The Christmas Tour

We had what I like to call a progressive Christmas...we started off Christmas morning at our house, then went to Tim & Pam's for a late lunch, and finished off our wonderful day with dessert at Bryan & Sarah's. Then the following day my dad, Ann, and my grandfather came in to visit. We were busy, but we truly had an awesome Christmas and are so thankful to have been able to share it with all of our family.

Matt received a tent/fort/tunnel for Christmas that he and the cat both have thoroughly enjoyed since. We are also now owners of so many toys that I have no idea what to do with all of them. And we only have one child! Matthew enjoyed ripping off the paper of everyone's gifts, emptying our stockings & then organizing all the candy he found inside them, and grazing on food all day. Over at Tim & Pam's I got an awesome new coffee maker (Yes!!!), Pam got these crazy martini glasses & plastic ice cubes that light up (Matt loved them), and the boys enjoyed doing what they do best...playing video games.

After a heavenly lunch with some of the best turkey I've ever had, we headed out to Bryan & Sarah's for phase 3 of Christmas. Upon gift opening, Steven received his second (that's right!) Wii of the day. Never in a million years would I have guessed that Steven's mother of all people would have purchased him a Wii and games to go along with it. And that she Ebay-ed the thing!!! Apparently Bryan never guessed it either because he bought Steven a Wii too. Steven of course was all smiles. Gee, who's the favorite and always the darling of Christmas since his birthday is so close to Christmas? Mmm-hmm. But, not to be outdone Bryan received Rock Band, and he had already bought himself one prior to Christmas. I'm sorry, but who in their right mind buys themself a big toy like that right before Christmas?? Ugh. But, we sure had fun playing with it! Here is proof that Steven can and will sing with a microphone. I love how unnatural and awkward the microphone looks in his hands. Heee.

My favorite Ava pic from the night and my favorite Matt & Ava moment of the night:

After we sang happy birthday to Jesus Matt ate his cupcake in 2 bites. Gross. I personally like Mary Claire in her fabulous new princess dress. Those sleeves are bigger than she is.

Wednesday we had a Moran family Christmas here at our house and enjoyed time with my dad, Ann, and my grandfather. There was lots of running, swinging, duck-duck-goose playing, and wagon-riding going on in the back yard. We ate a yummy mexican food dinner, opened gifts, played, and had a good time watching Caroline & Mary Claire have a go at the Wii.

Mary Claire can fish and Caroline can bowl.

We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends and to have been blessed with such a joyful Christmas. We pray that all of you had a nice Christmas and a joyful time celebrating the birth of our Savior. Bring on the New Year!

The Aftermath

I'm pretty sure Steven had a good birthday. Yesterday was a gorgeous, chilly, blustery day that began with a delicious bbq lunch at the Salt Lick. Steven claims he hasn't been there since Matt was still in the womb. Crazy. We stuffed ourselves silly, and Steven even got some birthday blackberry cobbler. We almost had to wheel him out of there. It looks like Matt didn't like what was on his plate, but he did a pretty good job.

We came home and put the kids to bed and played some video games. Matthew woke up after an unusually short nap, and then it was time for cake (or if you're Matt: "cayke" with a drawl) & presents. Steven got some funny t-shirts and a boat-load of old country music that drives me up the wall. Heeeee.

Caroline & Mary Claire joined us shortly thereafter, and we quickly decided it was time to go to the park. We had a great time running, swinging, sliding, climbing, and making hot chocolate from piles of tiny rocks. Not to mention shivering! It was freezing with the wind. I think everyone had a runny nose. We came back home and warmed up and soon our crowd fizzled out. Steven & I cuddled up that night and watched Rudolph together. Memories! That song "Silver & Gold" cracks me up and makes me think of my brother. Ask him to sing it some time.

Tomorrow poor ol' Steve has to work until 5 so he'll miss out on our delicious spread of eats but will be there in time to meet us at church for the Christmas Eve service. We look forward to celebrating the birth of our Savior, and we wish you all a very, Merry Christmas!!!!

Rock on Old Man

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVEN!!! We're headed out to the Salt Lick tomorrow for his big birthday lunch...we'll give you the report post BBQ coma.

