Merry Christmas!

Aubin's still sick with a virus, but she'll be okay. She ran a fever of 106.1 overnight, but I was able to get it down with the alternating of Motrin-Tylenol trick and sponge bath. Don't worry, everyone. I have an all access pass to Dr. Grandpa and Nurse Nana who talk me through on what to do and when to worry. Thanks guys!
Being sick half the night didn't stop Aubin from waking up at the CRACK OF DAWN along with her brother to see what Santa left them. After presents, H and I went to have Christmas dinner with the family and brought food back for the rest of the gang. It was delicious and greatly appreciated!!! Rick then let me have a couple of hours of blissful sleep (thankyouthankyouthankyou)and now I'm ready for round 2 tonight.
Tomorrow we see Grandma M-H! (I've Lysol-ed your room and the house..hope you like "Fresh Linen scent" (: )

....And to all a good night.

The kids are VERY excited about Christmas. Of course Aubin has been coughing and running a fever of 103 off and on since last night....sigh. We made the most of the holiday spirit today in between fever spells. We made Christmas cookies for Santa. I used the French butter cookie recipe from Epicurious.com (use the salt even if you use salted butter and dust with a bit of sugar before or after baking for those of you who are interested). Delish...the cookies are more buttery than sugary (is that a word?), which I heard Santa likes. The day passed quickly and soon it was time to set out the cookies and milk (plus reindeer snacks). The following video clips sum up Hayden's curiosity this year and Aubin's current physical state.

Gingerbread houses

Sort of. I stole the graham cracker idea from my sister. The kids had a lot of fun with it. They LOVE fresh icing like their Dad. I like the picture of Hayden closing his eyes enjoying pure sugar heaven.

Reindeer

The kids got this from preschool. They are so excited about putting this magic food (oatmeal,red & green sugar) out on the night of Christmas Eve.

We have quite a bit of deer around here. The other day, the kids and I saw 3 deer leap and bound across the road. Hayden casually told Aubin that they were just practicing to fly on Christmas night.

Yesterday we went to the R. family party and everyone had a good time as always! Thanks to G. for snapping the only photo of the day for me! (it's my fault that Aubin looks blind in this picture...I was telling her to look up, and look up she did!)

School Christmas party

Both kids enjoyed their Christmas cookies at the party.
I'm sure glad that I'm not like those crazy camera-capri moms in that last picture (wink-wink).

Christmas letters and hot cocoa

So much for raising children who wish for world peace.

Christmas trip slideshow

Yeah, yeah. I know I'm late getting this up. Sick kids and a sick mommy, what's new??! We are feeling better just in time for Santa.
Double click on the slideshow below and then select "slideshow" on the upper left hand side.

Cinderella's icy demise

Poor Aubin for the wily ways of her older brother!
I should explain. Since last April(!) Hayden has been recreating a preschool science "experiment" with water and ice to see which has more volume. At first, Rick and I would find random plastic cups of ice in the freezer with a line drawn on it (apparently to measure the difference b/w the water & ice). I didn't mind too much because this process would bust a few of the cups from Rick's plastic cup 'collection'. (Do we really need 50 "Eeyore's birthday party" cups from years 1990-2007?"
Anyway, H's ice party now includes freezing random toys, such as a confiscated Cinderella and the parachute man he earned at school from moving up all of his "good deed beads".

Random news & thoughts

Number 1:
Rick was at the bank making a deposit at 6:30am when he heard an announcement on the radio. "Hey fans! Come by the Whataburger on blah-blah street for a free breakfast and a FREE pair of Crocs" (you know, the shoes). Soooo, Rick has a major case of heartburn and a Longhorn-burnt-orange pair of Crocs. Sweet.

Number 2:
So it's actually cold outside, which means hot chocolate weather. Yum. You can't have hot chocolate without marshmallows. We have none. Hmmmm, maybe I can make my own beautiful, tasty ones from scratch. I looked up the recipe on cookingforengineers.com, easy enough. I found the unflavored plain gelatin that's been in the cabinet forever..left over from me trying to make healthy jello jigglers with fruit juice when Hayden was like 2 or something. Emptied the packets in the water as directed. How can I describe the olfactory experience? NASTINESS. Pure nastiness. It smelled like wet, sweaty horses....I mean dead wet,sweaty horses. I wish your screen was a scratch and sniff screen because and I would have you smell it. It was that bad.
Anyone up for "just add water" hot cocoa with those delightfully dehydrated marshmallows??

