Birthday Celebration

In my previous post, I wrote about today being Brendan's ninth birthday. To celebrate, we went to eat lunch at Texas Land and Cattle (the boy likes a good steak), and then we went to play glow in the dark miniature golf at the mall. My filet was delicious, and the golf was tons of fun. FYI, he will have a birthday party with friends...we always wait until at least the middle of January because it gives his friends a chance to get back from any Christmas vacations they may have taken and lets everybody recover from Christmas.

Kaelin insisted on playing golf by herself. She would not allow me to do anything at all to help her...except hold her silkie and her baby doll, Hannah, which she got for Christmas from Jamie and has gone everywhere with us since the minute we took Hannah out of the box. Cole helped Collin quite a bit, but he got bored with the whole golf thing and I ended up playing for him on the last 5 or 6 holes. His club was all of about 2 feet long, by the way. It was awkward, to say the least.

As for the birthday boy, he enjoyed himself, too. He got very excited when he would get a "hole in 7." Or some number in that neighborhood. We just let him be excited about it. Why rain on his parade? It was his birthday, after all.

I took some pictures, but the glow in the dark effect was lost when I turned the flash on. So I'll start with the non-flash pics.

The first 2 pictures are just random pictures that I took of the golf course. They're a little blurry because the flash is off.

The next picture is my shoe (I thought it looked cool), and then the picture after that is one of the drawings on the wall.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, glow in the dark golf.

Happy Birthday, Brendan!!

Today is Brendan's 9th birthday. At exactly 10:18 pm tonight, he will be 9 years old. Those 9 years have passed by so quickly, and it has been a joy to watch my child grow and change so much over that time. I got out his first year scrapbook today and looked at his baby pictures. I noticed 2 things...

1. I am *really* glad that my scrapbooking has improved over time. ; )

and

2. It does a number on a mom's heart to look at her son's baby pictures on his ninth birthday.

To look back on Brendan's first year scrapbook is very emotional because my Brendan was a (full-term) NICU baby. It's nothing short of a miracle that he's alive. He had Group B Strep pneumonia and sepsis, and for 3 days his neonatologist wasn't really sure that he was going to make it. This is what Brendan's first few days looked like:

Every year on his birthday I think of the NICU stay, and those amazing doctors and nurses, the friends and family members that were there through it, and all the prayers that went up for him (and us) during that time. And every year I'm grateful for the blessing that he is.

Just for fun I took one of his baby pictures and merged it with a picture that I took today. It's fun to see the difference 9 years makes!

Oh No, Say It Ain't So!!

It has happened to me again. This is the second time this year. I am still in shock. I can't believe it has happened again.

The lady that does my hair has moved.

Good grief!! This is a major tragedy because the last time she colored and cut my hair she did it in such a way that in just a few days I was going to go in and say, "Do exactly what you did last time." Now I have to find somebody new...again. I hate that.

And since this seems to be a theme lately, let me just say that if anybody else is planning to disappear from my life, could you just tell me now??

This Post is For You, Bari.

My friend, Bari, lives in a state other than Texas. She's not familiar with the "charm" of Austin. I've tried to explain it to her many times, but I don't think she quite gets it. One time she was gathering food for Pat Green to perform a concert and there was this whole list of organic fruit and vegies...and a case of Miller Lite. Then she was reading to me this quiz about "How Texan Are You?" Some of the questions that were Austin-related pretty much floored her...like something about a cross dresser running for mayor and the whole "Keep Austin Weird" phenomenon.

Well, now I have proof in pictures to demonstrate Austin's charm. A couple of weeks ago we drove down 37th Street in Austin. It's a street north of the UT campus where almost every house is decorated in a rather eclectic (or Austin) way. Check this out...

Gotta love the aluminum foil dinosaur. What exactly does this have to do with Christmas??

Here we have a replica of part of the scoreboard that used to be in the Astrodome.

Here are some pretty white Christmas trees with flamingos among them. Very Christmasy!!

Look closely among the Christmas trees...those are pumpkins you see!!

Austin is known for its live music. This couple was singing Christmas carols...it was actually a very nice touch! : )

One last picture...this house looked really pretty.

I wasn't able to photograph many of the decorations...like the motorcycle decked out in lights...or the oven that had some sort of scene inside of it also covered in lights. I can't even remember all of the sights on 37th Street. You just have to see it to believe it!!

