Holiday Memory #1

My friend Melanie is hosting a Holdiay Memories Challenge over at ScrapAddict this month and I am going to try to keep up with her and do the challenges because I do think it is a great idea to get those memories down somewhere (even if it is just on my blog) and it really gets me thinking about the holidays and maybe will even help put me in more of a holiday mood.

Holiday Memory Challenge #1 = The Reason for the Season

What special types of holiday worship, if any, do you engage in? Do you do something every week (or every day) or do you just go to church on Christmas Day? Does this have a special meaning for you? This isn’t meant to be a guilt trip for whether or not you do anything at all, but merely an account of what and why you do what you do. Remember to take a photo that symbolizes what this season means for you, too.

I remember growing up that church was a very big part of the Christmas season for us. I remember the advent wreath and lighting the pretty candles each week. Maybe it was just because I went to Catholic school but as I have gotten older and the years have passed I have noticed that the Christmas shopping season seems to get earlier and earlier every year and it makes me not like Christmas a little more. Don't get me wrong, I love getting presents and getting to play Santa Claus but I feel like Christmas is getting shoved down my throat and I don't like that.
We are not an overly religious family, we go to church when we can and this year I finally dug out the nativity set again and put it up. I haven't for the last couple of years because the kids were too little and I was always afraid they would break it but I have decided who cares if they do play with it, it may just get them asking questions and us talking about the nativity set and why we celebrate Christmas. The nativity set is just ceramic dolls that can be replaced if broken, but my kids learning about the birth of Jesus Christ is important to me.

And just like when I was little we will put the baby Jesus out in the nativity set on Christmas Eve and maybe I will learn to like Christmas a little bit this year.

So Who Says Bracelets Are For Girls...

especially when they are made of candy, right!!!??


Well I got my newest toy, a little MPEG4 video camera. The little thing is awesome, it takes videos directly to a memory stick. I have tons of those little tapes from other video cameras but I never did anything with them but this is so easy to download to the computer so I may actually use it more!! Plus now I can share with the Grandparents. :)

A GIANT Step in the Right Direction!!

Evan sat on the potty tonight without any pressure from either of us parental units. He wanted to sit on the ducky seat on the big potty. Nothing happened but he did do it all by himself!!

YAY!! My days of paying for diapers may soon be at an end.

**I would have taken pictures but then I thought nah let the kid have some privacy!**

Colorstrology

My friend Debbie got this book that talks about colorstrology and how your birthday is linked to a color and how your personality is linked and stuff.

Well anyways she scanned in my page for me to see and here it is.

I don't know about Mystical but the description does fit me pretty good and I have to say I do like the color a lot.

Early Christmas

Ever since hubby and I moved away from home my parents have always come to visit us at Thanksgiving and then we put up the tree after Thanksgiving dinner so the next day we can also celebrate Christmas since we won't be together. My parents like to see people open their gifts and I like opening gifts so it all works out for the best.

Well the boys made out like bandits. They loved their gifts, even the clothes!!
Evan got:
2 Cars Megabloks sets from Grandma and Grandpa
a Cars puzzle from Aunt Sally
Cars slippers from Grandma and Grandpa
Cars PJs (notice the theme here) from Grandma and Grandpa
the original Memory game from Cousin Evelyn
blue jeans and a Tigger outfit from Grandma and Granpa

Ian got:
2 Star Wars figures (Chewy and Yoda) from Grandma and Grandpa
a watch from Grandpa and Grandma
Army slippers from Grandma and Grandpa
blue jeans and a Spider Man outfit from Grandma and Grandpa
Spider Man PJs from Grandma and Grandpa
Hi Ho Cherrio game from Cousin Evelyn
Kindergarten coloring book from Aunt Sally
Some space books from Aunt Sally

Then together Grandpa also got them a remote controlled mini car, a handheld video game and some wireless headphones.

And Evan got from Aunt Sally Uncle Ryan and Cousin Evelyn some more puzzles for his birthday.

Talk about a haul. And that was just the kids, hubby and I got a bunch of stuff too. We got:
new bath rugs
a new rug for outside
I got new headphones for my iPod
DH got a new watch
I got some more rustic stars for on the wall
a cover for our pretty grill
and a food processor (so we now have a totally stocked kitchen, just to find something to process!)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

My parents came down to visit us this week so that is why I haven't been updating as regularly as I should (yes I am using that as my excuse this week LOL).

