First Snow of 2009

When I was in college, I was disappointed to learn that snow was a once in a decade event.  I’d heard stories of the elusive white stuff but didn’t ever see it in my 4 years in San Antonio at Trinity University.  The absence of snow continued for years after I moved to Houston as well and I was accustomed to thinking that snow was a fluke and I’d likely never consider to be “real” snow after growing up in Utah.

This all changed on Christmas Day 2004 – the first Christmas when the Texas Batemans included Jackson in addition to Mom and Dad.  Christmas Eve saw more than an inch of the white fluffy stuff piled up on the grass, cars, and just about everything else.  It was a nice treat for Jackson’s first Christmas and shattered my belief that the only snow the kids would ever see was when we went on trips to the Rockies.

Fast forward to 2009.  Yesterday, we had a respectable snow storm that survived overnight and was enough to make a few snowmen in our neighborhood.  Not to mention that it has now snowed in Houston 2 years in a row!  Global warming, wha?

So we are now fully into the Christmas spirit with Thanksgiving behind us, the Christmas tree and lights up, and snow on the ground.  Today, we deck the halls!

Here are some pics from our 2009 holiday season:

Our snowman - Frosty

  

Hermey the elf and Dad putting up Christmas lights

Thanksgiving in San Antonio

Jackson’s fake mustache we got from Black’s BBQ in Lockhart, TX

 

Christmas tree hunting at Dewberry Farm

 

It ain't just about the pictures

As I was lying down to read some books with Emily and Jackson tonight, it dawned on me that our lack of posting to this blog is not acceptable.  Somehow with the allure of FaceBook, I have been kidding myself into thinking that sharing photos is enough.  Pictures are worth a thousand words, but there is no substitute for the context behind all of those wonderful images.

Jackson can read... really well.  I constantly try to find things to stump him with because he can read just about anything.  Whether it is a book to Emily or pronunciation of "El Jarrito", J-Man rarely encounters a word he can't pick out.  T-Ball is the latest craze and Jackson loves playing with Davis, Connor, Walker, and the rest of his team.  Yousef and Nadu are his buds at school, and Emerson is almost literally the girl next door.

Emily is growing up to be quite a little princess.  As much as she loves pink and playing dress-up, she doesn't take any guff from Jackson or anyone else for that matter.  Ballet is teaching her coordination, and she loves having fun with her friends Jenna and Tinsley at school.  That cute little 2-year old smile continues to melt Daddy's heart and every day she amazes me with her wonderful spirit.

As a family, we have been quite busy lately.  We try to save up our energy during the week as the weekends seem to be the most hectic.  Recent fun has included Easter egg hunts, crawfish boils, T-Ball games, bike rides, playing golf in our "front yard", and other spring time activities.  Last weekend Nana came to town and we had a great fun-filled weekend.

Speaking of the grandparents, I got to see my Pops a few weeks ago when attending some conferences in Palm Springs and San Diego.  We're also planning to take part in Fiesta activities this year in San Antonio which we haven't been very active in the past few years with the kids being so young.

There are so many memories swirling around in my head that I can't capture them all, but I felt the need to capture at least a few.  Each day, these kids are growing up so ridiculously fast, and no digital collection of pixels can accurately capture this amazing experience.

Holidays are Officially Underway

Since it has been a while since our last post-Ike blog post, a lot has happened.  This post is to provide some history and pics from late September, October, and November.

Autumn Kids

The kids seem to love the fall.  It is great when the temperature starts to taper off here in the Houston area because the summer can be pretty brutal.  Jackson and Emily love wearing their long pants, coats...

   

...and especially those days when it gets cold enough for the hat and mittens!

 

And of course, fall can not arrive without conjuring up memories of that holiday line-up.  First comes Halloween and all of the fun costumes.  This year, Jackson was Spiderman (no surprise there) and Emily picked Minnie over Ariel in a game-time decision while costume shopping.  They got to wear costumes and have Halloween fun many, many times this year from the fall festival at their school...

   

... to the pumpkin patch

    

    

... and lots of other random times in between.  In fact, Emily threw her Minne outfit on just today as we were getting the Christmas decorations out! 

Finally, the big day of Halloween arrived.  We had a fun party with all of our neighbors out in "Legacy Square" before trick-or-treating to get lots of yummy candy.

   

   

Friends and Family

Moving into November, we also had a visit from the Broach Family, as well as getting to see them again at Harrison's 1st BDay party.

And a trip to the Texas Renaissance Festival

    

    

Home Improvements

As we have continued to settle in at the new pad, we have made a few more design adjustments to make it home.  Angel painted a sweet Spidey above Jackon's bed to match the bedding.  The guest room was spruced up with some Uppercase Living wall word-art.  Angel also did some creative painting in Emily's room.

 

Thanksgiving

Next in the holiday lineup is that pound-packing extravaganza we all love: Thanksgiving.  This year was a relaxing extended weekend at home with Nana and Grandpa Orren.  While we didn't skimp on the feast, teamwork made it seem like no big deal to prepare (it also helped that we got a prepared turken from Boudreaux's).

  

  

   

Christmas Tree Hunting

While Angel was the only shopaholic hardcore enough to do the early morning thing (1:30am!!!), the whole crew mobilized on Friday to journey to the Mill Hollow Christmas Tree Farm to pick our arboreal beauty.  The drive was a heck of a lot further than I had planned due to some misinformation from Google maps, but the troops hung in there and the journey was worth it as we found the perfect tree for our first live one.