Christmas

Christmas has come and gone another year! We all had a wonderful Christmas with presents, good food, and family. Marisa and Alex must have been very good this year because Santa left them lots of new toys. Marisa got her Easy Bake Oven that she has been dying to get and Alex received "fancy" cars and Lightning McQueen just as he had requested. Alex really loves opening presents now, he tears into the wrapping paper. I am pretty certain that just a year ago he still needed help from Marisa to get all of the paper off...not anymore. Not only that but he loves opening any present, even the ones that are not for him =0)

Carlos helping Alex put together a shark race track.

My mom and brother spent the morning with us opening up presents and eating breakfast. Carlos and I got my mom a pearl necklace. I became aware that she has never had a pearl necklace when we were deciding on jewelry for the wedding, so it made a great gift this year.

I forgot to mention that my brother's dog, Tucker, spent the day with us as well.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and are getting ready for the New Year! What is your New Year's Resolution for 2009??

Snow Day and Christmas Program

The kids have already had their first official snow day off from school! And before Christmas this year, which seems very strange. Strange or not they loved getting out of school to build a snowman. As you can see he is fully accessorized with a West Virginia hat on and all. I have to back up a second, Marisa was actually very disappointed to miss school when it snowed...her class was making gingerbread houses that day and she did not want to miss out. Just a side note, they still did get to make their gingerbread houses the following week. Alex had his school Christmas program this past week. He is so funny! He was on the stage and the lights were too bright for him. He came up to the front of the stage to tell me that he needed his sunglasses =0) He did great and rang his bells and danced....he did a lot of dancing!!

My little reindeer!

Well the clock is ticking and I have a lot to do still before Christmas day..which is now in 5 days! I have to finish my shopping, clean the house, and wrap presents. We are trying to keep Christmas low key this year. The kids wish lists are really not all that outstanding and Carlos and myself said that we would keep our gifts to each other at a $50 minimum to keep costs low. Since the wedding, our savings is a bit lower than I would like so we are trying to rebuild that and just not go overboard with gifts. I am just excited to spend the day with the family! I would like to think that I might get another post in before the big day, but if I don't Merry Christmas!!

I've been "Tagged"

Ok so my friend Tiana "tagged" me. I am to go to my pictures open the fourth folder and select the fourth picture and explain the picture....well here it is! Pleasant Hill Mansion at the Governor's Club. I took this picture to show my florist for our wedding. This is obviously the front of the mansion where we were married. This picture does not make it look all that exciting, but the night of our wedding it looked so great all lit up!! Now I am suppose to pick two people to "tag" now...I choose my great friends Laura and Lauren. Have fun girls!!

Tis the Season!!

Well we are officially ready for the holidays! Except for finishing shopping, we have been to see Santa already and the house and tree are decorated. The kids are sporting all of their Christmas clothes now and we have already seen a few of our favorite Christmas movies...I feel so accomplished! We have done all of this and it is only the 10th of December. Actually I guess that isn't that good, but I'm still happy with what has been done!
So as I already mentioned, we went to the mall last Monday night to see Santa. Marisa and Alex looked great and even allowed me to get a great picture of them. We only had to wait for about 10 minutes to see Santa, and then we were happy with the second picture they took. The first one was great of the kids also, but Santa had his eyes shut...way to go Santa! So toy requests have been reported to Santa so now we will just have to wait and see what he brings on Christmas day! This past Monday night we decorated our tree!!! It looks great by the fireplace and stockings!! I can actually say that decorating the tree is an enjoyable holiday chore to me. I think it is fun to get the ornaments out of the crates. It is funny how a year can go by, but when you find one of your favorite ornaments it seems like it has been forever since you have seen it!! I have a few ornaments like that...it doesn't matter that I see them every year at Christmas, I still am happy when I see them all over again! Marisa was a big help this year, Alex too. He just did not understand why some of the ornaments that looked just like his toy cars could be ornaments and had to be placed on the tree ( and the very top of the tree so he couldn't grab them). Once he got over that, he really enjoyed the tree.

And finally below, is "Bob" our Elf. For those of you who are not familiar with the Elf on the Shelf, I will enlighten you! The Elf on the Shelf is this cute book that comes with your very own elf like the one shown below. The story tells you that this is one of Santa's elves that has been chosen for your family. During the day he hangs out somewhere in your house, nothing really fun about that. His job is to watch little boys and girls during their days and takes note of who is naughty and who is nice. Once children are asleep he magically flies back to the North Pole to give report to Santa. By morning he is back at your house, but he is in a different location to watch for the day. Marisa and Alex love getting up every morning and finding where the elf is for the day. We started this tradition last year and Marisa loved it, so we have to continue this year. And this year, Alex understands a bit better. This morning, Bob was in the kitchen in one of our holiday baskets looking out towards the living room.

So today I am going to try and battle the mall and Target! I am off of work today because I am working this weekend and would love it if I could get the majority of my shopping done. Wish me luck!

