McAlister Christmas 2012

In 11 years of living in Texas, this makes only the second time we haven't gone home to Mississippi for Christmas.  The first being the year Brenna was born and we thought it best not to subject baby Brenna (meaning ourselves) to the extensive travel that usually takes place with a newborn in tow.  Of course, being with our families during this very special time of year makes all the effort totally worth it, especially the enjoyment Brenna gets from seeing everyone!  Unfortunately, that doesn't make the travel any less painful.  Every year involves lots of luggage, plane flights, rental cars, and longs hours of driving back and forth across the state of Mississippi.  I work to keep Brenna occupied and content on the plane and in the car as the miles roll by and worry about luggage weight limits with every gift that's opened.

This year things were alittle different.  With Brenna being in kindergarten now, we're restricted to her school holidays.  This year our Texas school calendar got out later than our Mississippi family and Mississippi schools went back earlier than we did.   Because matching up the calendars proved to be a problem, we settled for the promise of coming home sometime early in the new year.

So, this Christmas has been very different from what we've known in the past.  We had a nice, quiet, and slow paced holiday filled with lots of Christmas fun.

First new thing, my Christmas tree!  I've spent years torturing myself (and Jacob) with my old, limb-by-limb, non-lit tree.  Last year after Christmas my Mom found a great 12-foot, pre-lit, slim-line, pop-up Chistmas tree on clearance for 75% off!!!!  I made my Dad haul it to me all the way from Mississippi!!!  It was totally worth it!  I loved the new tree!  It reached all the way to our second story!  In 10 years of decorating my own Christmas tree, this is my favorite by far!

Christmas is in the Giving

As the week of Christmas drew near, so did the plan for Christmas Candy!  It's become a holiday tradition over the last couple of years to show our friends and neighbors how much we appreciate them through the gift of food!  This year I stuck with my Mom's recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Treats.  This was one of my favorites when I was kids and since there seems to be so much chocolate circulating during the holidays I think its a nice change of pace.  Because of the time and amount needed, I decided to tackle the actually candy making alone this year while Brenna was still in school.  However, I did save the packing up for her, which made for a very merry after-school activity.

Kindergarten Christmas

School has been packed full of Christmas fun these last few weeks.  There's been fun Christmas assignments, lots of Christmas crafts, and exciting Christmas parties.  The first week of the month, Brenna came home with her Christmas Bell (colored rainbow, of course) that she made herself, along with her weekly poetry journal assignment that told the purpose of the Christmas Bell.

December first until Christmas

Is the longest time of year.

It seems as though Christmas

Never will get here.

How many days until Christmas?

It's kind of hard to count.

So this little bell will help you

To know the exact amount.

Remove one link each night

As the sandman casts his spell

And Christmas day will here

By the time you reach the bell.

She has faithfully cut one link each night in her count down to Christmas and she grows more and more excited with each link that comes off.  Also, we had Polar Express Day on Thursday, where the kids got to wear their PJs to school and enjoy a ride on the Frost Polar Express.  The kids all got tickets to board the train and then kicked back and enjoyed the movie with hot cocoa and marsh mellows.  

It Snowed in Houston!

Not really, but kinda!  Good enough for the kids to have some fun.  Our neighborhood hosted the 2nd Annual Long Meadow Farms Christmas Party the first week of December.  It was 82 degrees, but we still had snow!  There was a snow hill (man-made of course), rides, rock walls, crafts, and fun for the kids.

The kids loved the snow.  They played nearly two hours just pummeling each other and us over and over again.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Brenna usually sings in the bath tub.  Tonight she was singing the Christmas carol she learned at school today in Music Class.  This is how the conversation went.

Brenna -  ".... three french hens, two turtles doves, and a portridge in the pantry!"
Me -  "Brenna, its a partridge in a pear tree"
Brenna -  "No its not!"
Me - "Yes it is!"
Brenna - "Are you sure?"
Me - "Do you know what a partridge is?"
Brenna - "Yeah, its a picture!"
Me - "No, that's a portrait!  A partridge is a kind of bird."
Brenna - "Oh, that makes more sense, because we don't put birds in the pantry!"

Notice Anything Missing?

Christmas Portraits

I take alot of pictures.  But, like I've mentioned before, they're never portraits.  They're just snap shots of our life as we live it!  As I work more and more on photography and with my camera, I've come to realize that's all I really want.  I want picture memories of our life as we know it now.  I admire pictures from professional photographers and the engineering side of me enjoys working out the mechanics of how they took the picture, but that's as far as my enthusiasm goes.

