You'd think that Parker was crying in this one, he's not, he's pulling his "Rockstar" face.
We always let the boys open one gift on Christmas eve, it's usually a game that we play as a family. This year it was Cadoo. This is a fun game that is great for any age, you can play as teams or individuals.
We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and wish you all the best in the New year!
It was a perfect ending to a perfect day. I was home with my mom making Christmas cookies all day, listening to holiday music and the sweet smell of treats lofting in the air. We looked outside and to our surprise our Christmas wish was answered early this year, but it didn't last long. On Wednesday afternoon it started snowing! Parker loved it so much, that after being outside for a while we were freezing, so we came in, and he proceeded to pound on the door to be let back outside. So I opened the door and let him rome outside freely, he thought that was great seeing all the little snowflakes. Christian and Brandt liked it as well. Brandt was mad since it didn't snow enough to make snowmen or snowballs. Christian and Brandt were at school when the biggest flurry was happening, but the teachers let all the kids outside to see the snow falling. Christian said all the kids in his class were screaming and having so much fun running around in the snow. He said it was funny to watch everybody react to the snow. Though it didn't blanket the ground, it was still a nice suprise. When Jared got home he said it had snowed quite a bit at his office that his car was covered and since we got rid of our snowbrushes when we moved here he had to use his arm to scrape the snow off the car. 
See, it really did snow! This is what's left of it.
Parker searching for the Perfect Tree.
Taking it to the Home.
Alright, before we go on about Disney, Let me just clear the air about the whole Colorado thing. A few days before we left I found out my job was being moved to Broomfield, CO, which is NW of Denver. Long story short, if I want to stay with my company and keep my job we move, otherwise they're giving me six months and 12 weeks severance if I decide not to move. So we're just weighing our options at the moment. We love Texas, and we have so many good friends here that we'd hate to leave, so we are thinking and praying about an answer. As always we'll let you know what we decide.On to Disney World...
We had a BLAST! It was the best vacation we've ever been on, we were very tired every night after coming home from the parks. The boys just absolutely loved it, to see their faces light up each day was just awesome! We definitely will be going again. Thanks for all the advice and tips that we received, it made our trip more enjoyable. We ended up spending 5 days total at the Four differnet parks, which was plenty, we got to see all the things we wanted to and re-visit the stuff we really liked. Here's a list of a few rides/shows we liked.
We're under the 24 hour mark. 
I found some other pix of us when we went camping a few weeks back I thought I'd share. We had a lot of fun, we went with a our friends Amy and Brad and Amy's brother and his wife, up to Double Lake for a few days. The boys had a blast, the weather was perfect and it was nice to get out of the city and into the countryside. 
This was Jared's favorite spot for the whole trip, and Christian's too. 
Eating Breakfast. Brian (back left), Jen (pouring milk), Amy (Cooking Pancakes), Christian (Waiting patiently), Garrett (Devouring pancakes), Isabel (Looking on).
We had a lot of fun camping and can't wait until we can go again. Now we're just counting the days until DisneyWorld.
Do you see the time of this post? Do you ever look at the time of other people's posts and wonder, "Do you people ever sleep!?!" It's 2:01 in the AM, and I'm wide awake, but yet have nothing to write about. Oh no, the baby is crying...
I started back to school and am excited with a project that I'm going to have the opportunity to work on, through the Logistics Program I'm involved in. Each year NASA selects a few local high schools to build and develop things that will be used on the International Space Station. Two Years ago they built movable locker systems that can be transported between the shuttle and the space station quick and easily. This year they're doing it a bit different and are involving Lonestar College in the process. Our class (of about 10 students) will over see this years project and manage the High Schools in building a portable trainer mock-up of the Destiny Laboratory Module. They're using this as a way to be able to train astronauts at other NASA Facilities. I'm excited, we'll be starting this in about a week or two and it'll finish in early April. NASA holds a big ceremony with all involved and they invite the President to be there as well. I always dreamed about being an astronaut when I was younger, this is one step towards that dream.
We gave Parker his first haircut, he did so good. Jen had a hard time letting go of her baby. He looks so much like a big boy now. It's amazing how a little thing like a haircut can make a person look so much older.
Before
During... I had to hold him so he would sit still.
After
Something else that Parker has learned to do is climb up on the Trampoline all by himself. The little Dare Devil.
I'll post more as I take 'em.
As for the storm itself. It was one of the more terrifying nights I've had in a long time. The winds started up around 7 or 8 at night, and lasted until the early afternoon the next day. You could hear the trees getting whipped and beaten by the mighty wind outside the windows. We huddled in the laundry room for safety. The power went out around 2:00 AM, with a vibrant green flash that lit up the darkened sky as large oak trees toppled the power lines making the transformers pop. Jen and I stayed up most of night, listening to the radio as they kept filling us in on all the details of the storm. There was a lull around 4 AM, as the eye passed over. And then, it was even more wind and driving rain. We felt the back half of the storm was more intense then the front half. The winds were blowing from the West now, and as we went outside that morning you could see all the trees that had blown over laying towards the East. Most of the damage in our neighborhood happened with the latter part of the storm. Little by little, the neighborhood sprang to life, neighbors were coming out to check on each other. As we surveyed the damage we knew we were blessed, we had only lost a few shingles but hadn't had any wind or water damage. Many people around us had large hole in their roofs, and water leaking in as well.
Its now been two weeks since it came, and life is starting to get back to normal. The kids returned to school this week, as did I. Businesses are starting to re-open, gas is available as well as food. This was a very bad storm and we feel truly blessed to have made it through without any major problems. We've decided when the next one hits, we're going to probably try to evacuate, especially if it is more then a Cat 2 storm. The city had done a very good job in maintaining order during the days leading up to it making landfall. The evacuation plan they set up worked very well, and there wasn't this mass exodus like we had back in '05 with Rita. Once again, thanks for all your thoughts and prayers during this time.
Christian started 1st grade and Brandt started kindergarten on August 25. It was a day that I have been anticipating. I was fine with Christian going back to school, he loved kindergarten he met lots of new friends and learned a lot . I remember being worried that Christian academically wasn't ready, but we had already keep him back a year and he was the tallest kid. Well to state the obvious, everything turned out okay and he was ready to be gone all day. Brandt on the other hand is my baby, well he was my baby for such a long time, and he plays the part very well. Brandt still take naps off and on. Last year he would come home from preschool and sleep and that was only 9:00 to 1:00 3 days a week. So of course my mind is thinking "how is he going to make it all day five days a week from 8:10 to when the bus drops them off at 4:10?" What will he do when he gets tired or if he just needs his quiet time or if he just needs his mommy, after all Brandt is a mommas boy. Plus I think he looks so small, well compared to christian who is tall. Anyways I wasn't ready to send Brandt off which is weird, you hear all this mom talk about how hard it is to send the 1st child off to school. Well I was OK with my first but not my second, I guess it's because Brandt always needed me more then Christian did. Christian is a very independent type of person compared to Brandt's personality. Plus I wasn't really happy about Brandt's teacher, he got the only one I didn't want. Well need less to say it was a hard Day.
Brandt all ready for his Big Day as a Kindergartner.
Christian in his class (kinda blurry)
Brandt in his class
Brandt getting off the bus on his second day. He couldn't wait to ride the bus
