Thursday, December 28, 2006

Planet Pizza

Everett had his third trip to Planet Pizza yesterday. He LOVES Planet Pizza. He squeals the minute we walk in the door and then squirms out of my arms, anxious to get busy playing. He was more adventurous this week as he actually climbed to the top of the soft play area that has tunnels to climb through and slides to get back down. Children his age have to be accompanied by an adult at all times, so I also got a workout!

He loves to play in the ball pit and doesn't hesitate now at all to jump right in. Posted by Picasa

Monday, December 25, 2006

Holmer Christmas

After having our small family Christmas at our house, we headed to Jenny & Tom's for more gift opening .... and FOOD. Everett enjoyed playing with his and Brayden's new toys and chasing Jesse around the house. We had a wonderful meal and David, Everett and I were all ready for naps by the time we were done. All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas this year!
I've posted most of the pictures I took on www.rankin.shutterfly.com
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More car pictures

Enjoying his new wheels ...


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Everett's new car!

Look what Santa brought Everett! Posted by Picasa

One last picture, before we go...

I took a picture of Everett with Grandma and Grandad Rankin before we left. He sure had a great visit! Grandad took him on long walks, sang him songs ... Grandma made lots of yummy treats for him to eat ... there was no shortage of love and attention showered on him during our visit. As you can see, he's quite happy! Posted by Picasa

Yummy - Grandma's home made cookies!

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Everett opens first gift

We spent Christmas Eve with the Rankins. On Christmas Eve morning, Aunt Debbie let Everett get a head start on his presents. He wasn't so sure about the unwrapping at first, but he finally caught on.






And he really liked what he got! A Smartsville Treehouse!




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Bath Time

Everett continues to enjoy his bath time. Here he is getting all cleaned up before heading to Grandma and Grandad Rankin's for Christmas.


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Thursday, December 21, 2006

Christmas card pictures

Last weekend, we spent an afternoon taking pictures of Everett for our Christmas card. Getting a 15 month old to sit still is not an easy task! Since we had waited until the last possible minute to do this, we knew we only had one shot at it. Here were our favorites. We settled on #3 for our cards.


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Everett meets Santa

We took Everett to see Santa at Stonebriar mall last Friday. David had taken the day off work, so after we picked E up from MDO, we headed to Frisco. Everyone had told us Stonebriar had the best Santa ... they were right! (He's the one in the Coca Cola commercials!) We got there right as Santa was going on break. So we shopped for a few minutes, then got back in the line that was forming. After about an hour wait, it was E's turn to meet the big guy. As you can tell in the pictures, Everett's expressions go from "Who is this guy? I don't know about this" ... to "I don't think I like this" ... to "Get me down from here NOW!" and finally, in a picture with Dad in it too where he's holding onto David's shirt for dear life ... "Don't you dare put me back on the big man's lap!!" (click on the picture to get a better look) I really don't think the whole ordeal was that traumatic for him ... even though the pictures may appear otherwise. He actually had a great time waiting in line as there were two boys in front of us that kept making him laugh. Plus he passed the time having his milk and eating a sugar cookie. We have discovered E LOVES cookies! (Of course, what normal kid doesn't?)David has been doing his annual candy making and baking. One day, as David was putting cookies on the cooling rack, he saw a little hand reach up on the counter, grab a cookie, and then very discretely walk away as if he thought nobody saw him. Those arms are getting long! Posted by Picasa

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Santa Hat

We spent part of this afternoon trying to take a cute photo of Everett to use for our Christmas card this year (That's right .. I STILL haven't gotten out our cards!) I would have loved to have gotten a picture of him in a Santa hat since his picture last year was in one. Unfortunately, he HATES hats. We gave up on the hat and you will all see the picture we chose whenever you get your card. I'll post the "Runners up" at a later date .

After a stressful photo session this afternoon, it was nice to just be silly with Everett tonight. Here are some pictures of Everett pulling off his Santa hat the second we try to put it on him. We did this while he was sitting at his table "drawing" and of course taste testing the crayons!



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Got Milk?

Everett would drink a whole gallon of milk every day if we let him. He LOVES his milk and gets very excited when he sees us pull the jug out of the fridge to fill up his sippy cup. Today he grabbed the empty container off the counter and wanted to be sure there were no drops wasted at the bottom of the jug!
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Friday, December 08, 2006

I'm not sure where the time has gone since I blogged last ... I guess we've stayed busy around here!
Before sharing the latest pictures of our growing boy, here's a few highlights of the past week...

Today I volunteered at the Collin County Children's Advocacy Center. As some of you may know, I was a regular volunteer there before Everett was born. Since his birth, I've volunteered very sparingly for special events and worked on a few projects for them from home.
(And of course ... we work very hard on our annual crawfish boil / fundraiser for the Center every April! - quick plug - it will most likely be April 28th this year, so mark your calendar!!!!)

This time of year is especially busy for the Center as they work hard to ensure all the children in Collin County receive their Christmas gifts so lovingly and generously donated by so many in the area. I was really frazzled when I arrived at the Center ... after all, getting E dressed for school is hard enough before adding in 20 degree weather and the need for an extra layer or two of clothes! My frantic shuffle was quickly rewarded when I arrived at the Center. There is nothing like unloading Christmas toys for deserving children and stamping and sealing Christmas cards to help get you in the Christmas spirit!

Everett and I returned to the Center this afternoon to drop off something I had picked up on an errand for them before picking E up from school. It was fun to show him off to everyone ... he hadn't been there since he was about 7 months old. When we walked into the main entrance which held a HUGE Christmas tree completely surrounded by stuffed animals, Everett was absolutely astounded!!! oooooohhhhhhhh - he said ... and quickly ran over to one corner of the tree and sat down. Oh how I wished I'd had my camera! Imagine our little cutie, in his flannel shirt, overalls and surrounded with so many cute teddybears! It was quite a site!

On Wednesday night, David called on his way home from work ... the plan was for us to head up to the hospital to see Mom (she had surgery that morning) once he got home from work. Shortly after I hung up the phone, I took Karly (who I was babysitting) into E's room to change her diaper. A few minutes later, in comes E with phone in hand. I can hear David on the phone. Apparently, E had hit the redial button on the phone and called his Dad. They were having a grand little conversation! This is actually the second time that E has dialed his Dad on the phone! I hope he doesn't figure out how to dial internationally ... or we are in for some big phone bills!

Mom was released from the hospital this evening. She sounds like she's in good spirits and happy to be home. I haven't seen her yet, but she says her face is still really swollen. I'm sure that will go away soon enough. We're just glad her surgery went well and hope that's her last visit to a hospital for a very long time!

Have a great weekend!



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A few photos from Helen's baby shower luncheon ....




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