December 24th - Day 6 of Minnesota Christmas trip

I guess Rusty got a booboo and needed Mr. Bump.

Jack got creative with a toy shuttle and airplane - recreating a scene from a few weeks ago.

Charlie wanted to wear all of the Santa hats at once.

The boys took a little nap.

And another one...

Then later it was time to open Christmas presents. We all got lots of good stuff and the boys were ready to start playing right away.

One of the favorite toys was Marble Run. All of the boys loved putting it together and running marbles down in different ways.

December 23rd - 4 months pregnant

December 23rd - Day 5 of Minnesota Christmas trip

December 22nd - Day 4 of Minnesota Christmas trip

We went out to lunch at a local restaurant (The Roasted Pear) and instead of coloring crayons, the boys got Wikki Stix. They are wax covered yarn sticks that can be bent and made into all kind of things like a nice moustache for Jack.

As always, the boys loved playing on the organ (and often pulling down all of Grandma's Christmas pictures).

Grandma let the boys open one present a few days early. They were excited to get some Sesame Street watches.

December 21st - Day 3 of Minnesota Christmas trip

I'm a big fan of the Santa hat, diaper, and snow boots look. It is all the rage this winter.

This afternoon we went to my cousin's house for a relative Christmas party. Nicole and I were pregnant at the same time, so her darling daughter, Luella, and Jack are about the same age. Now my boys have no problem playing with girl toys (Charlie loved her doll houses), but Lulu had a great supply of ALL kinds of toys. She made louder dinosaur roars than any of the boys. At one point, she had Jack following her wherever she went, happily doing whatever she wanted him to do. When it was time to go, Jack sadly looked at Daddy and said, "But I want to play with her!"

December 20th - Day 2 of Minnesota Christmas trip

Our second day in Minnesota started with some relaxing on the couch watching a TV show on my iPhone.

Espen and Holly came over for more fun time. When it was time for them to go, Jack and Espen helped shovel the dusting of snow we had received from a mini-blizzard that moved through the area.

Jen came over the visit with the boys too. Jack had to make sure she had her share of stickers.

December 19th - Day 1 of Minnesota Christmas trip

Today we headed up to Minnesota for our Christmas vacation. The airplane ride went alright. Jack was pretty good at watching shows on Daddy's iPod. Charlie was not quite as disciplined. He kept hitting the button on my iPhone that would shut down the video and pull up the menu. He also managed to get my phone pretty sticky, but it cleaned off pretty easy.

When we got to Minnesota, Holly and Espen came over to Grandma's house and the boys had a great time playing. Charlie handed out the Santa hats for all the boys. We took a ton of pictures trying to get one with all three boys smiling.

The photo shoot soon fell apart when the older boys decided the eating the hats would be more fun that wearing them.

Things only got worse when Ronny tried to intervene.

Three (little) men in a tub...

December 16th - Santa through the years

December 11th - Space Shuttle Endeavour

Today we were incredibly fortunate to see the Space Shuttle Endeavour on the back of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft do a few fly-bys over the Clear Lake area. It flew (with T-38 photo chase) over Johnson Space Center and Ellington Field. What a thrill! It was beautiful!

Even the kids watched from school. The first thing Jack said to me when I picked him up was, "I saw the Space Shuttle today!" He was so excited. The day started with playing in the snow, then his room watched Frosty the Snowman, and then after lunch they watched the Endeavour fly over. I asked Jack if it flew right over his head. He said, "No, it flew over Nona's head."

Many thanks to the NASA photographers for the great pictures - including Robert Markowitz in the backseat of the T-38 who took the pictures over Ellington and JSC.

December 10th - Snow in Houston!!!

I couldn't figure out why I could hear kids playing outside on the coldest day of the year. Then we looked outside and found out that it was snowing. I've only seen real snow twice in Houston. The first time was on Christmas Eve 2004 when Jack was just 2-months-old. He wasn't too happy that Mommy wanted pictures with snow pelting his face. Now he loves it!


Snow 4 years ago...

This is what the snow looked like in our backyard the next morning. It actually stuck around for most of the morning. Thank goodness we live close to work. There were lots of accidents on the Houston roads.

A coworker of mine who works the evening shift in Aircraft Operations took this picture of a snowy T-38. Thanks Don!

December 6th - Helping with the laundry

This is how to help Mommy with the laundry: Dump it all on the floor and then pretend to take a nap in it.

December 4th - My little marsupial

Charlie took this position around the table leg and said, "I'm a koala bear!" Too cute!

November 27th - Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice simple Thanksgiving - just the four of us. The boys watched parades (Macy's and Houston's) while Mommy made the big meal for lunch. Unfortunately Charlie had some early effects of the tryptophan and fell asleep even before the turkey was ready to eat.

November 24th - 3 months along

November 22nd - Fun with Play Foam

For their birthday, the boys got this great stuff - Play Foam. It is made of little beads of foam that stick together. Apparently it doesn't dry out, which is pretty neat. Of course it came in 6 beautiful colors, but it wasn't long before they were all mixed together. It is just as fun all mixed together, though.