Merry Christmas from the 2010 Listi Family
Earlier in December we attended a wedding in Houston for my cousin on my Mom's side. We were all excited and this was going to be our family time to see eachother for the extended family Christmas this year. There are so many cousins and it is hard to all get together now that we have young children. At first I wasn't going to take all the kids, because it just seemed like no fun to be honest. But then, I knew that most of my family had never met Hayes and the girls had changed so much, so we opted to go all together. I also knew that we would all be fancy and dressed up and that would be a perfect Christmas card photo op! Hence the reason I never posted about the wedding, because we used the pics for our card. Before we went to the wedding we had lunch with Mr. Scout! Daniel's mom and Stepdad's new puppy..he was adorable and you can see that me and Emmaline were in love!! And he is coming to visit next week!! YEA!the cake was yummy and the girls were all over it! Luckily it was after they cut it and most of it was eaten..
We had a great time at the wedding and even better for us, the reception was at the hotel we were staying at. I wish I had pictures from the ceremony because my cousin looked beautiful and the church was amazing! Emmaline was so cute in awe watching her walk down the aisle. A real bride, not one on tv! It was a Catholic ceremony and it was long. Luckily, my dad and Daniel were hot to trot to watch some Saturday football so they took the girls and Hayes to the hotel for naps at the first sign of boredom. Don't worry, Emmaline managed to squeeze out "Is it over yet?" nice and loud, before we even got the basic introductions out of the way (3 minutes in the ceremony). There were giggles and my aunt then proceeded to open her fancy sequined purse up for Emma & Georgia to go through. Fun times! The reception was fun, lots of dancing and drinking, and Emmaline and Georgia and Daniel were the stars as far as I was concerned!Hayes was just along for the ride, but was really good and he even slept through the night along with the rest of us! For those of you who know Aunt Boom Boom..she caught the bouquet!! The DJ then played "Shoulda put a ring on it" and little did we all know, but she knew ALL the dance moves! And she was good!! Way to go, girl! Come to SA and Daniel will set you up with a dr. date! it's fun to see this picture of Daniel and Tim with their sons...they were roommates at Aggieland for a year or so!
Thanks to my parents who went and helped us out as usual. They kept Emmaline in the room with them and babysat when we went downstairs to party a little more after the reception. Our family always has fun parties, I just wish they happened a little more often!The new Mayfield family of 4!! Their birth announcement for Noah was a baseball card, old school style!! Cutest idea I have seen to date!!
Ummm and our next outing will be to the Cotton Bowl to hopefully see the Aggies Beat the Hell Outta LS-Who??! I am so excited for this weekend and can't believe where I will be watching it from..Did you read it?? That's right...a luxury suite! Who Me??!! Looks like EJ is stepping Up in 2011

Many Christmases - Houston

I am sure you all know how it goes with extended families during the holidays. Some go to and fro to hit all the houses of their loved ones. Some like to stay homebound and let others come to them. The Listis are usually all over the place..state to state. This year was no different. We started out our adventure heading to Houston right after the girls had their MDO Christmas play. The drive was uneventful until I ripped the carrier off the car. Luckily, no gifts were hurt or the car, just the carrier. That evening we stayed with Aunt Lynn & Uncle Carlo and had the annual Listi Christmas. The girls got LOTS of adorable things and fun toys and even Hayes-man got some good loot too! There was great Cajun food - muffaletas, etoufee and other goodies. Lynn is so crafty and had perfectly shaped sugar cookies to decorate with green icing. All I'm going to say is that G's poop was the same color the next day..I was perplexed for a moment then remembered all the decorating that took place.
Our next stop was Mississippi with a great lunch at Fezzo's in Louisiana. The kids did surprisingly well on the 9 hour drive and we all actually fit in the car - dogs, presents & all!

Merry Christmas

much love, the Listis in Mississippi!

'tis the season

For 10 hour car rides across 3 states with 6 people and 2 dogs and an overhead carrier full of gifts.
For great friends who will sit in the car and entertain your grumpy kids for over an hour while you shell out $250 to replace the car carrier that you destroyed after forgetting it was there and driving into a parking garage and then helping you to find the humor in it all.
For parties with white elephant gifts of Shake Weights and baskets of random beers and snacks.
For nights by the fire watching Bowl games, drinking wine and kids playing with new favorite toys.
For early morning deer hunts to get 'the big one'.
For afternoons making a gingerbread house and getting caught eating the gummy decorations.
For mailboxes full of cute Christmas cards of your friends and family.
For finding that last minute perfect gift that you searched for for weeks and didn't think you would find.
For cake balls, candy canes, cookies for Santa and maybe even some hot chocolate on those cold mornings.
For heading back 'home' where it all began to let the dogs swim in the ponds, to ride through the pine trees on the 6 wheeler and to see old family and friends.
For hopes that you can make a trip to the beach to put your son's toes in the sand for the 1st time.
For hearing little girls say "God is watching you!... And so is Santa!" to keep their little sister's attitude in check.
For celebrating the 'best gift on earth' and hoping to get the real point across to your 2 & 3 year olds.