With that in mind, as Christmas time approached I began to dread Christmas cards!  I knew I wanted a cute picture in a cute dress that captured just how spunky Brenna is right now.  Unfortunately, I also knew that Brenna would not be thrilled to set out on a mission to take posed portraits.  Brenna can't be still, ever!  So anything I did would have to be fast and candid and that didn't exactly jive with the beautiful, timeless portrait I had in my mind (which I probably wasn't technically competent enough to produce anyway!)  I had images of beautiful landscaped backgrounds and sunset lighting with styled hair and perfect smiles!  Ha!  What was I thinking!?!?  In the end, my extravagant photo opportunity turned into an impromptu walk down to the creek behind our house and just praying that something would turn out!

The actual picture taking was painful, since Brenna didn't want to cooperate and my patience was running thin.  We gave up after only 30 minutes!  I had way more outtakes than smiles, but we did walked away with a few that I loved!  Here's my spunky little girl!  Christmas cards are on they're way!  I hope you enjoy the outtakes too!

Thanksgiving Play and Turkey Parade

So this holiday season has been filled with lots of school related fun.  For Thanksgiving Brenna's kindergarten class got to create their very own unique turkey feathers, turkey float, and participate in The First Thanksgiving play.

We worked tirelessly on Brenna's "Rainbow" turkey feather and float.  She did a great job!  They both came out looking great!  After looking over all the feathers and floats, it was very evident which parents did their kids homework and which parents let the kids do their own homework.  I'm pretty sure a kindergartener can't understand the mechanics necessary a equip a turkey float with flashing Christmas lights and a remote control driver!

Proud of her creations! 

Kindergarten School Picture

Here's Brenna's Kindergarten school picture.  I'm not really sure why she didin't smile, but in her case no smile is better than some of her fake smiles!

2012 Soccer Season

We finally closed out the 2012 Soccer Season. I can't say I'm disappointed, with practice every week and games every weekend for 9 straight weeks, I was ready for the break.

Overall, our team stunk this season.  Although they don't keep score in our age bracket, if they did, we would have lost every game.  Brenna was the only kid on our team to score all season!  Brenna really likes soccer and she's gotten pretty good at it.  We plan to take a break from soccer until the spring, but we may fill the winter with one season of basket ball.  Here's some shots and video of our little soccer all-star from the season.

Trying out my new panoramic!  Friday afternoons on the soccer field. 

Crazy Socks Day

I'm behind on blogging!  Again!  I've been caught up in too much Holiday shopping lately!  But, on a positive note, I'm nearly done with Christmas shopping and its not even December yet!

This was from earlier this month.  The kids had Drug Free week at school and each day Had a theme.  Here's Brenna's crazy mis-matched socks!

Drive at Grand Parkway Baptist Church

Every week since August we've spent Wednesday nights at church building a soap box derby race car. Brenna has moved up from our church's preschool program and into the K-5th program.  No more Noah's Ark Rainbow Club.  But, big kids have big fun too!  For our fall semester we took part in Drive, a program focused on this verse.

"12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.  13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus"  Philippians 3:12-14.

Each week we used race car terminology to teach the kids about the "race of life" and to press toward the mark for the prize "Christ Jesus".  After each lesson the kids got the opportunity to build their own race cars.  We started with wood blocks.  The kids got to pick their own race car pattern.  They had to cut the pattern out, tape it to their wood block, and trace it so that the blocks could be cut to match their pattern.

Halloween Haunts

Another Halloween has come and gone.  Each year it's more and more fun for Brenna.  This year she asked to be Strawberry Shortcake, one of her new favorite characters.  So I snatched up a costume the first week of October to avoid the rush.  I brought it home thinking she would be thrilled, only to discover she was very upset that the hat was too floppy!  "Strawberry's hat isn't floppy, it's tall!"  So after some engineering from mom, we came up with a nice muffin top hat that we could both be satisfied with.

Our month was packed with pumpkin patches, fall festivals, and general halloween happiness.  This year we did our usually trick-or-treating with our neighborhood friends.  We were short a few kids because the Helmcamp's skipped out on us in favor of going to Disney World for Halloween.  We wish we could have tagged along with them!  But our kids had a great time here in Texas!

Portrait Practice

I've been at this photography thing for a couple of years now.  I really enjoy it!  I've captured so many beautiful moments of Brenna's life that will last forever.  However, most of the photography I do is "life" photography, just snapping pictures of what looks like a good time.  Very seldom do I purposely venture out with the main objective of portrait photographs.  I've maybe taken Brenna out 3 time to try and capture posed, planned portraits and even that hasn't been in the recent past.  I will be attempting this again soon, for the sake of a Christmas card photo, fingers crossed.

