Liam's Party!

Liam celebrated his 3rd birthday at Kids In Action. He and all his friends had a great time!

It's Party Time!

Fun was had by all with all the great activities at Kids In Action!

LET IT SNOW!

We cannot believe it...it is snowing! REALLY SNOWING! This never happens here, so it's a real story for Houston! I even got Liam out of bed to go outside and see and touch it. He's been remembering last year at Christmas getting to build a snowman at Papa and ZuZu's house and was really really excited to see snow here! We're anxious to see what happens in the morning!

This is snow accumulating on one of the cars outside...(duh)

This is Liam's playhouse that is on our covered patio..

Red and Green Day

It's red and green day at Liam's school today. All the kids were to wear red and/or green in celebration for the season. Liam looked too cute and was super excited about wearing Santa in his train to school! (please just look at Liam...he's standing in front of our small, child-proof Christmas tree that is less than attractive!)

Santa's Farm

We went with Liam's school bud, Tommy, and his parents to Santa's Farm last Friday. Santa's Farm is this neat event put on by Kingwood FFA at their ag barns where the community is invited to come see the animals in their decorated barns, see a live nativity scene, visit Santa and go on a hayride pulled by a tractor! The boys had such a good time. Once again, Dan and I think we have a future FFA'er on our hands...Liam loves the animals!

Traynor family on the hayride!

Can I pet her?

Tommy and Liam. True buds.

Are you a....?

The boys went to the barber shop today for some much needed attention. While they were waiting their turn, Liam, who is dressed in his Sooner gear, turned to a boy (Dan says he was about nine years old) and has the following exchange:

L: Are you a Sooner?

Boy: No.

L: You're not?

Boy: No.

L: Well if you're not a Sooner, then what are you?


Exactly. Boomer Sooner.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Liam!

LIAM IS 3!!!

We had a family celebration in Oklahoma on the real day and are anxiously awaiting our friend party. Papa and ZuZu game Liam a scooter...he is so cool!

ZuZu got me a dragon cake! It was super neat!

I blew out ALL the candles with one big huff!








Here's a video clip just for you, Papa!
Scroll down and pause the music if you want to hear Liam in this video clip!

Travels to Tech game & Turkey day

We loaded up the car and headed to Oklahoma to spend time with Papa and ZuZu, Great-Grandmother, and Auntie Dean and Uncle Larry. While we were there, Anna Lizbef and Uncle Brad came to Enid for the day and ended up spending the night! We had SO MUCH FUN in Oklahoma despite the fact that the temperature gage in the car read 28 degrees as we headed into town!!!

Happy Anniversary!

I have to first start this post by telling my husband of 8 awesome years happy anniversary! They've been great-every year gets better and better! Now on to the real reason for the post--

I was tucking Liam in tonight and as usual, he had to arrange his animals, or more specifically, his elephants. (are you noticing a trend?!?) This is the conversation that ensued--

L: There, all my animals are ready for bed. There's Estes, Avery, little sister, big brother and Horton (please note that our red republican elephant, Sarah, and Sleepy are not pictured. They are hiding under the covers. Don't ask me why...) They're one big, happy family.

M: That's so nice Liam. They're a happy family just like we are a happy family.

L: No mommy. We're not a happy family yet.

M: We're not?? How come?

L: 'Cause we don't have any babies yet.

M: :-)

Gotta love the honesty of kids!

Madagascar 2

We took Liam to his first movie, Madagasgar 2! We had so much fun-Liam loves popcorn like his Mommy and Grandmother and loved having the BIG bucket all to himself!

Election Day!

Well, it wasn't our election this time, but look forward to one in the future...I've got a great candidate in mind!

Jack-O-Lantern

Liam couldn't wait to turn Mr. Pumpkin into Mr. Jack-o-lantern with Daddy. They had a great time!

Happy Halloween!

Anyone who knows Liam knows The Jungle Book is his ALL TIME favorite movie and the elephants are the coolest. That being said, Liam just had to be Col. Hardy for Halloween.

Liam's class at school on Halloween

What a cutie pie!

Cowboy morning, noon AND night?!?

So this is a little update from the post about the boots. We had what you might call "battle of the boots" last night when I told him he could NOT wear the boots to bed. He just could not understand why he might not sleep well in his beloved boots! So, first thing this morning, even before the magic serum (aka milk, anyone who has been around Liam first thing in the morning knows exactly how important it is!) Liam had already donned his cowboy boots. I think I might just have a FFA kiddo on my hands...

He Haw!