What are you up to this Christmas season??

Ooooh, Christmas Tree

We got this little guy at a cut-your-own lot outside of Seguin. I had this fantasy in my head of our family all smiling and singing "Oh Christmas Tree" while we all laid eyes on the same perfect tree that we couldn't live without. As you can guess it wasn't quite like that. There was no singing, more like groaning, and there were no perfect trees. This was a barren lot but once we were there, there was no leaving without one.
So we pulled the girls all the way to the back of the lot in their wagon and picked the tallest one we saw and started sawing. It isn't much taller than me but would have to do.
We got home and stood her up in the stand. Daniel wanted to cut off a branch near the bottom so the screws would go in easier. I said no because of the lack of branches on it in the first place. So I won....or so I thought..the next day I return home and find our tree smashed into the window with a few ornaments broken. It has not been screwed in tightly enough..darn it! Then the tree stayed layed over into our window just like that for about a week..we even still plugged it in and all..can we say lazy?! Finally, we get it back up and on it's pedestal (you know, because it was too short) and thought we had saved Christmas! No, no such luck..it fell over about another 3 times before I finally agreed to let the branch be sawed off. Daniel even had to get the drill to make it go in far enough and prop a board on one side to make it stay up! Oh well, just in time for us enjoy it a whole week before we leave for the holiday season. All that to say I think next year we will get our tree from Home Depot. the girls' tree in their room..they are so proud!

Christmas card outtakes

I try every year to get a cute picture of our family or even just our kids for a card to mail out to all. It usually doesn't turn out the way I envision. Not even close. This year it was even harder to get a picture with 3 little angels around. But here are some of the ideas and pictures that didn't make the card. I think they are cute but just not exactly what I was looking for!

Hayes Bryant is 3 months

My little man is getting to be a big boy! He has had a great month of growth and change! I am guessing he weighs around 16 pounds and he is steadily growing out of clothes.
*He is sitting in his Jumperoo a lot now and he likes his Bumbo seat for a good while too. He also gets a lot of use out of his Snugli and he even naps there on occasion.
*The ceiling fans are his best friend; he smiles at them the most!
*Hayes has good head control and is really noticing his hands a lot. I think we may have a thumb sucker on our hands! He will take his paci more now and can hold it in his mouth better and it does the trick for a little while at least. *He is starting to coo and squeal and laugh occasionally! I love having little conversations with him!
*He wears size 2 diapers and fits best in 3-6 month clothes.
*He pretty much exclusively nurses, but will take a bottle if he has too..it is usually a long process but is at least an option! *Hayes is now sleeping in his crib through the night! We will put him to bed anywhere from 8:30-10:30 and he usually wakes between 4:45 & 5:45 to eat. I feed him in the glider in his room and then am back in bed in less than 20 minutes. He will then sleep til around 8:30 am. So we are LOVING that! *The girls are enjoying his smiles and excitement when they talk to him and give him kisses! They still call him Hayes-man and Big Boy, E will randomly say Little Man, also.
*His eyelashes have grown so long and are blonde just like his hair. His eyes are still very blue!
Hayes is such a sweetie and I love going in there in the morning to pick him up and see his big smiles! What a blessing he is to our family! We all love you, HB, so much; you will never run out of 'sugar pies' with us!

Look Who Came to Town?!!

