December 25 - A Very Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! As this wonderful day comes to an end, let's recap some of the fun things we've done recently to prepare for the festivities. Even with our crazy schedules, we squeezed some fun stuff. Julia's kindergarten winter party was last week and as room parent, this was "my" party to do whatever I wanted with the kids. We decided to keep it simple in terms of food-fruit and veggie platters, cheese pizza, cookies and mini cupcakes. After chowing down, the kids all made holiday cards for a local assisted living facility here in town. I also made a poster (painted JOY on it with red paint) and the kids all signed their names. They had a blast and some of their artwork was pretty impressive. Like last month, our monthly girl scout meeting happened to fall on the same day as the kindergarten party. Since I already had all of the crafts from the kinder party, we decided to make crafts for the retirement home as well.

The girls cut ribbon and strung bells (silver, red and green) to make homemade ornaments and also made homemade cards. They decorated a poster that said "BE MERRY." Overall, it was a fun (albeit very busy) day! Yesterday, the kids and I (including Emma and my girlfriend Becky and her sons visiting from Atlanta) went to the facility and the kids handed out the gifts and cards. They were a hit! Julia and Emma introduced themselves to everyone, said happy holidays/merry Christmas and talked to everyone about what they wanted for Christmas. Luke handed out a few ornaments but the boys mostly ran around the wide open spaces. We brought joy to many faces and this is a tradition the Yamo family is going to continue with for years to come. 

Last Friday, I decided to brave Houston evening traffic and take the kids to the zoo. It took us 1 hour 45 min to get there (normally a 20-25min drive) but we arrived around 6pm and barely anyone was there. We parked right up front, bought our tickets and walked right in. The zoo decorates for the holidays by wrapping the trees with lights. They also have a large train display (Luke could have stayed there forever), gingerbread houses, local high school choir carolers (the kids were dancing to the music, too cute), it was AMAZING. We will definitely go again next year, although we'll be sure to leave the house earlier and I'll remember to bring a stroller (I forgot one and my arms were tired from carrying around Luke..the little man refuses to walk). 

Sunday we took the kids to the mall to see Santa. The line was long but the kids did great.  I still need to download the digital photo but they were excited to see the big man and ask him for a pogo stick (Julia) and a new bike (Luke). 

Christmas Eve was fun. Becky and her kids were here for the morning as well as Emma. In addition to the retirement home, we played outside a lot and baked cookies. The kids and I (along with Hannah) went to the park in the afternoon and then we had a wonderful Christmas dinner (ham, homemade mac and cheese, green bean casserole). Mmmm. Julia wrote Santa a letter, we left cookies, milk and carrots (about 15 carrots, Julia was sure the reindeer would be very hungry), read the 'Night Before Christmas' and the kids went to bed. Luckily Santa wrapped most of the his presents the night before so there wasn't too much for him to do last night. :) 

As for this morning, Luke sneaked to the landing on the stairs and started shouting "Santa came and he brought me a bike!" When we went into the hallway to tell him to come back upstairs so we could walk down together, he slid onto his stomach and pushed himself down the bottom steps as fast as possible. Hilarious! The kids had fun opening their gifts and we spent pretty much all day playing with their new toys. Happy holidays everyone!! Also-I mailed our cards out Monday so you should be getting them later this week or early next week. Sorry!

Waiting for Santa at the mall: The Sad and Happy Faces of Luke

Hanging ornaments at the assisted living facility

Introducing herself and spreading holiday cheer

I'll post 'present opening' photos later this week. Most of the pics are on JD's phone. 

December 19 - Frozen

Sorry for the delay in posts peeps. The last week and half have been insane work wise. I've been working until 1-2am every morning (unusual for me) trying to prepare for vacation next week. JD is in Miami for now for the DRC but even before he left, we rarely saw him (he pretty much lived at the lab). 

Anyway..back to our amazing Thanksgiving festivities! We squeezed in time for the park and the girls (and Luke) went to see the new Disney movie Frozen. The girls wore their new Elsa/Anna dresses (thanks Uncle Brian!) and everyone had a blast. While everyone was at the movies, Andrew "assisted" our neighbor and his kids put the tree stand on their tree. He was the cutest little helper ever! After the movies, we took the kids to the Houston Children's Museum. We could have spent a few days in that place but we managed to pack most of it in in a few hours. 

Park Fun

One of the few pictures of all 4 kids (playing with magnets)

Grocery store

Chef V

Merry Christmas!

Before the headed to the airport, Andrew and Victoria walked Julia to school and saw her classroom. 