Snow!

I could hear the "wintry mix" pelting the house last night at 9:30, and brought Aubin downstairs (she was awake with one of her random fevers). I told her it was snowing outside and she said "It's snowing?! It's snowing fur weal mommy? Oh happy Christmas to you mommy."

Oh my GOSH! It's sleeting outside. It was 76 degrees today at noon and now it is 34 degrees and SLEETING. Crazy town.
I'm on the lap top tonight since the upstairs computer is having a tantrum for some unknown reason. Which means, no pictures tonight. Lo siento, mi amigos.

Plasma Car

We had a nice trip to Arkansas to see some of my family. I will try to post more pictures tomorrow night. The most exciting part of the trip revolved around the "plasma car". It's a little kid toy that moves by twisting the handles back and forth. We all took a turn with Dad down a hill at my sister's house. Later that night, Rick and I raced Aunt Jessica and Uncle Brian a few times. Good times.

Road trip

Tomorrow is our annual road trip for a few days.
Thank you Granddad! I am NOT a long car ride gal, so traveling in my Grandfather's RV is a nice treat. There is something special about getting up at any time while on the road to stretch one's legs or use the microwave to make a frito pie or two.

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Rick's birthday.
Happy birthday, Daddy-o. The big 3-8. Wow!
We were lucky enough to have Granddad around to help celebrate last night. We all went to "Logan's" and ate a tasty meal then came home for cake. (and NO I did not make it...to everyone's delight!**)

**family history: I made Aubin's 1st birthday cake. Problem number 1: I substituted wheat flour for 1/2 of the white flour trying to make it "healthy". It was heavy as a brick, dry as a bone. Problem number 2: Although it was suppose to be a butterfly cake (I had the butterfly cake pan), it turned into a "moth" cake. I couldn't get the colors bright enough! Here's the picture for proof:

Helping out the Griswalds

Rick made a huge 3-D star out of PVC pipe for the neighbor's Christmas light display. What are you rgmjr? A structural engineer or something?

Dinosaurs

We took the kids downtown to the botanical garden for a dinosaur exhibit. Here are a few pictures:

Happy Thanksgiving

I haven't blogged in seemingly forever. I'm feeling much better and Aubin who was a bit under the weather is fine now too.
We had such a nice Thanksgiving holiday today. It is our family tradition to go to the zoo on Thanksgiving. We were running late getting out of the door this morning and so my mom, Doug, and his mom graciously had us over for dinner at the last minute before our adventure. The food and conversation were just the best. Thanks guys!
Here are a few pictures of our Turkey-day zoo trips from years past. Last year was the only year we couldn't go due to the weather. Usually, it's just perfect and today was no exception. (I love how we can wear shorts at the end of November!)

2005, 2006, 2008





Okay, people. I do try to keep my children tidy and clean. This last picture from today has Aubin with a red Gatorade mustache, pig tail blow-out, and smiling like she just had a stroke. Christmas card worthy? I think not. Surely we can do better.

Hey family and friends. Surgery went well, but running a decent fever. I'm on antibiotics and should feel better soon. Like Rick said last time, those leaves aren't going to rake themselves. Plus, it's getting chilly out so there's wood to chop.
(;

Sneezings Greetings?

For months I've been trying to get the perfect "Christmas card" picture. Why does this have to be such a difficult task? I have yet to get both kids to sit, smile, and look at the camera at the same time. I have plenty of pictures that show open mouth screaming, scowling, and fidgeting, though. I think this picture of A's "get away from me" expression and H's mid-sneeze has become my new favorite "bad" photo. I took this picture Sunday at the new Salt Lick. (The kids and I met up with Granddad and Rick after their round of golf.) Good times.

a llama

Aubin was talking and singing about llamas this morning. Finally she said, "Mommy, what's a llama? You know, like the next president is 'a llama'".

Fort time

It's no Fort Stanwix, but it'll do. It has been one of those days where we completely exhausted all of our activities by 2:00. (Hence the Fort.) I'll probably take them to the track in a bit and let them ride their big wheels until dinner.

In our usual "bummer" news, I found out Wednesday that my incisions didn't heal properly and I need to go in for additonal outpatient surgery next Friday. No big deal, just one of those things.

