Merry Christmas!

What a fun, wonderful, special Christmas this one was!

Christmas Eve

'Twas the night before Christmas...

Thankful for Thanksgiving

This post is a little late....I guess I forgot!

Thanksgiving week started out somewhere near the Cowboy Capital of the World in west Texas.
G. liked playing the "triangle" and experiencing all those things that don't normally surround him, like Matt's Jeep and deer antlers.

From the deer lease, we spent a few peaceful days, including Thanksgiving Day, at Ra Ra & Big Big Daddy's in Georgetown, then we went to Horseshoe Bay to play. Matt was in a golf tournament, but G & Mommy got to make our own Carmel apples and go on a hayrack ride! The "put-put" course was this gorgeous garden, 18 hole miniature golf course, so we made several trips around there playing. We also had some fun in the pool and inour room looking out at the pool!

What is it?

I almost missed it! As usual, Gregory was playing with his cars (sadly go's are a thing of the past) when he said, "Look, Mommy, Look!" I kind of did my half interested grunt thing (pray for me, I've been a very serious, boring, stressed out mommy lately), and nodded in his direction. Again, Benito (ha, ha!) told me to look so I did...and boy, am I glad I did. A triangle made out of cars!

Santa and Barney and Fireworks. Oh My.

I love the fact that G. is finally old enough to be excited about make believe stuff like Barney and Santa. Last weekend our hometown had two festivals for children. The first one was held at the Pavillion and that is where we got to watch Barney with our girlfriend, Savannah.

G. cracks us up. All the other tots, like Savannah, are smiling and singing. G. is just staring at Barney as if he's not quite sure what to think. Personally, I've never been a Barney fan but Gregory does like the music!

The best part of the day was making kites with daddy and trying to fly them down the hill.

The next day was the lighting of the doves. This is such a great event for kids. First of all, Gregory got to touch and try to walk on "snow"! He got to touch real snow once, but he was only nine months old and surely doesn't remember it.

Then...came Santa. And, even better than Santa...dancing and singing with Santa....and even better than dancing and singing with Santa? Fireworks! Wow!

The Pumpkin

Halloween was so fun this year! It was the first time Gregory got to participate in a Halloween parade at school. (He ran out of line, jumped over three other moms, gave me a big hug and kiss then ran back to his group in class!) It was his first time for a Halloween party at school.

Here he is with his "buddies," Lauren, Liam, Houston, Sophie, Noah, Alexa, Emily, Emmie, and Isaac.

And with Ms. Maria and Ms. Lisa!

On Saturday, Daddy & Matt came over to help us carve our pumpkin! We all liked feeling the "yucky" pulp inside and eating the pumpkin seeds before Trick or Treating.

And who enjoyed getting candy this year? Of

course G. did....he liked trick or treating so much that when the neighbors opened their doors, G. would say, "Trick or treat, Halloween Pumpkin, Cars," take candy and walk right into their homes! Thank goodness most people were understanding!

At the end of the evening, we hung out in Daddy's cul-de-sac with the other neighbors, ate, drank, and played with our friends Alexa and Justin!

G. is all ready to go again next year!

Trussell Wedding

Clayton and Lauren got married last Friday and G. was lucky enough to be a part of the special event.

Cousin Addison was the pretty princess flower girl so it was easy to get G. down the aisle. The only hiccup was that he couldn't figure out why she was throwing the petals out of her basket, so he stopped and tried to pick them all up for her! If only he stays this tidy...

Addison and Gregory pretty much ruled the reception, dancing the night away. Here is Gregory's first slow dance with a nonfamily member. Me thinks he prefers blondes!

Rice Football

What a perfectly fun fall day! It was finally cool so daddy, mommy & G went to a football game at Rice. It was Armed Forces Day and Rice was killed (63-14) by Navy, but it was fun anyway.

Here is G and dad watching the Navy band enter the stadium.

There were also a lot of Nasa alums present since most of the people who work there either were in the Navy or went to Rice...go f. Do we have a future astronaut?

(I'll admit, I have my doubts about the whole walking on the moon thing anyway.)

Before the game, G. got to go out on the field and high five the players. Do you see them out there? No, me neither, but they are in the corner somewhere.

Before the game, we also watched the
"Mob" and met Sammy the Owl

We made friends with all our neighbors, played "skateboards" with the boys next to us and had a "grandma" hold G. in her lap. It was such a great day!

First night of homework

So G. had his first bit of homework this week. We were given a blank pumpkin and told to add our own "special touches". As many of you know, I debated about what to do...

Do I make a face?

Do I cut out words and/or shapes and let him glue them on?

I got many cute ideas however, I went with my gut and gave him some letter stickers and told him to have fun!

This is his name. Does it count if he has

the letters out of order?

And the final product...which was really quite fun. Not the most creative, but at least he did it all himself :)

School Days

I think we're finally into the school routine, but I have to post these pictures from Gregory's first day at preschool (he has on the green shirt back by the window).

He spent the first week crying, but now seems to really like his teachers and loooooves going outside and playing in the big sandbox with all the trucks! His teacher told me that if they even mention going outside, he is running to the door.

During the second week, a new boy named Isaac joined them. Isaac happened to be snoring during nap time and G. wasn't sleeping, so his Ms. Lisa asked G. if she could sit next to him, and he said, "Yeah. He's broken!" and pointed to Isaac! G. has since been moved to a quieter spot and has been napping this week!

Monster Trucks and Aunt Mary Lee

Aunt Mary Lee flew in from Virginia and take care of G. last week! They went swimming, to the children's museum, and spent lots of time at the park. On Friday they even went to the Museum of Natural Science and saw lizards and bumblebees and lots and lots of butterflies!

Aunt Mary Lee loves dogs and she spent a lot of time snuggling up with sweet Crockett!

When Aunt Mary Lee flew back to Virgina on Saturday, Gregory and mommy went to "Touch a Truck" day at Rob Flemming Park. It was hot, but so much fun!

My Favorite Things

Gregory and I have recently been listening to The Sound of Music...he prefers "Doe, A Deer"...

here are a few of his favorite things!