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| 12/17 - Grandma, Grammy and Cindy took kids to see trains at Gaylord Texan |
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| 12/17 - @Gaylord Texan |
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| Headed to Ice exhibit at Gaylord Texan - 12/22 |
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| Had to wear special coats for 9-12 degree temp in exhibit - 12/17 |
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| At Shrek the Halls Ice Exhibit - 12/17 |
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| Getting ready to take Durkin's Pizza to Fire fighters for thanks for working on Christmas Eve |
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| Christmas Eve dessert options at Grammy/Gramps - 12/24 |
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| pretty tree - 12/24 |
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| Our Lady girl - 12/24 |
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| Kids ready to open Christmas presents - 12/24 |
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| Gramps and Landon got matching Rangers shirts - 12/24 |
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| Kasey's new tea set and cart - 12/24 |
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| Landon loves his new Legos - 12/24 |
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| Grammy and Kasey helping Landon with lego like project - 12/24 |
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| Art and cookies ready for Santa - 12/24 |
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| Santa came - 12/24 |
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| Landon made the family a gift at school and even made the wrapping - 12/25 |
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| Christmas morning ready to open gifts |
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| Kasey ready to open presents Christmas morning |
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| Kasey and Landon gave each other Angry Birds plush toys |
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| oh my goodness |
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| Kiddos and Aunt Cindy - 12/25 |
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| They act like they love each other :) |
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| opening gifts with family |
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| Landon loves his Legos |
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| Getting help from cousin Rachel on Legos |
You can check out more pictures - click here
12/25 - Merry Christmas - We had a good day. So Landon asked Santa
for Legos and Kasey asked for a Doll house for her house (she has one at
Grammy's house). Santa had actually not gotten either - he knew that
Grandparents/Aunt Cindy were getting several Legos for Landon and the
doll house thing was new. Santa brought Landon a small Lego (which he
pointed out multiple times that it was small), 2 remote control cars and
a Cars 2 Disney Book. Santa brought Kasey a Cinderella dress up doll, a
baby doll room set for her doll house at Grammy's and a Princess Disney
Book.
Kasey actually woke up before 7:30 and I could hear her but she
was sitting on the stairs. About 7:30 she said Mommy I can't get
through the gates - we keep gates up to keep Lady from going pee on the
carpet at night. Kasey wanted to know why Santa wasn't still there.
She asked about her doll house and was sad, and I tried to explain, so
did Greg. We'll have to see about getting the Doll house at our
house. Both kids had fun and played mainly with the remote control
cars all morning.
Then we headed to Grandma and Pops house for Lunch with them
and Aunt Cindy and Nanny. Pops ended up having to work until 2, but
came home in time for gift opening. Kids again had a fun time opening
gifts. They got pigs and shirts from angry birds which they loved.
Landon spent the afternoon doing Legos and Kasey played in water with
her muddy dinosaur train characters - some of them get clean in the
water. Later the Goodsons came by to say hello and we got to hear about
their new house and schools.
12/24 - What a fun Christmas Eve. Kids actually slept in some
which was nice. We did get up, and the kids helped me make muffins.
They each made their own mix and helped stir and put mix into the pan.
Big helpers. Greg made homemade sugar cookie dough and so the kids
picked out shaped they wanted to make for Santa cookies, and helped make
the shapes. Then we all got ready. One of my friends from high
school owns a Pizza place in McKinney that we really like. He makes
pizza for fire stations on Christmas Eve just as a Thank you so we
offered to make a delivery. The kids wore little fire hats, and we
took the pizzas and some homemade fudge. The kids got to see the fire
truck and say hi and thank you to them. It was mainly paramedics at the
fire station, but it was neat to give them something for the holiday.
After that we packed up and went to Grammy and Gramps. We had our
traditional tacos which were great. Landon ate 3 of them he liked them
so much. We also had some tamales that our housekeeper made from
scratch which were great. We also had several desserts that we "had" to
try. Then we opened presents and had a great time with that. We
hung out for a while, watching Cowboys lose, Landon worked on lego
project, Kasey played a game (which was really the menu screen to a new
learning toy) & her new tea set and cart, and we took a few cat naps
as well. Kids got pretty tired so we headed home. We looked at a few
Christmas lights in the neighborhood on our way home. Landon started
out saying that the multi color lights were his favorite, and then Kasey
said for about every house that it was her favorite. We got home and
had to decorate the cookies for Santa. The kids put lots of icing on
the cookies and had fun putting sprinkles on them. Kids got ready for
bed then they got to see Santa move a few times on the Santa tracker.