That's right..the big, jolly fat guy came to visit us at our MOPPETS Christmas party! We had a great time celebrating the Christmas season with a party for our little ones. I am the Special Events coordinator and put together a bunch of different stations for the kids to do things at.
We had a Christmas coloring packet, ornament making, cookie decorating, reindeer mix (for the kids to eat) and reindeer food (to sprinkle outside for the reindeer to eat on Christmas Eve)! We also made a Countdown to Jesus' Birthday paper chain which the girls love doing each night. We had a storyteller come read a few books lots of toys for the kids to ride around on in the gym. While this was all going on we were waiting for Santa to arrive to take pictures and tell him what we wanted! I was in charge of taking pictures of everyone so we got to go first! Hayes was none the wiser and Emmaline was in awe and so excited! She was really sweet telling him about her pink Barbie that she wants. Georgia on the other hand was not thrilled! It was hilarious and sad at the same time. We walked around the corner where he was sitting by the big Christmas tree and Georgia's happy-go-lucky trot did a quick reverse! Her little face went from smiling to terrified in a split second! Emmaline and I tried to coax her into the room (the foyer of the church) but she wasn't having it. She just stood way back against the wall and would shake her head and say, "No!", point at Santa, maybe a few tears and some serious stares to see if it was really him. I thought that would throw Emmaline off, but she was all for it, so that was good, but it did nothing in the way of persuading G. After an hour of taking pictures of the rest of the kids in MOPS with Santa (G had disappeared back into the gym & ate all the sprinkles in sight)I went to go get her before he left. She had watched for a long time and saw lots of kids go up to him, so I was hopeful. I was holding her hand, and she immediately tried to escape so I scooped her up and did what any good Mom would do..I forced her to go see him! Now before you start feeling sorry for her, I held her and didn't make her sit on his lap - hence the pictures! I am not sure if I did it for Georgia or for Hayes' safety, but I felt it was a nice gesture on my part either way. They aren't the best pictures but it was a lot easier than attempting a mall outing to see Santa & forking over $20 for a picture! Emmaline said not to worry, that she told Santa that Georgie wants a blue Barbie!

Speak-easy

Emmaline has been in speech for about 6 months now and is doing really well. She is probably going to graduate out of it soon. I am really proud of how fast she has picked things up and so glad we stuck with it. I know it has made her more confident in her everyday speech. Besides how she talks, what she says is hilarious and it is fun to think about what is going through her head.Driving around looking at Christmas lights, Emmaline exclaimed, "OH, look at those..Santa is going to be so happy!"
We were all 5 in Daniel's truck because my car was in the shop and she was so excited, "Look we are all a family!" or when we are holding hands to safely cross a street she will say, "Mom, it's our family all holding hands!"
And she also loves to say, "Georgie, Santa is watching you," with a disapproving shake of her finger whenever her little sister does something bad! Then she will finish off her statement with "and he's not gonna bring you any presents!"We were making wishes at a fountain outside the Witte Museum the other day and as she tossed her penny in she said, "I wish for cotton candy" - yes, the same thing she wanted back in New Orleans. So I told her she could wish for anything she wanted and she said, "Oh, ok..I wish for cotton candy and M&Ms!"
While at the museum the girls were playing on a pipe telephone connected where you can talk and hear each other across the room. I told her to tell Georgia a secret and she said, "All I want for my birthday is a icecream sandwich, ok, don't tell!"When playing "Ring around the rosie" she doesn't say the SH sound all the time and will sing, "Asses, asses we all fall down!"
Emmaline loves her school and loves to include her friends in her prayers. She begged me to have her friends over for a playdate, especially Molly. I was told to ask Molly's mom is she can come over..all the time..so finally we did. We had 4 little girls over to our house, we dressed up, decorated cookies, colored & did a turkey pine cone craft! Molly even rode with us home from school..Emmaline was helping me drive that day by saying, "Mom, watch out for that white car! Molly, my mom is driving fast!" I am sure Molly was wondering how she ended up in our car! And btw, I was not driving bad or fast..I think she was just excited and wanted to say something! She also tells everyone that we took a pumpkin pie to her class for their feast and "I tried it but London didn't. She doesn't like pumpkin pie, but I do!" She seriously tells everyone this whole line. The question we get the most is Who's London?
She is also pretty much potty training G for me. She sits on her toilet and will tell Georgie to sit down on her potty. She will help her do it all, praise her for it ("Yea, you went potty Georgie, that is so good!" ) and will even pour out the potty and clean it up! "Don't forget to wash your hands!"
She also loves to bargain when she is eating.. "Ok, I will take 2 more bites and then I can have ...."After taking her to see Tangled, just she & I, she sweetly was holding my hand and said, "Thanks Mom for going to the movies with me! I am going to share my popcorn with Georgie but not my Icee!"
Finally, it is hilarious and annoying at the same time to hear her talk to Hayes who she refers to as "Hayes-man" or "Mr. Hayes" or lately even combines them all. She gets this deep voice going and will say, "Oh, Mr. Hayes-man, don't c-w-y (cry), Mommy is going to feed you. It's al-w-ight! You are so cute! You are getting so big!" All the while rubbing her little (usually dirty) hands all over his face.
We love you Emmaline so much and love hearing all these funny and sweet things you say! I find it mildly humorous that your teachers say you are so quiet in class and don't really talk a whole lot when I ask them about you! I guess you just save it all up for when you are home!