So, its always good practice and a nice challenge when friends ask if I can take pics of their kids.  I have no intentions of ever taking this any further than a hobby, but its fun to play photographer sometimes.  Here's a few shots of some beautiful kiddos that I got to pretend with recently!

I've done both of Grace's brothers pics a couple of time, so it was time she got her chance behind the camera!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Our fall season has kicked off with pumpkin patches, festivals, and candy collecting.  We haven't hit Halloween yet, but its just around the corner.  This year we decided to do something new of us.  Instead of the usual pumpkin painting, we decided to carve a pumpkin.  We ventured over to one of the local churches pumpkin patches on opening weekend.  Brenna searched until she found the perfect pumpkin! 

Hail State!

Ok, I had to squeeze this in this week!  Undefeated Mississippi State rolling into Tuscaloosa this weekend to take on #1 Bama!  I should be a great game and we're excited!  Go Maroon!

Kindergarten Field Trip to Dewberry Farms

Dewberry Farms has become one of our favorite fall traditions.  Check out 2010 and 2011!  I look back at those pictures and can't believe how much she's grown up!  I was worried how we would fit it in this year now that Brenna was in school and the weekends at Dewberry are crazy.  Luckily, everything fell into place when we found out our first official school field trip was to Dewberry Farms!

Ready to get the day started!

Fall Soccer Season

Brenna spent all Summer asking when it would be Fall, because she was ready to start soccer again!  This time we're the Kansas City Wizards and we kicked the season off with a great first game.  We've got some old friends and new friends on the team.  Here's some shots from her first game.  She hustled hard and made her first goal of season!

Fort Bend County Fair

This year we broke out the cowboy boots and hat to kicked off the Fort Bend County Fair.  The fair opens with a parade through downtown Richmond.  The schools even gives the kids a holiday for Fair Day, so Friday morning we met up with the Sanfords' and headed to the parade.  She was the cutest cowgirl out there in my opinion!

One Last Outing.....

This post is alittle late.  The week before school started, we decided to squeeze in one last fun weekday outing.  We got up early and hit the Houston Children's Museum.  We got there before the doors opened, only to discover we weren't the only ones trying to squeeze in one last day of fun.  The line ran out the door and wrapped around the side of the building!!  Yikes!!  Even though we spent the day shoulder to shoulder with everyone else, the kids still had a great day.

Brenna's Many Talents

I'm way, way behind on the blog.  I thought when Brenna started school I would struggle with what to do.  I dreamed of filling my time with blogging, shopping, and other unnecessary pleasures.  Boy was I wrong.  We're almost 2 months in and I'm still struggling with my calendar.  Between school, PTO, Drive at church, Junior Achievement, and Brenna's soccer I can't find time to even do some of my basic stuff (like blogging).  I'm afraid in my efforts to ensure I used my new found time productively, I may have over committed!!!

Anyway, I ditched everything yesterday to just work on pictures and videos of all the fun stuff we've been doing since school started.  So, now the pump is primed again and there will be some new posts flowing through over the next week.

The video below is a compilation of some of Brenna's many performances.  She likes to put on shows frequently here at the house.  She likes dancing, ice skating (in socks on the tile), hula hooping, jump roping (with two jump ropes), and the hop-skip.  I make it a point to try and video these everyday one-man shows, because I know its something that I want to remember later when performing for Mom and Dad is long gone.

Brenna's First Day of Kindergarten

Well, the big day finally came!  I can't believe my little girl is going to Kindergarten.  Where did all the time go?  I'm so thankful for the wonderful husband I have that allowed my to spend these first 5 years at home with her.  It's been such a blessing to have that time and very hard to let go of it.  She looked so grown up in her uniform on that first day of school.

The Obvious Next Thing........

I posted earlier that Brenna took her training wheels off.  However, she continued to ride with the speed and assurance of someone with a safety net.  With that information, the obvious next thing to expect was her first bike wreck, which came within 3 weeks of taking off the trainers.

We had friends over for dinner and afterwards the kids got out and rode bikes.  Brenna made the turn to come back alittle too sharp and alittle too fast and ended up eating the concrete face first!  Yikes!  The initial inspection was horrifying.  She had come down directly on the her chin, taking off all the skin and bit down on her lip in two places.  So, when a neighbor pulled her from underneath the bike all you could see was blood coming from her mouth and chin.  She was hysterical!  After we got her inside and cleaned up we immediately started the inspection for loose teeth or the need for stitches.  After she finally calmed down, we realized that while the total injury was ugly, we were very fortunate.  She walked away with a severely busted fat lip and a skinless, bruise, swollen chin.  Of course we had our bike helmet on, but that didn't do much to protect the underside of her head.  Maybe we should consider chin straps.

