Starting Traditions

I am really wanting to start some traditions with our family this year. We have one tradition where we play a game on Christmas eve, but other than that, we don't have any other traditions. My mom bought us a gingerbread house kit to make the day after Thanksgiving, but we didn't want to carry home the gingerbread house. We are searching for new traditions to start with Taylor. I did buy us matching pjs to wear Christmas morning, and let me tell you, Nathan is not very excited about it! He did agree to wear them though - he is such a good husband!

If yall have any Christmas traditions or ideas you wouldn't mind sharing with us, please post a comment or email them to me. Thanks and Merry Christmas!

I just read a friends blog and she had the same post. One idea she had posted was to do a Happy Birthday Jesus Party. On Christmas day you make a birthday cake and have a mini party to celebrate Jesus birthday. What a wonderful idea!

Thanksgiving Break

The Family at Thanksgiving

Dad, mom, Tom, Diann, Nancy and Rich (dads cousins)

We are back in Dallas and glad to be home. It is so nice to go stay with family, but there is nothing like being in your own home and getting to relax. Anyways, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving break in Kingwood.

I did get up at 4am friday morning to go shopping. My mom is a total trooper and got up early to shop with me. Let's just say I didn't have to twist her arm very hard to get her to go! We hit a few stores and stood in some hilatious lines to check out, but it was fun. We did all the shopping we wanted to and headed home by 9:30 am. My dad took the family to Galveston to go see the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, so mom, Taylor, Nathan and me stayed in Kingwood. Mom watched Taylor for us and Nathan and I went to go see a movie. I think we have only gone to see 2 movies together since Taylor was born. We went to Four Christmas' with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn. It was pretty funny and not very long. I think it was less than 2 hours long. Anyways, when Dad got home with everyone, we went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Kingwood. It was pretty good and Taylor's kids meal was super fun. There is a picture below.

How fun is her meal? I think they normally light the pink stuff on fire, but they didn't with Taylor. I'm so glad they didn't!

Don't you just love her silk pj's from China. Mom and dad got them for her last April when they went to China for 3 weeks.

Saturday all of the family left so we hung out with mom and dad. Taylor helped us make coffee and homemade biscuits for breakfast. Nathan and I did have lunch with some friends, Chris, Missy and Elizabeth Hill. It was so good getting to see them again. Elizabeth is just a doll! After lunch we headed home and Dad and Nathan went to go play racquetball. Dad loves racquetball and Nathan only gets to play when we are in Kingwood with my dad.

Taylor making coffee with Grandma and Grandpa Koester.

Taylor helping me make biscuits.

Chris with Elizabeth Hill. She is precious!

We got up at 7:30 this morning and drove home to miss the traffic. It worked! We just cruzed home with no problems and of course, Taylor fell asleep as we were pulling into Dallas. It never fails, we want her to sleep the whole way there and she only falls asleep when we are getting there. Oh well, it could be worse, right?

That concludes our Thanksgiving break and we wish we could of seen all of our friends in Houston, but there never seems to be enough time when we are visiting family. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving....gobble, gobble

Oh how I love a short work week! It went by so fast and then I get an extended weekend - it's wonderful!

We are down in Houston for Thanksgiving with my family. We drove in Wednesday evening to my parents house and my dad's cousins from California and Louisiana are here for the holidays. What fun!

Nathan, Dad, Taylor and I got up this morning and headed downtown for the Thanksgiving Day parade. The parade isn't as big as the one in New York, but it was still nice. Taylor loved it! She liked all the big balloons (Sponge Bob Square Pants, a puppy, Barney and several others) and the bands playing music. She would go from sitting on my dads or Nathans shoulders to see the parade to wanting down when the bands would come by to dance - it was precious!

