On a Snowy Sunday...

On a snowy Sunday, we teacher's get excited that we may just have school cancelled on Monday.  That would be a great way to avoid Monday, to be at home snowed in and snuggling with my boys.  On this snowy Sunday though, we are making hot chocolate.

This is one of my guilty pleasures during the winter time since I do not drink coffee.  I have a cup of hot chocolate every morning on my drive to work.  I make it with 3/4 water, 1/4 milk, and TWO packages of Swiss Miss Milk Chocolate mix.  Real healthy!!!  I love these aggie mugs because they are over sized, (the size of two regular coffee cups in one)  they also are my favorite because wether my team is winning or loosing, I will always hold a special place in my heart for Aggieland.  After all, I spent over five years of my young adult life there.  In College Station the big textbook stores have a big clearance sale twice a year, end of winter and end of summer.  You can get $5 t shirts, hoodies, sweaters, jackets, etc.  I got these mugs at one of those sales, $1 each.  I have four of them and have used them for seven or eight years now.  I love College Station, and miss it dearly for many reasons.  The restaraunts, the shopping, my church, Christ United Methodist Church, my friends that are still there (so jealous!), the Aggie Spirit, and the many things to do there with your family and friends for entertainment.  Just an all around great place to live.  Small town feel, with everything you could ever want readily available.  My dream is to one day get my Master's Degree from Texas A & M.  We'll see!!!  Hey, everyone can dream, right?

Back to our Snowy Sunday, Kaden goes to the back door and looks out at the snow and says, "Snow, Bbbrrrrrrrrr...Cold!"

We are sitting in the floor eating these yummy animal crackers...

On a snowy Sunday we are sitting in the floor watching Barney movies...

On a snowy Sunday, Kaden pulls his "Sadie bug" around the house in his, "big Truck!"  He always calls her Sadie Bug!  It's precious, she just sits there and rides until you tell her to get down.

I am cooking chili, it is actually ready right now, and we are about to have Frito pies, Yummy!

We have lots of snow...

on this cold, January 9th, 2011, we have lots of snow!

Christmas 2010 -Post III

On Christmas Eve morning we went to my Dad and Step Mom Cay's house to celebrate.  We had prime rib, garlic mashed potatoes, fresh brocolli and carrots, home made rolls, and sweet tea.  It was very yummy!  Then, the dessert table.  Apricot pie, Mississippi Mud Cake (Yum!), Cheesecake, Pecan Pie, fresh strawberries and clementines.  I ate way to much dessert at this party!  But, it was so GOOD!

The boys opening their gifts from Uncle Lance, Aunt Kelly, and Kaden.

Kaden is fascinated with stairs.  It scares me to death.  I'm so afraid he will tumble down them, and get seriously hurt.  So, we had to put the puppy gate up.  He only got to go up one step then, but he was still gonna go up that one step.  He is a very determined little boy!

Dustin letting Kaden color with him.

After we ate lunch and opened gifts we played BINGO.  It was Fun!!!

Granny Cay & Kaden calling out Bingo numbers.

My Daddy in the middle of the picture below.

Emily, Pam and Jacob playing BINGO.

Pam and Jacob.

Kaden Angus having some fun!

He loved the Bingo spin ball!

After Dad's Christmas, Kaden & I hung out there and went to the Christmas Eve service at church.  I love this Christmas candle light service.

On Christmas Day morning, we of course had our Christmas here at home just Lance, Kaden, and I.  I have already posted about it here.

On Christmas Day around lunch time we all went over to the Mabe's again for the Mabe family Christmas.  (Lance's Aunt, cousins, etc) 

Kaden looking so cute in some of his new clothes.

Unfortunately this is the only picture I took at the Mabe family Christmas.  This is Kaden sitting with his Aunt Vicki, or 'B' as Kaden calls her.  This is Lance's sister.  Lance looks just like her.  And she is holding Lance's first cousin Leslie's new baby, Jillian.  And, I know that is not the way she spells it, but I can not remember how they spell it.  She is a doll, and just slept right through Christmas this year.

The day after Christmas Day, we had lunch at my Granny's house with all the Fisher family.  This is my Mom's family. 

Here's Kaden and Gracie rocking in Granny and Pap's old chair.  We have all rocked in this chair growing up.  I love it!