These pictures were from the next morning.  The bruising hadn't set in fully yet, so by the next day, her whole chin was black.  Over the next week, we went through every shade of the rainbow as it slowly faded away.

A Day with the Strickland Bunch

One of our last days of Summer we spent with the Strickland crew.  The Stricklands' and their extended family have been very good to us and we are blessed to have such wonderful neighbors and friends.  We started off the morning at the pool where the kids played and burned off some energy.  Next it was back home so everyone could have a nice nap and a quick rest.  Then, back to Stacie's for some fun back yard playtime.  Everybody had dinner together, and then it was off to the pool again.  Our group closed the pool down and then headed over to the playground to wait while the crew set up for "Movies Under the Stars".  Our neighborhood association sponsors these events several times throughout the year.  Tonight's movie was "We Bought a Zoo".  The kids stretched out on blankets, help themselves to popcorn and gummy bears, and settled in for the show.  While we didn't stay for the whole movie, our young bunch managed through more than half thanks to the energy boost from the gummy bears.  Just before 10 pm, we loaded them all up in the back of the SUV and headed for home. I was a very fun, long, and exhausting day.  Brenna was asleep before her head hit the pillow.  What a great way to spend one of our last days of Summer!

Houston Museum Of Natural Science - But This Time at Sugar Land

Ok, it's been a while since I posted.  Those last few weeks of Summer really kept us busy!  There's lots of fun stuff to catch you up on so I expect you'll be seeing several post over the next week.  Including Brenna's first day of Kindergarten!  I'll save my thoughts on that for another post......

While Mom and Dad were here we decided to visit the Museum of Natural Science at Sugar Land.  This museum has been on our hit list for sometime.  This is actually the closest Museum to us, so its funny that it took us so long to get to.  While this is not as big as the downtown Museum, it did not disappoint.  There were several things for Brenna to enjoy.  I actually thought it was alittle more kid-friendly with all its exhibits and hands-on experiment stations.  Not to mention less crowded and easier to manage with smaller children.

We all tested our skills at the Discovery Works experiments.  We enjoyed seeing Dinosaur Discovery.  Brenna liked exploring the Animal Secrets exhibit with its caves, trees, rivers, marshes, and naturalist tent.  We took time out to see Earth's Wild Ride on their Digital Dome Theater.  They have several different shows a day.  Earth's Wild Ride was set sometime in the future as a Grandfather describes Earth's past to his grandchildren as they view it from their vantage point on the moon, where they live now.  The actual dome theater is inflated from within with air and you lie on your backs on the floor (although there were seat available along the edges of the theater) and view the movie projected on the inside of the dome to give a 180 degree prospective.  It was very neat!  And finally before we ended our day we visited The Dig Pit where kids were equipped with shovels, buckets, and brushes to make their own dinosaur discoveries.

Life Science Exhibit

Brenna's 5th Birthday

I can't believe my little girl is 5 years old and about to start Kindergarten.  I'm so proud of the little girl she's becoming!  She's happy and sweet and smart.  Now it seems like she keeps me in line as much as I keep her in line.

Her actually birthday was on a Tuesday but we celebrated all week long!  On the Monday she was excited to see Mawmaw come visit with my Aunt Shirley, Aunt Juan, and Uncle Sal.  Brenna played cards with Aunt Juan for most of afternoon.  Aunt Juan kept asking her if she was cheating, to which Brenna quickly replied "No!"  But, she picked up on the thought and then started asking Aunt Juan "Are you cheating me?"

On Tuesday, she started off the morning opening a few gifts.  She had ice cream for lunch and played all day with Mawmaw.  We celebrated that night with a cupcake cake and more gifts.

The Training Wheels are Off!

Brenna got her first "big girl" bike for her third birthday.  She nearly rode the wheels off of it.  The training wheels on that bike are almost completely bare.  She also outgrew that bike very quickly because she's so tall.  So, for Christmas she got a "bigger girl" bike.  At first I was alittle nervous, because that bike looked so big compared to the other one.  But she hooped right on and took off (with training wheels, of course).  Recently, she's been asking to take the training wheels off.  After weeks of asking, and her birthday coming up, Jacob finally consented.

She started off a bit shakey with Jacob following along behind her.  But within the hour she was asking for him to "Just let go!" and she was off!  Now it's like the training wheels were never there at all.  One more milestone down.  Too bad swimming didn't come this naturally!

