Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Christmas Survey

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper this year but I'm not above using bags when I'm in a pinch.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial! Got a prelit one this year and they are awesome! Emma even got a little pink one! :)

3. When do you put up the tree? As close to right after Thanksgiving as possible.

4. Do you like eggnog? Have never had it. Isn't that crazy? I would probably like it though.

5. Favorite gift received as a child? My Hot Wheels!

6. Hardest person to buy for? Jamey

7. Easiest person to buy for? Emma

8. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, I have several. The Willow Tree one is my favorite!

9. Mail or email Christmas cards? I love sending sending and recieiving Christmas Cards in the mail

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hmmm...can't think of one at the moment.

11. Favorite Christmas Movie? Home Alone

12. When do you start shopping? Right after Thanksgiving. Went on Black Friday this year. That was a crazy experience!

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I'm sure it's happened at some point but I can't think of anything specific.

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? All of the baked goodies!

15. Lights on the tree? Yes, the clear ones

16. Favorite Christmas song? My mom hates this answer, but "Hard Candy Christmas" by Dolly Parten. Also like "Mary Did You Know?" (mom will like that answer better!)

17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We alternate Christmas' between our two families but now that Emma is getting older I'd like to spend Christmas Day at home as often as possible.

18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yep..."You know Dasher and Dancer...."

19. Angel on the tree top or a star? This year I have a big bow because my old tree topper wouldn't fit on the top of my new tall tree!

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One on Christmas Eve (pajamas) and the rest on Christmas morning

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Rude people at the stores

22. Favorite ornament, theme or color? I always get the Li Bien ornaments from Pier 1 every year. Also like the Hallmark photo ornaments.

23. What do you want for Christmas this year? A lot of house work done...

24. What is your favorite dish at Christmas dinner? Everything!

25. What dish should be left off Christmas dinner? Who eats Fruit Cake?

26. What's a special Christmas memory? Trying to stay up all night while excitedly waiting for everyone to get up to open presents

I tag anyone that wants to play!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

"Chicken Fried" by Emma

For those of you who listen to Texas Country, you might be familiar with Zac Brown and his big hit "Chicken Fried". Well, Ms. Gwen has been teaching it to Emma, and I finally got Emma to let me record her singing it (a word or two has been changed to make it more kid friendly!) And again, I apologize for the sideways picture!


School Christmas Open House

Emma had a Christmas Open House at her school on Thursday night. The whole time she was there she made awful faces at us and acted like it was pure torture for her to have to be there. I tried to capture one of the looks on the camera, and this is the closest I got:

They also did a little program and sang a few songs. I know she knows all of the words to every song because she sings them loudly in the car and at home. However, she was barely singing and would only mumble every other word during the performance. She also refused to do any of the hand motions that they had learned. If she caught Jamey or I looking at her, she would give us a very evil look. We just laughed the whole time. Here is the finale to the program. They are singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Notice how Emma refuses to look in my direction! (PS Sorry the video is sideways. I haven't figured out how to edit it to turn it around!)

Ms. Gwen's Christmas Party

Today was the last day at Ms. Gwen's house for the year, so as always the kids had a little Christmas Party. Here is a picture of all of the kids Ms. Gwen takes care of this year.

Snow Night!



Yes, believe it or not we actually got some snow down here in South Texas! It snowed for a couple of hours at our house. Emma LOVED it! I wish we had been a little further north where they got a lot more snow because I know she would have had fun making snow angels and snow men. We had enough to make some snowballs though, and she thought that was super cool!

Hannah Montana and Christmas Party

A lady I work with Rhonda, whose son and daughter-in-law Clayton and Kaysie are also good friends of ours, gets invited with her husband to this huge Christmas party every year. When I say huge, I mean bigger than you can imaging...like literally 10,000 people. It is held in the back yard (probably 30 acres or so) of these people, and they basically set up a fair with rides, petting zoos, cotton candy, funnel cake and hot chocolate booths, catered mexican food and bbq and then they always have a huge concert. Well this year, the entertainer was Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana), so she invited us along to take Emma. Needless to say, it was a fun filled afternoon!

Emma with Kaysie and Clayton on the Ferris Wheel (her favorite ride!)

Emma and Mama in the Spinning Dragons:

Emma on the Pony Ride:

Miley Cyrus:

Emma watching the concert on Daddy's shoulders:






It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

We put up Christmas decorations the first weekend of December. Emma had her own pink (of course!) tree this year, and picked out the ornaments she wanted to decorate it with. Here are a couple of pics of Emma with her tree:




This is our tree:


Emma and I put a gingerbread house together. She did the decorating with the candy herself and is very proud! She keeps trying to eat some of it everyday, so we've had to move it to the top of the refrigerator so she can't reach it!





Sunday, November 16, 2008

Disney on Ice

Two $28 tickets, one $20 princess wand that lights up, one $18 disney princesses on ice t-shirt, one $10 bag of cotton candy (that came with a "free" Incredibles mask) and one $10 sno-cone in a princess cup. An afternoon with Emma watching Disney on Ice...priceless!






Angleton v. Foster

Angleton won their first play-off game, beating Foster in a battle of the offenses Friday night 55-51. They will face off again Houston Davis this Friday. Go Cats!

Emma and Daddy after the game:
Emma cheering on the field after the game (she was mad the entire game because she couldn't go down to the track and cheer with the cheerleaders!):

Emma with Christen, Miss Gwen's daughter:
Emma with Kristin Crisp, her favorite cheerleader that she claims she wants to be:





Wildcat Pep Rally!