Kaden had a blast opening gifts at Granny's.  He opened several gifts there all by himself.  He's got it down now!  :)

Look at all the kids waiting on their gifts...they look a little anxious!

Left to right in the picture above Hannah, Jacob, Kaden, Dakota, Chloe, and Dustin.

My sweet nephew, Dustin.

My first cousin Tammy, who just spent 10 days in Aruba, doesn't she look like a Barbie?  I'm so jealous!  And, her son Michael.

My Chloe Mae, or "Mae, Mae" as Kaden calls her.  Kaden is so in love with this little girl.

This is my Aunt Connie with the twins, Gavin and Kindle.  Aren't they cuties?  Gavin looks JUST like his Daddy in this picture!

And, this is the end of Christmas.  Look at that mess!

I love Christmas at my Granny's.  It's still the same as when I was a kid.  It is so neat to have Kaden opening gifts in the same house we all grew up in.  I love my Granny!  And, I miss my Papa.

Whew!  We made it through all six Christmas parties!  It took a couple days at home to recover, but we made it.  And, we'll do the same thing again next year! 



Christmas Rewind-2010, Part II

We had a total of six family Christmas parties.  It is always an insane time at Christmas with the party schedules and family gatherings, and it can be stressful, but I love it at the same time.  Because after all, it is Christmas, and Christmas just isn't Christmas without family. 

We started our festivities the Wednesday night before Christmas at Lance's Dad and Mom's.  This was Kaden's first time to open gifts for the year.  He wasn't digging it.  He tryed to open one, got bored and colored on a pad of paper instead.  He just wasn't interested at all.  He'd rather color.

He did enjoy playing with Mommy's new Christmas ornaments though.  He loved Santa ornaments or figures this year, just not the real deal Santa figure.  He would say, "San Claus and deer."  Then, "Horns."  Because the deer has horns.  So cute!  He had San Claus riding the deer.

Kaden got LOTS of great winter clothes from Lance's family.  They are so nice, and we needed them.

Our next Christmas party was the next evening, Thursday night, at my Mom & Step Dad's house.

Kaden got excited about all these gifts at Nana's house.  And, he was a completely different kid than the night before.  He opened all his gifts at Nana's and loved every second of it!  He wanted MORE!  Don't worry, these gifts are not all for Kaden!

Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without this lady, my Aunt Kara, she and her fmaily have celebrated our family Christmas with us for as long as I can remember.  This is Kara and Mom.

Kaden got to open an early gift before dinner because he's the baby and he needed a toy!

This is my oldest brother, Jamie, my sister-in-law Pam, and their two children, Emily and Jacob.

Emily was born the year I graduated high school, so imagine how old I feel with her this grown up!

This is my older brother Lenny, my sister-in-law Andrea, and their two sons, Dustin and Dakota.

This is Lance, myself, and Kaden.

Note:  I no longer wear glasses!!!  YAY!!!

This is Nana (my Mom) and Papa Mark.

Three generations.  My Granny, My Mom, and myself.  Do you see any resemblances?

I just love this next picture.  This is the first picture we have of my Granny with all of my Mom's grandkids.  So this is my Granny with her great grandkids. 

Kaden and his Great Maternal Grandmother, Granny.  Can you imagine where we get the red hair from?

Kaden tearing into some gifts!

This is Kaden's first George Strait western shirt, or western shirt at all for that matter and cinch jeans.  I thought he looked so handsome in that blue!

Kaden with his Uncle Jamie eating cheetos.  He thinks his uncles are pretty great.  It is so cute to hear him say "Uncle Lenny, Uncle Jamie, and Aunt Pam!"  He says these three names at least ten times daily.  He loves them for sure.

Emily and Kaleigh being silly!

Nana Claus...

Well, I've only gotten through two Christmas party of the six and I'm exhausted so part three will be coming later.

We had a great Christmas!  More to come...

