Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Family Christmas Photo Shoot
We took these pictures while we were down in Goliad for Thanksgiving. Many of you have seen a few on our Christmas card already...or on facebook. I've added a few that my friend, Sarah, edited really nicely at the bottom and the one that is our header. Aaron's dad, Jeff, took the pictures. Enjoy!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Yes...we're still here!
Sorry I've been MIA for a week. I just realized how long it's been since I've posted. Two words: Angel Tree! I am our church's coordinator for the Angel Tree ministry this year (along with my good friend, Jessica...who we also help head up the young adult group with...and who's husband has been our "leak consultant.") Anyways, this project has taken up countless hours of planning, projecting and organization.
If you are unfamiliar with Angel Tree, here's a summary. Churches, the Salvation Army, malls, etc...sponsor Angels every year at Christmastime. It is a ministry of Prison Fellowship, which allows incarcerated parents to give a gift to their child/ren through the help of outside sponsor/donors which have taken an Angel tag off of a tree at a church, mall, etc. It's a way for relationships to be kept, rekindled, and reconciled between these prisoners and their children. And it's a way for these children, who often don't live in the best conditions (due to the fact that a parent is in prison) to have their needs met more readily.
Step 1 was contacting the 20ish families that our church was assigned...to confirm their participation and to find out what toy and practical gift items the children would like to receive.
Step 2 was actually setting up the tree with the tags, and collecting the gifts brought in by our church donors.
Step 3 is hosting the party where we love on the families and distribute the gifts to the children.
The party is this Wednesday, the 16th. If you're reading this, please say a prayer that every family that we are serving is blessed by the love of Christ through us. Our hope is not only that they are happy with their gifts and a fun evening...but that they meet the Savior of the world and the reason for this season, if they haven't.
So...we are finishing up preparations for what is turing out to be a pretty large event. I just tallied a final headcount this morning, and it looks like we'll have around 115 adults and children. Aside from making sure everyone is fed, we'll also have a program consisting of some of our church kids singing, a Nativity craft for all the children while the Christmas story is read and an interactive legend of the Christmas Stocking. The Angels will receive their gifts and a Bible, and their caretakers will receive a gift bag as well. We will be serving 15 families and 28 children.
Once this project is complete, I'll have a lot more time to blog! :-)
If you are unfamiliar with Angel Tree, here's a summary. Churches, the Salvation Army, malls, etc...sponsor Angels every year at Christmastime. It is a ministry of Prison Fellowship, which allows incarcerated parents to give a gift to their child/ren through the help of outside sponsor/donors which have taken an Angel tag off of a tree at a church, mall, etc. It's a way for relationships to be kept, rekindled, and reconciled between these prisoners and their children. And it's a way for these children, who often don't live in the best conditions (due to the fact that a parent is in prison) to have their needs met more readily.
Step 1 was contacting the 20ish families that our church was assigned...to confirm their participation and to find out what toy and practical gift items the children would like to receive.
Step 2 was actually setting up the tree with the tags, and collecting the gifts brought in by our church donors.
Step 3 is hosting the party where we love on the families and distribute the gifts to the children.
The party is this Wednesday, the 16th. If you're reading this, please say a prayer that every family that we are serving is blessed by the love of Christ through us. Our hope is not only that they are happy with their gifts and a fun evening...but that they meet the Savior of the world and the reason for this season, if they haven't.
So...we are finishing up preparations for what is turing out to be a pretty large event. I just tallied a final headcount this morning, and it looks like we'll have around 115 adults and children. Aside from making sure everyone is fed, we'll also have a program consisting of some of our church kids singing, a Nativity craft for all the children while the Christmas story is read and an interactive legend of the Christmas Stocking. The Angels will receive their gifts and a Bible, and their caretakers will receive a gift bag as well. We will be serving 15 families and 28 children.
Once this project is complete, I'll have a lot more time to blog! :-)
Monday, December 7, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thanksgiving in Goliad
This year, we drove down to Goliad, TX for Thanksgiving with Aaron's family. We broke the drive up on the way down...but drove it in one day on the way home. We got to Goliad on Wednesday afternoon. We enjoyed an awesome Thanksgiving day with our wonderful Texas family. We had lunch at the Goliad Club, hosted by Aaron's grandma, Florine. There were probably close to 50 in attendance. It was neat because we got to meet Alec and Emma's twin cousins, Cooper and Collin, for the first time. Their other cousin, Cira, was also there. Alec and Emma are almost 20 mos old. Cira is 14 mos old and Cooper and Collin are 13 mos old. You can see the "Baby Patch" pictures with all 5 of them. Wow! There's something in the water, I guess! Afterward, the kids and I took a nap back at g'ma's house for almost 3 hours. Then we went to Aaron's other g'ma's house (Abuelita) for dinner. We all had an awesome time with all of the family, and definitely ate enough to last us a while.
Friday, Aaron's parents and brothers watched Alec and Emma while we did a little shopping in Victoria. We didn't get up for Black Friday...but we did battle crowds none the less. Also got to meet up with my good friend, Jenny, and G'ma Florine again in Victoria for a little while. We had BBQ at his Aunt Linda's later for dinner...but not until I forced us all to take "Christmas pictures" in front of G'ma Florine's house. You see, G'ma has moved into an assisted living apartment since her several back surgeries, and is planning to put her beautiful and historic old home on the market in the new year. This makes me sad, because it is a gorgeous plantation style Southern house and Aaron's family has made many wonderful memories there. In fact, I think he spent every single Christmas morning there as a child. We would love to buy it and make it our own...but I don't know that there are any IT positions open in Goliad! I wanted to have pictures of us as a family outside the house. The kids were super cranky and in desperate need of a nap by the time we got home from shopping, but we had to do it then because it wouldn't be light out after nap. So, Grandpa took some pictures of us out in front of the house and of the kids walking around the yard. I'm glad we have the memories...even though they didn't really want to cooperate for the family shots. I will post some...but I'm debating on whether to wait until after the Christmas cards go out!
