loved playing with my brothers, Jenny, and hubby. Dad Taylor treated everyone to a dinner out at Outback Steakhouse one evening (another tradition we've got going) and then my parents watched the three little ones so that the five "big kids" got to see the newest Harry Potter movie. Two of my favorite quotes this holiday were said by Jacob. First, (after arriving separately) he introduced "Gramma Toria" to "Uncle ET" : ) and second, he asked Uncle ET what he had on his arm and then without awaiting an explanation decided they were "stamps" just like he gets on his hand at pre-school. The "stamps" were of course a tattoo. : )

We had Catherine's two-year-old party this month too (her birthday is November 17th) in Sesame Street theme complete with a bounce house courtesy of Uncle Shane and Aunt Jenny and a visit from the Chick-Fil-A cow. She was tired that day so we had to wake her up for her party! But once awake she said "hello" to the cow from a distance and thoroughly enjoyed her cupcake. She left her Elmo cupcake on the table and then leaned over and bit into it hands-free. : ) Messy, but mission-accomplished. She liked opening her presents too this year and got some help with her candles from Jacob. She loved her pink and purple tricycle from Aunt Jenny and company and also was very enamored with her Fairy Tree house from "Aunt Amy" and Natalie. It was an especially poignant birthday as not only was entire my family still here, but Grampy and Grammy came down from Austin and our old friends who have moved away, the Brices were able to attend too. I can't believe Catherine is two-years-old now! She is still my baby though.

We were able to catch up with the Brice family a little more another day too while they were visiting for Thanksgiving. The kids really enjoyed playing together for a play date and we also had a nice lunch at Chick-Fil-A and finished it off with yogurt from BerriLicious - yum! It was all in all a good month and special holiday!