Have a great weekend!

Favorite weekend picture

Hayden was checking the battery operated "Amigo" for "oil leaks" with a little Halloween flashlight. He said it "looked good" before taking his sister for a drive.

Big preschool election news! The entire preschool voted on their favorite color and even received a real "I voted" sticker after the activity. The big winner? Blue! I think Aubin was in the "swing" class...I heard they had to watch a 7 minute "infomercial" of a Blue's clues "colors everywhere" episode before voting. Then there was an issue of a kid eating the red crayon....(RECOUNT!)...and someone coloring outside the oval. I don't know...sounds like an intense day.

November tomatoes

Our tomato plant continues to go nuts. We've gotten great tomatoes all summer/fall long from this one plant.I roasted these and made fresh spaghetti sauce for tonight's dinner. Yum. It's coming down this weekend, though. Time to plant something else in it's place for our winter garden.

Happy Halloween!

What a big day! We went to two 'fall festival' parties and trick or treating around the neighborhood. The kids had a blast. I'm glad that Hayden was able to enjoy trick or treating this year. (Last year he hid under his bed!) Both kids scored a ton of "good" candy and shared with Mom and Dad. Thanks H & A.

Hook 'em.

My mom took the kids and I to the pumpkin patch yesterday (pics to come). We stopped by a little "statue park" on the way home to let the kids run around and play. Hayden occupied his time by climbing trees, not at all interested in the massive statues. Finally he came to me and said, "Mom, what's wrong with these animals? Are they dehydrated?". I thought that was funny. I have to hand it to him, they do look creepy close up.

Birthday theme

A happy, happy birthday to Grandpa today! We hope you've had a good day today, G.

On the subject of birthday's, I have a funny story. Okay--not really funny, but a family birthday story that has been ongoing for 3 months. Here it goes:
Hayden (and Aubin) love "PBS kids" cartoons. Every morning between "Curious George" and the highly annoying "Sid the Science kid" programs, our local station puts up a monthly birthday list consisting of "kids club" members names. Hayden is fascinated by this. This past August, we paid up our "kids club" dues to have his name put on the screen, but missed the deadline. (They said they'd put him on September's list.) It was SO SAD!!! Every morning, little Hayden would watch the scroll for his name and slump over in disappointment. September came, and they forgot about us again. Boo hoo! Sad little Hayden was pitiful frowning at the screen with "Feliz cumpleanos" playing (September was a Spanish birthday theme.) FINALLY, we got on in October and WOW! What luck. It's a Jumbo-tron theme for October! He has jumped up and down in pure 5 year old euphoria every morning for the past 28 days.
So rgmsr, we hope you have a super jumbo-tron kind of day today.

Slideshow

we had a good time, but it really made me miss all of our cousins.

Happy thoughts first.

Hayden and Aubin have a new baby cousin as of this week. Congratulations Aunt K. and family!

Ugh. I promised no more 'bummer blogging'. I'll keep it short.
Sick kids this week...Hayden has strep, and Aubin a funky breathing thing (I'll spare you the long details). Slide show of Thomas adventures tomorrow....honest.

Cinders and ashes, it's Thomas!

We had a good time this weekend. The weather was lovely....mid 70's. The train ride was pleasant, not too crowded since it was way out in the boonies. (Last year in Austin we would have been packed in like sardines!) Here are two of my favorite pictures from the weekend. I'll post a little slide show of more photos tonight or tomorrow. Before I leave you this evening, I have to mention that Rick FINALLY got that $2.50 chicken fried steak. Yes! We dropped by my hospital on the way home for lunch!! Rick begged, so I reluctantly agreed. RELUCTANTLY agreed, because it's just plain weird to go to a hospital for something like that. BUT I've got to say I'M GLAD WE DID! He was right!!!! It was fantastic. I had the pork loin, 2 sides and lemon pie for $4-ish. Did I mention that we dined by a rock waterfall and flower garden? Amazing.

Final hint in the curtains

I took this photo a moment ago before bed. (By the way, Aubin is sporting her lady bug hat from last year's halloween costume.) Tired kids! Jumpy place was open today until 5 in honor of Columbus day....(SCORE!)We had dinner out with Dad, bath, and off to bed they went.
See those smiles? It's all about going to see "Thomas the tank engine" this weekend. Hooray!

