One last Sea World trip for 2008

We decided to take one last trip to Sea World before our season passes expire. I think the season passes have been one of the best investments we have made this year. Jason was planning to come with us, but he ended up having to stay home to work. My parents and Reed and Jamie came with us.

The park was all decorated for Christmas and it was so neat. Here are Emily and Jacob in front of the big tree at the entrance.

Here's Emily and Grandma waiting for the Shamu show to start.

Here's Emily with Grandma and Grandpa waiting for the Shamu show. She absolutely loved those sunglasses (they have Tinkerbell on them) and would not take them off, even at night and even when we would go inside places. It was kind of funny because we were playing Whac a Mole on Sunday night and she refused to take them off, and so she couldn't see when the light on her mole with come on.


Here's Jacob with Uncle Reed and Aunt Jamie. He was sooo tired!

This Shamu show was my favorite one so far. The theme was "miracles" and they had people singing various Christmas carols (The First Noel, Carol of the Bells, etc.) and then they would play video clips from people saying what the world miracle means to them.

Through our various trips over the past year, we have realized that some days the animals are temperamental and just don't want to do the shows. The show itself was well done, but in addition to that, this time we were lucky because Shamu and friends did a great job! It probably helps that they only do two shows a day during the holidays rather than all the shows they have to do during the summer months.

Emily loves to ride the Shamu roller coaster. Even though she wasn't feeling all that great, Aunt Jamie agreed to take her. Here they are waiting in line.

The "Viva" show is the show with the beluga whales and the Pacific Northwest dolphins. It is Emily's favorites and I really like it, too. Here she is waiting for the show to start. She was so excited!

Jacob was getting a little bit restless at this point and trying to find a way to escape!

At Sea World, you can purchase these souvenir cups and then refill them for .99 the rest of the year. We have definitely gotten great use out of ours. Here's Jacob feeling like such a big boy because he got ahold of one!

The Viva show has all sorts of acrobatics in addition to the dolphins and beluga whales. Here's Emily trying to sing and dance along.

We had so much fun and it was nice because it was much cooler than it was this summer. We can't wait to go back again!

Christmas Day

Christmas day is always over and done with so quickly! Ours started bright and early (thanks to Emily). We had a hard time getting Jacob up to join in the festivities! Both kids got bikes from Santa and were ready to climb on right away (as you can see from the picture, though, Jacob is still pretty tired and out of it).

We gave Emily a Leapster. I wasn't sure how she would feel about it, but figured it would be a good way for her to work on some skills to get her ready for kindergarten in a "fun" way. It was a big hit and we've had a hard time getting her to put the thing down since we opened it!

Jacob really got in to opening the presents. I remember when Emily was his age, she would get so frustrated when we would take one present away and hand her another to open. She just wanted to stop and open up and play with everything. Jacob did pretty good with moving on to the next one and when he finished opening all of his presents, he was more than happy to move on and help others open theirs! :)

I couldn't resist getting Jacob this Curious George Jack in the Box. My parents have one at their house and I think it's his favorite thing there. He will sit with it for hours.

He loves the new Handy Manny tool set that Grandma and Grandpa White got for him and couldn't wait for daddy to get it out of the box! We listened to the Hanny Manny theme song many many times yesterday!

Emily loves her new Tinkerbell movie that she got from Grandma and Grandpa White:

She also loves her new fairy pop-up book and sat right down and started reading it right after she opened it up.

Jacob loves the new book that Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Andrea, and cousins Ally and Kaitlyn sent. He kept running his fingers over the animals on the page like he was trying to figure out how they were moving.

Thanks to the Kanooths also for the Whac a Mole game that you sent! All of us (including Jacob) played as a family last night and it was a big hit!

After we opened presents at our house, we went over to my parent's house to open presents with the rest of my family. Emily and Jacob got new rocking chairs from Grandma and Grandpa Trone and they loved them!

Emily is hooked on Barbie and the Diamond Castle and was so excited to get another one of the Barbies to add to her collection:

Jacob loves the new car he got from Uncle Reed and Aunt Jamie and drove it all around the house last night.