Saturday after breakfast we hit the road. We made a stop in Houston for a few hours to see Tia V, and to try on my dress for the wedding and have it altered, and to have Emma fitted for her custom made dress. I know! What other little girl gets a dress custom made just for them? We hit some traffic heading out of Houston and a little congestion heading up I45 to Dallas...but nothing bad! We left Goliad at 9:15am and got home at 11:15pm. What a day! The kids were troopers. I don't blame them for getting cranky. It stinks being in the car that long. I just try to keep them entertained with books, music, dvds, food and hopefully...naps!
If you are reading this, I hope that you had a super Thanksgiving spent with family and friends. We have so much to be thankful for. We are so blessed!
At the club
With Uncle Alex
The Baby Patch- Alec trying to "sneak" off
Alec with Uncle NuNu (Andrew)
Pooped and parched at the end of a long day
5 Cousins
At the club
Alec and NuNu
Sleepy babies!
Friday, Aaron's parents and brothers watched Alec and Emma while we did a little shopping in Victoria. We didn't get up for Black Friday...but we did battle crowds none the less. Also got to meet up with my good friend, Jenny, and G'ma Florine again in Victoria for a little while. We had BBQ at his Aunt Linda's later for dinner...but not until I forced us all to take "Christmas pictures" in front of G'ma Florine's house. You see, G'ma has moved into an assisted living apartment since her several back surgeries, and is planning to put her beautiful and historic old home on the market in the new year. This makes me sad, because it is a gorgeous plantation style Southern house and Aaron's family has made many wonderful memories there. In fact, I think he spent every single Christmas morning there as a child. We would love to buy it and make it our own...but I don't know that there are any IT positions open in Goliad! I wanted to have pictures of us as a family outside the house. The kids were super cranky and in desperate need of a nap by the time we got home from shopping, but we had to do it then because it wouldn't be light out after nap. So, Grandpa took some pictures of us out in front of the house and of the kids walking around the yard. I'm glad we have the memories...even though they didn't really want to cooperate for the family shots. I will post some...but I'm debating on whether to wait until after the Christmas cards go out!
Saturday after breakfast we hit the road. We made a stop in Houston for a few hours to see Tia V, and to try on my dress for the wedding and have it altered, and to have Emma fitted for her custom made dress. I know! What other little girl gets a dress custom made just for them? We hit some traffic heading out of Houston and a little congestion heading up I45 to Dallas...but nothing bad! We left Goliad at 9:15am and got home at 11:15pm. What a day! The kids were troopers. I don't blame them for getting cranky. It stinks being in the car that long. I just try to keep them entertained with books, music, dvds, food and hopefully...naps!
If you are reading this, I hope that you had a super Thanksgiving spent with family and friends. We have so much to be thankful for. We are so blessed!
At the club
With Uncle Alex
The Baby Patch- Alec trying to "sneak" off
Alec with Uncle NuNu (Andrew)
Pooped and parched at the end of a long day
5 CousinsEmma, Collin, Alec, Cooper, Cira
All of us with Grandma Florine
At the club
My silly Alec
Emma and Uncle Alex
Alec and NuNu
Sleepy babies!Sunday, November 22, 2009
The Beginning
Yesterday, we bought potties at Walmart. Alec has a white and green one, and of course, Emma's is pink. From what I've read on potty training twins, it's advisable to have two potties. So, that's what we did. I'm starting VERY slowly. I don't want to dive into this wholeheartedly just yet because they aren't really ready. They aren't aware of needing to peepee yet. They can tell us if they are pooping or have a poopy diaper...but I don't think they are able to communicate the urges yet. (Sorry if this is freaking out people who don't have to deal with the "output" of others on a daily basis!) Also, we are making three trips to TX between now and the end of February. There is no way I'm going to get serious about this until those trips are out of the way.
But anyway, I thought a good place to start (pre-training, if you will) is just to have the kids follow me to the potty, watch me do my business, and start associating the words we use with what Mommy is doing. This morning, all I had to do was say, "Mommy has to go use the potty," and they followed me right into the bathroom. Right away, Alec pulled up the lid to his potty and sat down (we're just keeping our clothes on and learning that the potty is a place to sit to do our business for now). Emma soon followed suit. I was pretty pleased with pre-training lesson 1. :-)
But anyway, I thought a good place to start (pre-training, if you will) is just to have the kids follow me to the potty, watch me do my business, and start associating the words we use with what Mommy is doing. This morning, all I had to do was say, "Mommy has to go use the potty," and they followed me right into the bathroom. Right away, Alec pulled up the lid to his potty and sat down (we're just keeping our clothes on and learning that the potty is a place to sit to do our business for now). Emma soon followed suit. I was pretty pleased with pre-training lesson 1. :-)
Friday, November 20, 2009
Elf Yourself Videos
Okay, the two videos below are different. I've been wanting to do this for a while, after seeing versions with some of my friends. This is hilarious and totally entertaining to me. Hopefully, you'll get a good laugh too. Aaron's comment "umm...we all look normal, but Alec is totally white!" I'm pretty sure it's lighting, but he is my pretty pasty boy!
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