We got home around 11:30 and helped with the Thanksgiving dinner. Well, the turkey did not debut today in the Koester house. For some reason, mom's turkey did not cook all the way through, so we had ham with dinner. I do not eat ham, so I had a plate full of mashed potatoes and sweet potato pie - works for me! I don't like the stuffing, cranberries and green bean casserole, so I ate potatoes for lunch/dinner. Sounds like a dieters worst nightmare - good thing I'm not on a diet! Oh well, we are going to eat the turkey tomorrow, so at least I get turkey.

I am currently preparing my shopping schedule for Black Friday. I plan to get up at 4am and hit the stores and I'm so excited! I think I might be on my own this year, no one wants to go with me that early! I like the excitement of the crazy shoppers and getting all the super good deals! I'll let you know tomorrow how it went!

Happy Thanksgiving - gobble, gobble!!!!

Weekend on the ranch in Brownwood

This past weekend we went to Brownwood to see Nathan's parents and grandparents. Nathan's parents live on a ranch with cows and horses, so it is a nice break from the city life for us.

Nathan's grandfather, PawPaw, fell last week and broke his hip. He had surgery the next day and is still at the hospital recovering. We went up to see him saturday at the hospital. He seems to be doing very well, but will have to do a lot of physical therapy. Please keep him in your prayers for a healthy and speedy recovery.

Nathan's dad turned 55 on friday and here is his fabulous birthday cake. Isn't it super cute!!!

Taylor's horse, Fred, stays at Nana and Poppys house. Nathan named him Fred for some odd reason, I don'tknow.

Nana had all of her Christmas stuff already put up and Taylor loved the Christmas tree. She really liked pulling the icicles and the candy canes off the tree.

Walking down to the barn.

Taylor got to pet the horse in the barn. She wasn't too sure about him and he kept showing us his teeth! She did neigh at him several times though. I'm not sure he understood her.

Nathan and Taylor talked to the horse out in the pasture. He was very sweet, but Taylor didn't want to pet him.

We had a really nice, relaxing weekend in Brownwood. We are leaving Wednesday after work to go to Kingwood to spend Thanksgiving with my parents and some extended family. Hope you all have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving.

Way too cute this morning!

Taylor was not wanting to wake up this morning.





Luckily she is happy in the mornings. Check out the hair - what a mess!




I think her hair is so cute in piggies and way cuter than that bed head mess!

See what I mean, she is always in such a great mood in the mornings!

Moms Night Out

Tonight my friend April and I went to a Moms Night Out shopping event at my favorite resale shop, Cutie Patootie. I don't get to go to Cutie Patootie much anymore since we moved to Coppell. For those of you who don't know Cutie Patootie, it is the most fabulous children's resale shop in Frisco. Tonight they had refreshments, door prizes and double coupons. It was great!

Church football game on Sunday

Sunday afternoon our church had a football game of the old guys vs. the young guys. I was a little shocked when I found out that Nathan was going to be on the "old guys" team. I thought we were still considered "young", but I guess not. The young guys were middle school and high school kids and everyone else was an "old guy". Anyways, it was fun to watch Nathan and the church members play a little flag football. The old guys womped the young guys! Taylor wore her Baylor cheerleading outfit and cheered on the old guys. Baylor beat Texas A&M saturday (huge for BU), so it was even sweeter for Taylor to wear her BU outfit!

Dinner social

Tonight we had another sunday school social. We ended up going to Johnny Carinos for dinner and it was wonderful. Out of our whole sunday school class, only one other couple from class came, one of my friends and her husband who have been visiting our church came and then our sunday school teacher and his daughter came. It actually worked out great having a small group. We had a nice relaxing dinner with friends and no children. Our church is wonderful - on social night once a month, the church provides free childcare from 7-10pm. The children play and the younger ones (Taylor's age) usually go to sleep. We use to dress Taylor up to go and then followed suit of the other parents and started to dress her in her pajamas. It only makes sense to dress her in her PJs.






I have to go where????






Awwww man, I just want to go to bed!






Fine, but I'm going to play the trash can drum on the way out.