The kids were so much fun on Christmas this year and it made it a really memorable experience for us. Thanks so much to all of our family for all of the gifts. They were a big hit! To our family who is far away - we missed you and hope that you had a Merry Christmas also!

Christmas Eve

I'm a little behind on uploading pictures, but I figure better late than never!

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve (for some reason, I realized after the fact that we didn't get any pictures of Jacob that night).

We went over to my parent's house for Christmas Eve. We started out the night by signing Silent Night and putting the baby Jesus in the outdoor nativity. This is one of Emily's favorite things to do.

Through the years, as we've added family members, we've added additional traditions. One of them is to find a pickle ornament that is hidden on the Christmas tree. This is a tradition from my sister in law Jamie's family. I found the pickle this year :)

This year, I found a cute idea in Family Fun magazine where you start with a big box and wrap five smaller boxes inside the big box. You pass the dice around and the first person to roll a 6 opens the biggest box. You keep going until someone gets a 1 and gets to unwrap the smallest box with a prize inside. Emily won that this year and here she is proudly displaying her gift card!

At the end of the night, we each get to open one present. This has been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. As you can see, Emily was very excited about her present:

After opening presents, we headed out to look at Christmas lights. I thought for sure that the kids would fall asleep in the car because it was so late, but no such luck. They both stayed awake the whole time and I didn't get much sleep that night because I would wake up with every little sound afraid that Emily was trying to sneak downstairs to see what Santa brought!

Only in Texas....

Only in Texas would you hear the ice cream man driving down the street in December with the music blaring! :) Ice cream anyone?

Oops we did it again!

Jason and I are both sick right now and just not functioning up to par. Last night I fell asleep on the couch shortly after the kids went to bed.

Of course, when Emily woke up this morning, the first thing she did was look for Elf who was, of course, in the same place. She was absolutely devastated. We tried to convince her that Elf was just sick and overtired, but she wouldn't have that as an excuse because "elves are magical and they can't get sick." Oh boy! Jason promised her he would talk to Santa personally to make sure that she gets Christmas.

We thought the elf thing was so fun and we did really well with it up to this point.

We've also had drama this morning because she loves to do the advent calendars around the house (we have 3) when she first wakes up. Because there is only one day left now, she thinks TOMORROW is Christmas. I keep trying to explain the Christmas Eve concept, but now she's upset and thinks I'm lying to her.

Something tells me it's going to be a long day!

Kidisms

I've had a fun day with the kids today. Jacob pulled his Halloween costume out of one of his dresser drawers and was insistent that I put it on him. It's been several hours now and he still won't let me take it off. At least his costume is getting plenty of use.

This morning we had a bit of a disaster with our family Elf. I had heard from others to be prepared for this, but I thought we were on top of it and we've done a pretty good job so far, but last night, we both forgot to move Elf. Both Jason and I have been sick, and I think we were just so worn out last night that we didn't even think of it. But Emily noticed as soon as she got up this morning. She was devastated. She said, "Oh no! Elf is in the same spot." Yesterday Elf brought her a Lifesavers story book (Jason and I both remembered getting them for Christmas when we were kids), and I had to reach up to take it down. She was convinced that I had touched Elf and made his magic go away (if you're not familiar with the story, you're not supposed to touch Elf, and if you do, his magic goes away which means he's "stuck" and can't get back and forth between your house and the North Pole). Then, she started crying and saying, "Oh no. Now Santa's not going to come because Elf didn't come back. This is just terrible." I think I finally convinced her that Elf might have just been really tired last night and probably got some of the sickness that's been going around our house and so he needed a rest and he'll probably report to Santa tonight instead.

The True Meaning of Christmas

Yesterday afternoon, Emily said, "Mom, do you know what I like most about Christmas?" I was in the middle of getting dinner ready and absentmindedly asked her "What" expecting her to say something about the presents, but her response was, "All the nativities because I just love baby Jesus, and the pretty music, and spending time at home with you, and daddy, and Jacob."

