2007 in Review

This post is a lot wordier than usual. We did not send a Christmas letter with this year's Christmas photo, and my cousin had the great idea to blog their letter, so I thought I'd copy that idea for our New Year letter. Here's our Christmas photo, followed by a summary of 2007:




2007 was a year of change for us! Last Christmas we were not able to travel for Christmas (because we were expecting Elizabeth!), so the first week of 2007 was greeted by Mom's family visiting us at our home in West Texas for a couple of days. Grandma came back on the first full weekend and stayed for a week. MawMaw came, then went back, then came again. Both Grandma & MawMaw were able to be with us, and help with David, when Elizabeth was born on January 9, 2007. I was so thankful for their help because Dad had to be in Fort Worth the day after she was born for part of his hiring process with the Fort Worth Fire Department! Later in January, Dad had to return for his polygraph. David adjusted nicely to his new status as big brother and continued speech therapy.


Elizabeth made her first road trip to meet family and more family as the page turned to February. Dad also had an oral interview in Fort Worth at that time. The rest of the month was rather uneventful as Elizabeth grew and started smiling. David was still loving going to Mother's Day Out and proved to be very helpful!







March was a flurry! On March 8, Fort Worth called to offer Dad the job of Firefighter Trainee, starting April 2! That gave us less than a month to find somewhere to live, pack for the move, going away parties, and get our house on the market... with a 2 1/2 year old and a 2 month old! By the end of the month, we (or just Dad) had made four trips to the Fort Worth area house hunting. We had a place rented and then that fell through at the last minute. So in that last minute, we asked Grandma & Grandpa if we could move in with them. They were gracious to welcome us in without hesitation... and their lives have been a bit crazier since then!



April came in with piles of boxes! And Dad turned 30! Our last day at church and Dad's last day on duty at the Fire Department was Easter Sunday. We moved the next day with lots of help from some fellow firefighters. Uncle Bubba was also gracious to help store our household of stuff and Aunt Wee was waiting for our moving caravan with pizzas for everyone. People keep asking if we're settled in yet, and I still think no! With the move, David was now out of Speech Therapy and Early Childhood Intervention. Dad started with the Fire Department on April 16. Mom & Elizabeth were able to attend a welcome reception on Dad's first day as we all joined a new family of firefighters. We participated in Antique Alley with Aunt Wee, celebrated PaPa's 80th birthday, and had dinner with Curt & Suzanne. This was the start of a long line of family events that I guess will never stop... but that's why we moved back!


In May, we celebrated Mother's Day, Elizabeth started eating cereal & rolling, we started going to Family Swim, Aunt Erin graduated from high school, and David turned 3 years old!






Mom was able to go to a wedding shower for a college friend in June, and Dad had EMT clinicals before continuing with fire school. David attended Vacation Bible School at Grandma & Grandpa's church, we celebrated Father's Day and my brother's 40th birthday, and cousin Jordann & Aunt Sissy got to come to Texas for a visit. We tried to go to David's first theater movie, Ratatouille. (we only made it about 1/2 way through the movie!)


July 4 brought Mom & Dad's 9th Anniversary. Elizabeth turned 6 months old and was eating all sorts of things, except green beans! Grandma & Grandpa went on a mission trip, leaving us to the house. In just a short time, we had noticed a great improvement in David's speech with no more therapy!








August was a lot of the same thing. Dad continued to make it through another rookie school, kids had some sickness. David enjoyed his first midway at the Old Settler's Reunion and we took a family day to the Star Wars Exhibit. Mom's highlight of the month was attending the Women of Faith Conference at the American Airlines Center in Dallas! This was also Elizabeth's first conference. Also in August, we started blogging "Tiny Talk Tuesday" each week!

In September, David started attending Cubbies and we found a MOPS group to attend. We celebrated Andy & Aunt Wee's birthdays and Grandma & Grandpa took a trip to California to visit Aunt Sissy, again leaving us with the house.

October was a very busy month! Elizabeth turned 9 months old! We met one of Dad's cousins & her family for dinner and continued Cubbies & MOPS. We celebrated birthdays for Alex at Chuck E. Cheese, which David LOVED! We also celebrated birthdays for Jordann, Aunt Sissy & Grandpa AND Aunt Erin! Dad went to a haunted house with one of his friends and started Ride Outs. David went to the PTO Halloween Carnival with MawMaw & we went to Trunk or Treat on Halloween night. We also surveyed the land and got the 9-1-1 address for our future house!

