Christmas Chaos!

We loved playing Santa this year to Kylie and her little brother. Ky woke up around 6 am, we opened presents and she did not stop playing all day...seriously...it was quite impressive. Among her many gifts was a new camera from memaw, a drum set from "santa", a cupcake maker from nana, and of course a ton of new barbie stuff and littlest pet shop stuff. For some reason she wouldn't let anyone watch her open the gifts. If she caught you looking she would stop and give you a look you wouldn't imagine until you turned away, then she would proceed to open. I also found it quite humorous that she kept singing, "I'm ho ho kylie." If she only knew the filth she spoke. Although Beck received his fair share of the action also, he took it in stride, mostly sleeping in his swing. It was odd opening presents for him that I wrapped the day before, a little pointless maybe, but its Christmas so what other choice did I have? We loved hanging out with my family, and Kylie especially loved hanging out with her cousin Peyton, whom she ADORES!!!

Although Jason and I are both exhausted from all the holiday festivities, there's really no time to rest. This next week is filled with Beck's 2 month check up (stats to come), dentist appointment, and then my surgery to fix the belly button hernia I received when pregnant w/ Beck. Then J's brother and his three children are headed to Dallas New Year's Day to meet Beck and hang out. All that followed by Kylie's pajama birthday bash party! Whew! I only thought I'd have all this spare time when I decided to quit working and stay home...Although honestly I'm wondering what I'm going to be like come the end of January when all the hustle and bustle is over. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Kylie is still in her clingy mommy stage. I'm waiting as patiently as I can for it to end, which isn't easy. She melted down at home today when I decided to go shopping to exchange some gifts and such. I just have to remember that she's only 3 and trying to adjust, its just not easy because she's so mature for her age most of the time. Beck has been doing just great. I can't get over what a happy baby he is for the most part. True, he hates his carseat, and is so nosey that he rarely sleeps anytime we're out and about, but man...that smile could light up the darkest room. J's been serving as a pretty good laxative for him the last couple days. No joke I think 3/4 of the time he's playing with his daddy Beck decides to "take care of business." This of course leads to a couple blow outs and poop on some of J's fave. bball shorts. But hey...what are you going to do. Such is life.

We hope everyone had as wonderful of a holiday season as we did. We truly have so much to be thankful for. I can't even count all the blessing that have come our way over the last year, the biggest being the addition of Beck to the family. I can't express the joy I get when I look at my life and can only think 'man....I LOVE this.'

Weekend in Review

Busy, busy, busy! Jason got his early Christmas present which was a trip to the new cowboys stadium to see UNC take on Texas in Basketball. One of his good friends Gary came over from Phoenix to go to the game with him and hang out with Beck and Kylie. So, needless to say, I had both the kids for a good solid six hour stretch....alright, its true, my mom did come over to help for a good bit of that time. But both the kids did great and I really enjoyed focusing on spending time with them. Jason loved the stadium and enjoyed watching the game, but it wiped him out for the rest of the day. We're still not sleeping a ton at night due to Beck and we're just not used to actually "doing" anything like that, so it was pretty funny.

Sunday we went to church and watched Kylie sing Christmas carols with the other kids. Although it was more like watching Kylie stand there staring at us and everyone else singing. She said she didn't know the songs or motions, even though they've been working on them since Thanksgiving, oh well, can't win them all. Sunday night my friend Hayley came over with her husband and their two adorable kids. Kylie loved having Gabe follow her around since usually she's the one following around her bigger cousin Peyton. The two of them were like two peas in a pod. Here's a pic of them hangin out by the fire.

Kylie's Birthday invitations are done. And yes, I will toot my own horn and say they turned out ADORABLE!!! Especially since I'm not much of a crafter naturally. I can't wait to start on everything else for her party. She's inviting a few girls from church, a few from her school, and then some family friends and their kids as well. I'm hoping to have a full house to celebrate her turning four!...and celebrate how fast time is flying by and how old Jason and I are becoming!!!

Beck is laughing more and more each day. He seems fascinated with fingers. If he every starts to get fussy, all I need to do is show a little bit of "jazz hands" and he freezes in amazement. Its actually quite funny.

I'm looking forward to a short week for work for Jason, followed by a WONDERFUL Christmas with friends and family. I hope everyone feels as blessed as I do over the holidays. The sermon at our church on Sunday hit the point exactly: It is Jesus's birthday, and my family will be sure to be putting something under the tree for him as well...ourselves. Merry Christmas everyone!

Nothing like a sister's love...

There is no one in the world Beckham likes more than his big sister. Doesn't matter how much I do, even I can't get that boy to smile more than she does. The minute he hears her voice he's searching the room for her, and anytime he's fussy, all I need to do is ask Ky to stand in front of him and do anything....literally, she can jump, sing, or just say his name and the crying ceases immediately. It might be the cutest thing I have ever seen.

We took the family trek to the dentist this week. Kylie and I both had appointments right in the middle of the day all the way in Carrollton, which meant dad had to go to watch Beck and help with Ky while I got my teeth cleaned...AND Kylie stayed home with me and Beck all morning and afternoon...which went surprisingly well until about 4 p.m. when I hit my wall and became ridiculously exhausted.You wouldn't imagine how well Kylie did. She let them count, polish, floss, flouride, and even XRay her teeth. She did SO amazing! I was so proud of her.