I'm grateful for my kids because they help me to keep my perspective. Sometimes I get so caught up in the day to day things that I forget the little things. My 4 year old hit it right on - the best things are family and celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

I hope you all are enjoying your holiday season!

Fun at the Holiday Fun Festival

They were having a Holiday Fun Festival in our area today, so we decided to go and check it out. Jacob ended up falling asleep while I was getting ready, so just Emily and I went. She had a blast.

We had snow a few days ago, but it was warm again today. This snow was courtesy of a snow machine. Only in Texas will you see people in shorts playing in the snow :) Emily loved the snow mountain slide. The "snow" was more like slush and there were a lot of bigger kids throwing snowballs, so we didn't stay in that area for long. She kept wanting to make snow angels, but I told her that wasn't the right kind of snow and she would get wet and cold if she tried.

Emily had fun visiting with Santa. We were lucky because the line wasn't long at all. I didn't know if we would make it to see a mall Santa and I don't think Jacob will go for visiting Santa, so I'm glad we had a chance to do it today.

Emily got to go on her first donkey ride. She loved it and wanted to go again!

They had a petting zoo and I think that was her favorite part of the whole day. Here she is attempting to feed the goats. None of them seemed to be very hungry. They all seemed to be more scared than anything else.

Here she is trying to feed the llama.

Here she is with a chicken. She absolutely loved the chicken (it doesn't really look like a chicken to me, but that's what they said it was). She carried it around everywhere and I had a hard time getting her to leave. She kept asking me when we could go back so she could hold the chicken.

They also had a bunch of carnival rides and we rode a few. I can tell that I'm getting old because my stomach just isn't what it used to be on those rides. The admission was free with a non-perishable food item, but the tickets to ride the rides and get into the different attractions was KILLER! I think it ended up being good that it was only the two of us. This was definitely not a budget event, but I'm glad we got to go and Emily had a really good time.

Special delivery!

The kids were very excited to get TWO packages from Grandma and Grandpa White today! Emily didn't waste any time tearing open the first box.

Emily and Jason both love popcorn, so she was very excited when she opened the first package and figured out it was a tin full of popcorn!

The kids didn't waste any time and dug right in! I don't remember ever giving Jacob popcorn before, but he is definitely a fan. The cheese was his favorite and he was very territorial about it. He would get very upset any time anyone else would try to get a piece! I kept putting the lid back on the tin and somehow it kept coming off again :)

The kids were also excited to open the Christmas package and the presents were the first ones to go under our tree. They loved the singing and dancing Christmas figures that Grandma and Grandpa sent for them to open now.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! :)

Life in Texas

When it comes to weather in Texas, you never know what you'll get. Yesterday, it was in the 70s and we were wearing short sleeve shirts and sandals. Today it was in the 30s and it actually snowed! I had heard on the news this morning that there was a possibility for sleet, but as I was driving home from work this afternoon, there were actual snow flurries. It was kind of fun and exciting because it's such a rarity here. I think the last time it snowed was 4 years ago when we were here visiting for Christmas.

We made the most of the moment and built a fire in the fireplace and hung out playing games. Our Elf (the poor guy still doesn't have a name) brought Candyland Castle this morning because the kids were so good yesterday, and we had a lot of fun playing that. Even Jacob was able to play!

Here are some pictures people have submitted to a local news station from the snow today: http://www.click2houston.com/slideshow/news/18247800/detail.html

Sunday morning pictures

Sunday afternoon, I decided to take a few pictures before we left for church because both kids looked so cute. We tried and tried to get Jacob to smile, but didn't have much luck. Emily, of course, was all smiles!

Each year, we take pictures of Emily in her Sunday dress in front of the tree and it amazes me how much she's grown!

We were trying so hard to get Jacob to smile and take a picture by himself, but all he wanted to do was check out the decorations on the tree!

Here was our last attempt to get Jacob to smile. He was looking at us like we were nuts!