November found us celebrating MawMaw's 50th birthday! and Dad finally graduated from the training program!!! We celebrated Grana's birthday and enjoyed Dad's extended family Thanksgiving. We were finally able to put more time & energy into our own house plans, met with a draftsman (who said the plans Dad had worked up were good enough to use) and obtained our land from Grandpa. Elizabeth started playing peek-a-boo! David is loving going to Cubbies each week and has memorized all of his memory verses so far.

December is always busy, and this year was no exception. Mom decorated a table for the Ladies Christmas Tea at Grandma's church and was thrilled to have a short visit with best friend & family! We visited Santa and went to Christmas parades & parties. We finally placed membership in our new church. Mom & Dad had a wonderful Christmas Date Night, joined by Elizabeth. Christmas Day was celebrated at home, then at MawMaw's, then at Grana & Papa's, then at Aunt Laurie's. Aunt Sissy & family arrived from California & we celebrated Christmas again at Grandma & Grandpa's. Aunt Sissy commented just yesterday that David is talking more at this age than her girls did! What a long way he's come!!! It seems like he's constantly talking or singing. He has especially enjoyed singing Christmas carols this year: 12 Days of Christmas, Angels We Have Heard on High, Away in a Manger, and Jingle Bells. He also memorized Luke 2:11-14. We welcome in the new year with Aunt Sissy still visiting.

This has been a wonderful, unusual, and displaced year! We are excited about 2008 and the new beginnings it holds. We are planning a first birthday party! We pray for blessing on a new home, new and restored friendships, and new growth. We will celebrate 10 years of marriage! To all who read: May you be equally blessed! And Happy New Year!

David's Creative Side

A few days before Christmas, we decided to go ahead & give David his Vtech Kidizoom Camera. This way we could see a bit of Christmas from his eyes!

Of course, the picture quality is not great. It works best outside. The flash inside really washes out the pictures. I've picked a few of my favorites since he's had the camera to share with you here.

Enjoy a little bit of life, from David's view...

Dad

Mom & Elizabeth

Elizabeth sitting on David's bed

The King & Lightning McQueen

We ended up with a lot of pictures of David's feet!

I thought this one was really cute, though!

Following Dad to the car

(good composition, too!)

The Christmas tree at MawMaw's house

Getting into MawMaw's van to come back home

after an overnight stay

The view inside the van

Uncle Bubba

To see more pictures from David's view, visit my Flickr. I've put all of David's photos into his own set called David's Eye View.

Another Day of Christmas!

Today was another day of family Christmas; this time was Mom's side of the family. Grandpa & David read & recited the Christmas story from Luke 2 before opening presents:

Translation of David's part, in case you have trouble understanding him:

For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Jesus Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: you will find the baby wrapped in cloth, lying in a manger. Then the sky filled with angels singing, "Glory to God in the highest. Peace on Earth. Good will towards men."

Aunt Sissy has been busy crocheting hats & scarves!

Christmas Day 2007!

Christmas Morning:

Christmas Morning at MawMaw's House:

Christmas Afternoon at Grana & Papa's House:

Then we came home for naps before heading out to Aunt Laurie's & Uncle James' house for the other side of Dad's family Christmas:

Christmas Date Night 2007

Friday night was our annual Christmas Date Night in the City! David spent the night at MawMaw's house & Elizabeth tagged along.

First, we ate at UNO Chicago-Style Pizzeria in Sundance Square. Very yummy! Then we went to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets at the Palace. We enjoyed the first one & this one, too! It was a very good, clean movie with an interesting plot. I recommend it! Elizabeth nursed as the movie started, then slept for the rest of the evening.

After the movie, we stopped by Starbucks in Montgomery Plaza & picked up some holiday flavored coffee for driving through the Christmas lights! I had white chocolate peppermint mocha. Dad took us through some well-lit neighborhoods he's seen during late night runs when he's on duty!

It was a wonderful evening... except that Dad forgot to order my coffee decaff... and here I sit blogging!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Cindy Lou Gets Mad

For more Wordless:
Wordless Wednesday
5 Minutes for Mom

Tiny Talk Tuesday

David helped finish the Christmas cookies for the neighbor's tins yesterday. Now Dad wants us to make a batch for him!

On with the Tiny Talk!

While sitting on the potty one day

Old McDonald had a farm

E-I-E-I-O

And on his farm he had a potty

E-I-E-I-O

With a flush, flush...

Old McDonald had a farm
E-I-E-I-O
And on his farm he had a fire truck
E-I-E-I-O
With a whoo-oooh, whoo-ooh...

Saturday morning at 7:30

David: Mom, get up!

Mom: Why?

David: Because I'm being up!

Play-doh Day

(Elizabeth's first Play-doh experience!)

For our Christmas Tiny Talk, we present a song:

AND, flash back to an August day for this rousing rendition of Jingle Bells:

Before going to MawMaw's house to play yesterday, we went by the little library in town & got some more Christmas books. So far, David's favorite book has been My First Christmas Magnetic Adventure. For more Tiny Talk, join us over at Not Before 7, where Mary is still hosting the Christmas Giveaway for all December Tiny Talk participants!

Elizabeth Discovers Crackers

MOPS & Another Christmas Book

Today was our MOPS Christmas Party! I took my camera, but then had such a good time that I forgot to take any pictures! You'll just have to trust me that we were cute - Elizabeth wore a snowman shirt, David wore his VeggieTales Merry Christmas shirt, and I wore a sparkly Christmas tree shirt. We were very festive!

There we are resting back at home after our exciting morning! I think we could have fit the other cats up there with us, too!

Today's Christmas book was My First Christmas (Magnetic Adventures). This book was so much fun! Several of the pages are magnetic with a background scene. The book comes with a whole nativity set of magnets to interact with as the story unfolds. David had so much fun putting the magnets on the pages as we read the story of Mary & Joseph travelling to Bethlehem, looking for a place to stay, Jesus' birth, the shepherds, and the wise men.

I found 2 drawbacks to this book: There's no angel magnet! and this set was made in China. So you'll just have to imagine the angels, or come up with your own - and make sure the pieces are kept away from little ones who might put the pieces in their mouths! There is also the standard warning that the pieces could be a choking hazard; not recommended for children under age 3. Aside from that, this interactive book got David's two thumbs up for keeping him engaged in the story!

After a week of sickness (both me and the kids), 2 prescriptions per kid, a box of cough drops for Mom, and a lot of hacking coughs & snotty noses, I think we're finally starting to get better. At least the kids are!


David perked up considerably to finish the Christmas Cookie Bake-a-thon today. We finished baking the chocolate chip cookies, mint reindeer patties, pumpkin pie tarts, and a full size pumpkin pie (which is in the freezer waiting for Christmas). We just have one batch of peanut butter cookies left to make to finish up our neighbors' cookie boxes.

We're going to try to read a Christmas book every day from now until Christmas. Today's book was The Animals' Christmas Eve (Little Golden Book). It's a really cute book where the animals are recounting the night Baby Jesus was born from the point of view of the animals in the stable that night. Also works in some counting. David enjoyed the book and asked for it again. I highly recommend this book for your little ones. It would make a great Christmas Eve gift, if your family does that.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

We watched Rudolph on TV last Tuesday night. At the end of the show, Santa is in the sleigh, flying in the sky with the elf dropping presents.
Mom: Do you see Santa?
David: Uh, huh. Santa is driving a skating helicopter.
Mom: That's called a sleigh.

I was watching The Lucy Show during lunch one day. Lucy was leading a boys choir in the 12 Days of Christmas. Later, David asked, "Can sing the 2 Turtles song?"

We sang the 12 Days of Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa Saturday night & David really enjoyed it, grown-ups bumbling over the words & all!

In the family bathroom at WM, David observed Elizabeth sitting in the basket part of the cart & started to get creative:
Once upon a time, Elizabeth was sitting in a basket...

David shows he's been paying attention to the little things we say. While playing one day this week, I heard him say, "Baby Jesus came to save the world."

Later in the week, he mixed it up a bit when he said, "Baby Jesus came to the North Place." (which is where we're going to be building our house - guess it's good to know Jesus has been there, too!)

David & Elizabeth have both been sick since Saturday night. Monday night we went to WM to get some more cough medicine & a vaporizer. On the way home, David started to spot & shout, "I see Christmas lights!"

Grandma commented that David sure has been talking a lot more lately. Seems like overnight they grow up. He's talking a lot more and hasn't had an accident in his underwear in several days!

Oh - he said something a few weeks ago that I forgot to document... Back up to Dad's graduation from fire academy & the bagpiper upsetting him so. Then on Thanksgiving Day, the commentators at the parade on TV were making reference to "The Big Guy" coming at the end of the parade.
David: The Big Guy is coming!
Mom: The Big Guy? Do you know who The Big Guy is?
David: Uh, huh! The Big Guy plays the bagpipes!

Finally, I never officially set out to teach him this verse, but I guess he picked it up in the many talks about obeying:

What will he think of next? See what more little ones have come up with this week at Not Before 7. If you haven't participated before, Mary's hosting a giveaway each week in December for Tiny Talk participants, why not join in?