Sixteen!

Holiday Wrap Up

There was much for our little clan to celebrate as we close out another wonderful year together. We were blessed to see many of our family and friends over the course of this Christmas break. We didn't get the chance to all gather at once, but that just means we got to spread the holiday cheer a bit longer this year.


We started off our holiday tour of Texas with a trip down to Wharton to visit with Nanny and the crew down there. They rolled out the red carpet and welcomed us with open arms and a stuffed table. Our time ended too quickly, but at least we got to spend the afternoon together as a family. Nanny has had a rough year, health-wise, and it was a joy to spend this time with her. I am hoping that our visit helped to bring a bright spot to her day as well.

Just a few days later, the 3 of us enjoyed our traditional-for-us Christmas Eve festivities: an early service, a special dinner, a reading by Wonder Boy, and an always anticipated gift exchange! There were some FUN THINGS under the tree this year. One of the highlights (for me) was watching Wonder Boy open a seriously surprising gift: a melodica. As he unwrapped it, he looked rather confused and it was obvious he just didn't even know how to react to it! But by the time he unboxed it and tried out his first tune, he was hooked! I'm also pleased to say he entertained us throughout our holiday travels with it. NOTHING breaks up a 3 hour car ride like a lively tune from the back seat.

Christmas Day brought the Huntsville family into town. We enjoyed another over stuffed table and another afternoon of catching up with family. The 3 youngest had a great time unwrapping gifts and playing with Wonder Boy. Wonder Dad and I enjoyed having the littles around too. There is just nothing like the holidays with young kids. And while I am in no rush for grand-kids, I do get glimpses of things to come and it warms my heart.

After 3 separate family Christmas celebrations, we were able to prolong our holiday gatherings with trips to see friends in San Antonio and in Katy. It was a great way to wrap up our vacation. And it was our yearly reminder of the things that truly matter in life - precious time with those we love the most. I feel renewed after this time away from the hustle and bustle of life, surrounded by those I love the most, my heart completely full.

Happy Ho, Ho, Ho!

This holiday season, once it got ramped up, was about a 5 day extravaganza! We visited with friends, had quality time with family of all shapes and sizes, and still managed to garner some special just-the-three-of-us moments as well. I took a BOAT LOAD of photos and have a few here to share. You will see that I had a hard time cutting down what to post. But I just didn't want to leave anyone out!


Honestly, I couldn't cram half the pictures on here that I really wanted to share. So for now, this will have to do.

We enjoyed a small gathering with friends the weekend leading up to Christmas. We spent a wonderful Christmas Eve with a traditional-for-the-three-of-us feast. And then Christmas day almost all of my family made it in for a wild and wooly lunch with kids ranging from 2 to 13 running, playing, joking, eating, and infecting everyone with a good dose of holiday cheer.

I don't think I could have scripted it any better - aside from some family members that need to pay more attention to their watches *ahem* and the addition of a couple of folks who couldn't make it this year. It was a good day. A very good day!

I think what I will remember most about Christmas this year is the feeling of contentment from being around those that I love and who love me back in return.

Merry Christmas! And may God bless us, EVERYONE!

2013 Year in Review

At the close of each year, I like to post a quick look back over the previous 12 months. And here is my glance back at 2013:


As usual, looking back on the year makes me a bit nostalgic. We had a good year as a family. We stretched out a bit, tried some new things, continued with some old favorites, and in general just grew together as a family.

Any time you have a child in the mix, looking back over any period of time you will be able to see huge leaps in growth and accomplishment. And we are no different in that respect. Wonder Boy has grown and changed every bit as much in the last 12 months as in his first 12 months. The young man that he is becoming is one that constantly leaves us in awe ... and in anticipation of what the next 12 months will hold!

So as we kick off 2014 in style, here's to everything that is yet to come!

Happy New Year from our family to yours!

Merry Christmas!

I'm actually posting this on the way far side of Dec 25, 2013 (it's now 2014, but I'll be back dating this post). I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to work on this. Perhaps it's because our holiday this year was so nice and peaceful that even taking the time to write a blog post seemed like an intrusion on our family time. Whatever the reason, here is a brief review of our 2013 holiday ...

Instead of one big family gathering, our celebrations were a bit more spread out this year.

We launched our family festivities with the Christmas-ification of the house, both inside and out, on Thanksgiving day. And we kept adding decorations and other such signs of the holidays all the way up until the week of Christmas!

On Dec 20th as schools (both big and small) shut down, we kicked off our long winter break with a family wedding. The next day Wonder Boy tested successfully for his purple belt in judo (post coming soon). And the day after THAT we welcomed our first visitors and had a great lunch and early present exchange.

Christmas Eve found us at home, just the 3 of us. We enjoyed an early service, had a super special (though quite non-traditional) dinner, a reading by Wonder Boy, loads of Christmas movies, and the exchange of our gifts to one another. Christmas day started pretty early with more presents and was followed by another wonderful family visit for yet another great lunch and even MORE gifts.

*WHEW* That was exhausting even to type! Honestly, It was a whirl-wind of excitement and we have all enjoyed it immensely. Here are a few sights from our season of celebration:


We'd like to wrap up our holiday re-cap by wishing each and every one of you a happy and healthy 2014!

Bacon Day

There is always so much to look forward to during the summer months. We are blessed in that there are several celebrations to bring a little spice to the hot months.

The two that Wonder Boy and I seem to enjoy the most are Father's Day and Wonder Dad's birthday! And as luck would have it, these dates fall within a month of one another, so once we start ramping up for Dad's day in June, we get to keep on rolling all the way through mid-July. It makes for a lot of fun!

