Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Last night we finished putting up our tree. Isabella really enjoyed it. It's taken us all week to finish because we can only work on it after Zach goes to bed and before Belle needs to go down. So, Sunday we put on the lights, Monday we did the garland and Wednesday we did the ornaments. Isabella got to put a bunch on and had a great time. We did discover, however, that when we were done there were about 10 ornaments in a very small space at about eye level.


Every time she would pick up an ornament, she would say, "Where it go?" and then, "Oh, right there." The finished tree. She was quite proud of herself. When we were done, she decided to have some hot chocolate with mommy.

I'm pretty sure she got more on her than in her. :-)

Fun on the farm

On the way back from Houston after Thanksgiving, we stopped to visit some freinds and supporters at their farm in Brenham. Isabella and I went out with the kids to take hay to the cows.

Isabella gives the 6 wheeler a try...

Isabella and I in the back of the 6 wheeler.

Isabella and Mommy go and pet the hoarse. He was very friendly.

In other news, Zach has started pulling up on things like our new dishwasher. On Monday he pulled up on the coffee table and thought he was cool. Then promptly smacked his forehead against it. He didn't think that was so cool. :-)

Don't say it

Tonight when I got home from work we sat down to eat supper. Belle started to tell me about something and got a little flustered with her words.... then she looks at Liza in mid-sentence, puts up her hand in a "talk to the hand" sort of way and says, "Don't say it!" then continues on with her story. I couldn't help but laugh.

If you'd like to see a little commercial that our team just produced, you can click here to watch it. This is a new commercial for the CM2007 conference that will be held in Korea next summer. While I was gone to Spain and Turkey, half the team stayed behind to produce this commercial. They did a great job. There is also a little short "behind the scenes" video that they made in Spain while we were doing our interviews there that you can see by clicking here.

making up songs

As we were driving to Rudy's for lunch after church today, Isabella was singing in the background. I listened to her and realized she was saying "Dog hair, dog hair, we eat dog hair." I asked her why she ate dog hair and she said because she loves it. Most of her songs follow the same tune. It will be interesting to see how her musical talent develops.--Liza

Why?

Today was a big day and the start of a new era with Isabella. When she got up from her nap, Liza told her I was gone to Wal-mart (to get her a bigger car seat because her old one was hurting her) and she said, "Why daddy gone to wal-mart?" Later she asked "Why are we at Ni-ni's house?" We really hoped the "why" stage would wait a few more months, but now that she's asking, she knows what it means when we ask her the same thing. :-)

Fun at Nonnie's

Chris' mom got a new pool and we enjoyed it over our visit. Here is a picture of the pool. You can see the fire pit just to the right, and there is a hottub to the far left.


Here Belle was sitting with her feet in the VERY cold water while looking at the bubbler.

Zach enjoys his thanksgiving feast. All in all it was a great time and we all had fun. Tomorrow we will head back to Austin for the rest of the weekend. We'll be putting the lights on the tree and getting the house ready for Christmas!

Sayings

Isabella has a few new sayings that I don't want to forget, so here they are.

If you hurt yourself, or if she hurts her self, she says that we need to "put a rubber band on the boo boo."

Last night she was calling out to her Nonny. She was saying, "Nonny! Nonny! Non! Come here!"

In the car on the way back from Pine Cove, she started singing, "Tired, Tired, Zach is tired. Won't that be fun."

She was also singing, "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, I need my blanky now."

She also tells Zach in the car, "It's ok Zach. Don't worry. It will be ok." When he's crying.

When she goes to the bathroom, she is fond of saying, "Please go away!" so she can "do it myself."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Houston. We are here for the holiday with Chris' family. We'll be eating around 1 and it all looks so good! Liza and Isabella have been watching the Macy's parade on TV and Vince has been working on the new arbor in the back yard. Their pool is in now and last night we all got in the got tub and took turns jumping in to the very very cold water. Even Isabella got in the big pool before running back to the hot tub.

Back from Pine Cove

We are back now from Pine Cove and our regional staff conference. We had a great time and so did the kids. Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Liza and Zach on the front porch of our cabin.

Isabella and Chris went to the free coffee house and had a fun time together.
Here is Isabella drinking a "steamer" with chocolate and whipped cream on top.

This is Isabella after her coffee- a lovely milk mustache.

Isabella and Daddy went on a boat ride. Isabella really liked it. Daddy had fun with her too.

Zach and Isabella back in our cabin.

Tomorrow we head out for Thanksgiving in Houston.

Pine Cove Today!

Today we are heading off to Pine Cove, a camp up in the East Texas pine forest for our annual staff conference. I am not usually super excited about this conference because I've been so many times, but this year Isabella is very excited. She's been talking about it for days and today as soon as she got up, said, "Pine Cove today!" We'll be heading off in a couple of hours.

Chris