Bad day in our working worlds

Today was a bad day in my office for a co-worker of mine and Nathan's work layed off several people in his division. Luckily, Nathan and I still have our jobs. It is scary to think how little control we have over our jobs. We work hard and try our best, but there is no guarantee that our jobs will be there tomorrow.

My co-worker who was let go today had a double rough day. His grandfather passed away this morning and he spent the morning at the hospital. When he came into the office this afternoon, he met his boss and the GM of his division and was laid off. Now that is a bad day! He was a great assest to our office and it was sad to see him leave.

Nathan's company has been having some problems and had to lay off 16% of his division today. Nathan is okay, but some of his friends lost their jobs today. It was really hard for Nathan to see them go.

It isn't that easy right now to find another job in certain markets, so please pray for our co-workers and friends. Most of them have families to support, so hopefully they will be able to find a new job fast.

Invitation playdate

Yesterday Dacia and Cody came over for the day to work on a baby shower we are throwing for our friend Lacey. Taylor was at school most of the day, so we got a lot done before she got home since Cody just sat in the bouncer most of the day. Dacia and I filled out all the invitations, set the menu, and figured out all the other details. It was nice getting it all ready early since it is in just a few weeks. Cody and Taylor just hung out and let us get everything done. It was wonderful. I can't wait till Cody gets big enough to play with Taylor. I just know they are going to be the best of friends.

Introducing Lake Bear

Taylor has been talking non-stop lately and it is awesome. She can say almost any word you say, with some exceptions of course. She still babbles a lot to herself and Lake Bear, but she tries her best to talk to Nathan and me. If I haven't introduced Lake Bear before, I apologize. My cousin Angie bought Taylor Lake Bear at Crater Lake in Oregon when we were there this summer. Taylor had never attached herself to anything before, but she holds on to Lake Bear like he is gold. It is so adorable. The nice part is, she doesn't have to have him to make it through the day, but she gets a huge smile on her face when she sees Lake Bear. We named him Lake Bear because she already had a Bear Bear and since he is from Crater Lake, we decided Lake Bear suited him. Maybe Lake Bear is a girl, since he is wearing a pink sleeveless fleece. I don't know, I guess it doesn't really matter.

Afternoon at Kid Country playground

It was such a beautiful day and we were ready to get out of the house, so we headed to Kid Country which is an awesome playground at the Coppell Aquatic Center. It is still a little big for Taylor, but in a few months, it should be perfect for her. We did find the slides and the swings and that was all we needed.

Yeah!!! All better!!!!

As of this morning, the rash and diarrhea are gone and Taylor is in a great mood. Oh, Thank the Lord no more Roseola! I finally got my baby back. Nathan's mom is here in town to help us with Taylor since we had no idea when this virus was going to leave. I guess Taylor just needed a little Nana loving.

I'm excited because we are going to get out of the house today and do a little Christmas shopping with Nana. I think Taylor needs to get out of the house now that she feels better. This afternoon was nice going shopping and getting out of the house. Taylor took her first carousel ride at the Grapevine Mills Mall today. Actually, she took two rides, one with Nana and one with me. We probably could of done it all day - she loved it. I wish I would of had my camera with me, but it died when I was in the field yesterday (whole other story). I took some pics on my cell phone, but they aren't pretty good. Taylor had a huge smile on her face the whole time - it was a nice change of pace as of lately.

Halloween 2008

This is all we could get out of her for her Halloween picture.

Taylor did break her fever yesterday on Halloween, but within an hour had a rash all over her body. Of course we freaked and called the doctor. He said is sounds like she has Roseola which is a virus that starts with fever for several days and then when is breaks, a rosey rash covers the body and diareha sets in. The rash is only suppose to last 1-2 days. Apparently she was only contagious while she had a fever, but I still don't want her around kids just in case.

So, for Halloween we stayed in and handed out candy. We tried numerous times to get her to put on her turtle costume, but she wasn't having it. She wouldn't wear anything, so she chilled in her diaper for the night.

You can see the rash on her torso and forehead. Poor baby!