Shower The People You Love With Love

On October 4th, Pat & I hosted a bridal shower for Maryse!

It was held at the Lakewood Community Center in Vidor.

We went with a 'country sheek' theme.

Also known as burlap & mason jars :)

We played a couple games during the shower.

This one was called 'Put a Ring on It!'

And this one was 'What's in Your Purse?'

After the games, Maryse opened her presents.

She got lots of great stuff!

She had a really great turnout, including

of course, her mom & Mawmaw Helen

my mom

and my best friend Jessica.

The shower turned out great (if I do say so myself) & I was so happy that Pat & I were able to throw it for her!

I'm Back Ya'll...

I got my laptop back, yay! I'm super excited because it's like a brand new laptop. It actually works better than it did when it was brand new. I'm pretty sure our computer was a lemon when we bought it. But now that the hard drive and the wireless antenna have been replaced and the charger has been fixed, it works great!

So it's been about 3 weeks since I've blogged. Not a lot has happened since then, but I'll fill you in on what has happened...

I've been keeping up with my resolutions. Cooking & working out 5 times a week & drinking 8 glasses of water a day. I didn't keep with the first 17 days of dieting, but that wasn't my resolution. My resolution was to maintain my weight & I am doing that, I'm just not doing it on the 17 Day Diet. I've been working out consistently & have actually worked out 19 of the 20 days this year! I even ran my fastest mile last week, 6 minutes & 51 seconds! I'm super excited about that! And Nick & I will be running our 1st 5K of the year tomorrow. We're running in the Rockets Run that benefits Autism Speaks. We'll run through downtown Houston & cross the finish line on the floor of the Toyota Center where the Houston Rockets play. Sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun!

Addy had a reevaluation in OT. The test is standarizied & because of that Addy scored low in some areas. She can do certain skills, but just doesn't do them the "standarizied" way. But that's actually a good thing, because it justifies her going to OT & makes it where the insurance will still pay for it.  She is doing so good that her therapist said that she doesn't really need to come anymore. But she enjoys OT & will still be going to speech therapy so we're going to keep her in OT. We're just going to drop her to one time a week instead of 2. Nick & I are so proud of our sweet little Addy girl! She is making so much progress.

Maryse's looking for a job. She's filled out one paper application & one online application so far. She doesn't want a fast food job & a lot of the places she went by only hire 18+ years old. She applied to be a cashier at a pizza place that's here in Sienna & we're hoping that she'll get that job. Seems like it would be pretty easy & fun for her. She also emailed a few moms that posted ads on Siennanet (like southeasttexas.com for sienna residents) looking for babysitters. So we'll see if any of that pans out.

On Monday, I took Maryse to the doctor for her headaches. She has gotten them on & off since she was in 3rd grade. We tried allergy testing but that didn't seem to be the problem. So this time I took her to the pediatrician. Based on what Maryse told the doctor & the fact that Nick got migraines as a child & teenager, Maryse was diagnosed with migraines. The doctor put her on a low dose of blood pressure medicine which should "break the cycle" of the migraines. This medicine is supposed to be pretty safe & if she starts to be headache free, she can choose to quit taking the medicine & then start back up as needed. I'm really glad that we got a diagnosis for her & really hope that this medicine works.

On a sad note, we had to get rid of Pepper. Alex hit her with a toy hammer & she jumped up & bit him in the face :( She punctured his left cheek & bit around his right eye. I was sad to get rid of her but we just had to. There's no way we could keep her after that. Luckily, Roger took her to his mom. Hopefully she'll be a good dog for her since she doesn't have any little kids. She was a good dog with adults, but she just couldn't handle all the excitment of the kids.

Nick & I went on our January date night. If you'll remember, January was dinner & a movie, Nick picks & he gets no objections from me. So we ate dinner at Pappasitos & then went to Ben & Jerry's to get some ice cream! And the movie that he picked was The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I was a little unsure about the movie because the previews didn't look very good. But I did not object & I ended up loving it! It was definitely graphic in some parts but overall it was a great movie. And now I want to read the books. We had a really good time hanging out together. And when we got home, Maryse had gotten both the kids to sleep & was asleep herself!

We bought the kids a new swing set, a nice big wooden one. I have been considering buying one for a long time but just didn't want to spend the money. I was looking online last week for one & found this one for 50% off at Toys R Us. It was such a good price that I had to go ahead & buy it now, even though it's January & not really playing outside weather. Nick's parents came over for the weekend so that his dad could help him put it together. And of course, Alex wanted to help. He got all his play tools together, put on his hard hat & was a great big help! They worked on it Sunday & finished up on Monday. The kids absolutlely love it! Probably one of my best purchases ever!

in progress

Here it is!

the restaurant

the monkey bars

The kids are too little to do the monkey bars right now so Nick took a few of the trim pieces & closed off the entrance to them.