December 11 - Kemah Boardwalk

Kemah Boardwalk: home of rides, food, restaurants, live music and good fun. Let's also not forget the train, something Andrew was very excited to ride! Although it was a little cool and windy near the water, the Yamo/Cook crew had a fabulous afternoon. Being a holiday weekend, there were a good amount of people there, however the lines for the rides weren't long at all (in fact, we could walk onto most of them without waiting). We sampled almost all of the rides (Greg and Bryan even rode the wooden roller coaster you can see in the photo) and made good use of our 'all you can ride wristbands.' While Andrew loved the train, the girls loved a ride they deemed 'the monkey ride.' It essentially went up and down and they LOVED it. I think they went on it 5 or 6 times. And see the ride on the first photo? The super high ride with the swings? The girls went on this with Greg and Bryan and absolutely had a blast. 

The Monkey Ride 

The train!

View from the top of the Ferris wheel

Staying warm on the Ferris wheel!

Perfect snack for a cool afternoon. Ice cream?!

Navigating the plane

Hanging on Uncle Bryan

Next post-the Children's Museum. Happy Wednesday everyone!

December 9 - Thanksgiving Roundup

Our Thanksgiving extravaganza was a bustle of activity. Julia and Victoria spent almost the entire time playing together. Even though it was cool out (by Texas standards anyway) they spent a lot of time outside riding the bike and scooter. Victoria actually rode a bike for the very first time while she was here!! Go Victoria go! We are so proud of you! The boys also had fun outside riding the balance bike and pulling each other around in the wagon. All of the kids had fun in the backyard as well, and you'd be amazed at how creative they were with a broken fence slat. The girls make a make-shift see-saw and a slide. They also decided to play in the compost pile at one point...which results in Andrew's clothes being covered in red ants. Covered. As in hundreds of ants. Luckily he was only bit once or twice. The kids also had a lot of fun playing with Uncle Bryan. And of course, Andrew was all about the dogs!

Uncle Brian introduced a new word game to Jay, Jill and myself which we loved. I can't remember the name but here is is how you play: each person thinks of a word with 5 unique letters. The person to your left is trying to guess your word, and you are trying to guess the person to your right. Each round everyone guesses a 5 letter word with unique letters-the person you are trying to guess tells you how many letters are correct. Note, they don't tell you which letters, just the quantity. You keep going until you figure out the word. It's challenging and takes awhile to get a good strategy in place, but wow, FUN! And all you need is a sheet of paper to play. 

The guys watched a lot of football over the week and Grandpa watched some movies including Les Miserables. It was the first time I watched it and wow-loved it (if musicals aren't your thing, this movie isn't for you. It is very over the top and almost 100% singing). My favorite performances were Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean) and Samantha Barks (Eponine). She was especially amazing. 

Snugging with Grandpa

Sneaky Sneaky

Great Grandpa rocks!

It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a witch. Wait, what?!

We love our Grandpa!

Attack of the kissing Julia!

100% Cheerleader

More fun with Uncle Bryan

Blondies

Morning cartoons

Luke and Andrew

Next up this week: posts on Kemah Boardwalk and the Children's Museum. Happy Monday everyone!

December 5 - A Thanksgiving To Remember

The last time we hosted Thanksgiving was 3 years ago. Luke was a newborn and I barely remember anything about the holiday except for everyone playing Time's Up (super fun game ..I highly recommend it). This time around, I was (relatively) well rested and I hope to remember these good times forever. Super fun time!! We had a lot of company in town and it was a full house. Bryan and Karma (also called 'Karmo' by Luke) drove in from California, Grandpa, Craig, Brian, Silver and Lenya drove in from Miami, while Jay, Greg, Jill, Victoria and Andrew flew in from the east coast. My friend Tammy joined us for Thanksgiving dinner so we had a total of 14 plus 4 large dogs. There was a lot of laughter and in case you're curious, the dogs got along great. 

Craig and JD did the lions share of the cooking (Julia helped a little and Tammy brought some delicious sides) and it was delish! We had a roasted turkey, ham, stuffing, 2 different types of mashed potatoes (actually Brian and Jay made these-it was butter v. cream cheese, they were both tasty), sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry chutney, cornbread, broccoli salad, deviled eggs, and gravy. Of course, everything was made from scratch. We did order in desserts from a local bakery and mmm-pumpkin pie, apple pie, Italian cream cake and 2 dozen cookies. There was no shortage of food! 

I have a lot of photos to post from the holidays and I'll be spreading them out over a few blog posts. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and ate lots of delicious food! Special thanks to everyone in my family who came out to visit-I know Houston is a long trip and we are so thankful you all made it!

Cooking!

3 of the dogs..I was unable to get a shot with all 4 of them

Poor Luke - he had a stomach virus on Thanksgiving day, but he rallied by dinner time

The table!

Desserts..mmm

How do my ears look?

The girls playing before dinner

Too much turkey

Leave me in peace!