Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Meet "Mine"

Owen and Mason have created a hand puppet friend that they have named "Mine." Mine doesn't wear any clothes (there is no actual puppet they put on their hand), he is simply just their hand. Mine loves to talk to everyone, loves to talk to other Mines, and loves to switch between Mine (all the fingers), Mommy Mine (3 fingers), and Baby Mine (2 fingers). Mine also loves pretending he's in different scenarios and giving people different pretend objects, like milk, ice cream, trucks, etc. You will likely see a lot of Mine in our Christmas pictures and will probably wonder why Owen and Mason are holding their hands in such funny positions if I don't go ahead and explain. Here's Owen and Baby Mine.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

We were determined this year to do lots of Christmas-y things to get the boys excited about the holidays. We started off the season by getting our Christmas tree decorated the weekend before Thanksgiving. We like to enjoy it for as long as possible! Numna gave the boys some new ornaments this year...the letters O and M...so those were the first on our tree this year.
Christmas Tree Decorating 2009


We also headed out to see the lighting of the 40 foot Christmas tree near where we live.
Here's our family getting ready for Santa to come light the tree. (M, O)









The kids thought it was pretty cool.













We went with Cate, Owen and Mason's friend from school. The three of them had such a good time together. (Owen on left in both pics)











We also had fun visiting Santa about FOUR different times! Such a big change from last year when all they did was scream and cry. This year they LOVED him! (M, O)









Amazingly, it also snowed this year in Houston! Rare! The kids thought it looked cool from inside the house but weren't too impressed with the giant flakes hitting them in the eyes. (M, O)









Owen and Mason really enjoyed their Nativity and Santa's sleigh toys this year. (O, M)










Here's Mason with mini ornaments on his ears as earrings. YES, he thought of this on his own, and he was quite impressed with himself in the mirror, as you can see in the pictures.













Owen had fun with this carousel that was given by my grandmother to my sister and me when we were little. My mom has since passed it on to our household for Owen and Mason to enjoy. And boy did they! We finally had to put it out of reach!












Another cool thing we did this year was go see the Kansas City Southern Railroad's touring Christmas train. The line was long, the weather was wet, and the kids could NOT understand why they couldn't get on the train right away. We waited our turn though, and the kids thought they had died and gone to Heaven! Here is a small album with pics from our train adventure.
Santa's Choo Choo Train


We all got together again with Cate and her family for some yummy Mexican food and a Christmas celebration in their neighborhood park. We saw Santa yet again, sledded down a snow hill, watched some fireworks, and just had a fun time feeling Christmas-y! Here's another album of some cute pics and videos (proof that my kids are fearless).
Christmas in the Park

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Fall Fun

A while back we all headed to the park for a family day. We rode the train and the paddle boats, had a picnic, saw some live music, and just had a relaxing day.

Family Day at the Park


We also met up with Owen and Mason's cousin, Kennedy, when we were in Austin for Thanksgiving. The kids had tons of fun running down the hill and riding the Zilker Zephyr.

Zilker Park


Also during the fall, Owen and Mason discovered markers, helped Mommy celebrate turning 30, and had their very first school party!

November 09

We love Mickey!

A few weeks ago we took the boys to see Disney on Ice, which they absolutely loved. Growing up, we were a Disney family so it is exciting for me to see them light up when they see Mickey. I'm looking forward to the day we can take them to Disney World...but for now, this works for us!

Here's a cute video of the Mickey Mouse March. We listen to this song over and over in the car so the kids were totally into it when they sang it during the show! Watch to the end...it's so cute!


Here are some pics from the day...
Disney on Ice

All The Singing Ladies...

Surging to the top of Owen and Mason's favorites list is Beyonce's "Single Ladies," which they have renamed to "All the Singing Ladies." Here are a few short videos of them singing the parts they know. Owen is the main performer in these videos, but don't be fooled. Mason can belt it and bust a move when he's in the mood - which is always when the camera isn't rolling, of course!





Thursday, December 17, 2009

(Another) Brag Alert! :)

We're 2 1/2 years old and learning to write already! All I can say is WOW! I used to teach 4-5 year olds who had trouble learning to write letters (and even recognize them, for that matter)!



And since they've known all their letters since before 2, we've also been working on reading, starting with the sight words I and see. I figure if they can recognize a letter, a shape, an object, etc. then they should be able to recognize a word. Right? The book we like right now is "I See Colors," and each page says "I see (color)." They are learning to use picture clues to help determine what the sentence says. The page that says "I see red" has a cat painting everything red (Owen's favorite page, of course). They are very good at one-to-one correspondence (pointing to each word and saying it) which will also help when counting objects.

It is just amazing to me to see them doing all of these things that my Pre K students were learning, and many found challenging. Again the other day Owen put together an AB pattern with the giant black and red checkers at Cracker Barrel. I have a video of this but it seems to be taking a while to upload to YouTube.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Santa! I know him!


Mason and Owen were all about Santa this year! I think we've seen him 4 times so far!

Dear Santa...

...here is what Owen and Mason have told me they want for Christmas. Pretty cute and pretty funny!

Owen:
Red!!
A red present
Stickers
A red bicycle
A red playground
Puppies
A Diego bicycle

Mason:
Stickers
A green present
Toys
A blue bicycle
A baseball bat
A playground for our backyard

Mason says Owen wants a baseball bat, Mommy wants stickers, and Daddy wants green stickers and a ring.

Owen says Mason wants stickers, Mommy wants Pluto, and Daddy wants green stickers and puppies.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

30

So I turned 30 about a month ago and am just getting around to posting about it...yes, that's how un-excited I am about it! My wonderful hubby, my parents, my sister, and bff Paige and hubby Blake, all worked their tails off to pull a fast one on me! I knew my parents were coming in to town to watch the kids while I went out with a few friends. The day of the "party," my mom mysteriously got sick and couldn't get out of bed. What I didn't know was that they were all at Paige's house pulling off a big surprise. They know me well and knew they had to make it seem like it was my idea to end up over at Paige's later that night. I thought our "party" was canceled and that Paige's mother-in-law was going to watch O and M while the 4 of us went out to dinner. Here I come, bursting into my surprise party with all of Owen and Mason's gear for the night!

The theme was great...80's...complete with Tang, slap bracelets, splatter paint, and everything else 80's that still hides out on store shelves. It was a ton of fun and my first-ever surprise party. Many thanks to everyone who celebrated with me and an even BIGGER thanks to my hubby, fam, and bff for all the hard work! It was totally radical, dude!

Erin's 30th