Wishing Nothing But The Best For 2008!

Park photos from yesterday at the new play structure in our neighborhood. It was a beautiful sunny day, in the 60's. It's fun to watch the kids play now that James can walk - he LOVES to do all these big kids things now!

Riding her new bike in our culdesac.

Liking sissy's playhouse in front of our house.

And a warm bubble bath to end the day!

Wow only 1 more day left in 2007. I cannot believe how fast this past year flew by. It's crazy that we've been in TX for almost a year now. But we love it here!

Our New Year's Eve party plans aren't all too exciting. Stephen works both the 5am shift on New Year's Eve and Day. I think we're just planning a small gathering with our neighbors. Cooking some of our favorite appetizers...crockpot meatballs, homemade salsa and Chile Con Carne Cheese dip. We'll probably set off some fireworks in the culdesac too.

Thought I'd add a video and some pics of the kids from yesterday. In the video they are dancing to the intro song to one of their favorite cartoons, The Backyardigans. It's funny how James dances, he just keeps turning around in circles. In this video he looks a little drunken and keeps falling over. It's pretty cute!

More Birthdays Today!

My best friend Robyn's niece, Hannah, turns 1 today!!! Happy Birthday sweety. Ryan and Windy you guys have one beautiful baby girl on your hands!!!


Our brother Mike, turns 39 today! Happy Birthday Bro! We miss you very much and wish we could be there with you today to celebrate. We're always thinking of you!

Birthday Wishes!

"Hau`oli Lā Hānau Cuz!" Happy Birthday to our cousin Eric!!! Hope you had a nice time spending your special day in Humble, TX! It was great seeing you last week!

Also wanted to send belated birthday wishes to one of my good friends, Angie. She shares her birthday on the same day as Madeline. I am so glad we've stayed in touch all these years. You're a wonderful friend!!!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope y'all had a wonderful day with your family and friends. We celebrated a little early and opened gifts Christmas Eve morning since Stephen had to work today (bummers I know, but the airport is open year round!). Our rock star daughter (as Stephen likes to call her since she likes to stay up late and sleep in) woke up somewhere between 8-9am. We started opening presents right away. She was super stoked Santa left her a new bike! It was quite fun to hear her expressions and see the joy in her face every time she opened a gift - everything was "WOW!" "I'm so lucky!" "WOW!". Needless to say we all were very blessed by all the gifts sent to us - so thank you EVERYONE for your generosity and thoughtfulness!

The rest of the day we just relaxed at home. I was going to cook a Christmas dinner but Stephen thought it would be fun to head downtown for a nice dinner out. So we went to McCormick&Schmits (we had ate there before in Seattle). They were booked solid with reservations but had a few open tables. So we got seated. At first our server seemed very pleasant. But our dinner didn't turn out to be...we were basically forgotten about and given lousy service. So we asked to speak to the manager. He apologized, explaining that our server had split stations in the front and back but that was still no excuse for poor service so he wanted to take care of our bill. Awesome - especially since Stephen ordered a $35 steak! Man we should've ordered salads with our dinner too - just kidding.

So today the kids and I just hung out at home. Our lil man, James, has been Mister Cranky Pants lately cause he's cutting 2 molars - poor baby. So we ventured out this afternoon to buy more infant Tylenol. Luckily Walgreens was open. We also stopped at Blockbusters to pick up a few flicks. So now the kids are sleeping, Stephen just got home. I'm going to heat up his dinner and we're going to watch Bruce Willis in yet another Die Hard movie!

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Goodnight!

Christmas '07

Madeline's 4th Birthday

Singing Happy Birthday

Reading Nana

Reading Oma

Happy 4th Birthday Madeline Elise!

It's hard to believe it has been 4 years since God blessed us with our baby girl! She's grown so much and is such a beautiful girl inside and out. She's a loving daughter and sister. A thoughtful thinker. And a creative spirit.

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Madeline, Happy Birthday to you!!!"

And of course the Dutch version...

"Lang zal zij leven, lang zal zij leven, lang zal zij leven in de gloria, in de gloria, in de gloria. Hieper de piep hoera, hieper de piep hoera, hieper de piep hoera!"

Parent's Visit & Houston Trip

We had a wonderful visit with my parents. They flew home to CA this morning. :-( It was unfortunate Stephen had to work the first few days they were here, but we still got a nice dinner in at Salt Grass Steakhouse and ate pizza and watched the Vikings win Monday night football. And of course we put Dad to work on different tasks and jobs around the house. He fixed our garage door button plate that has been broken for months, fixed our front door knob, checked our heating ducts and replaced our filter. Oh and I'm sure there was more he did but I'm just forgetting. They brought a huge box of gifts for the kids - thanks to everyone who sent presents for Christmas and Madeline's birthday. Maddy had a ball, we've been celebrating her birthday all week long, opening a new gift each day!


Here she is with her birthday gift from David, Armilyn and Alex. A new tropical Dora doll!


We also had a few packages arrive at our doorstep, here Madeline is showing off her birthday gift from Jon & Miki Fujii - some Paul Frank slippers.

We took my parents to Houston for a few days to visit the Tengbergen's and the Flinkerbusch's. We got an extra treat being there the same time as Eric and Maureen's family from Hawaii. Madeline had a super fun time playing with her cousins!

Kiara, Nathan and Madeline playing in Oom Folly and Tante Patty's backyard.


Here James is at the Houston Children's Museum.


The second night we had a lekker dinner at Tante Patty's and afterwards celebrated with a birthday cake Aunty Pam & Aunty Maureen got Madeline for her birthday! (This is my new favorite photo of Stephen and Madeline).


