I am having so much fun playing with my new Christmas toys! I also received the Wacom Grapphire Tablet from my parents.

That plus the PhotoBooth program equals lots of fun for Meg!

I used some of my Christmas money to buy a new lens for my camera. I love it! Here is the first picture I took with it, right at the camera store.

Here are my favorite of the boys so far:

And here are a few from my afternoon with Staci and Juli Beth. We get together every year at Christmas time. I love our yearly catch-ups. They are some of my very best friends and I feel so blessed by them. Every time we get together, it’s just like the old times. We pick up right where we left off. Friends like that are truly priceless.

They have both had babies since our visit last year. In fact, it was during out lunch last year when Staci announced she was pregnant! Such a fun memory. She was the last of us to have kids. I am so happy that I got to meet and hold and cuddle Brody and Joseph.

I love this picture of Juli Beth and Brody.

It was a magical, fantastic, wonderful Christmas day. The boys had so much fun opening and playing with their presents. Their reactions to the loot Santa left was priceless. Derek got to play with his new toy (an xbox 360) and I got to play with my new toy (a MacBook). It was a relaxing, slow paced day with no major time frames or commitments. It was perfect.

Tomorrow we are packing up the ol’ party van and heading north to spend some time with our families. It’s going to be 5 days of family, friends, laughter, and fun. I can’t wait!

can anyone guess what I received for Christmas??

It fascinates me to think about the fact that in Australia, my dad celebrates Christmas in the middle of the summer. I felt a little bit Australian today, because this was our day.

(click if you want to see it bigger)

Schlitterbahn Galveston has an indoor park, and it was such a fabulous way to celebrate Connor’s birthday. It’s so trippy to walk into a waterpark wearing sweats and jackets (I believe it was in the high 50s when we arrived.) But it really is fun, and even better, Schlitterbahn is definitely not a hot spot on December 23rd! We never once had to wait in a line. The indoor part is fairly small-there are only 4 big slides, a raging river (like the lazy river but with waves-so fun!), a huge hot tub, and 2 kiddie areas. The kids had an absolute blast, and since I am a total waterpark freak, I had a great time too. I think that even Derek, Mr. I just can’t get into going to a waterpark in the winter, had fun. This is something that I will definitely keep in mind for the years to come.

Tomorrow my Connor will be 4. Hard to believe…4 years ago at this time I was in the hospital. I think for tomorrow’s blog post I will be forced to dig out a few pics of Connor from the early years.

Happy Christmas Eve’s Eve!

I think I may have mentioned before that Connor and Logan have started playing together. Like actual playing, laughing and having fun. Together. In the same room. I have waited nealy 21 months for this. Maybe some people are lucky enough to get two kiddos who love to play together from birth, but let’s just say that we were not so lucky in that area.

Anyway.

They were playing together happily on Planet Connor (that’s what we call his room now.) I heard a bit of banging, so I went back to remind them not to throw toys. “Okay, mom.” And they happily played for quite some time.

Fast forward several hours later. Derek and Connor head back to clean Planet Connor, and I am summoned. Appearantly, Planet Connor is at least a 3 person job that night. Because my boys decided to dump toys all over his room. Wall to wall lincoln logs, blocks, trucks, costumes, legos, books..you get the idea. So I ask Connor what happened. And he replies, “Well, me and Logan decided to play space shuttle Challenger. That’s the one that blew up, you know.”

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I offically finished Christmas shopping today! I spent the afternoon shopping all by myself, and it was fantastic. In about 3.5 hours I went to 5 stores, and even had a peaceful lunch. Now all of the presents are wrapped and under the tree. I can’t wait for Christmas!

I have started blogging like 3 times, and every time I start it just sounds boring. And if it’s boring to me, then it is certainly boring to you guys! I finally got around to getting the pics off my camera from our trip to Arlington last week. Here are a few of my favorites:

the kiddos waiting to sit with Santa.

Mr. GQ…

Who turned into Mr. I Hate Santa Clause.

The scene captured here just seems so typcial of me and the boys. I can’t remember exactly what I was saying, but I know I wanted to get a picture of us with Santa and Logan was still traumatized and Connor was being…well…Connor about the whole thing.

I had our sitter take a picture of us before our date last night (which was of course really fun.) Connor felt the need to be in the pic with us.

And then insisted of taking one of us himself. I like how Logan is in this one with us.