Ever since going to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo last year, Liam has wanted a pair of cowboy boots. I mean, really, what kind of Texas boy would he be without them?! So we've been on a multi-state hunt to find just the right pair...and we did! Liam hasn't taken them off since we got them!

Liam was changing his clothes and only got this far before deciding to 'boot up'!

Love my lil' wrangler!

Dan commented that this looks like an aweful lot like some of his pledge brothers did in the wee hours of the morning!

3:57 p.m.

Was the best moment in my life...at least the last nearly 11 days of my life. It was at this moment that power was restored to our place of residence ( I cannot bring myself to call this home..that is way too permanent). Liam and I were so excited to stumble upon this discovery and get to go pack up our things at the latest friend who was housing these evacuees. When we got back to Houston on Sunday we still did not have power so our long time friends, the Krenzke's, opened their home for us. What gypsies we are. We are so glad to be here and back to our own belongings! What an adventure Ike brought...

Liam and Owen Krenzke...two buds in a boat!

On the road again..

What a whirl-wind (no pun intended) the last few days have been. We are so fortunate to have such great friends who welcomed us into their home for the first few days following the storm, THANK YOU GRAYS!!! We were glad to find out Tuesday at noon that Dan would be off work until next Monday so we jumped in the car and headed north for Oklahoma. We got to my mom's house around Midnight and boy were we glad to be "home".
We've witnessed some pretty heartrending events--people lined up for MILES, wrapped around blocks for gas, grocery store shelves empty and grown men struggling to gain possession of the last bag of ice, only to render the bag ripped and ice covering the floor. We saw convoy after convoy of electrical company trucks headed in on I-10 as we were leaving Katy, it almost made me want to cry. So much of the greater Houston area is without power, very scary. Please keep all Houstonians in your prayers. It is going to be a long road to recovery.
Here are some post-hurricane pictures, some of which you can compare against those taken before the storm.

This shows the comparison of the water level in the San Jacinto River close to our apartment

Water level under the West Lake Houston bridge over the San Jacinto River

See the metal flashing caught on the chimney? Dan and I listed to it rattle around all night during the hurricane. We just knew it was going to fly through our window. Once day broke we found it hooked onto the metal part of the chimney on the apartment office building. This picture is taken from our apartment just across the pool, say 40 yards. It did eventually break the top of the chimney off and flew off.

See the black car? That's Dan's car, almost struck by the falling branch.

Just look at those two handsome guys. They're inspecting the tree that fell in the right direction...falling the other way would have flattened my car!

This tree fell into the fence and into the pool...

This tree was in our old neighborhood...it was the most beautiful bradford pear tree, split by the wind.

These trees are down near the river...

This tree fell from inside the apartment property into the fence and into a new construction town home.

This is just outside the apartment complex...

I was right...

we do NOT like Ike. We were OK until12:08 am on Fri night/Sat morning when the power came CRASHING down. at 3 something the winds were howling like I've never heard before. On Saturday, we went on a tour de Kingwood and saw what Ike left behind. LOTS AND LOTS of destruction. Trees down everywhere. We did drive by the old house and everything there was OK.
Needless to say, we still don't have power and who knows when that will come back on. We packed up yesterday (Sunday) and started for Oklahoma when our friends the Grays sent a text that they had a/c, cable and showers waiting for us so we turned around and headed for Katy. It took a while to get there but we made it. Now we're just waiting for power...I'll upload pics when I can.

Hurricane's a comin'!

WE DON'T LIKE IKE...at least I don't think we're going to. I hate to say it, though, but we've had a great morning. It's been wondeful to have Daddy home with us and have gotten to take it easy. Now I don't mean that we have not or will not continue to prepare, but the normal alarm going off at 5 am and out the door by 6:40 didn't happen and was a very welcome change. In fact, Liam thinks that this hurricane party is pretty cool...he got to sleep with Mom and Dad last night and will tonight too, if there's any sleep to be had!

We've heard from several people from north of the Red River expressing some concern. Although we do appreciate the concern and your love for us, we are following the trend and recommendations of the City of Houston leaders to "hunker down". IF you feel like checking up on the situation here, you can check the websites http://www.khou.com/ or http://www.houstonhidefromthewind.org/

We decided to go on a little walk this morning to see the calm before the storm and check out the San Jacinto river. Here are some pics of what we saw--

Liam and his trusty camera ready for the expedition

This is the office building for our apartment complex. Personally, I think they're overdoing it.

This shows the current level of the San Jancinto River

Again, river level. This is by the new strip of restaurants along the river near our apartment.

Bridge over San Jacinto River from Kingwood to Humble/Atascosita