Almost all the Christmas shopping is done, minus a little I still have to do for Jason...not really sure when that's going to get done seeing as I'm running out of time. Kylie, or should I say Nosey Rosey...already spotted the presents under our bed and wanted to know what was in the stockings I filled thinking surely she wouldn't notice since nothing was spilling out of the top. I really don't give her enough credit for how freaking smart she is. She's detail oriented like her daddy so these things never seem to escape her. She has her Christmas party at school on Friday and we're making sugar cookies and icing them like santa's, etc...I'll try to take a pic of them before the party and post it. Neither Jason nor I are much of pastry chefs, so it should be interesting.

Kylie has decided that she wants to do a pajama party here at the house for her fourth birthday, so I'm getting started making invitations and coming up with some ideas for the party. She's really excited and keeps asking me what kind of p.j.'s (fill in any friend name here) is going to wear, and I keep saying I have no idea and that we'll have to wait and see.

Smiles & More...

Beck is all smiles and sounds now...and there is nothing like a baby's smile to brighten your day. He seems to scare himself when he coo's...which is a pretty funny sight as well. Ky's Christmas program went really well. She stood up on that stage in front of a crowd full of people and shook her little booty and sang her little heart out. I'm trying to figure out how to convert video from camcorder to computer to show, since we don't have any pictures. Beckham was pretty freaked out with all the loud music and random clapping/hollering, so Jason ended up holding him and walking with him the entire time. He was up for over five hours STRAIGHT! Needless to say he pretty much slept the next two days away. But, this is the reason we have no pics, because I can only do one thing at a time. And to be honest, I'm pretty sure the video job is less than stellar since I was trying to watch her and tape her at the same time. Sometimes I would look down and I was filming the head of the person in front of us. Hey, no ones perfect.

I've been trying all week to get a good pic of Beckham smiling, but it seems that as soon as the flash comes on the camera the cute face goes away and he gives me the 'Duh what's that light' look. I've noticed that every time he smiles, he gives you stink eye. For those who do not know, stink eye is the one-eye half wink. I really think its because his cheeks are so big that something has to give with grins that large!

For now, you'll have to settle with a pic of the stage before the program began and I started taping, and a so-so pic of Beckham smiling. I'll work on the video clip and hopefully will post it soon. Christmas cards have been mailed out, and we have a couple of gifts to finalize, but I can't believe it's already mid December. I'm really looking forward to Kylie and Christmas. She has already redistributed the few gifts under the tree from family and decided that Beck should obviously get the smallest gift since he's the littlest, even though it is labeled to her. This should be interesting considering that gifts for young children (ie: 6-36 months) usually come in big boxes. I'm curious to see how Ky takes it.

Family Pictures!

Well...it's done! It took a lot of work too! Getting two kiddos bathed, dressed, fed, etc. for pics is no easy task. Jason has scanned in some of the shots so you can see. We used these to do our Christmas cards this year. After waiting about an hour (they were running late) and listening to all the kids screaming in the store, I figured if we just get one okay picture we'll be doing alright. Luckily Beck was in a really good mood and lasted probably 15-20 minutes before getting tired. Kylie did great, although it was tough keeping her looking at the camera. We got a ton of cute shots of her w/ her eyes totally not looking the right direction.

I think Kylie has just realized that Beck is here to stay. She has all of a sudden become quite the jealous child. She has always been pretty good at playing by herself in her playroom when mom and dad are busy. I was on the computer yesterday when Beck woke up from his nap hungry. I stood up to feed him and had a whiny four year old attached to my leg within seconds. Jason thinks it is because Beck is starting to smile and such so there's more interaction between us and him. Whatever it is, I hope it doesn't last long.

Big Sister Help...

As Beck is starting to become a little more hardy (in his old age of 7 weeks) Kylie is feeling a little more comfortable and has even started helping me pick him up out of the swing. This makes me both happy and nervous. Happy because she's becoming even more involved, nervous because all I can think of is the story my mom tells about my older sister carrying me off and feeding me sweet tarts at a couple months while my mom was busy in another room...this isn't something I really want to see happening. Beck is smiling and starting to coo so much now. Its great to see the increase in interaction, and truth be told, he'll smile at anyone or anything. He LOVES it when you sing to him...even me with my horrible voice.

Kylie's been trying to fight off a little bit of a cold and I think the dry weather is starting to get to her skin also. So we set up the humidifier in her room and are lathering on the lotion, so as not to dry out that beautiful face before we get family photos done tomorrow. I was talking to Ky on our way to school this morning when she reminded me that Dampa (my dad) was away for work (actually in the Phillipeans) and I told her that he was really far away and she responded with "yeah, far away like Makenzie's house"...which is actually a street away. It seems that she might have gotten my sense of directions...

Here are a couple new pics of the kiddos, I was trying to get a good one of beck, but he's just not at the good photogenic place currently...