And, finally, a pretty cute one of the boys. Those are extremely hard to come by! Oh, and please notice their outfits and how sweaty Connor is. This was taken Saturday…which was what…the 16th of December? Welcome to Houston…

More blogging tomorrow. I have a few Christmas related things I want to write about and remember.
Only 6 more sleeps til Christmas!

I have started blogging like 3 times, and every time I start it just sounds boring. And if it’s boring to me, then it is certainly boring to you guys! I finally got around to getting the pics off my camera from our trip to Arlington last week. Here are a few of my favorites:

the kiddos waiting to sit with Santa.

Mr. GQ…

Who turned into Mr. I Hate Santa Clause.

The scene captured here just seems so typcial of me and the boys. I can’t remember exactly what I was saying, but I know I wanted to get a picture of us with Santa and Logan was still traumatized and Connor was being…well…Connor about the whole thing.

I had our sitter take a picture of us before our date last night (which was of course really fun.) Connor felt the need to be in the pic with us.

And then insisted of taking one of us himself. I like how Logan is in this one with us.

And, finally, a pretty cute one of the boys. Those are extremely hard to come by! Oh, and please notice their outfits and how sweaty Connor is. This was taken Saturday…which was what…the 16th of December? Welcome to Houston…

More blogging tomorrow. I have a few Christmas related things I want to write about and remember.
Only 6 more sleeps til Christmas!

I have started blogging like 3 times, and every time I start it just sounds boring. And if it’s boring to me, then it is certainly boring to you guys! I finally got around to getting the pics off my camera from our trip to Arlington last week. Here are a few of my favorites:

the kiddos waiting to sit with Santa.

Mr. GQ…

Who turned into Mr. I Hate Santa Clause.

The scene captured here just seems so typcial of me and the boys. I can’t remember exactly what I was saying, but I know I wanted to get a picture of us with Santa and Logan was still traumatized and Connor was being…well…Connor about the whole thing.

I had our sitter take a picture of us before our date last night (which was of course really fun.) Connor felt the need to be in the pic with us.

And then insisted of taking one of us himself. I like how Logan is in this one with us.

And, finally, a pretty cute one of the boys. Those are extremely hard to come by! Oh, and please notice their outfits and how sweaty Connor is. This was taken Saturday…which was what…the 16th of December? Welcome to Houston…

More blogging tomorrow. I have a few Christmas related things I want to write about and remember.
Only 6 more sleeps til Christmas!

Seven years ago I was here:

Happy Anniversary, my love!

Today, I was here:

I had to go to the mall to finish up a little Christmas shopping. Connor informed me that he needed to sit with Santa again because he had changed his mind about what he wants. No longer is a real Apollo 13 astronaut helmet number one on his list. Now he wants a new model space shuttle, since his broke. Lucky for Connor, Santa had held off on purchasing the helmet, and he might just be able to get that space shuttle. I seriously can’t wait for his eyes to totally light up Christmas morning when he sees his shuttle!

And here’s a happy little Christmas story for you all. I hadn’t planned on buying a pic of Connor with Santa. Connor didn’t want one taken, and honestly, it’s a total rip off, right? Well, they took his pic anyway, and of course then Connor wanted it. I decided to just go ahead and buy it-the Santa was totally realistic looking. Plus I love the C dressed himself this morning in his Bob the Bulider shorts, NASA Halloween costume shirt, and Chuck Taylors. We had a really fun morning, and the pic would be a nice keepsake. So I pull out my wallet, and the nice woman working there says, “Oh, I just want to give this to you. I know you weren’t planning on buying it. Just have a Merry Christmas!” It just made me so happy! What a great little act of kindness. It totally makes me want to find someone to bless like that.

I love Christmas!

I just got the BEST phone call ever! I entered a scrapbook contest a few weeks ago sponsered by Piggy Tales . The contest was to make a mini-album about yourself. I have had this idea in my head to make a mini-album about the soundtrack of my life for quite some time, and this contest was the perfect push to get me to make this. So I entered, not really thinking I had a chance.

Well, guess what??!!! I won the grand prize, which includes $500 cash and $100 worth of Piggy Tales product! I am in such shock! I mean, I liked my album…but I didn’t think it was grand prize worthy at all. I am SO happy! What a fabulous way to start the afternoon!

Here is my album. If you click on the pics, it should make them big enough so you can read my life story if you want to! Thanks for letting me share my excitement!!