Pic of the day

I don't have any pictures from this weekend, so I'm posting an old one that has been requested for some time now. Plus, I'm desperate to put up a new picture, because the one of Aubin is really creeping me out. No more pictures of the house of medical oddities. NO MORE I tell you! This picture is of our structural engineer Dad assessing the integrity of gargoyles on the 27th floor of a building in San Antonio. There was a concern that they would fall off onto the Riverwalk below.
I have exciting news.....we are doing something F-U-N this weekend. It's about time!!! I'll give you a hint......it has something to do with Alec Baldwin's voice talent, steam,....maybe I should stop there before I give it away.

Never a dull moment

This picture was taken a few minutes after the benedryl, so she was looking a bit better. Aubin had an allergic reaction to (something in) the cinnamon I put in her applesauce. She came up with a rash around her mouth last time I did the cinnamon/applesauce combo, but I chalked it up to just coincidence. This time the reaction was much worse with the hives and her skin turned purple-ish like it would if you came out of freezing swimming pool or something. I called the Dr., who said to give her benedryl and to bring her in to the office. She's completely fine now. I do still worry about future rections, though. Obviously I'm not giving her cinnamon applesauce. We'll just stay away from that.
Oh, YEAH. I should mention that in the midst of the chaos this morning, Hayden asked me if he could have a coke. (He's never had one on his own before.) Since his sentence didn't contain words like "knives" or "electricity" I said YES. (Whatever! I"m trying to keep your sister breathing!) So needless to say, Mr. H thoroughly enjoyed his first solo coke from the garage fridge (Dad's stash).

Out of the mouth of babes

H: "Mom, how old are you?"
LM: "I'm 33."
H: "OH. That's an expensive number, huh?"

Yeah.

Park pics

It was such a beautiful day today (upper 80's....and YES I dressed my kids in long sleeves..but it was in the 50's this morning (; ). The kids had fun rolling down a hill. Hayden said his tummy felt funny on the way home. Luckily, we averted a barf fest in the car and spared Dad from a before-dinner shop vac session. (Whew!)

Queasy bake oven

I remember LOVING the easy bake oven's goodies as a kid. Yuck! What planet was I on? As Rick said, "Anything you have to just add water to, can't taste good".
Another problem with the QBO? The ultra-tiny baking pan... roughly the size of your palm. The cookies come out in portions just right to satisfy 1 barbie. However, Aubin loves this thing and asks to play with it EVERY day. Luckily, I found QBO recipes on the internet so I don't have to pay $6.00 for barbie-portioned cookie packages. I should note that Aubin is particularly fascinated by the icing-cup in which to dip your cookies as seen in the top photo.

I'm back!

I'm doing tremendously better ....except.... well, let's just say I'm not up to doing the "seat drop" trick at the jumpy place any time soon. Like in this century. Ever.
Seriously, I'm doing great. Many, MANY thanks to Rick (aka blog-meister), my mom, Aunt Kathy and Aunt Jessica for all of their wonderful help and to everyone for all of the well wishes sent our way.
Here's a picture I snapped yesterday afternoon of H & A playing with Rick/Kara toys sent by Grandma Miles. Gracias!

Pictures from this weekend

Flying

I think the slideshow speaks for itself!
Double click for a larger slideshow....it should start with "The find".

Tastes like cow feathers

That's what Aubin said about her 1/2 hour-cool-not-ice cold milk this afternoon. What can I say. I don't blame the child as I despise milk. So there you go....tastes like cow feathers to me too, Aubin!

Random kid topic #2:
Hayden believes he can fly. Seriously. Just ask him. He'll spread out his arms (which he calls wings) flaps like a crazy person, runs, and leaps onto the bed/couch/etc. The nanosecond that he's "airborne" is proof that he's "flying". ("SEE mom?!") Well, it's been two weeks of this and it's driving me CRAZY. The thumping, bed shaking, cushion flopping drives me nuts. I told him no more flying and he said, "But MOM! I've got to fly! I don't like to be on LAND!" So since I hated to rain on his Peter Pan parade, I let him "fly" on his crash mat (two over stuffed bean bags in the playroom).

Blastoff

We needed adventure in our lives! We decided to launch rockets today at a nearby park. Good times. The last picture is of Aubin at the same park freaking out about a little boy with a mohawk. (Yes, a mohawk.) Click on the picture for a closer look.