New furniture

The place where we bought our table and chairs is going out of business. So, we decided to go and check out couches (since we've been talking about getting a new one). Well, we ended up getting a loveseat and couch for half the original price. The seats are power recline, which Shane's mom loved, because she has short legs and often has problems "closing" recliners.

"Cheese!" Kayleigh enjoys the loveseat.

Logan relaxes while watching "Word World". Logan has to be reclined when he sits on the couch now.

Grandma visits

Grandma came down on December 27th. We were so excited to see her, and she brought fun things with her! Kayleigh had a great time playing with her and the clown Little People set.

Logan got to show off his new bike and his stellar riding skills. Grandma was very impressed, and Logan was going pretty darn fast - I had to run to keep up with him! He thought it was funny that Mommy couldn't beat him.

That day, it was cold outside, so Kayleigh also wore her hat. Doesn't she look cute in her two balled "dorky hat" (as Uncle Doug used to call Mom's).

Grandma got Kayleigh her first purse. She loved it! Of course, Logan loves the Debit Card and the phone that came with it.

The purse also came with plastic lipstick. Kayleigh loves to put it on...good thing it's not real, or it would be all over her face!

Grandma also got them a tee ball set. Kayleigh hits the ball, with the bat the other way. She had a good time though - and wouldn't let us tell her how to actually hit the ball.

Logan whacks one! Logan was surprisingly good at hitting the ball - of course, most times, he hits the tee over.

WHACK!

Playing with bean bags. The kids are pretty good - and Kayleigh is really good when she stands over top of it.

BASKET! Logan is a pretty good shot!

Thanks for coming down Grandma! We had a great time with you! Next time, bring Grandpops, though; we missed getting to see him.

Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We have had a great day so far. Shane and I stayed up late waiting for Santa to come. Amazing that Santa was able to set up all those Geo Trax in front of the fireplace! Shane, who went to be at 1am, was up at 5:45am. I think he was really excited to see the kids reactions to the gifts Santa left.

This is our house prior to kids waking up. We were in the kitchen cooking breakfast. Shane made Swedish pancakes for us (sort of like crepes with sugar and milk over top of them), and I cut up fruit and made eggs. It was all yummy!

Santa left the kids a note, thanking them for the eggnog and cookies for him as well as the carrots for the reindeer. We thought Santa wanted no-bake cookies, but he seemed to like the molasses cookies better. The kids had fun making molasses cookies and "rolling the children in the snow" (rolling the cookie dough in sugar). None of Kayleigh's cookies made it to the oven (straight into her mouth!), and Logan's cookies were so lovingly rolled (aka smashed), that he ended up eating the sugar and the cookies together, since there was no way to get the dough out. We did actually put some in the oven, and Santa enjoyed those.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Logan takes a look at his Geo Trax. He's so excited, he's sticking out his tongue!

Daddy and the kids take in the Geo Trax. Pretty neat!

Before we ate the yummy Swedish pancakes, we opened our stockings. Logan really liked his Lightning McQueen bubble bath - but he kept thinking it had batteries and could go on its own. Not so much! But it does roll well!

Kayleigh tries to dig out her baby from her stocking. Wow, she loves her babydoll.

Logan gets a watering can/gas can. Great! Now he can fill up his mower with "gas" before he mows the yard.

Kayleigh was so excited when she unwrapped her Fisher Price Alphabet Zoo. She was grinning!

Woohoo! A new Cricut cartridge! Good job, Dadden!

Kayleigh gets ready to dive into her next present. She actually lifted this one by herself (she didn't want any help, "No!"). But K-bob, like Logan, thinks there needs to be ZERO wrapping on the box before it is completely opened.

This was one of the favorite toys: the Geo Trax sawmill. In fact, we talked to Gram and Bapa on Skype for a while, and Kayleigh showed them how she could hit the chimney and make the logs pop out for 10 minutes (at least). She really enjoyed talking to Gram and Bapa - she kept kissing the laptop screen. Nice - I really need to clean it now...

After we had opened all the presents, Daddy and Logan made an even bigger Geo Trax train set. Pretty neat!!

I got to talk to Chris today, too. That was fun - his boss actually gave him two days in a row off. Oh wait, HE's the boss! Bahaha!

Logan got a bike for his birthday/Christmas present from Hope, Phil, and Angela. He loves it! He rides it all over the house (Shane says that's why we have tile), and one day said, "I have to ride my bike to the potty". He rode the bike all they way into the bathroom! It's good to have transportation!


Tonight, we're having "Happy Birthday, Jesus" cupcakes and chicken pot pie (no ham, Shane would rather have pot pie). So, thank you Jesus, for giving us the reason for the season, and for giving us abundant and eternal life.