Potty Training

So the last week while my Mom was out of work as well as Alex, we started the potty training process. Although, if you ask Carlos he began the process because he got Alex to poop in the potty first. We have both big boy underwear and pullups, but I think pullups are too much like diapers so we put the boy in big boy underwear. He was not sure about them at first, but now he loves picking out which ones to wear. His choices are plain white, Disney Cars or Disney characters. He has actually done very well. He can go pee pee great now. He will tell us that it is "pee pee time" and we run in there and he takes care of business with a big excting scream when he is done. Now going poop in the potty is a bit different. Basically we have spent time in the bathroom and just hope that he does that. Although we do think he knows when he has to go and now is holding it. Pretty much he is on an every other day schedule with this. Last week, I spent several evenings in the bathroom with Alex coloring, reading, playing with cars all in hopes that we would have results. As promised by my Mom (Ga Ga) we went to Chuck E Cheese on Sunday to celebrate Alex's accomplishments. He had a great time!! And he even stopped playing to go pee pee. I am so proud of him.

The whole family went to Chuck E Cheese. I swear I think Carlos has as much fun as Marisa and Alex. Just a minute ago while typing this Alex came up to me and said "pee pee time" He is such a big boy now!!

Our Newest Addition

So the post I have promised for a while now...Gretel's homecoming!! My sister aka Dr. Chapman DVM brought Gretel to us last Tuesday. She has been doing so well and is a great addition to our family. She will be 5 months old on Monday and now weighs 4.2 pounds...she is so little. Alex wants to love all over her but we are afraid he might crush her. Marisa has been just as excited and Carlos, although he won't admit it, seems to really be enjoying her as well. In fact, the last 2 mornings he has taken her out at 6:30 in the morning to let her do her "business." She is very laid back. She will run around and play for a bit and then before you know it she is curled up on the couch asleep. I have yet to hear her bark and she has not chewed on anything. Most importantly, no accidents in the house yet either. She is very sweet and we are thrilled to welcome her to the family!!! Gretel came with us to celebrate Thanksgiving at Dad's house. Again all she did was sleep curled up on the couch...we hardly knew she was there.

Marisa loves to get Gretel to snuggle up in her blanket. Anyone who knows Marisa, knows that her blanket is very rarely away from her, so for her to share her blankie with Gretel speaks volumes!

Alex loving on Gretel...she is not so sure about him yet.

After a hard 15 minutes of play, she is pooped!! Her belly is shaved from her surgery. I actually sent a picture of her incision to Dr. Chapman this morning and we got the green light to go back to normal activity and now she can have a bath as well. I actually think I might go ahead and give her a bath...although I hate to wake her right now as she is cuddeld up on my lap as a post this.

I have a feeling Gretel will make her way into many more posts in the future...so stay tuned!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Our Thanksgiving always starts the Wednesday before at my dad's house. Typically, we have ham or pork so as not to overdo it on turkey, but this year we had turkey because Dad and Kris were not doing a Thursday dinner this year. Everything was delicious as always! Kris' parents joined us as well this year. Since we had several family members together we tried to get a family picture...do you see who is missing?? Yep, that would be Alex...apparently he thought he was too busy to stop and take a picture with the rest of us. Then moments later, he decided that he would "cheese" for the camera! The Chapman kiddies, Marisa and Alex.

Me and my husband! Look we color coordinated for the festivities..just kidding. Although Carlos did make a comment that it did look like we tried to match. And yes, that is Gretel! I am going to have a whole other post for her that welcomes her to the family.

Thanksgiving Day morning, Carlos, myself, Kelly and Jason have run in the Boulevard Bolt the last 2 years. It is a 5 mile run down and back on Belle Meade Blvd that benefits the homeless. It is such a fun run and we always feel so great afterwards. We feel like we get to eat whatever we want for the day knowing that we started off by burning 500 calories. For me personally, it was not one of my best runs. I think I ate a little too much the night before at Dad's and the race has grown and for the entire run you are constantly dodging walkers and runners. Oh and I forgot to mention, Harley is also in the picture..he and Kelly's mom were fans for the event.

I really enjoy Thanksgiving, and not even really for all the food. I mean the food is great, but I typically end up eating too much like everyone else. This year in particular, I was thankful for my family! I love when my brother and sister are both back in town. Typically, we just pick on each other, but we always seem to laugh a lot when we are together =) I am thankful for my husband and my children...I am so excited for all that is to come our way. I am very thankful for my mom....she does so much for me all the time that I feel like I should just say thank you each time I see her. She is always helping me with Marisa and Alex and I know that there is nothing that she wouldn't do for me. I can always count on her...thank you Mom!!! I also am thankful for my Dad and Kris....I won't go into details, but this year in particular they have helped me so much!! I am also thankful that I was able to spend time with my Annie and Papa and that they are both doing well and are healthy. I feel like I am rambling a bit as Carlos would say. Finally, I am thankful for all my friends who have supported me throughout the years...the good ones and the not so good ones. I truly feel blessed and loved and I know that all my family and friends are the ones to thank for me feeilng so wonderful!!!!