While we sung "Happy Birthday" to Madeline!


Ariel and Dad enjoying some ice cream!


Maureen and I enjoying each other's company!


Mom and the kids in the Taurus X getting ready to head back to Austin! (Gotta love Stephen's company car and free gas!).


Oh ya, forgot to mention. James is pretty much walking (and trying to run!) all over the place now! While playing out back at Oom Folly's, he started running on the golf cart road and did a face plant and skinned his nose. :-( He also got a knot on his forehead. Like everyone said, "He's a boy, this certainly wasn't his first fall and won't be his last!". Poor baby when he woke up the next morning he had a huge scab on his nose. Thus his new nickname is "Rudy!" aka Rudolph! James became very smitten with his Opa this visit - always finding him around the house and reaching for him. It was very sweet.

I have a ton more pics that I will put into a slide show soon. Just wanted to update the blog with a new post. Hope everyone enjoys this Christmas weekend! Our baby girl turns 4 on Sunday!

Parents arrive tonight!

I thought I'd post a little update, seeing I probably won't be online much this next week with my parents visiting in town.

Hopefully by now most everyone received our Christmas letter and the photo of the kids. I thought their portrait turned out pretty good, both smiling at least, right? I'm also happy to say I finished the remaining of our Christmas shopping last night. Headed over to the 24 hour Wal-mart last night around 10:30pm by myself. Now my only problem is all the gifts that are stashed in my guest bedroom need to be moved since Mom and Dad are coming tonight!

Stephen's been super busy at Hertz. Working overtime almost every shift - too bad he's salary and doesn't get paid for the extra hours. With bad weather hitting all over the country, flights are delayed and customers are grumpy. Poor Stephen has been stressed on some days. Thankfully he has all next week off for vacation time. And we'll be taking a road trip with my parents to Houston to visit family.

I've been in a lull with my WAH job. I initially signed up to train for the agent skill with Virgin Mobile USA. But after 4 hours of online training, I realized these calls I would be taking would be dealing with the same stuff Stephen dealt with selling for Wireless Advocates in the past 2 years! Wasn't looking forward to talking on the phone trying to sell different phone plans or dealing with angry customers who have problems with their phones. So I decided to resign from that assignment and was hoping to sign on as an agent for Toys'R'Us. I've been back and fourth with HR all week about signing up. And unfortunately I just found out today, Toys'R'Us currently isn't taking any new agents. So I may do a contract with Sears instead. I'd just like to get the ball rolling, finish my online training and start taking calls.

The kids are good. Madeline is SUPER excited Oma and Opa are coming tonight. And she's just thrilled anytime she gets a birthday gift in the mail. We'll probably be doing a few smaller birthday celebrations for her over the next week - with family in Houston, with our friends/neighbors, and her at home on her actual birthday. James is WALKING all over the house! The past 2 days he's really showing interest in standing up and walking everywhere rather than crawling! I also think he's cutting a few more teeth. So he's also been a bit grumpy throughout the day. And boy does he get mad when he's hungry! He wakes up mad, cause he wants to eat immediately! And he grunts at us, when he's sees us eating and not sharing. It's actually quite funny!

Okay, so that's the latest! Hope all of you are staying warm. Temps have dipped into the 50's around here. I really dislike it, and miss our warm Texas weather!

Some Photos

Took this the other day when I noticed James was being super quite watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Don't y'all wish we could sit forward like this and fall into a nice slumber sleep!?


The kids in front of the tree, man they're getting so tall!

Wanna Elf Yourself? (Too Cute!)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1273151488

Taking steps by the Christmas tree!

Madeline talking about what she loves!

Happy Birthday Tante Leen!

'My mom and Tante Leen'

Today is our Tante Leen's milestone birthday, Happy 60th Birthday!!! Tante Leen has always been such a dear Tante, always so thoughtful and caring. We wish we could be there in person to help her celebrate tonight. Eat some Rigatoni 'D' pasta tonight at Maggiano's for us!!! YUM!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Just wanted to post that we hope everyone has a nice weekend! December is going by way too fast!

We did get our Christmas tree yesterday. Originally we wanted to go to a traditional tree farm and cut down our tree (yes they do grow Christmas trees here in TX too!), but after pricing it out we figured why not save some money and just get our tree at HEB Plus. So that's where we went. Got an 8' Douglas Fir for $32! Not bad. Fortunately Stephen brought home a truck from work so we didn't have to worry about getting our cars dirty.

So here she is! We had fun decorating last night. Madeline was all into it - and as you can see on the lower half of the tree where all the clumped together ornaments are was personally placed by her! :-) James just loved tasting any ornament he could get his hands on! LOL

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

HE DID IT!

Madeline's going to be 4 this month!

I cannot believe December is here. Our baby girl will be FOUR!

Here she is today with her best friend, Mia. I've updated Madeline's webpage so be sure to check it out, new journal entries and updated photo gallery!

http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/m/maddyelise/

Mega Lights '07 & Santa's Workshop

A lot of you have been asking to see pics of the house. Well here it is tonight. Stephen's still not done, especially after going to Santa's Workshop tonight and gaining more inspiration...sigh. He wants to add green netting light above the garage door to the roof line. He also wants to line the driveway and front grass with some sort of lighting. I swear my Mega Lights man has turned into Clark Griswold!

Tonight we went out with the Wright family (our friends and neighbors next door). We had some grub and then headed over to Santa's Workshop with them in San Marcos. Really cool drive through set up with over a million Christmas lights! Madeline thought it was "too cool" in her own words. The slide show is below...

Santa's Workshop