Of course the boxes that the playset came in were a giant success too!

Christmas

 I decided that I wanted to be home for Christmas morning this year. The kids are 5 & 2 and it's time that we start making our own Christmas family traditions!  So I discussed it with everyone (well... with both my mom & Nick's mom, because let's face it guys, we all know mom's are the ones in charge, lol) and rearranged things & made it work! We had 4 Christmas celebrations & the best one was just the 4 of us (we missed Maryse though) at our little house on Christmas morning!

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Christmas with MawMaw & Granddaddy

Nick's parents came to our house to celebrate. They got here on Wednesday. The plan was to open presents on Friday night, but really, what was the point in waiting??? So instead, we opened presents on Wednesday night.

"What's this big present? Is it for me? Is it? Is it?" Yes Alex, it's for you!

Alex helping Daddy & Granddaddy put his workshop together.

Addy drawing a cow with her new markers

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Christmas Eve at CiCi & PopPop's

Since we wanted to be home for Christmas morning, we moved our Christmas Eve celebration up to 3:00. That worked out great for us. We were able to celebrate with the family & then make it home by about 8pm to get the kids their baths, in their pjs & off to bed so that Santa could come.

Cici & PopPop

the grandkids (minus Clark, he didn't want to take a picture)

The Gilthorpes-Charlie, Brooke, Jared & Boone

The Heberts-Chloe, Kelci, Jeff & Peyton

The Shivers-Clark, Michael, Molly & Hannah

Sadly, this is the best picture I have of our little family!

That's right, he's got his baba again! That's all he wanted for Christmas, lol!

Since Nick's head was cut off, here's another one of him (little blurry though)

opening presents

Nick & Maryse

High fiving cousins!

I LOVE the faces this boy makes!

PopPop & Boone

Charlie

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Christmas morning at our house

We didn't put any presents out until Christmas morning because I had a feeling between 2 kiddos & 1 dog that the presents wouldn't last! So Santa dropped off all the presents from mom & dad too! Addy's were all wrapped in the red Mickey Mouse paper & Alex's in the blue. Santa & Mrs. Claus (or really, Santa & Mr. Claus because we all know who the real Santa is...) stayed up til 2 A.M. building roads, castles & highchairs. But it was all worth it on Christmas morning!

Santa brought Alex a bike, a castle, a Build a Road, an iPod touch, a soccer ball & a Rock Star Mickey.

Santa brought Addy a whiteboard with markers, a Baby Alive doll with a high chair & car for it, an iPod touch, a fur real kitten, and a art tracing toy.

The kids woke up around 8 oclock & then all the fun began...

They SLOWLY opened their presents & seemed to love them all! Open, play, open, play was the theme of the day. Alex didn't open his last present until after lunch because he wanted to play with each toy that he opened!

This is Addy playing with her new fur real kitten that she named Purrdy. (Not sure if she named it Purrdy as in a cat purrs or as in a country accent pretty, lol) She LOVES Purrdy! Addy feeds Purrdy, makes her pose for pictures & takes her shopping with us! (I was hoping that Purrdy would give Bailey a break, but not so much... Sorry Bay, no fur real kitty could ever replace you!!!)

Her first masterpiece on her new whiteboard from Santa!

Alex & Nick putting together a dump truck with Alex's play tools (that really work!)

Playing with Addy's new doctor kit.

Mickey & Minnie going for a ride in Addy's new car.

Addy got this coffee mug for Nick at the holiday store at her school.

Look at this mess!

Riding on his new "big boy" bike

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Roeder Christmas

Christmas evening we had our last family Christmas celebration! We went to my Aunt & Uncle's house in Crosby. It was definitely a wild time but I think that everyone had a lot of fun catching up! (I know I did!)

PaPa & June (the man who started it all!)

my sweet sweet aunts

cousins

Us (we NEVER NEVER NEVER take a decent picture! Look at the awkward way I'm standing & Nick is looking at another camera, lol.)

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We had a great Christmas, but honestly I'm glad it's over! I'm ready for things to get back to normal & to start the new year! I hope you all had a great Christmas also!

P.S. Thanks to my mom for letting me steal some of her pictures! Love ya mom!