Happy Birthday Christopher!

Christopher turned 4 on 01/21 (the birthday he shares with his twin, my beautiful friend Tondi - Happy Birthday Tondi!). His requests were for toys, balloons, and cake. He brought cupcakes to school, then come home for the celebration.

One of his favorite toys was the Fisher Price Digital camera. It's picture quality is pretty low, but he can take pictures over and over and enjoy seeing them in the display, just like Mom does with her camera. This was a big hit.

He also enjoyed a new Nerf gun, a Chutes and Ladders game, and a Cars racetrack.

Sister had a good time too sharing the day with her special pink balloon, and luckily, brother was willing to share, well, most of his new toys.

His regular question now is how long until Christmas again. Poor thing -- the year that will go so quickly for us as adults will be an eternity for this 4 year old.

Mallory Marie

I love this picture. To tell you the truth, in the heat of the holiday chaos, I have no idea why I was taking this picture, or what she was doing, or what compelled me to press the shutter button at this moment. I didn't even really look at it until I uploaded it.

And now, I am in love with it. The tousled hair, the unassuming and unposed look, the arm resting on the Christmas box, the black laptop bag strap - all just part of this moment, and my little girl.

I love it.

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?