The Tiny Angel Sings

Last night I attended Mary Claire's preschool Christmas program. I was in charge of preserving the night's memories with our video camera. Sadly, we got there way too late to get a prime seat for video recording, but I did by best to find Mary Claire between all the bobbing heads in front of me. Mary Claire was an angel; white robe and gold, sparkly halo. The best was watching her play with her hair and stuff her arms inside her robe before it began. Once the music started she sang along with every word and joined in on all the hand motions. It was so cute. I tried to keep my eye on Caroline who was beside me on the edge of her seat at full attention trying to mouth all the words. Mary Claire did a fantastic job and I'm so glad that I got to be there to see her. She was definitely proud of herself, and on the way home she was teaching Caroline all the songs. Here's our pizza dinner prior to the show: And somehow I neglected to include photos from Tyler's birthday last weekend...not sure how I forgot because Matthew had a blast and is still singing Tyler happy birthday everyday. Tyler got some awesome birthday balloons that all the kids enjoyed. Matthew kept trying to steer them toward the fan, naughty boy.

He also was very interested in Tyler's presents. I find it funny because on his birthday he didn't pay attention to the gift opening hardly at all. He really wanted to see what Tyler was getting; he kept pulling out tissue paper from bags and handing John more gifts to open.

Tyler seemed to be unsure about the happy birthday serenade at first, but he definitely warmed up to the idea of cake.

The Trail

Last night we (along with the Reners) decided to brave the crowds and venture down to Zilker Park to see the fabulous Trail of Lights. After negotiating a parking spot (and seeing a side of Steven I don't see too often) we walked into Chuy's to learn that the wait was nearly 2 hours. No thanks! We walked down the street to Shady Grove where the wait was a much more friendly 30 min. We exercised Matt & Ava on the grassy area in front of the restaurant while we waited. Watching them run and chase each other and fall down and laugh is really a hilarious sight. Tired and on empty after all that exertion, Matt quickly turned his focus to letting us know he was hungry. He'd grab mine or Steven's hand and lead us to the entrance of the restaurant and say, "Eat!!" He didn't understand why we were waiting. But the wait gave us some good picture opportunities.

These are my favorites:

Then it was our turn to eat finally!!!

And then our adorable children munching on limes.

After a quick stop by the car to change a thoroughly soaked diaper and retrieve the stroller, we were on our way to the lights! Matt sat reclined in his stroller sucking his thumb and exclaiming about what he saw now and then. "I see snowman! I see Pooh! I see Piglet! More lights! Music!" He definitely enjoyed all the sights and sounds.

I know Ava liked it, too. But, after all that excitement and the fact that it was 9:00 p.m. and our children were still awake we opted to skip out on spinning under the tree. Hopefully next year! We drove home and Matt fell immediately to sleep once reunited with his bed. I know he'll be talking about the "Chrissuss lights" for weeks to come.

Chrissuss Tree

Matthew LOVES the Christmas tree. He likes to point out all the gingerbread men, snowmen and stockings that he sees. He also likes to find the Pooh and Piglet ornaments and squeal with delight. When the tree first went up he was really not interested in touching it. But now he's taken to putting his little fingers on the glass ornaments and sort of petting them. He knows he shouldn't do it because the entire time he has this devilish look on his face that's hilariously cute. However, it was not so cute when I was taking a shower the other day and a little arm pulled the curtain back and thrust a red ornament at me. He didn't say anything which is odd. I was expecting an uh-oh or something...but no words came; just wide eyes. I asked him to go put it back and he toddled off only to return seconds later still with the ornament in his hands. He thrust it at me again and said, "Mommy hold it." Alright, fine. So I guess I'll shower with an ornament, whatever. Another time while I was getting dressed recently (are we seeing a pattern here for misbehavior while I'm busy??) Matt came running up to me and said, "Uh-oh Jesus!!" while pointing in the direction of the other room. Curious, I followed his lead into the living room where he said, "Jesus fall down." There on the floor was baby Jesus and a donkey from my wooden nativity scene display. I think it's funny that he tattled on himself.

And then here is Matt brushing his hair right after his bath before church yesterday morning. He loves to climb up on his step stool which he calls "beeg seps" (big steps) and admire himself in the mirror and make silly faces while conversing with his reflection.