So there you go, Bari, that's a little demonstration of the uniqueness that is Austin. : )

Cute Video

This is one of the videos we took last night. That's Collin in the bottom right corner. For some weird reason when I put it on here, it has it way off center and I don't know how to fix it. But you can still see Collin in all of his cuteness...and you can see him playing with his sheep bib...not singing. Enjoy!! : )

Baaaa

Last night we had our Christmas program at preschool. The 3 year old classes were sheep and most of the 4 year old classes were angels. Since Collin is 3 he got to be a sheep. And a very cute one at that! Not that I'm biased or anything. ; ) The 5 year old class were the shepherds, wise men, Mary, Joseph, angels with speaking parts etc. They did a very nice job. Our 4's played tambourines on the first song and another 4's class played bells on one song. Our classes also did a nice job. And, yes, I played tambourine with them. Our director likes to do the Christmas program on Wednesday night in place of the Wednesday night service so that the church can come and see what we do at His Kids. I don't know how many non-family members of the kids actually attend, but I'm sure if any were there they found it to be quite entertaining.

After I played tambourine with my group of kids on the first song, I made my exit and went down to the front row (that will surprise many of you) directly in front of Collin to watch him. He had done really well in rehearsal all week, but he wasn't really into it during the program. He did the motions on the first couple of songs, and then he decided he would play with his little wooly sheep bib. So I took pictures and filmed him just sitting there, playing with the sheep bib, looking cute.

And here are the pictures.

Collin...about to not sing on a song.

His headpiece is crooked...it's kind of fitting for Collin!!

I took this one after the program with the flash on. Love the smile!!

Here I am with Collin.

Now is that the cutest little sheep you've ever seen or what??

Unfreakinbelievable!!

http://stadium.dallascowboys.com/

Christmas Pictures

Yeah...you knew they were coming. ; )

Friday night after we finally got the tree decorated, I took some pictures of the kids. I tried some new things that I have never tried before. I was pretty pleased with the results.

Brendan:

Kaelin:

Collin:

Christmas Present

Some people have been very concerned about my Christmas tree. You see, Cole put the tree up Thanksgiving weekend, but I just never got around to decorating it. Until yesterday, that is! So Bari, Jamie, and Carrie, you can relax. My Christmas tree is decorated, my children are happy, and Santa Claus can come to town!! : )

Christmas Past

A couple of days ago I was looking through last year's Christmas pictures and I came across these pictures of Collin sleeping behind/under the Christmas tree. He must have really wanted to take a nap behind the Christmas tree - he has his pillow, blanket, binkie, and his silkie. He did all of that by himself. We discovered him there when he was already asleep.

Well, Duh, Ms. Kendell!

Today at preschool I was making Christmas trees with the kids. This one particular boy whose sense of humor I have come to appreciate greatly (he happens to be the one who drew Spongebob on the ark) was at my center. I was telling him how to make the Christmas tree and apparently my instructions were too simple because he looked at me and said, "Duh!" His tone wasn't disrespectful or rude...he said it just like he was telling me the sky was blue. I looked at Carrie and told her he just said, "Duh" to me and we both laughed. It was quite funny. : )

Then during rest time another little boy who I just adore told me his eye hurt. I told him to close it and it would feel better. About 10 minutes later we realized he was asleep!! The kid has not slept during rest time the whole year!! I guess he listened when I told him to close his eye. Go figure.

Tough Day

Today is one of those days when I think if I hear one more bit of bad news I'm going to scream. Today I found out that 2 people I know have cancer. 2 people. 2 people with kids who are still in elementary school.

One of these people is a friend of mine from church. She beat stage 3 breast cancer a couple of years ago and I thought she had whipped this cancer thing. Turns out she now has bone cancer. Not good. She also has a son in 4th grade and a daughter in 3rd grade. I'm finding this hard to accept. I can't imagine how she feels.

The other person is a lady that I just met. Her son is in Kaelin's kindergarten class. She just found out she has thyroid cancer and it has metastasized to her lymph nodes. But she said her prognosis is good - thank God!

I'm so tired of that word - cancer. It's been too big a part of my life already. But today it is a part of somebody else's. Please pray for my friends.

So I Talk Like This...