Dickinson Festival of Lights

Tuesday, December 21st, we went to the Dickinson Festival of Lights. This is a free light display put on in the park. What is a bummer though, is that we love to go to the playground of this park, but since October (as they were setting up the lights), the park has been closed.

Here are my favorite people walking under the lights. And look, they're all holding hands. Everyone together now, "Ahhhhhh.... how sweet!"

Kayleigh and Logan were very excited to see the geese again (like I said, it's been a while since we've been able to go to this park). Kayleigh, Little Miss Fearless, tried to go up and pet them. They were excited to see her because they thought she had food. Alas, they were sorely mistaken!

Mommy and kids in front of one of the tin soldiers. Aren't we cute? Both kids are really good at saying "cheese!" As you can see by what we're wearing, it was not so cold - in fact, I think that was the day it got up to 85F! Nothin' like living in the subtropics!

The playground was open when we were at the Festival of Lights. Both kids enjoyed climbing and going down slides. Kayleigh really wanted to go up this ladder like Bubba, but she was a little too small to make it all the way up (the ladder turns). Of course, she was the smallest kid even attempting to climb the ladder. Fearless.

We had a great time going to the festival. The kids slept great that night.

Logan is THREE!!

December 18 was a big day! Logan turned THREE! WOW!

We had a Cars themed party for him at our house. Okay, so it was the aunties and us, but Logan had a blast!

Logan helped me make the cake - he picked out the box he wanted (black cake - chocolate), pink icing (we compromised with white icing and pink on the top and inside), and he picked out the candles too. He also dumped everything in the mixer and turned the motor on.

When it was time to blow out the candles, all eyes were on Logan. He doesn't really like the spotlight, so did not want to blow out the candles by himself, "Daddy, you do it. You do it, Daddy." That was funny coming from the boy who wants "fire" on his piece of cake at other people's birthday parties.

Then it was present opening time! Yay! Geo Trax!

Auntie Hope, Phil, and Angela gave Logan a Hiccup figurine (from the movie "How to Train Your Dragon"). Logan shows Grandma and Keegan (they "came" to the birthday party over Skype) his Hiccup while Kayleigh looks on.

Angela and Hope watch as Logan, Daddy, and Phil set up the Geo Trax.

Daddy and Kayleigh watch Logan get all his Geo Trax ready.

Here is the finished track. At one point, we had FOUR trains going, and one plane flying over the bridge. Super cool!

So, Phil has decided what she wants for Christmas - Geo Trax! She had such fun helping Logan set the train set up. Such an engineer.

It was a fun birthday party. And I can't believe Little Man is THREE.

More snow!

Saturday, December 18th (Logan's birthday!), we went to Dickinson First Methodist church to play in the "snow". It was more like a big snowcone. They had a small slide and a large slide the kids could sled down. Of course, they could only go down once, which was a bummer, because it takes Logan at least once to really enjoy it.

Logan got some of the snow stuck to his glove, and started crying. He was not so sure he wanted the stuff stuck to him. And he wasn't so crazy about how he couldn't really walk in it.

Kayleigh tried to walk in the little snow area. She had her boots on, but they were the wrong sort of boots!

After playing in the snow for a few short minutes, we went inside to decorate Christmas cookies and have some donut holes and pigs in a blanket. We had the most fun eating...heehee!

My mom hates me...

My mom hates me - she sent the kids Christmas cards with snow confetti in them. And of course, Kayleigh had to open her card all by herself, which meant "snow" got all over the floor. Then Logan found his "snow" and threw it up in the air. "Mommy, it's raining snow!"

Kayleigh jumps around in the snow.

Logan picks up the snow to throw again.

"Take a picture of my snow, Mommy!"

Well, at least the kids had fun! And Gram had a good laugh! Heehee!

Dickinson Christmas Parade

Thursday, December 9, we went to the Dickinson Christmas Parade on FM 517. It was kinda fun - floats, marching bands, dancers, and CANDY! The kids were very excited about the CANDY! They thought it was as great as Halloween! Here, they pick up candy from the street.

Logan opened some Laffy Taffy and had at it. Kayleigh likes to unwrap lollipops (which get all over her face and hair!).

Coming back with her fists full of CANDY!

The DHS marching band. They had lights on their instruments. I thought this was a pretty cool picture.

The firetruck was there - actually all the fire "units" were there - all three of them. The ambulance made an appearance as well. So did some vintage cars, the mayor, banks, etc.

And my personal fave - a boat we see out on the bayou sometimes: the Galveston County Sheriff's boat. Sweet! Two outboard motors, a huge GPS unit...quite a sweet little ride. Think we could wakeboard behind it?

Just when we're getting rid of Halloween candy, we're getting Christmas candy! But the kids had a blast running around picking it up. They probably burned the calories going all crazy like that!