Pooh Balloons

This was so funny, it was hard for me to stop laughing so I could snap a picture. So, Matthew has been enjoying certain websites lately (namely Thomas the Train & Winnie the Pooh) thanks to a certain mother-in-law of mine (who is wonderful & I love her!!) and requests to view them multiple times a day. Actually, any time he walks by the computer he asks, or begs rather, to see either pictures of Ma-moo or Thomas or Pooh balloons. This afternoon I honored his request and sat here with him and looked at the Pooh site and did some of the games, although all he's really interested in is seeing the part where Pooh and his friends are just standing there with balloons waving at you. I finally just left it on that page and got up and left Matt standing there. He grinned and said, "I see Pooh balloons!!!" while pointing excitedly at the screen. I went about my business, and he stood there a minute and then I saw him toddle off. He came back from his room with his Pooh book (which strangely enough is a book I gave Steven when we were dating...that's another story) and propped it up on the computer desk. He went through all the pages of the book exclaiming, "I see Pooh!!" while pointing from the book to the computer screen where Pooh was still waving at him. I was dying. SO cute.

And then this is from yesterday after our visit to the grocery store. I had to buy some new spices, and since I was pretty sure Matt couldn't figure out how to open them I let him play with them. We had also polished off a half gallon of milk that morning. So he sprinkled spices in his milk jug and stacked cans and talked to himself and just had the best time while sitting in the kitchen as I put away the groceries. He then decided it would be a brilliant idea to take the whole operation over to the coffee table. One by one he transferred each item to the living room like a little one-person relay darting here and there. Hysterical. He continued his imaginative play until the cat came strolling along. Matt has really had some sharing issues with the cat lately, it's quite funny. And puzzling. Outraged that the cat was sniffing his milk jug he said, "no kitty!!!" and tried to push him off the table. This also happens whenever Matt is sitting down with a bowl of snacks or his milk and the cat walks by. Or when Moses picks a fight with Matt's birthday balloon (yes, that balloon is still clinging to life - best $2 I ever spent). He worries about what that cat is doing all the time. We know that he loves him though because he always asks to "brush kitty" first thing in the morning before Steven & I can hardly open our eyes.

Owee

Our weekend was nice. We did finally get our tree, and now it's all decorated after a late night search for white lights first at Lowe's (just multi-color, thankyouverymuch) and then Hobby Lobby. The latter of which was jam-packed right before closing and I stood in line for a good 20 minutes. Typical Hobby Lobby experience, am I right? But I got the darn lights. Next year I will not foolishly assume and have blind faith that the previous year's lights are all in functioning order after lying dormantly in storage bins all year. Ugh.

Joy's annual cookie party was a delightful bash as always where I snacked on way too much food and left little room for eating all those yummy cookies which I am now having to share with my husband. My favorite from the night? Something called a peppermint chocolate cheesecake bar; absolutely divine!

Today was quite a day. Tomorrow the Arc of TX is going to have a truck in the neighborhood, so I was inspired to clean out my remaining closets. I knew I had some good blankets and sheets to give away. Matt did a great job entertaining himself for the most part. He'd check on me and want to help occasionally, especially once I got the step ladder out. I kept my eye on him of course, and then I saw him push on the side that folds it up and down he went right with the ladder. Screaming ensued and I saw his little fingers wedged in the hinges. He then reinforced by saying, "Fingers!!! Hurt!" through his choking sobs. No broken finger bones nor even broken skin, but a scared little boy was what sat sulking in my lap. Poor baby. He got it together quickly after taking a look at himself in the mirror and examining his fingers over and over again. Yep, they're still there! Here's Matthew playing with "babies" in bed after he woke up from his nap.

This afternoon we went out in the backyard to get some fresh air--more like muggy warm air, but whatever. Wasn't it just cold yesterday? What happened?? Anyway...Matt had fun playing with the stereo, stuffing pecans in his mouth, and swinging. I took him for a ride in his wagon around the porch and he giggled the whole time. Naturally, he likes to go fast. I started taking the turns a little faster. He gripped onto the sides. And I knew it was going to happen. And it did. I went so fast I tumped my poor little child right out of the wagon and onto the concrete!! I'm a terrible mother, and I know "they" are coming to get me right now. His head was sacrificed and took the brunt of the fall, so he's got a good bump on there now. We looked at it in the mirror and the remainder of the night he wanted to see his "owee". But, his owee didn't prevent him from completing his marathon of running laps around the table all evening. Exhausted from his unusually traumatic day, he was in bed and asleep at 10 till 7:00. What will tomorrow hold?

