The DeBruin's

Christmas Survey

2008-12-23T19:39:00.002-06:00

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!

"Chicken Fried" by Emma

2008-12-21T12:04:00.003-06:00

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

2008-12-21T11:52:00.004-06:00

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

2008-12-21T11:43:00.003-06:00

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!

2008-12-21T11:39:00.002-06:00

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

2008-12-21T11:28:00.004-06:00

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...

2008-12-21T11:08:00.003-06:00

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!

Disney on Ice

2008-11-16T16:14:00.004-06:00

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

2008-11-16T16:07:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-11-16T16:04:00.003-06:00

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!

2008-11-16T15:56:00.003-06:00

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:

Wildcat Cheers

2008-11-05T20:03:00.004-06:00

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

2008-11-05T19:57:00.002-06:00

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

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T10:16:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-01T10:06:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-01T09:56:00.002-05:00

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:

Delinquent Blogger!

2008-10-12T21:39:00.003-05:00

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

2008-10-12T21:19:00.005-05:00

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

2008-10-12T21:17:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-12T21:10:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-12T21:05:00.002-05:00

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:

Happy 2nd Birthday Kai!

2008-10-12T21:00:00.002-05:00

Kai turned two on September 28th and had a "Backyardigans" themed party. Here are some pictures from the big day. We love you Kai-Guy!

Kai eating his blue cupcake (part of Pablo's face):

Emma wearing her Uniqua mask:

Picking up loot from the pinata:

Noni and Jax:

Fishing!

2008-10-12T20:54:00.002-05:00

Jamey and a friend of his that he coaches football with went fishing at the mouth of the Brazos a couple of weekends ago. The brought in a haul of redfish, and even had to throw some back because they were over the limit. Here are some pics of his trip:

Jamey with his "wall hanger" (he intends to get it mounted):

The days catch:

Emma standing with the "Catch of the Day:

Hurricane Ike

2008-10-12T20:47:00.003-05:00

We evacuated to College Station for Hurricane Ike. My sister and her family were also there, so my parents had a full house for around 5 days. Our house escaped the hurricane with minimal damage compared to a lot of people. We had tree branches down, a fence down and no electricity for 5 days, but other than that we were very lucky! We missed 5 days of school because of the storm, and haven't heard whether or not those days will have to be made up (hopefully not!). Here a couple of pics of what we did during the evacuation (College Station was spared from power outages during the storm, so we didn't have to "rough it" at all while we were there...thank the Lord!)

Emma and Kai in the balls at The Bounce:

Emma swimming with Daddy:

The Policeman Goes to Emma's School

2008-09-04T18:02:00.002-05:00

Emma generally doesn't share much information about what she does at school. Today, however, I picked her up and the first thing she told me was, "Mama, I got to be the door holder today!" She was so excited. Then she told me that she "sat on a brown blanket outside, even though there was a pink blanket too, she still sat on the brown one." (A little background for those of you who don't know...Emma is a girly girl. She thinks that brown is a "boy color and girls don't have brown, just pink!" So for her to sit on brown is a major event!) I asked her why they were sitting on blankets outside and she said because a policeman talked to them. When I asked her what the policeman told them, she replied "He said do not use bad sprays!" I have no clue what that means...

Weekend Visit

2008-09-04T17:52:00.003-05:00

First off, I want to apologize for slacking on the blogging lately. My excuse is that now that I'm back at work, I haven't gotten into an evening routine yet and am therefore running around until the minute I go to bed. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things in a week or so. With Jamey always gone with football, and me having cross country practice after school, I feel like I am barely home during the week and hardly get to spend time with my child. Okay, enough griping.

Last Sunday, Leah, Zeb, Kai and Jax came down the spent the night. Emma was very interested in Leah's breast feeding of Jax. She wanted to know if she should be doing that to her babies, is that all Jax eats, and can she "see where Jax bites Leah". I haven't noticed her trying this with her dolls yet, but won't be surprised if she does soon! Here are some pics from their visit:

Kai and Emma at the park:

Jax at the park:

First Day of School!