Houston Zoo in the Summer Time

Houston Zoo in the summer time is HOT!  Very HOT!  But alittle heat never stops us.  We met up with friends there a few weeks back and braved the heat to enjoy everything the zoo has to offer.  And I do mean everything!  We got there as the gates opened at 9 AM.  We enjoyed the animals, watched the 4-D Dora and Diego Rainforest Adventure at the new theater, feed the giraffes, ate lunch, rode the Wildlife Carousel, toured the Dinosaurs exhibit, hit the splash pad, and finally caught a train ride around Herman Park.  More than 5 hours later we had 7 exhausted kiddos and 3 worn out moms!  Here's some shots from the day!

The crew!

Houston Museum of Natural Science

After we had so much fun at the Butterfly Museum earlier this summer, we were excited when some friends invited us on a trip back to the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see the main exhibit hall.  We started off at the Butterfly Museum, because its too much fun to miss.

Future Scientists!

Let's Go to the Pool

After so much time at the pool this summer, I just couldn't bring myself to get up and go on this day.  So, we compromised and broke out the inflatable!

Sky Zone

What would be more fun for a bunch of kids than a big room with floors and walls made of trampolines!  We visited Sky Zone for the first time with some friends earlier this month.  Although, my initial reaction to this place was that it was one big accident waiting to happen.  As we walked over to our jump location, kids sat on the side lines in tears with different degrees of injuries.  But, our kids stuck to their own section and managed without any issues. They had a great time and loved jumping.

Here's our crew!

Today's Dirt Hill is Tomorrow's Mud Hole!

We're thankful for all the rain!  No draught this Summer!

Mississippi Summer Trip

Jacob had a business trip to Belgium, so Brenna and I flew home to Mom and Dad's to spend the week while he was away.  Here's Brenna all packed up and headed to the airport.  She's a pro at flying and looks too cute handling all her Minnie Mouse luggage through the terminal.

Backyard Cool Down

Sky - Vacation Bible School 2012

We had a great time at VBS this year.  I taught preschool crafts (which was an adventure) and Brenna made her first step toward kindergarten since she moved up to the "Big Kid" VBS classes.  I didn't get alot of time to take pictures, but some friends shared some that they took with us!

Brenna was Lazareth for story time

Summer at the Pool

Between holiday celebrations, play dates, and swim lessons, we've spent alot of time at the pool these last few weeks.  So much, in fact that I'm beginning to feel alittle water logged, but not Brenna.  Here's some shots from a recent pool playdate.

Computer Wiz

Brenna started learning electronics and technology early.  At two she started working on educational programs like Sesame Street and Caillou on the computer.  By three she had learned to operate my iphone and ipad and was learning her way around the internet.  Now at four she's totally self-suficient on the computer.  She comes into the office, opens Safari (Mac internet), uses the bookmark bar to select whatever website she's looking for, and then navigates her way through games, videos, and activities.  Her favorites are Disney Junior and PBS Kids.  This amazes me when I think about the fact that I didn't really learn to totally utilize a computer until I was in college.

Fun with the Gholston's

My how time flies!  One year ago I was snapping newborn pictures of Baby Arran and now he's about to turn 1!  So that means time for more pictures.  We got together with the Gholston's for a playdate.  The girls got to play while the boys went to work on photos.

It's hard to believe this little guy is already 1!

Gymnastics Olympic Dedication

For Mayfest at gymnastics this year they did a dedication to the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics in London.  Here's their routine.  Brenna's the one with the pink tights!

The End of Soccer

We had a great soccer season!  While me and Jacob were glad to see it come to a close, Brenna was disappointed.  She's already counting down to when soccer starts back in the Fall.  After a whole bunch of practices, 8 games, 6 goals, and a countless number of goal saves, she turned out to be a pretty good little athlete!  She's fast, coordinated, and hussels hard!  We were so proud of her.  The last couple of games were in the heat of the day and while others gave out, she powered through.  The coach called her our little Energizer Bunny!  It was even tough on the parents.  This last time I spent that long on a ball field in that kind of heat, I was the one playing!  Kinda gives me a whole new appreciation for all the hours my parents logged in the stands.

I added one more notch to my mommy belt, since I served as Team Mom for the season.  After the kids worked so hard, I thought they deserved some fun time, so we gave them a End of Season Soccer Celebration at the local McDonald's.  Here's some shots from her last game, the soccer party, and team photos.  It was a great season Los Angeles!

Last Game

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent our entire Memorial Day Weekend playing with friends all over; in our backyard, in their backyard, in the sprinklers, in the pool.  It was a fun and exhausting weekend, but it made me appreciate our happy little street.

Battle of the Sexes!