I took this accents quiz that Traci has on her blog. My Texas pride took a little hit when the results showed no category for "Texas accent." I can't imagine what the people who wrote the quiz were thinking!! There really should have been a Texas accent category. We do live in our own little world here. ; )

Anyway, according to the quiz, I have a Southern Accent. That really doesn't surprise me. I certainly don't fit into the categories of The Midland, The Inland North, Philadelphia, The Northeast, The West, North Central, or Boston. Without Texas in the running, it had to be a Southern accent.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The South That's a Southern accent you've got there. You may love it, you may hate it, you may swear you don't have it, but whatever the case, we can hear it.
The Midland
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The West
North Central
Boston
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Christmas Traditions

Brendan's latest project for school was to decorate a stocking with our family's Christmas (well, the paper said "holiday," but I say Christmas) traditions. I thought this assignment was very cool. The whole family could help, which translated to...me helping Brendan. I liked that. However, he had plenty of ideas of his own, so very little of my help was needed. I asked him what traditions he had thought of and he told me what he was already thinking, and then I threw out some other ones that he hadn't remembered. Then we printed some pictures and I typed out a very special cookie recipe that has been in my family for so long that I can't even remember a Christmas without those cookies. We have a couple of traditions that are almost sacred, and we have some traditions that are more for fun. Here are some of our traditions:

1. Cole puts the star on the top of the Christmas tree.

2. Those Magic Window cookies...they're a must.

3. We open presents from each other on Christmas Eve...Santa gifts on Christmas morning.

4. Before opening presents on Christmas Eve, we read the story of Christ's birth from Luke 2.

5. We leave cookies and milk for Santa. ; )

I'll leave you with a picture of Brendan and his stocking.

Leave me a comment and tell me about some of your family's Christmas traditions! : )

This is What Cute Looks Like...

This is Collin's school picture...how cute is this kid?? : )

Friends Forever

One of the highlights of Thanksgiving weekend for me was getting to spend time with my friend, Kelly. I've known her my whole life - literally. She's 11 days older than me and we were in the church nursery together. We've been friends since before we could talk!! Since she still lives in our hometown and I don't, we don't see each other very often.

Cole and I met her and Alec and went to lunch (really tasty Mexican food) and then went to see Stranger Than Fiction, which, by the way, is the best movie that I have seen in a very long time. If you haven't seen it...go see it! Then we went and got our kids (my parents were babysitting) and hung out at her house for a while and let the kids play. They had a ball...especially Kaelin who loved playing with Brenna...the baby. I enjoyed visiting with Kelly for a while. : )

The big boys climbed up on the bed and played Game Boy.

Brenna and Kaelin:

A whole group of cute kids!

Brendan, Noah, and Connor:

Out of 5 kids, Kelly has 1 daughter. This is one special kid! Here I am with Baby Brenna:

I'm holding Brenna again, and Kelly has Kaelin (excuse Kaelin's hair...it was the end of the day and it was falling in her face!).

Good times. : )

Thanksgiving Pictures

It's December, but I'm just now putting up some pictures from Thanksgiving. There hasn't been much time in the last week to be on the computer, so I'm writing my Thanksgiving blogpost now.

We spent Thanksgiving at my grandpa's house in Brenham. In attendance were my parents, my grandpa, us (of course), my brother and his family, and my cousin Kelly. Lots of people...lots of kids...lots of fun!! We had the traditional turkey and dressing meal. I made the dressing and my mom said it was the best she's ever tasted. Quite a compliment I would say!

Pictures from Turkey Day:

Thanksgiving Feast...Part 2

Today Kaelin had her Thanksgiving feast at school. It was more of a big snack really. Here is what they had to eat:

That's a cornbread muffin in her hand. And please notice the amazing artwork on the placemat. Kaelin did that herself. : )

To add some cuteness to the feast, Kaelin's class got to dress up. She had on a headdress and a vest. Here is a picture of her attire:

The entire kindergarten (6 classes, I think) was out in the hall sitting down together at the feast. It was very cute! And the hallway after the kids were finished eating...well, it looked like the entire kindergarten just had a Thanksgiving feast. Food was everywhere! But the kids enjoyed it and it was actually pretty easy to clean up.

One more picture of Kaelin:



Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!!

Thanksgiving Feast...Part 1

'Tis the season for Thanksgiving feasts with the kids. Collin's was yesterday. They do a really nice job at preschool. We have a catered meal. The problem for me is I had it 2 days in a row because his class had their feast yesterday and my class had their meal today. That's a lot of turkey and dressing in 2 days!!

Anyway...Collin came in wearing this adorable headband made of handprints (feathers) and he had made a turkey with tailfeathers with something that he is thankful for (see previous post...I told you we do that a lot this time of year in preschool) written on each one. I would like to point out that the entire family did make a thankful feather on this turkey. I don't know if there was any coaching from his teachers, but I would like to think that there was not. : ) Cole and I were on one feather and Brendan and Kaelin were on another. I'm not even going to say what was on the other 3. ; )

Yes...there are pictures of Collin in the adorable headband.

Collin and Cole

The 3 of us.

Here's Collin with his buddy Sam...aren't they cute??