Weekend Wrap Up!

Well, Christmas is in full swing at our house and we are enjoying every minute of it! "J" and I played Santa on Friday morning, dropping off Christmas gifts to he and "A's" teachers and then enjoying his classes Christmas or should I say "December" party. One of the kids in his class was quick to remind me that is what they were celebrating. 4 year olds crack me up! But at our house it is Christmas, little guy!

Friday night was parent night out at the church. I truly understand the need for this now that we are parents-cheap child care we can trust is very much appreciated! We were able to enjoy dinner just the two of us and then hit up Toys R Us to finish up some last minute shopping! Date night was Heaven sent and just on time!

On Saturday our church had a function called Candy Cane Lane for families. The boys enjoyed hours of fun that included tons of bounce houses, cookie making and decorating, crafts, pony rides, a train, and a live nativity with live animals! We enjoyed capturing all the fun memory making moments in pictures! It was a great time!

The boys love a good petting zoo although "J" was done the moment the goat decided to poop on his shoe. Totally don't blame him!The boys loved riding this great little train all around the church campus and were bummed when it wasn't there the next day for "real" church!

No, we don't know this man, yes he did end up in the one good picture I got of the cool camel at the Live Nativity. By then the camel was basically over all the people trying to touch him and feed him hay.

After church on Sunday (yes we went to church all 3 days of the weekend), we went to the Galleria for lunch and a sibling visit. I don't discuss it much on the blog because I think emotionally I'm not ready to, but the boys have 2 sisters placed in another home. We try to get together at least once a month to do something fun. This month the kids had lunch and then built bears together at Build a Bear. They seemed to really enjoy it and I think I held it together okay considering me and Jeff had 4 kids on our own in a mall full of people just mere days before Christmas! "A" chose a monkey and dressed him as a hockey player. "J" chose a panda and dressed him as an Astros' baseball player. I think Jeff was pleased that they chose his 2 favorite sports totally unassisted. The girls both chose Hanna Montana bears, of course. Here are our 2 under the Christmas tree. They became fast friends!

I just can't wait to share the joy of Christmas with our precious boys! All of the fun we've had this month is just a precursor! This week we have the Hendrickson Christmas celebration, ours at home, and then the extended Albus family celebrations on the road! SO exciting! Merry Christmas everyone!

Simple Teacher Gift Solution

Another challenge of being a new mom has arrived at the Albus' house in the form of teachers' gifts! I probably wouldn't have even thought of it if my sweet sister hadn't casually mentioned it one day while we were chatting on the phone. Thanks Sarah for the reminder! I quickly went to my most reliable mommy saving tool these days-the internet- for a craft idea of something the kids and I could make together! Family Fun Magazine (also my sister's suggestion) has a ton of great ideas, but I settled on this one. The mug holds ingredients for a personal size cupcake made in the mug with the use of a microwave and a couple liquid ingredients. The boys helped scoop the ingredients and put them in the bags. My favorite part is that the teachers that love on our boys every day get a gift hand made by them!

I added a Starbucks gift card and they came with these sweet knit envelopes which really spiced up the simple wrapping job! I hope the teachers enjoy them as much as we do!

Attempting to Catch Up

I feel like someone has hit the fast forward button on life! Days, weeks, months have flown by and here we are half way through December! Where has the time gone!? I have SO much to do in the last few days before Christmas, but am really focused on keeping my cool and enjoying the season at the same time!

We have started some fun traditions with the boys including this little beauty of an advent calendar and the elf on the shelf. I'm sure you all remember Austin from this post. When kids are our kiddos' ages it is hard not to mix the secular in with the Christian symbolism. They do seem to be catching onto the Christmas story though and look forward to nightly scripture readings. For that I am very grateful!

Another thing that I'm reminded of daily is how grateful I am for my boys- all three of them! They treat me like a "Princess Super Girl" (as the boys would say) and I love every minute of it. My birthday was the 10th and it was the best one yet! You can't beat a sweet homemade card, beautiful roses, and my favorite puppy cake!! This year we needed 2 puppies for all 4 of us! They were a cute little couple! What a blessing it is to make such precious memories with our sons!

