Brenna Playing

This clip Brett caught a few weeks ago. Brenna was just sitting on the kitchen floor playing with her "cleaning supplies". So silly and sweet she is.

Potty Time ??? Maybe or Maybe Not

She has been asking or rather using a lot of "Potty" talk so we decided to get out the little potty chairs and give it a shot. Really I think she just is in love with toilet paper...really....she could play with it all day if we would let her. I am not thinking we are too successful yet so we will wait till age 2 and try again.

Christmas #2

Well, I need to catch up on Christmas past so here we go. We got to enjoy Christmas morning at our home after a great Christmas Eve of going to church and to Aunt Char's for dinner. Morning came early...well for Joshua it was like at 5 or so but he was nicely told to go back to bed. Brenna was the first one up and here is a picture of Mommy and Brenna waiting for the boys to arrive. Matthew finally came down the stairs with his sleepy stretch and then present time began. Here are just a few pictures of the morning.

Christmas #1

We celebrated Christmas a bit early last week when Paca and Nana England came into town for a visit. We were glad we could provide them with some snow so that it seemed a bit more "Christmas Like" than the 80's that they went back to in Texas.

No trip with Nana here is compete without some outlet shopping...here are Brenna and Matthew getting a ride.
Nana apparently made Matthew's most favorite pie ever - a Apple Cranberry Pie...he had never had this pie before but definitely fell in love with it and finished off the last bite.

Paca then joined us for the weekend and spend some time with the kids.


Then the gift giving began. Joshua got to go and pick out his new bike...we are calling this one "Treck" and Matthew is very excited to get "Jet" as the other one is referred to.
Mac was so very excited for his very own treasure chest of dress-up clothes. He immediately carried the entire thing right up to his bedroom where he placed it next to his bed. It has not moved from that spot since. The clothing is getting used every day and he just loves this gift.
Brenna, how smart of her, knew just what to do with her new cleaning set and vacuum.

Thanks for the visit mom and dad.

Decorating

Every other year the boys have gotten to take turns putting the snowman on the top of the tree. This year it was Matthew's so up he went on Daddy's shoulders.

Joshua decorating with two missing front teeth and a healing gash on his eyebrow..poor guy

Sweet Brenna was so excited to be in on the action this year

Matthew feeling like a big shot up on the ladder

All three kids were having so much fun getting to choose themselves where everything went

Brenna hangs her first ornament

Smiles for the camera when the tree is finished

Brett and I got a laugh out of this tonight when we went in to look at the tree. You can tell at what height the ladder reached and were all of Matthew's decorating took place!!

Getting the Tree

Oh what fun...another year of searching for the perfect tree. This year we discovered a new tree farm really close to us out in the country and WOW were we in for a surprise. Check out the video..could this have been a better planned Long boy's afternoon (and that includes dad..except we all know what he wanted to do with these deer) or what. There were quite a few live bucks, a zebra, some elk and lots of stuffed animals to admire.

My New Gift

A few weeks ago Natasha took me shopping at the Indian Food Market. It was great that she was able to show me so much of what I have been "borrowing" of hers as I learn to cook. Well we came across this--I am not sure what it is called-- and she has one that I always admire so she surprised me and gave this to me. I can now have lots of spices handy and you all know how I love to be organized! Thanks Natasha- I love it!!