The New Year

Well, we are beginning the new year a little differently than we would like, but very thankful none the less.  Kaden is sick with RSV, Respiratory Syncytial Virus.  You can read more about RSV here.  He started getting sick right after Christmas, I was hoping for it just to be a cold and pass, so, we didn't go to the doctor because he only had cold symptoms.  Then, Daddy got sick with some sort of crud several days ago.  It put him under the weather and in bed for about three days.  The doctor put him on the Z Pack.  About the second day into his Z pack he was better, however that is when Kaden's sickness began.  He started coughing really bad and it sounded horrible.  He would cry when he would cough and he stayed up the ENTIRE night on the December 30th, crying and in pain.  Early morning of the 31st Mom and I left at 3:15 a.m. for my pre scheduled surgery with Dr. Boothe to get my laser vision correction.  Lance left out early for the doctor with Kaden.  I was so worried about him, and so afraid something was bad wrong with him, I almost didn't go to my surgery.  I was done with surgery and Mom and I were home by 9:30 a.m.  Kaden and Lance ended up at an urgent care clinic because our pediatrician wasn't open on New Year's Eve.  They found he has RSV and put him on steroids.  This is the third time he has had steroids now, twice previously for croup.  I can't help but believe this is what has caused him to grow so big and fast.  So, look out we'll probably like like a 5 year old soon!  (I hope not.)  They did a chest X-Ray to rule out any pneumonia.  He had a huge gas bubble that showed up on the X-Ray.  Really weird.  He had been up crying in pain all night because of that gas bubble.  So, we started gas drops for relief, and they did the trick.  Kaden has never had a gas problem since birth, in fact, I have only ever used them like 3 or 4 times as a last resort when I couldn't figure out anything else that might be wrong with him.  But, something got him gassy, (maybe from coughing so much) and I didn't even have any gas drops anymore.  Note to self, always keep gas drops on hand.    My vision is better than it has ever been in my entire life.  I can remember when I was a kid and got my first pair of glasses, how excited I was that I could see the leaves on trees on the drive home that day from Dallas.  Well, today I feel much the same.  I didn't know our county road we live on was so bad, with pot holes everywhere, today is the first day I saw all the holes.  Ha!  It's very weird to wake up and see the alarm clock and not put glasses on.  I am so pleased with the results so far.  I highly recommend Dr. Boothe to anyone interested in laser eye correction surgery.

Kaden is really still a sick little fellow today.  He is coughing his little head off, and just feels rotten.  He has been laying around a lot today, which tells us for sure, he feels bad.  I'm so ready for him to start feeling better.  Poor little baby.  Nana (my Mom) has been here a couple of days getting no sleep right along beside us, helping with Kaden and fixing us good Momma meals.  I am recovering from my eye surgery well.  It was hard not being able to rest afterwards because Kaden was so sick, but that's the way it goes.  Lance is getting well, hopefully Kaden will soon, and even more hopefully they won't share with me.  I have to return to work/school Monday morning.  I have to admit I am dreading it right now.  Just not ready to get back into the hustle and bustle of the everyday routine again.  And wishing I had some more time to rest, a few more days would be nice. 

In our two weeks off school we have had both the stomach virus and now the crud.  So, maybe we should just work year round.  Ha!  (Just Kidding, I'd rather be off and sick.)  Ha again!  

Did anyone else's house look like this picture below after Christmas hit it?  It took me an entire day to find homes for the new toys.  And, this picture isn't ever half the toys we received.  This little boy is very blessed to have family members that love him so much. 

I am not making a New Year's resolution this year.  Last year I decided to read my Bible everyday for the entire year, and I was very successful with that resolution and only missed reading a few days throughout the year.  I read through the entire Old Testament this last year and it truly blessed me and changed my life.  I am so happy I read my Bible daily.  I am going to continue reading daily, since it is now a habit and I am now to the New Testament.  I had also made a resolution last year to loose 10 pounds.  I'll NEVER make that a resolution again.  I did not succeed on that one.  I lost a several pounds, yes, and got 3 pounds away from that goal before falling off the work out/diet plan and gaining back over 5 pounds, ending the year at only 4 pounds of total weight loss from last New Year's Day weight.  So, no more goals on that.  Just going to try to eat better and workout this year regularly.  Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves about appearance and weight?  God loves us just the way we are for our insides not our outsides.  My only hope for this year is to slow down and enjoy and cherish every moment of being a Mommy.  Kaden is growing up so fast, and I know it won't be long until he is all grown up and not a baby anymore.  I want to cherish this time with him.  After all, he is the most precious thing in my life.

Kaden, Lance & I wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year.  Happy 2011!