We read the night before Christmas and one other Christmas book then
kids got in bed. Kasey was worried she wouldn't get in bed on time.
Landon said he would be awake when Santa came just in his room.
12/22 - We decided we wanted to go see the Ice exhibit at the Gaylor
Texan. I wanted to take the kids because it was based on Shrek which
the kids love, and so Grammy and I took the kids. It was pretty cool.
The kids and I put on thermal underwear under our A&M sweatshirts,
double socks and took hats and gloves with us. The exhibit is done by
over 50 artists from China who make blocks of ice into the characters
and the scenes. It's 9 to 12 degrees Fahrenheit inside the exhibit so
they give everyone a big coat that you have to wear. We put on the
coats and walked through. They went through the story of Shrek the
Halls which is really cute. They had most of the characters all made
out of ice. I think the kids enjoyed it but they didn't like the coats.
After the Ice exhibit we went and shared a big cookie a banana shake.
Then Landon wanted to show me the trains at the Gaylord
Christmas Letter 2011
Hello family and friends:
Kasey is now 3 years old which I can’t believe. Kasey started preschool this year. She goes for just under 3 hours twice a week. She really enjoys it. Landon went to the same school so Kasey started out thinking she ruled the school. After first two weeks she told Greg he could just drop her off and she actually gets upset if he has to walk something into the school. Kasey is also doing gymnastics, and she loves jumping and dancing around. Kasey is very verbal and tells you how it is. She keeps us on our toes reminding us of things we say a lot like calm down or don’t chew with your mouth full. Kasey weighs 31.8lbs (61%) and 3 feet 1 inch (50%). Kasey is potty trained (at least during the day), and we're still working on the night. She's now wearing size 4T clothes and size 8 1/2 shoes. She still has some skin reaction to dairy, but not as much as she used to. She drinks Soy milk, but we usually let her have cheese. Kasey loves Cinderella, playing pretend & Dinosaur Train. She sleeps with her blanket still, her Wolfee (actually a wolf that Uncle Clifton gave to Landon a few years ago), and her new doggie (sometimes others).
Landon started Kindergarten this year. Oh what a change that has been from preschool. They expect a lot of the kids both academically and responsibility wise. We think Landon was well prepared, but he still gets tired with long days at school. He's doing well reading level 1 books, he wants to learn how to spell new words. They have the kids writing journals where he tries to sound out sentences to write. They also have poetry and rhyme books where they learn how to spell colors and more words from rhymes. The kids draw and color what is in the song or rhyme. It's great to see his work and him enjoying learning. Landon loves art projects (he creates new ones all the time), he loves legos and can do most 5-12 or 6-13 age sets by himself. Landon played multiple sports this year. He played 3 seasons of soccer, tball (Greg was head coach and I think he did great), flag football, and multiple sessions of ice skating/pre hockey. Landon weighs about 50 pounds now (recently went through growth spurt), and he wears size 6 clothes and size 13 shoes. Landon still wants me to sing Hush Little baby to him at night and sleeps with many stuffed animals.
Landon and Kasey have moments of playing together great. They play in their tents from Fredel or outside playing or going on vacation (they pretend), etc. They also have moments of getting on each others nerves and not liking each other.
This year we went to San Diego for Vacation in August. It was great to get away from the heat. We went to Sea World, Lego Land and the beach. We rented a little house about 5 blocks from the beach in La Jolla which was great. The kids loved it. Landon got to try out boogie board, we played in the sand and waves, and got to spend some good family fun at the amusement parks.
My work is going well. I have been very busy this year working a lot, but traveling less. I'm enjoying this job and having fun seeing how people use connectivity like Bluetooth, GPS and WiFi in all kinds of applications. It's a fun place to be.
Greg is still working part time and taking care of kids the rest of the time. We seem to have a pretty good routine. The Grandparents still help out with Kasey while Greg works, but don't get to see Landon as much since he started kindergarten.
We hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year. May God Bless you this coming year.
