White Christmas!

Early early Christmas morning we were awakened by thunderstorms. They went on and on for hours. We even opened presents to the sounds of thunder. Very interesting. A first! Then, just as they predicted, the storms turned to snow as the day went on. By noon or so, it was really snowing! By the end of the afternoon we had a couple of inches! The kids went out a few times, but our lack of snow gear made it cold and pretty uncomfortable. They didn't last too long.

So magical!

This little favorite six year old of mine...

...doesn't know why, but has been getting lots of extra hugs. The last few days have been emotional for any parent, but something about having a child the same age as those poor Newton, CT babies has made me especially pensive. So much life and excitement and wonder and happiness...

He is loving his bike now that he is getting so good at it without training wheels! He thinks he's a pro!

Family pics

The Saturday after Thanksgiving,we got together with another family and a friend and I traded pictures. I took their family pictures, and she took ours. We met up at the modern art museum downtown and I love the way this huge sculpture turned into a great backdrop!

Things I learned: I'm still not great at focusing. Especially with large groups. I thought I had the f stop set high enough, but in the big group picture you can see that some of our faces are out of focus. Argh! And, some pictures have something on the lens. Oops! So, I need to work on focusing and wiping off my lenses. Oh well. I was happy, overall, with how things turned out!

Sing Noel

Our stake has put on a special Christmas concert called Sing Noel for four years now. Every other year I had wanted to participate in the choir, but never felt it was the right time with little kids, traveling husband, etc. This year I was going to! Mason also sang in the adult choir and Kyle sang with the children's choir. The performances were this last weekend.

I felt it was such a privilege to sing with such talented people! I don't really consider myself a singer. I enjoy it, but I have no training, and I'm not particularly strong or confident. But, in a choir with 94 other singers, I can join in and make a joyful noise.

We sang the most amazing songs and I enjoyed having the shared experience with my boys! Mason was a bit reluctant, but Kyle looked forward to each practice and was bummed when the whole thing was over. I think he's already counting down the months till next year.

Thanksgiving

I didn't sign up for the 10K turkey trot this year (wasn't in the mood to deal with the crowds. Maybe next year?) but I still wanted to do something active and outdoors in the morning before all the festivities. We decided to go downtown and go on a "urban hike" and look for treasure -- geocache treasure!

We drove to the Water Gardens and climbed around a bit. There was a cache, too. It took us awhile to find it. It was tiny and well hidden. We enjoyed the fall colors and just being outside!

Waiting for guests:

For Thanksgiving dinner, we had another family from church over to share it with us. Uncle Brian also drove up from Austin to eat with us, too!

After dinner we had some fun outside -- trampoline, football, sandbox, etc. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed it.

This cracks me up! How many children do you count, huddled around a tiny iphone screen watching a game?

Then it was time for dessert! Lots of choices! I made two pecan pies -- one was a new recipe that didn't call for corn syrup. It was pretty good. A slightly different texture than traditional pecan pie, but the taste was great. The other one I made was my grandma's recipe for chocolate pecan pie. I also made cranberry upside down cake (recipe from Cooking Light here) and fresh whipped cream. Alyson made pumpkin and cherry cheesecake.

We had a great day!

Random picture dump

Most of these are from my phone. I'm having too much fun with my phone camera and instagram!

Peter and Merrick waiting while the older two are at choir

Pretty sky during a morning run 10-25-12
 

Look! I'm getting better at parking this thing!

Me and my second born:

This is often how I find them when I get back from running. Either reading or making a mess of the kitchen with their breakfast...

Peter, hard at work, while little ones play. There's a playground we usually go to while M and K are at TAFA choir. We hang out, play, read, whatever.

Another early morning running picture (before the time change):

Playing with the phone at the playground again:

Earlier in the month we made a weekend trip down to see cousins and be there for Tyler's priesthood ordination. On the Saturday we were there, there was a "Touch the Truck" even at a park. Lots of trucks and heavy equipment and military stuffs for the kids to see and climb around.

Cousin slumber party... Bodies and blankets everywhere!

Homemade pizza night...

Silly tomatoes! It's November!

Pretty skies! One thing I love about Texas -- the skies go on forever...

Lovely sunrise: 

A post-run self portrait on one of our chillier mornings last week. (This week it's been back in the 70s. No chilly mornings!)

An unexpected calm

 
All week I have been looking forward to a campout this weekend. We thought about camping somewhere else last weekend, even, but decided that we had this one to look forward to. The boys were excited. I was excited. It's our ward's third annual Turkey Camp.

Friday Caleb had woken up a little froggy in the throat. I didn't think a whole lot of it. Took him to the gym with me, did schoolwork with the other boys. In the afternoon I was prepping for the campout -- gathering dinner stuffs in the cooler, asking the boys to find warm clothes and pajamas. David was going to be home around 4 and then we would leave. About 3 I asked Caleb and Merrick to bring me their shoes and socks so I could put them on and they would be All Ready To Go. I put Merrick's on him, but Caleb had these sad little eyes and was coughing more and more. He climbed up in my lap as I reclined on the couch in my room. He snuggled up to me, resting his head on my chest and promptly fell asleep.

What was going to be a family campout (I had done it last year by myself!) was quickly turning into a father and sons campout. I put C down in my bed, and hurried to get everything else ready, texting David that I would need to stay home. On the plus side, there's a lot more room in the Expedition when you can fold down the rear seat!

The sunlight was gorgeous and I begged C to let me take a picture of him in the backyard. Happy, I ran inside to put my nice lens on and came back outside, scooting the chair that usually holds the laundry under the clothesline out to the grass. Plopping a sick little two year old into the chair, I quickly realized that it wouldn't last long. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes he asked to go inside and watch a video. But, we got some pictures. No smiles, but sometimes it's just like that.

So he watched tv and drank green juice and ate a banana while I straightened the toy room, taking advantage of the fact that there was only one boy to watch me sort and sift and (gasp!) get rid of a few things. We watched three or four episodes of Dora and Blues Clues and he didn't protest when I put him down in my bed at 7 p.m.

He woke up gasping for air 45 minutes later and it was apparent to me that we were dealing with croup. Lovely. Last time someone had croup, it was Peter and I overreacted and we went to the ER. Not last night. Every time he woke up, we did steam in the bathroom, or I put a blanket on him and took him outside so the cold air would calm his little throat. If he was calm, he was asleep. But he woke up coughing and would panic and then it would get worse. Keeping him calm was key. I brought in the humidifier and added a few drops eucalyptus oil. Not sure if it helped, but it smelled heavenly in my room!

The quiet house was beyond nice. It's been a while since I've stayed up late by myself and I enjoyed it watching episodes of Parenthood, playing on photoshop and making myself a treat. 

Now we are up, and I've decided just to stay home with him, rather than drive up for the lunch. Ah. Calm. It's amazing how calm a house of two is rather than a house of seven.

Outside Play