Poor Little Lamb

This action packed week has flown by! Tuesday Joy & I paid a visit to Alicia and her two boys. Baby Ryan is SO cute and is obviously doing his best to maintain and enhance his chubby cheeks. I think Tyler was relieved to have some company, and Matt & Ava did a nice job of going through ALL of his many, many toys and books. This was the first time in many months though that Matt didn't go in to full-on crying hysterics when I held the baby. He didn't seem to care at all. I wonder what changed his mind?

Wednesday Joy and I had a marathon shopping day. Our sweet husbands watched the kids while we hit the streets trying to put a good dent in our Christmas shopping lists. And what shopping trip would be complete without running into John Hampton in the mall of all places in the middle of a work day? It was crazy. Joy & I had some great success and got a lot accomplished. I really have very little shopping left to do, hooray!!!

Wednesday was also Pam's 30-something birthday. She keeps saying that she's almost 40 which is totally untrue. Unless she really needs this many years to prep for that major milestone, I don't know! We had a lovely night at China Town with Tim, Pam, and the Reners. And it was my first time to try sushi! Unbelievable, no? Well, my husband was never excited to try it so somehow I never did either but have always wanted to. We sat at the bar and had some yummy appetizers and bevs and then transitioned to our table. Joy and Steven ended up sharing some Chinese while the rest of us enjoyed the sushi. Although, I will say that there at the end Steven got brave and tried some tuna and didn't even have to spit it in his napkin. I was so proud of him! We came back to our house where Joyce was watching our sleeping children and watched Pam open all her loot. I'm most envious of her genuine Fiestaware colander. You can only get those things on Ebay, and that's exactly how Joyce found it. It's awesome. It was an enjoyable evening, and I think we helped celebrate Pam's birthday in style.

Yesterday morning was the conclusion to my Bible study that's been meeting every week for the entire fall. It was a brunch with different speakers from the church, a share time, singing, and a re-enactment of the nativity scene by all the kids. I was told weeks prior that Matt was going to be a sheep and that he would be in the program too even though he's just barely 2. This was amusing to me. I was then told that we could invite anyone we wanted to join us on the day of the brunch. I told our family and friends and everyone wanted to come see Matt's sheep performance. So, Steven & I, Ken & Joyce, Pam, Zach & Joy all took up a table. When it was finally time for the children to file in I watched as all the parents and family members in attendance rose to their feet and jockeyed for position as a strange hush fell over the crowd and the kids took their spots. You can see that Matthew was labeled a lamb. I think it's hilarious that they slapped a piece of paper on their fronts. Matthew sat down quietly and sat still for a few seconds. His eyes scanned all around him and then he spotted our table with cameras flashing and adoring, excited smiles. He saw Zach & Joy and said, "Ava??" Ava was back in the child-care room still. Then it was, "Mommy??" His face began to wrinkle up and turn red as he sat there most likely wondering why a table full of his favorite people were just sitting there staring at him and not rushing over to get him. He was getting visibly upset, so one of the workers grabbed him and brought him over to me. He was to the point where he could hardly catch his breath he was so upset, so he sat in my lap sucking his thumb until he calmed down. The music part of the program began and I asked him if he wanted to get down and show us his dance moves and he quickly shook his head and said no. Once it was over he was whisked back to child-care quite unhappily. The sequence of events went down pretty much as I expected them to. I figured that once he spotted us he'd freak, and that is basically what happened. It was still fun to watch though. Maybe next year he'll be promoted to a donkey!

This afternoon Matt & I will be headed to HEB yet again, and then after Steven gets home we're going to finally get our Christmas tree!!! Yay!!! Can't wait to see how Matt reacts to the ornaments this year. Complete destruction I predict.

