Bunk Beds, 10 Years (!), A Half-Marathon Run, and a Growing Puppy

January has been pretty busy for us. We ordered Owen new bedroom furniture over the holidays and it arrived a few weeks ago. We moved everything in and got him all settled in a couple of weekends ago. He's pretty excited about his bunk beds and I have to admit it's pretty cozy in there! Sometimes the beds are a castle, but most of the time he's in his pirate ship (according to him). January 9th was our 10th wedding anniversary. It was a Friday so it was a pretty normal day, then we had a babysitter and we went out to a nice restaurant for dinner. We had a great time, and the food was excellent. The weekend before last Ike ran in a half-marathon. I got the kids up early that Sunday morning and we walked to an area of our neighborhood that was included in the route. Several of our friends were also running the half or whole marathon, so we wanted to cheer everyone on. We positioned ourselves right by a live band, so we had some entertainment while we waited for the runners. Ike was the first one we saw, and he ran up and tickled Owen as he went by. That was fun to see everyone running and give them support. Last weekend we went to a birthday party for Natalie's friend Jack. It was at the indoor amusement park that Nat and I went to last Fall. We all went and we had a great time. Natalie was running around with her friend Madison (and Henry and I followed along), and Ike and Owen went off to do some racecar and motorcycle games. In other news, our puppy, Louie, has been steadily growing, and yesterday I took him to the vet for a checkup. He's now 41 pounds (up about 20 from when he arrived) and he's nearly as big as Stella. She weighs in at 43 pounds. He's doing really well and aside from his penchant for chewing things up in the yard, he's a good dog. We're now getting ready for Natalie's 5th birthday celebration this weekend. Wow - it seems like she was just a baby!

The Holidays

We had fun over the holidays and it was nice to have some time off. The week before Christmas, we went to the dentist and it was Owen's first visit. I was skeptical about how long he would stay in the chair, but amazingly enough he sat through an entire cleaning and check up! We were so proud! The Friday before Christmas, the kids had their school holiday parties. Natalie's class put on a "program" of Christmas carol singing, so we couldn't miss that! Natalie was in "The 12 Days of Christmas," and she did a great job with the five golden rings part. I think all of the parents really enjoyed the singing, and the kids all looked so cute. Henry tagged along with us and played with our phones the whole time. After Nat's singing, Ike stayed with her at her party and Henry and I jetted down the street to Owen's school to hear his singing. His teacher was kind enough to delay their singing for the parents with older children (in Nat's class). Owen was finishing up his party meal when we got there and then he showed off his Christmas carol singing. After that his class opened their book exchange presents. We all met back at the house and we decided to go to Galveston after dinner to visit Moody Gardens for the Festival of Lights. It was a warm evening and the fog was pretty bad by the time we got to Galveston. It was dark and we could hardly see the road in front us. Usually on the causeway you can see the island, but not that night! We considered turning around. Once on the island, it was very eery, because there is still a lot of hurricane debris. We'd be driving along and out of nowhere there would be a huge sailboat on the side of the road. Needless to say, the views of the lights were not as bright as last year's visit. You can even see the moisture in the air in some of the pictures. But Natalie and Owen had some hot chocolate, and all three of the kids enjoyed the live band playing Christmas music. That weekend Natalie was really excited to help me bake Christmas cookies. She was a pretty good helper, too. Christmas Eve we had our friends over for our traditional gumbo and we even had crawfish sausage from a local Cajun butcher this year. We all enoyed ourselves, and the kids had fun exchanging presents. On Christmas Day we all were pretty happy with our gifts. Natalie managed to sneak downstairs in the morning and check out the presents before we were all up. I think Natalie's favorite gift was a tie between the bride dress up dress, the princess horse, and the musical ballerina jewelry box. Owen was pretty excited about his marble chase and his fire truck that opens into a mini-city. Henry liked his phones the best, and the talking Cookie Monster. We had a few days off and we managed to get some things done around the house. We stayed home for New Year's, and Ike and I were actually falling asleep before midnight. On New Year's Day we spent a long time at the playground - Nat, Owen, and Henry had some energy to burn! The following weekend Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Tom came to celebrate Christmas with us. We went to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes, and we all enjoyed it. Natalie's eyes were glued to the stage for the whole show. She of course wants to dance like the Rockettes now. So we had a great time over the holidays and we can't believe it's 2009 already!!