Please read on friends for several more posts that chronicle the beginning of our first holiday season as a family of 4!

Santa's Wonderland

We took the boys to Santa's Wonderland near College Station over the weekend. I remember taking some of my girlfriends there one year when I was at Baylor. Being directionally challenged I told them it wasn't that far away....Needless to say our road trip was a bit longer than expected, but still a lot of fun! Well, they have really expanded this little road stop into a full blown attraction. We bundled up the boys and took the trek. It was well worth the drive for hours of family fun!

Santa's Wonderland now includes Santa's Town.
Santa's Town has shops, a camp fire, live music, food, and Santa and Frosty the Snow Man sitings at every turn!
You can still drive through and see the lights, but you also have the option of riding a hay ride or a horse and carriage. We chose the hay ride and it was much easier to take pictures than arching your head out of a car window! Plus the line of cars was ridiculous for driving through! We parked off site and rode a bus over which worked out great!
The boys loved the lights!! Especially the train....
Leave it to Aggies to make sure these are the brightest lights of the whole deal!
But at least they remembered the true ReaSON for the season!

Suite Deal Again

In August of 2008, we wrote this post about a trip to Texans game compliments of Jeff's company and their suite. Well, we got the opportunity to go again and we had a great time! Thanks Stephensons for watching the boys so that we could go! We owe you one!

The Texans played the Colts and had the game ended just a bit sooner, the Texans would have won. Unfortunately football has 4 not 3 quarters and so the Colts took the win. Maybe next time, Texans!

The match up. I'm so proud of my shot of the Colts huddle because you can see Manning's face!

The awesome half time show compliments of Prairie View A&M and.....

ICE CREAM SUNDAES made the game so much more fun!
And the best part was being there together!

December to Remember

Well, we completed the decorating of our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. I think it turned out pretty nice though it looks nothing like this now, just 2 short weeks later! With a cat, a dog, and 2 young boys it now stands half lit with much fewer ornaments and no bow. I got tired of trying to fix it daily, but Jeff still tries to get all the lights to light up each night.

The miniature tree below decorates the boys' room. It is one my sweet friend, Katie made for me in college. The boys love having their very own tree! The candy cane and snowman ornaments were made by the boys at a Santa's Workshop we went to at A's school. They also decorated the 2 picture/card holders that day. I just had to show them off because I think they are too cute!

One of the other fun memories we made this month was the day we took the boys and Harvey of course to the dog park. Jeff and I met for the very first time at this park and it holds a ton of memories for us so it was fun to make some with our boys!

Disney on Ice

We took the boys to see Disney on Ice a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. I uploaded these pictures then and totally forgot to post about it! Anyway the boys had a blast and Jeff enjoyed his nap during the show! ;) Meanwhile I snapped away with my camera. We totally recommend the show, but if you don't make it there no worries...here's a summary in photos. Enjoy!

Aladdin and his magic Genie(s) opened the show
Nemo and his pals also made an appearance
Beauty and the Beast had quite a long segment including my favorite Chip. There was also a montage of all the princesses and their perspective Princes but I didn't get a good shot of that.
Buzz, Woody and all the Toy Story characters performed a couple of numbers

I totally thought of my sister during the It's a Small World After All number. We loved that ride as kids! They even did a mini light parade complete with Mickey "flying" in on a hot air balloon! Totally cool!

Mickey and Minnie had several costume changes. I chose to believe they aren't as "Diva" as they seemed.

This shot was taking during the M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E club number

Basically the whole Pinocchio story was presented including the giant whale that ate up Pinocchio and his Dad (don't know how to spell his name, but whatever).

The Mulan part was awesome with this giant colorful dragon!I loved the sweet romance portrayed during the Lion King section!
All the characters returned for The Circle of Life Finale
Pyrotechnics always make for a BIG finish!
At the end Mickey and Minnie waved goodbye to all their adoring fans. What a fun show!