Keen Up

I love this. Matthew has become more and more of an imitator of what Steven & I (and strangers as well) say and do. It can be all at once hilarious and then scary...because it is a direct reflection of ourselves. It's unbelievable what he picks up on and how his little mind processes things. So this is a photo from yesterday just before lunch when I was running around doing I don't even remember what, and I saw Matt squeezing his arm in the small opening in the child-locked cabinet under the kitchen sink. He pulled out my dobie pad, and I almost went and snatched it but thought better of it and just watched him. He rubbed that scrubber on every square inch of cabinetry, refrigerator, dishwasher, etc. in that kitchen. I tried not to let him know I was watching because that usually ceases any of his imaginative play. He was happily talking to himself, and I heard the occasional sing-songy "keen-up!!" as he was busily cleaning the cabinetry. Once I ran over to take a picture of him he looked at me in anticipation of being chastised I could tell and he gripped harder to the scrubber. I just laughed at him and applauded his cleaning efforts.

He also has some noteworthy phrases as of late that leave me wondering where in the world he picked them up. Okay, some of them I know are from me. But still. It's funny. For example:

"oh goodness!", "hey dude!", "oh man", "oh no guys", "how 'bout" (that one he gets from me...I say that while rifling through his books making a bedtime reading selection), "that's so funny", "stop it!" (that he learned at the gym child care today...thanks, guys), etc. Little parrot.

And then there is one of my favorite times of year; yes I love the holidays of course...but I'm talking about that special time of year when Central Market sends out a coupon for free stuff. I love shopping there anyway, and it's so easy to spend the $40 or $50 they require to qualify for the product advertised on the coupon. Last year I got a very nice Wustof chef's knife (so did a few of you others out there I know!) and some cool salad tongs. And yesterday I just went and got my 3 piece paring knife set! Is it ridiculous that I get excited about "free" kitchen odds and ends? Probably so, but I just love the stuff. And a side note on that particular visit: I got some cashews in the bulk dept. because Matt loves them & I thought he could munch on them while we shopped. I sat the opened container in front of him and he happily munched. We rounded the corner to the dairy section after a few minutes and he laid eyes on the wall of milk. "Meeeyulk!!!" he shouted while twisting his body around so he could point to it and giggle while his sweeping arm sent the container of nuts tumbling to the floor. Ugh. Thankfully, it somehow landed on its bottom, and a bunch of them were in Matt's lap so I was able to salvage most of the nuts. But there I was picking up cashews off the floor of the grocery store while my son worried about all the stray nuts while still exclaiming about the milk, yogurt and coffee creamer in his view. It was an awesome afternoon.

Matthew Funny

Just look at that sweet little boy. Yesterday Matt & I came home from the gym to find Steven in the back yard fighting the on-going battle that is the Leaves. He raked and mulched and vacuumed the whole yard. Matt had fun crunching around in the leaves and posing for the camera. We used to have a tradition in his first year of life where we'd place Matt in front of the tree in the back yard and take his picture every month. Well, we haven't done that since he turned 1. And now that he's 2, this is Matt with his tree:

Matthew does lots of silly things that cracks himself up and he'll giggle & laugh and say, "Ma-moo funny!" Here he is attempting to throw his big ball...and you can probably guess that the ball went backward rather than forward. He loves to flop on top of that ball on his belly and roll around; always tumbling to the floor. He'll kind of bounce a little and then fall off, it's awesome.

And then there's Matt's latest infatuation with Lincoln Logs. We play with them multiple times a day and build lots of cool log cabins. Steven always works hard using all the pieces to make luxury log cabin structures and Matt just comes along and knocks it all down in peals of laughter. He's also enjoying hanging from his crib. He calls it "Ma-moo upside down!" and arches his back with his head tossed back. He thinks it's hilarious.

And then I like this one where he's eating a roll at Ava's party last week. Notice that he's stabbed the entire roll and is taking a large bite. Since Matthew recovered from his stomach bug he's been cramming in the food. The past couple mornings he's woken up saying, "Breakfast!!! Eat!" Normally he runs around a good hour before he's ready to eat in the morning. And now I can't get him to stop eating and begging me for food all day long. This after his 2 year check up at the doctor where we found out he's 33 lbs. (90th percentile!!) and 33 in. (25th percentile). He must be spurting again. As a result, we're headed back to the store today.