Angleton had a pep rally last Thursday night to send the football team off to their first play-off game against the Foster Falcolns. Here is a picture of Emma with her friend Burke (another coaches son) with Willie the Wildcat.

District Champs!


The Angleton Wildcats won their first district championship in a long time last week by defeating Manvel 49-36. We are so excited to be going to the play-offs for the first time in a few years! Go Cats Go!
After the game:
Emma singing the alma mater after the game:

With Pop-Pop during the game:
With Noni during the game:










Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Wildcat Cheers

This is Emma doing the cheer "Purple, Silver and White"

This is Emma singing the Angleton Fight Song

And this is Emma's favorite sequence she does at the end of any cheer or celebration. "Hurkey, Toe Touch, Tuck Jump, Side Jump", and now the newest edition to the routine a split at the end!

Our Very Own Taylor Swift

This is Emma last night singing "Our Song" by Taylor Swift. She's got some pretty good dance moves too! :-)

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween was a crazy one for us because we had to get a quick round of trick or treating in before heading off to Santa Fe for a football game. It all went well though. Emma got to trick or treat for about 45 minutes (and hauled in PLENTY of candy!), she wore her fairy costume to the game, and the night ended with a Wildcat victory! Here are some pictures from our day:
Going to Miss Gwen's in the morning:
The pretty fairy:
Watching the Wildats: After the WIN (please disregard my hair!):


Pumpkin Patch

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Kendra and I took Emma and her 2 year old, Ty, to a pumpkin patch here in Angleton. The kids mostly enjoyed rolling pumpkins and running around, but we managed to get them together for a couple of cute pictures.

The day started off well:

And then ended with screaming!

The Oil Ranch

A couple of weeks ago, my mom, sister and I took Emma, Kai, Jax and my sister's friend's little boy Caden to a place called the Oil Ranch near Waller. They had lots of activities to do there such as pony rides, a hay ride where you could feed cows, a train ride, a pumpkin patch, a petting zoo, hay mazes and playgrounds. It was a fun, but exhausting day, because the activities were spread out over acres and acres of land and we had haul 4 kids under the age of 3 from place to place. Here are some pics of our day:
Emma, Kai and Caden Emma feeding an animal at the petting zoo:
Emma and I:

Emma on a big pumpkin:


Emma at the end of the hay maze:















Sunday, October 12, 2008

Delinquent Blogger!

Yes, that would be me! I know it's been a little over a month since I last posted. But I made up for it by posting what has happened between now and then all today! So read below down through the next 7 posts because they are all new! And I promise to TRY and not let it go so long before I post again. Notice how I accented the word TRY! :-)

Brazoria County Fair Parade

I took Emma to the Brazoria County Fair Parade yesterday morning. She loved watching the clowns, horses, bands, cheerleaders, floats, you name it go by. She keeps asking me when the next parade is and can we go. Afterwards we went to the Pumpkin Patch that was at the coffee house we sat in front of during the parade. I'm hoping to go back to the Pumpkin Patch sometime in the next couple of weeks to pick up some pumpkins and get some better pics of Emma. Here are a few that I got from Saturday:

Emma watching the parade go by and waving her flag:

Emma sitting and enjoying her (or actually mine!) Carmel Frappacino:
At the Pumpkin Patch:


Emma with pumpkin she picked out:

Angleton v. Pearland Dawson

Angleton played Pearland Dawson Friday night in their 2nd home game of the year. This was also the Homecoming Game. They ended up losing a nail biter in overtime. The highlight of the game though was when Willie the Wildcat walked near us in the stands, Emma actually stuck her hand out and touched his hand! I was shocked! Maybe she will be over her fear of costumes by Halloween, or it could be a long night for her! :-)

Pajama Day at School

Emma had pj day at school on Thursday. This worked out perfect for mom since she and dad both had to be at a meeting at 7:00 that morning. Emma got to get out of bed and go straight to Miss Gwen's in what she slept in. If only it could be pajama day every morning! :-)

Emma has been telling us that she "doesn't want to go to school" and "doesn't like school" on school mornings. Jamey took her to school one day a couple of weeks ago, and when the teacher asked Emma to come and join her Emma pulled away and clutched onto Jamey. When we ask her how her day at school went though, she acts like she enjoyed being there. So Jamey took off work on Thursday and met with Emma's teacher to make sure that she was participating and seeming to be enjoying herself. Her teacher said she is doing great, she participates all of the time, is the first to say answers the majority of the time and is one of her better students. She also said that Emma enjoys being a leader, rather than a follower. (Never would have guessed that one...yeah right!) So I guess her act that she puts on for us on school mornings is just an act.


Angleton v. Friendswood

Angleton's first home football game of the year was last Saturday. Emma was supposed to cheer at the beginning of the game as part of the cheerleader camp she went to this summer. Mimi, Noni and Kai came down to watch her. When we got there, however, she decided that she did NOT want to go down there and cheer. She was also concerned that Willie the Wildcat would be near her (she is deathly afraid of anything in costume!) I tried bribery, but it didn't work. So we ended up watching all of the other little girls cheer from the stands. Oh well, maybe next year. On a good note though, Angleton pulled off an upset and beat Friendswood 28-25. Go Cats Go!

Emma and Daddy after the game:


Kai and Uncle Jamey after the game: