Merry Christmas to all . . .

. . . . and to all, it's over for another year!

We had a great time here at the Crosslands. Mom and Michael were here, and we enjoyed spending the holiday together. This is us before mass on Christmas Eve.

It was a great year because Christopher really understood the Santa part of the holiday this year for the first time. He was so excited all week long and wanted Christmas to come so badly.

His favorite gift was a Nerf gun (that he calls a "gum") from Santa. Funny thing, Santa also brought Dad a Nerf gum too. He loves that thing so much - he reminds me of Ralphie from A Christmas Story, as you see him here sleeping with the thing. So far, he has not shot his or anyone else's eye out.

For Mallory, it was a Fisher Price Dvd player. She is a maniac about that thing, and if you try to touch it, say, to help her with it? She swats at you like a pesky mosquito. Nice. So far, we have all experienced that wrath.

I hope you all enjoyed the holidays with your families, and here is to a wonderful 2009!

Snow? For real?

So this week, we have enjoyed true unpredictable Texas weather. As if Hurricane Ike wasn't enough . . . . .

Warm front Monday and Tuesday - high on Tuesday is over 70.

Big thunderstorm rolls in.

Temperatures drop.

Wednesday morning - in the 30's. High of 46.

Temps drop again Wednesday afternoon. It starts to snow.

Snow accumulates to at least 1/4 inch (enough to go play in).

Tomorrow? In the 60's. 76 by Sunday. God Bless Texas.

Fuzzy Santa Pic

If you can find it in your heart to forgive the horrible resolution on this scanned photo, this is our Santa picture from this year, as mentioned below. I didn't order the electronic file of it, so this is scanned and cropped. If you click on the photo, it will get bigger. Their faces are a little fuzzy, but you can sense the fright in Mallory's face, which is really the priceless part.

I can't help it - I don't want a Christmas to go by without a Santa pic, if I have anything to say about it.

Hope everyone's holiday preparations are bringing them lots of joy and little stress!

The true Thanksgiving Treat

Happy Turkey Day to all!

We had planned a trip to San Angelo to see Dewey's brother and family, but Mallory got sick. So we stayed here. I defrosted a turkey breast and we were on our way - coupla boxes of Stove Top, some good Dewey mashed potatoes, and you would never know that we hadn't planned this.

Truthfully, we enjoy the carb-filled Thanksgiving meal, but not the traditional Thanksgiving desserts. So although we do get our points for turkey and stuffing, we completely lose on any kind of pie ('cause we don't eat it) or other traditional Thanksgiving dessert.

Completely Unamerican, I know. And when we tell people that we don't like pie, they go through a litany of questions:

"You mean you don't eat apple pie?"
"Nope."
"Pecan Pie?"
"No."
"Pumpkin pie?"
"Last time we checked, that was still a pie, and no, we don't eat it."
"Come on, everyone eats pie."
"No they don't, unless we don't count in 'everyone'."

You get the picture.

But, my favorite part of staying home for Thanksgiving is this right here:


Those of you who knew us prior to kids, you know that these clowns are our first children, and continue to be a vital part of our family. The Crossland dachshunds know that as soon as we are done eating on Thanksgiving, they too get to partake in traditional Thanksgiving fare. Each dog dish gets a reduced amount of plain ol' dog food, and the rest is filled with a touch of every part of our meal that won't hurt them to eat. A little potatoes, a little stuffing, a little turkey - and they LOVE it.


So I took this picture today while I had one hand cutting up the delicacies to feed them. Waffles is in the middle with her bat ears, and yes, she is standing on her hind legs. Shelby is to the left of Waffles, and Fable (a.k.a. Sushi) is on the right. I knew today would be the perfect day to get these gals into the blog.


So, hope your Thanksgiving was just how you wanted it, and you get to enjoy the rest of the weekend doing what you love best, whatever that might be.

New background & Santa Pics

I changed the background on the blog just for fun - kinda like rearranging your furniture - makes the old stuff look new. I am really striving for a good pink and brown background, but that may require more work. This is at least a step in the right direction.

I spent today at the mall with the kids - getting Christopher's hair cut at Snip-its (a kid friendly salon), eating Sonic for lunch (mmmmm) and, yes, the picture with Santa. I did it today because there was no line, and Christmas is coming much too fast this year. So, although the kids were not festively dressed, I decided to do it anyway.

A quick review of the Crossland pictures-with-Santa:

• 2005 - Christopher (11 months) looks terrified.
• 2006 - Christopher (23 months) is screaming, Mom is pregnant with Mallory
• 2007 - Mallory (5 months) is sitting in Santa's lap, puzzled, and Christopher (almost 3) is nowhere to be seen. He would not go near Santa.
• 2008 - Christopher (almost 4) is sitting in Santa's lap, trying to smile, but seemingly uncomfortable, as his sister (16 months) is screaming bloody murder. Shirt wet, face red, the whole she-bang.

Poor Santa. I guess mine weren't the worst he had seen (or will see) but the man tried to make the most of the situation. And, I have the picture for my scrapbook. That's what matters anyway, right?

Struggling for ponytails

All right, I admit it. I want Mallory's hair to grow already!

A few friends have noticed that Mallory has ol' Ralphie's head, God rest his soul. It's a trait that I really like about her - she is a bit of a little Polish girl. And she does have quite the noggin on her. And, she is pretty hairless. :)

This morning, I put her hair in one ponytail on top of her head with a bow. It is growing, as I could get more hair into it than I had before, but it is still pretty pitiful.

When I picked her up from daycare, her teacher had made two ponytails. . I think she wants to froo-froo Mallory up as much as I do!

So here she is - smiles and all. For those of you who don't know her, she is a smiley, happy kid. She has this fantastic walk about her - she definitely shows assertiveness and confidence. And, she has the gift of lighting up the room with her smile. She is opinionated and fun loving, and a great companion for Christopher. They have really just started playing together, and they always end up laughing.

So here's to Mallory - let's grow some more hair!

Happy Halloween!

First of all, don't you love the digital picture age? That it's Halloween night, my kids are passed out in bed, and I have their pictures ready to share. Unbelieveable! This is them right before we got into our costumes.

Christopher really understood Halloween for the first time this year. He knew it was coming, he was excited about it all week, and then today, he just couldn't wait to come home and trick or treat. He was Buzz Lightyear for the second year in a row, and he was thrilled!


It was fun with Mallory because she could walk and carry her little pumpkin. Then, I would put her back in the wagon and as we got started walking, she would say, "Wheeeee" in this little tiny voice. Very funny and very cute. She was a Dalmatian, and though the costume had a headband with little puppy ears, she would have nothing to do with it. But the dress with the bone bow tie and the black tights was too cute. And, if you look really closely in this picture, you can see my Cruella de Vil shirt to match her.

Also this year, we are back living in a neighborhood full of kids. Full of them. So Dewey was official candy-giver-outer and I was on trick-or-treat detail. We bought a lot of candy, and we used up just about all of it. Poor Waffles and Fable were in the bedroom going nuts with the doorbell ringing all the time - but Shelby is well-mannered enough that she assisted Dewey with the candy giving.

So, now it's time to clean out and sort the candy - some for the kids, some for me and Dewey to eat tonight (there's no rule against that, right?), and some to go to work with me to get it out of the house. I need to get away with doing this while they are too young to notice. I am spying a small box of Junior Mints calling my name . . . . .

Trip successful!

We had a great time in Rhode Island. Christopher loved the plane ride - especially talking to all of the people there. I had made him a necklace with number beads of my phone number in the event that he got lost, and he told everyone that would listen, "This is my Mommy's phone number." I had to explain that he was not soliciting dates, just staying safe. Here he is in Newark airport.

The Guzewicz reunion was a lot of fun - it's mostly cousins now, except my Mom and Aunt Eleanor - and we all want to try to stay in touch. I really like this tradition of getting together in the fall - Carol cooked a fabulous Thanksgiving-like dinner, and we all really enjoyed it. Now that I know Christopher can handle the plane ride, it will be my weekend to travel up there until Mallory can makethe flight - then hopefully we will all go! I get my fix of Northeast October this way for sure! Here's me, Carol, and Mom.

It got really cold on Saturday, and we went to my niece Gretchen's soccer game - I forgot how cold that wind could be! Christopher and I were as bundled up as we could be - but that was some kinda cold! And winter hasn't even started up there yet, so maybe I am reconsidering my desire for the fall in the northeast - maybe this taste of it each year will be enough!

Christopher's 2nd airplane ride . . .

. . .but the first he will remember.

We are going to Rhode Island for a family reunion of the Guzewiczs this weekend. We flew with Christopher to a wedding when he was an infant, and haven't embarked upon a plane with him since.

First, when I asked him if he wanted to go on an airplane ride, he said, "Nope, not today."

Then, I stopped asking him.

I started asking again this week, and got him to come around. I told him that he and I were going to go on the airplane to see Grammy and Aunt Woobie (that's Carol, for those of you who don't know, and that's my name for her, not his), Uncle Rob, Cousin Hannah and Cousin Gretchen, Peeky, Flappy, and Mallory was going to stay at our house with Daddy.

Then, suddenly, he agreed. Hallelujah.

So, I have spent the week equipping myself with portable movie players, books, snacks, etc. And, I had to teach him how to use his first earphones.

Again, at first, he said, "No thank you." Just like that.

But I waited a few days, and told him that he couldn't watch Super Why on my laptop (see the Super Why obsession post for more info) without his "ears", meaning his earphones. He told me he already had his ears, pointing to his ears. But, I persisted, and we have achieved victory! These are Daddy's fancy cordless earphones, but I also taught him with the earbuds in case the airline doesn't allow the wireless ones.

Ahhh, it's the little victories.

I miss the fall!

Here's some pics of us from the park this evening.

This is one of the times of year that I miss the Northeast. It just isn't the same to still be hot in October, when we should be wearing long sleeves and drinking hot drinks. But we in the South try our best to pull it off - you can find a rogue pumpkin patch making a KILLING to allow people to come take pictures to remind them that it's fall. People put bales of hay and pumpkins in their yards, but none of that detracts from the fact that it still soars to over 80 each day.

Christopher is now in that phase that when you go to take his picture, he shows all his teeth and closes his eyes, thinking that's a smile. That's picture number 1. Then there's Mallory, who doesn't know any better, so you can always catch a pretty natural smile. Then, picture 3, is Christopher when he didn't know I was taking the picture. When did he become so big?

I went to my first NFL football game last weekend - the Texans vs. the Colts. Again - it was hot here, so poor Indianapolis probably had a hard time playing in the heat. And, Reliant Stadium, where the Texans play, actually has a retractable roof for when it is really hot, they air condition the place. Now, that's smart. However, Ike did some damage, so they couldn't close the roof. It just isn't right to be sweating at a football game. Luckily, my friend's seats were in the 30 yards that remained in the shade the whole time. Ya-hoo! Maybe you know the score, maybe you don't, but suffice it to say that any home team that has a 17 point lead until the last 5-6 minutes of the game, and then loses the game, should be ashamed of themselves. Too bad football is a 60 minute game, not a 54 minute game. Otherwise, we would have won. I use the term "we " lightly, as I have become an Astro fan, but haven't quite embraced the Texans yet. I will give it time.

What's a blog without pictures?

Hurricane Ike visits Joanne's neighborhood.

Christopher and Mallory burning some energy at the playscape at the mall in Austin.

If I had been a better photo journalist, I would have taken photos of all of our Austin adventures while Ike was in town. But - these will have to do.

Christopher's Super Why obsession

We have gone through lots of TV show addictions. The first was Backyardigans, followed by Dora (both still quite popular in the Crossland house). But nothing compares to Christopher's current TV show addiction - a PBS show called Super Why. www.pbskids.com/superwhy. It's a cute little show about 4 characters who solve mysteries by looking in books. It teaches a lot about letters, words, phonetics, etc.

The obsession began on our "hurri-cation" when we spent a week in the Holiday Inn Express in Georgetown, courtesy of our visitor who robbed us of a week's worth of power - Hurricane Ike . We watched PBS every morning, and Super Why was on. It didn't take long for the addiction to begin.

Now, it's all Christopher talks about. He watches it while he eats breakfast, after dinner, and after his bath. He cries when it's time to go to bed because he doesn't want to leave Super Why. I made the mistake of showing him the website with Super Why, and now, while I am trying to catch up on work or emails in the evenings, he wants to be in my lap watching Super Why on my 'puter.

Anyway - it's a cute show and all, and I am certain he could be addicted to much worse things, but if I hear that theme song one more time, I might scream. "We've got the power, the power to read - super why-y-y, super why."

Good night!

Welcome to the Crossland Chronicles!

I decided to join the blogging world mostly due to how much I love reading others' blogs. It's really such a good way to keep in communication with people, and learn the most recent events of their lives. Thus was born the Crossland Chronicles.

So bookmark this page, and keep looking. I will get in the practice of updating it as often as I can.

Happy reading!