We took them to the Riverwalk and the Alamo Monday. And then just hung out and did some shopping the rest of the week until time to eat our Rudy's BBQ turkey for Thanksgiving. I have to say it was really nice just having to reheat turkey instead of suffering with the smell of it in the house all day long. We made all the usual side dishes to go with it, real mashed potatoes, green bean cassarole, gravy (lots of gravy), stuffing, pumpkin pie. It was really good, sorry but I wasn't in scrapbooker mode and I forgot to take a picture. Yikes I know!! I am that out of practice.

But anyways, I hope that you had a great holiday. We put up my Christmas tree on Thanksgiving day and then after dinner we let Evan open up his birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa. He loved his Lightning McQueen helmet and pads. :)

MSP Gathering 2007

At our first gathering ever we had to get a picture of all of us in front of a statue of Eisenhower. This year we decided to get another group picture in front of another statue. I think this was Frost but I am not sure. We thought it was Robert E Lee since it was outside the Robert E Lee hotel but the sign said something different.

Still got that funny camera angle going on in this picture even though we had a gorilla pod with us and didn't have to perch the camera on a bench. I kind of like the angle though.

What a great weekend we had, I am so glad to be with my friends again.

Meeting With Friends

Our first night together in San Antonio, I took my friends to my favorite Tex Mex resturant in town Tomatillos. We met Melanie there too. We had such a great time and could have sat around all night talking but the resturant was filling up fast and I could see lots of people waiting so we finally got up and the four of us went back to our hotel to figure out what we wanted to do that night and ended up falling asleep.

Ian Made the Newspaper!!

We went to the air show at Randolph Air Force Base this weekend to see the Golden Knights jump and after they jumped one of them walked over to us and high 5’ed Ian and then they all were going to be signing autographs so I asked Ian if he wanted to go and meet them and he said yes so we went over and they were still packing up their chutes and Ian just kept creeping over to the guy who high 5’ed him until he was right next to him and the guy started talking to him and asked him if he wanted to help. Of course Ian said yes (you know cause he is so shy and all)! Well then the newspaper lady came over and talked to Ian and they took some pictures. The article made it into the newspaper but the pictures didn’t. It was so cool. Now of course all Ian can talk about is being a Golden Knight. I guess there are worse things for him to want to be. He got an autographed poster from all the golden Knights there and a key chain thing.

Here is the link to the article. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/stories/MYSA110507.01B.goldenknights.336382d.html

Timmy the Turtle Weekend

This weekend Ian got to be the first to bring Timmy the Turtle home to take care of. It is really a cute little exercise for them to do in Kindergarten. They get to take Timmy home and have him do things with them during the weekend and then they have to write in Timmy's journal what they did. Well being a scrapbooker I decided to add pictures to Ian's journal. Here is Ian and Timmy at my friend's little girl's last soccer game (Ian is all signed up for spring soccer by the way too -- I am offically going to become a soccer mom!!).

Then today we took the boys to the air show over at Randolph Air Force Base. They loved it, Ian got to help one of the Golden Knights pack his parachute and may be in tomorrow's newspaper because the newspaper reporter took his picture helping the Golden Knight "CK" and interviewed Ian about whether he wanted to be in the army or the air force when he grows up. He also got to try on one of the Army's football team jersey and helmet. And he got his picture taken with Timmy wearing the football gear!

Pictures from October

Just some misc pictures from October that I took but didn't share on my blog. I have a friend who is so good about posting pictures from each day and my goal this month is to try to do that at least every other day.

The kids at the children's carnival at one of the places that has a preschool in the area. Ian and Evan with some of their friends (yes Evan is in the picture, he just didn't want to sit LOL).

Ian getting his face painted at the carnival.

I took Evan to visit the deer in the Quad over on Fort Sam Houston with my friend and Evan's "girlfriend". The kids were totally not afraid of the deer and it was so cool how they would eat right out of their hands.

Ian got invited to a halloween party at an art studio. The artist made him a light saber out of some paper towel rolls. Notice Ian is the only boy, he loved it!!!

Ian and his teacher after the Storybook Costume parade.

Our carved pumpkin (with my little pumpkins). Evan didn't want to get the gooey stuff on him but Ian jumped right in and pulled out the guts.

Halloween night, the boys went trick or treating around the neighborhood while mommy stayed home and passed out candy and later that night mommy's friend and her girls came over to help.

Thanks for looking, I promise to post more pictures on the day that I take them this month!!