Life is but a Dream

Going West Again

I'm planning on going out west again this year...just not quite as far as Lajitas. Fancy a little music, skeet shooting, and poker in Kerrville?

Join me at Fest Out West!!!! In fact, registration begins tomorrow (1/31) at 10am!

I Wanna Hold Your Hand...

We were so lucky to spend an entire weekend with sweet Molly! Put aside the one timeout we had to do for bopping poor Molly on the head, I would say we did pretty well.

Forrest and I were in Houston last weekend for Mary's wedding (my Chi-O friend from A&M). That post still to come! Kelly and Collin offered to babysit Davis for us and also host us the entire weekend. It makes things so much easier when we visit a house that is baby proofed and already has toys, books, bath essentials, a high chair, and a port-a-crib! It's also super easy when we just plan the weekend based on the kid's schedules. We enjoyed breakfast tacos, walks, play-dates, a birthday party, the park, and naps! While super relaxing...now that I re-cap the weekend, we actually did a TON!

We put the two car-seats in one car. One of us had to sit in the back to monitor Davis' behavior. See his little hand on her car-seat?

Morning playtime! Whatever toy Molly had, Davis wanted in his hands. Good thing she didn't mind sharing. Sweet Molly!

Love this pic! I'm sure Davis is holding her hand to be sweet...and not to keep her away from his pretzels. I'm sure of it.

Jingle Bells and Santa Hats

Before the holiday break, Davis' school put on a little Christmas program. And oh how adorable it was!!! All the parents packed the room with iPhones, still shot-cameras, and video recording equipment in hand. In came the kids, plopped down one by one, in a row, adorned with Santa hats! Let the show commence...first was Little Drummer Boy as the kiddos drummed on their legs, followed by Jingle Bells, Feliz Navidad, and We Wish you a Merry Christmas! It took all of about 15 minutes and was the most precious thing I've ever seen!

In the handful of times I've attended something at Davis' school, he has been ECSTATIC! He introduces me to all his friends and will constantly smile and point at me, telling others I'm his mom. This was no different, and he kept shouting while pointing, "Mama, Dada, Duke!" Duke wasn't there but he got a shout-out, lucky dog!

Oh how Davis loved his Santa hat. He was convinced everyone should have one on. Noah (his friend without the hat on) kept taking it off, and Davis kept giving it back to him, insisting he wear it.

Noah prevailed. No hat.

Time for Jingle Bells! I must say, I was impressed so many kids were trusted with such loud instruments. But they were so cute!

Maggie, to the left of Davis wasn't too into the whole performance. Davis decided to help. He kept picking up her jingle bells for her and showing her how to join the rest of them.

Davis was such a ham, loving the attention. Hmm, wonder where he gets that from!

Davis Meets Shamu

Other than the Disney parks, it doesn't get much better than SeaWorld! My mom decided she wanted to take Davis to SeaWorld during the holidays and it was her treat! How could Forrest and I miss out, so we all went! Now we have a year pass! I'm already ready to go back.

We couldn't have picked a better day. Most of December had been rainy and cold. Out of the blue, one random day a couple days before Christmas, it was sunny and reached 70 degrees.

Christmas tree and mariachi band welcomes you to SeaWorld!

Candy Cane Lane -- too bad we couldn't eat them!

During the Sesame Street show, Abby Cadabby made it snow!

Watching sea lions eat lunch!

Watching his FAVORITE ride, The Atlantis, make a huge splash!

Clyde and Seamore save Christmas!

Shamu was amazing...

Until we got all wet...

Lucky for us, our sweater was dry and we were happy again!

I would like to come back to SeaWorld please, one more time!

At the end of the day...

Thanks Mom!!!

Gingerbread Choo Choo

Tweet Tweet in 2012

It started back in 2009, my first tweet. Here we are, 2012, and I have a whopping 8 tweets! Seems like the perfect time to make a new year's resolution. I'm going to give it another try. If all goes well, I might get crazy and add Pintrest too!

I really enjoy all these new means of communication...text, blog, facetime, facebook, pintrest, linkedIn, instagram, and the list goes on. BUT (you saw that coming) people...really...do we all have enough time to be so connected? I don't. I don't even have enough time for this blog.

I have a love-hate relationship with technology. Forrest got the new iPhone for Christmas (he had a Blackberry before), which I love because we can now easily send photos and videos back and forth. BUT I'm going to have to get used to Siri, because Forrest was talking to her the other night and from the other room I shouted, "what?" I thought he was asking me to remind him something for work the next day. I guess I should be glad my role as secretary has been replaced.

If you either a) want to read my tweets or b) see how long my new year's resolution lasts then you can find me here @CFrancese!

3 Christmases and a New Years Eve

When will we ever stop? I feel like I've written this before. After every Thanksgiving and every Christmas I recap our neverendingholidaycrazyness and say "next year we will just go one place." Here we are again, three Christmases in three different cities. And to top it off, a New Years Eve in a fourth city! Here's how it went down...

Christmas weekend #1 was with the Segers. This is Forrest's mom's side of the family. She has a BIG family. A whopping 45 of us were at the family farm in Beeville for a jam-packed fun-filled weekend. The count would have been higher if everyone had been there, but we were missing a good handful. We sat around the bonfire, ate lots of Christmas fudge, opened gifts, planted palm trees, let Davis drive Pop's truck, played scrabble, and sang Christmas carols of course! I think my favorite part of the weekend was attending Skidmore's Methodist Church, we filled up one ENTIRE side of the church. We also met all 5 of the other parishioners!

Christmas weekend #2 was actual Christmas Eve and Day, spent in San Antonio. Forrest was on call and fortunately did not have to work. My parents and sister joined us. We hosted Christmas lunch at our house with Forrest's parents, my Aunt Robin, Uncle John, and their two girls Camille and Catherine. Our tiny little home went from buried in Christmas wrapping paper that morning to 12 place settings at the table.

Santa brought Davis a new bike!

Yay for Choo Choos!

Christmas Lunch

Mom, Ann Marie, Robin

Christmas weekend #3 was celebrated at the Thompson farm, Nockenut. This is Forrest's dad's side of the family. We were so lucky the weather was nice and warm because it made being outside really enjoyable. Richard made a delicious grilled shrimp dish, we opened gifts around the tree, and finished the night by a warm fire. Davis loves being outside, so Nockenut is a great playground. He especially loves to ride the mule and constantly asks everyone to take him for a drive.

We rang in 2012 with our friends at their family ranch near Columbus. It's a beautiful home and we truly felt like we were on an actual vacation for the 24 hours we were there! With a treehouse, a pool, a barn, golf carts galore, John Deere tractors, swings, and a closet FULL of toys - Davis was in heaven. We had all set our goal to make it to the 11pm New York new year and were surprised when we actually made it to Texas midnight! Happy New Year!

Check out these adorable kiddos in these precious rocking chairs!

They are listening to The Night Before Christmas, read by Mister Bear!