Like with Father's Day, Wonder Boy is generally "in charge" of gifts and cards and that kind of thing while I take the lead in the designing the menu for the day.

This year on Father's Day, we tried out a number of Paleo recipes in an attempt to keep our celebrating on the healthy side of things. The two biggest hits of the day were the chocolate strawberry donuts and the bacon-shell tacos, so we vowed to include them in Wonder Dad's birthday preparations as well.

I mention this because another facet of Wonder Boy's planning for his dad's birthday is the theme. He likes to have a theme when designing cards, picking out presents, and planning any special activities. Last year, he picked "Zombies" as the birthday theme. And the year before that he did up a special Angry Birds theme.

In our planning discussions (usually in the car on the way to work/camp each morning), Wonder Boy was struggling to find a theme he could sink his teeth into (yes, there is a pun there ... wait for it). But by the time we got through Father's Day and the bacon-shell tacos had been such a big hit, Wonder Boy knew what he wanted to use for this year's theme.

...

You guessed it!

...

BACON!


You can't go wrong w/ bacon, right?!

So we started the day w/ those chocolate strawberry donuts and then 'bacon-ified' them by sprinkling them with bacon pieces while the chocolate glaze was still warm. Wonder Boy designed a bacon birthday card. We found bacon-ish gifts (a t-shirt featuring bacon and a board game for the whole family to enjoy called Mr. Bacon's Big Adventure). For dinner we tried the bacon-shell tacos again, but I'm afraid I learned a hard lesson - don't use thick cut bacon - and they fell apart. But we made the best of things and just had tacos with the bacon added to them. Then we took some of the extra pieces of bacon, chopped them up, and used the bacon bits to top a big bowl of ice cream! YUM YUM YUM!

So that's the story of Wonder Dad's Bacon Birthday! Wonder Boy must have really enjoyed himself, celebrating both his dad and his favorite salted meat, because he asked for the same treatment on HIS birthday this fall.

Our Super Hero

Every kid's first super hero is their dad, right? While I cannot speak for every family, I know that is most certainly the case around here!

Just ask Wonder Boy and he will tell you - his dad is the smartest, funniest, strongest, silliest, craziest, most inventive, most AMAZING dad in the history of dads!

OK. So that's laying it on just a tad thick. (Wonder Boy now claims that HE is the smartest and funniest .... but I digress). But the fact remains that we both find Wonder Dad to be pretty darn wonderful! And as such, we look forward to this day each year as a chance to show him just how much we truly love him.


As we like to make a pretty big deal about this day, Wonder Boy and I have worked out a pretty sweet deal on who does what to get things ready. The Boy is in charge of gifts and cards. I handle the food.

For Wonder Boy's birthday last fall, Wonder Dad surprised him with a scavenger hunt that led to his gift. And since that day, Wonder Boy has been itching to return the ... um ... favor. So he wrote out clues that Wonder Dad had to follow to find his goodie bag. I think it was a pretty big hit. But it is certainly upping the stakes for Wonder Boy's birthday a few months down the road!

As for food, Wonder Dad and I made a change to our diets back at the beginning of May and we are committed to making it a life-long change. We've gone Paleo. And without boring you with too many of the details, the general idea is that processed foods are out. Nuts, fruit, veggies, and meat.

That doesn't leave many choices for special occasion baking. But the good ole Internet came to my rescue and I found a sweet treat to start off our day - Paleo chocolate strawberry donuts! They were DELISH! For lunch we had pork chops. And then, the crowning glory of the day (food-wise, anyway) ... we made bacon-shell tacos for his dinner! They were the big hit of the day and both the Boy and his dad have requested that these be standard "special occasion" fare from this day forth.

All in all, it was a good day! Wonder Boy and I love the opportunity to let Wonder Dad know just how special he is to us. We hope that he gets at least a glimpse of that EVERY DAY of the year, but we try to make sure that Father's Day is as awesome as the guy we are celebrating!

Year in Review

2012 was a pretty eventful year for us. We moved to a new house. Wonder Boy graduated elementary school and started intermediate school. There were work and home projects, both big and small. We laughed, we cried, we worried, we celebrated. We tried new things and watched Wonder Boy grow. Memories we'll carry with us for a very long time!

As with most years, there is a lot to look back upon. But there just seems to be so much more on the horizon!

I always enjoy the look back over the year. It never fails to amaze me how much things change in 12 short months. But this year, I can honestly say that I am truly looking forward.

I don't know what 2013 holds in store for us, but I'm chomping at the bit to see what kinds of possibilities will present themselves!

Happy New Year one and all! May 2013 be a time of peace, growth, and abundant love!

Birthday Birdies

Birthdays are big in this family. Preparations begin weeks, if not months, in advance. No detail is left to chance... except there is always *something* unexpected with each event. But I guess that's just life.

So ... back to THIS birthday! It's Dad's turn this month. We did start plans nearly a month in advance, basically as soon as we were done with Father's Day activities. And the theme chosen this year (to no one's surprise) is 'Angry Birds.' After all ... we all enjoy playing from time to time and those birds got angry about some stolen eggs, so family values are big among birds just like our little clan. What can I say? It just feels right.

Wonder Boy truly ran with the theme, picking out an Angry Birds t-shirt, helping to design and assemble an Angry Birds birthday card, and even putting on his own Angry Birds skit! He spent days working on the skit - he made all of the props himself behind closed doors. He did need a hand in the enactment (you can't do all the parts at one time, I guess), but otherwise the production was entirely his own creation and it was the hit of the evening!



I think Dad enjoyed the evening as much as we did. It was the perfect way to kick off a celebration that would last almost an entire week (more on that later too).

Happy Birthday Daddy Bear! Here's to another great year! We love you!