2008-08-27T20:48:00.002-05:00

Pre-school that is! Emma started pre-school yesterday at Little Hands Academy. She goes Tues/Thurs mornings from 8-11. She goes with Burke, a little boy that her babysitter, Miss Gwen, also keeps. She didn't have a lot to say about her first day, except for that they sang songs, Burke was her "only friend there", and they played on the playground and had to "line up when it was time to go inside". She's growing up so fast! :-)

Jax is Here!

2008-08-18T20:02:00.004-05:00

My sister Leah, husband Zeb and big brother, Kai, introduced the newest addition to their family today. Jax Bricker Hood was born at 1:16 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs 11 oz and was 21 inches long. He looks a little like his big brother and has the cutest dimples!

We asked Emma to give Jax a kiss on the forehead and she said "No, I have pretties (lip gloss) on, and you can't kiss a baby with pretties on!"

Tent on a Rainy Day

2008-08-17T21:19:00.003-05:00

Today was a rainy day for the most part of the day, so we were stuck playing inside. Mimi made Emma these 2 pieces of material that fit together over a card table to make a "princess castle" tent.

So we set it up in the living room, Emma brought all of her dolls and some of her books into it, along with a flashlight, and set up camp for about an hour.

Picnic at the Park

2008-08-16T21:11:00.005-05:00

Today Emma and I took our lunch to the park. After eating, she played on the playground. Being the extremely cautious child that she is (we have NO idea where that comes from!), she was very timid about climbing down some steps without me standing there to hold her hands. Slowly we practiced doing this over and over, and finally I got her to take the steps on her own. I have captured it in the video below. She felt SO proud and brave when she finally did it by herself!

Here are a few more pics of Emma on the playground:

Jumping off the last step!

Climbing the Ladder

Face of Concentration

Hanging from the ladder

Dress Up!

2008-08-14T20:10:00.002-05:00

This morning Emma got out her dress up stuff and put on some high heels, a straw hat and her purse with her pj's. Then she got her dolls together and pushed them around the house in the stroller.

Mimi's Visit

2008-08-13T21:05:00.002-05:00

Mimi came last night so that she could watch Emma today while Jamey and I went to work (I had a really exciting in-service to attend today! Can you catch the sarcasm in that?) When I got home, they were both in her bedroom, Emma piling dolls and animals onto her bed and Mimi sitting on the edge of the bed. Emma said they were on an airplane (the bed) going to see the Backyardigans. Last night they did same thing only the bed was a spaceship going to "summerland" (don't know exactly what that is, just a place Emma made up). She loves to "pretend" as she calls it, and dictates what everyone does and says in her pretend world. What an imagination she has!

Cheer Camp Day 2

2008-08-12T21:00:00.003-05:00

When I picked up Emma from Cheer Camp today, I walked in and the whole group was doing the dance that they were learning. I took a video of Emma doing the dance. Now I must say that Emma's version of the dance does not at all resemble the actual dance! (I had to zoom in all the way with my camera to film her, which meant that if I moved a millimeter with my hand the camera screen moved a foot, so sorry if you get sick trying to follow the video!)

After they finished the dance, they did a couple of cheers. Again, Emma's cheers looked nothing like everyone else's cheers. Lastly, they huddled together and sang the alma mater and fight song. This is where Emma was the star! (Bad mom that I am didn't have the camera out for this. Hey, I didn't know what they were doing in their huddle until it was too late.) But Emma sang both songs into the microphone, leading the way! (And no, I can't take credit for teaching her these songs. In fact, she taught me the songs! Her babysitter, Miss Gwen gets all the credit for that!)

