These kids...

• Alayna is a bit of a thief.  At our gym, the kids get a numbered sticker on their back when their parents check them in.  My sweet baby makes her way around the other kids swiping stickers as she goes.  If one of the children tries to get away from her, she boldly persists till she's accomplished her goal.  The attendants in the kid's club fondly refer to her as "Swiper."

• Madeleine and Ian helped themselves to some stickers we had stashed away and were putting them on themselves, empty soda bottles, etc.  Ian had one on the front of his shoulder and Alayna reeeaaalllly wanted it.  Her method at first was to tug on his sleeve with all her might, which is sayin' something.  The girl's got some strength.  But Ian is strong too and was able to shake her off.  So what did she do next?  She turned the tugging into hugging and when she was near enough, that sticker became hers.

• I was in my room "working" on the computer while the kids played in the backyard.  I heard what could have been crying, but I'm not the mom that goes running out at that sound so I kept working.  Soon I heard Ian come in, snoop around in the kitchen, grab a snack and then he slowly made his way to my room.  I think he was supposed to be "rushing" to tell me Madeleine was hurt.  Good thing it wasn't serious because that message was not delivered with much urgency today.

Merry Christmas!

We had a really wonderful Christmas!  The kids were thrilled with all their gifts, which is what pleases us the most.  Madeleine seems happiest to now have a her very own Snuggie and a gigantic pillow pet.  Though Ian wanted a Nintendo DS (we assured him he wouldn't get that) he's super happy that we got several new games for our Wii and more remotes too. 

Spencer surprised me with a new camera and I have to admit, I couldn't be happier about it!  Ian had to hold his smile for a minute while I got my bearings, hence why the smile looks so painful and fake and actually not like a smile.

The giant pillow pets.  Grandma Montelius, these are from you.

Alayna got this sweet trike and Madeleine and Ian got new bikes too.

We had planned to go to the Children's Museum on Christmas Eve like we did last year, but since Ian had an ear infection we spent that whole morning at Walgreens in the clinic to get medicine.  So instead of wasting our passes when we'd only get to spend a couple hours there, we went a couple days after Christmas instead.  I'm certain it was much busier than it would have been two days earlier, but we had so much fun anyway.  I took this picture on the way there.

Alayna on the pulley seat.  You're supposed to try all three to see which pulley makes it easiest to pull yourself up.

On this one there's a camera that takes three photos of you doing three different poses.  Then it plays it back and you match your moves.  It gets a little tougher as it speeds up.

I think this is the Power Tower or something like that.  It'a a 3 story high climbing structure.  Adults are welcome and I did it, but it wasn't roomy.  Fun, but a tight squeeze in places.

"Tw-ITCH-er"  This section was all about lice, mosquitoes, bed bugs and one other bug I can't remember.  So this version of Twister would say Right Hand Bed Bug, etc.  You could also look at each bug under a microscope and learn lots of interesting facts about them in other parts of the exhibit.  These few pics are a tiny sample of all they have to offer at the Children's Museum.  We love that place!   

I didn't get pictures of it, but the day after Christmas we went down to Galveston and went to Schlitterbahn to experience the indoor waterpark.  It was pretty cold that day (for us) so even though the water is heated, it still felt really, really crazy to be running around in swimsuits and getting wet.  Once we got going, and especially when it warmed up a little in the afternoon, we had a really great time!  Perhaps this will be the beginning of a new tradition?  We'll see.