Emma's Fears

2008-08-11T21:28:00.002-05:00

Today was a busy day for Miss Emma. This morning she attended cheerleader camp up at the high school. I didn't stay and watch (because no other parents did and I didn't want to be the only one! :)), but I heard that she did great except for when Willie the Wildcat made an appearance. She freaked out and hid until they had a cheerleader pretend to beat him up and then made him leave...all for Emma's sake! She's terrified of anything in costume! After cheer camp, we went to Schlitterbahn with my friend, Holly, and her daughter, Julia. Emma was scared of any and all slides and rides at Schlitterbahn. I MADE her (being the mean mom that I am) go on 2 intertube rides with me and also on a little water slide with me. She protested going on it, but I thought "hey, she might end up liking it and just not know it yet". However, at the end of each ride she told me "I will NEVER go on that ride again!" So she spent the majority of her day with her 'wings' on floating in the kiddie pool with about 1 foot of water. And of course, wanted me to "Watch!" every second of her floating. She did entertain me some, however, because when she would float on her back she would sing a song (a different song everytime she turned over to her back, of course!) What I learned? I should have filled up the kiddie pool in the backyard with 1 foot of water, put her 'wings' on her, and let her float for free instead of paying $70 for her to do the same thing at Schlitterbahn. Maybe next summer she'll make the trip worthwhile! :-)

Here's a picture of her and Julia:

Prayers Needed!

2008-08-11T19:06:00.003-05:00

One of my best friends from high school, April, has been diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and had to fly to NYC to have brain surgery a couple of weeks ago. She was able to fly home to Austin, however, the other day had a set back in her recovery. Follow this link to her blog to read up on her www.aprilhenrynyc.blogspot.com and please keep her and her family in her prayers!

Emma and her 'Mini Me'

2008-08-10T21:46:00.002-05:00

My mom got Emma this really cute dress that came with a matching dress to put on a doll. She wore it to church this morning, and insisted upon dressing her doll also and taking it along to church. She, and the doll, looked so cute I had to take a couple of pictures!

Backyardigans Live!

2008-08-09T23:51:00.004-05:00

Today my mom and I took Emma and my nephew Kai to see the Backyardigans Live at the Hobby Center. The kids loved it, dancing in front of their seats and singing the songs. It was worth having to sit through it to see them enjoying it so much!

Here's Emma and Kai standing in front of the advertisement at the Hobby Center:

Here they are dancing during the show:

Here's they are with me, waiting for the show to start:

Here's 'Noni' with her grandkids:

Summer Reading

2008-08-08T19:07:00.003-05:00

Emma loves books! She can spend an hour reading to herself. If it is a book we have read a few times, she will go through the book on her own and tell the story outloud the best she can remember it. If it's a book we haven't read before, she will look at the pictures and completely make up her own story. It's so cute to watch and listen to her do this. She has such an imagination!

Today the house got really quiet for awhile and I found her in the chair reading some books. Here are some pics of her doing this.

Visit With Melissa and Brodie

2008-08-07T18:45:00.005-05:00

Yesterday we were in College Station at my parents, and my high school friend, Melissa and her little boy Brodie (who turns one next week!) drove down from Waco to hang out with us. This was my first time to meet Brodie (bad friend, I know!) and he is so cute and sweet! Melissa hadn't seen Emma in over a year and half either, so she was a little different than Melissa remembered her to say the least! We had a great time catching up with each other, took the kids to Chick-Fil-A (a ZOO!!!) for lunch, and swam in the backyard. We miss you Melissa, Brodie and Brent and wish we lived closer and could hang out more often!

Okay, so I know the picture is really bad! Try getting a 1 and 3 year old to look at the camera at the same time! My excuse for the way I look? The sun was in my face and I was laughing at my mom trying to get the kids to look! :)

You can at least see the kids faces in this one! :)

HELLO BLOG WORLD!!!

2008-08-07T18:35:00.002-05:00

I've been reading friend's blogs for the last couple of years, and always think to myself while I'm reading them how nice it would be to do that and have our life documented through it (I haven't been the best at filling out the baby book!) Then I tell myself that there's no way I have the time to do a blog and forget about it. Well today I was surfing through some blogs and Jamey walked by and said "Why don't you do one of those?" I know he was joking, but I was like "I should!" So here's my attempt at blogging. We'll have to see how up to date I can keep it. I promise to try! And those of you exprienced bloggers out there...if you have any suggestions to make my blogging life easier and more creative, all suggestions are welcome! :)