Playdates

After all the family time of the holidays, Dax was ready for some time with his friends. We hosted playgroup one day and Dax got to play with a couple of his favorite friends, Avery and Benjamin. They all had a good time. BTW, the more fireman hats you have, the better it is for everyone.

Another day, we visited one of my college friends, Stacie. She has 3 girls who just loved having a "baby" to play with. They were so good with him, that Stacie and I actually were able to sit on the couch and drink coffee while we chatted. Amazing! We'll have to get together with them more often!

Fireman hats are fun!


Playing with Avery (and the stuffed animals) at his new Dax-sized table)


Getting 3 kids to sit still for a pic is HARD (even with snacks slowing them down)!


I like the "manly" sports balls in the pink stroller - it says "confidence"


Racing with Stacie's girls


They're worn out!

Date Night

Duane and I enjoyed a "date night". Dax spent the night at Grandma's while we watched "Marley and Me" at Alamo Draft House. It was great to have one-on-one time with each other. And...we sorta got to sleep in the next morning. We did get up fairly early to drive to Houston for a Texans game, but, (and I never thought I say this) waking to the radio alarm was nice. It's good to mix things up from the usual "screaming kid" alarm, you know. Our "date" lasted the whole way to Houston and back. It was very nice. The cherry on top was that the Texans won.

Brunch with the Hilliards

Our friends, the Hilliards, are in San Antonio for the holidays, so we met them halfway in San Marcos for brunch. Not only did we discover a yummy cafe, but we got to spend time and catch up with some of our favorite people. Dax and Ava are only a couple weeks apart, so they had fun making eyes at each other across the table and, later, chasing each other on the lawn of the courthouse. We were sad to see them go, but hope to see them again soon.

Future lovebirds?


Oh, the joy!

Merry Christmas!

Dax had a wonderful Christmas this year. For Christmas Eve, Grandma, Uncle Travis, Aunt Hollie, & Payton, plus Aunt Kay, Dane, and Chance all got together for gumbo. All the ladies helped with the cooking and the gumbo came out pretty darn good. Hollie made some very fancy cupcakes, that were very yummy, too.

Chance came with me, Duane, and Dax to Grandma's church. Chance took Dax up for children's time. It was very cute. And, Chance had the good sense to know when it was time to bail (we were silently thinking "abort!" right as Chance got up to bring him back).

On Christmas morning, Grandma joined us and the Grays to open presents. Dax was very helpful and enjoyed playing "santa" and handing out the gifts. He apparently thought Grandma needed more gifts because he kept taking gifts from Dane and giving them to her. We all (except Dane) thought it was sweet. ;-) When Dax started opening his gifts, he somehow knew just what to do. He tore right through the paper and got to the good stuff.

That afternoon we enjoyed a family favorite meal of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding (a hot bread dish that is awesome with gravy). The pudding turned out great and we realized that bacon fat really does make things better.

With full bellys and armloads of gifts, we truely appreciated the wonderful time with family counting our blessings and celebrating Jesus' birth.

The community cooking effort

Our traditional Christmas Eve gumbo

My wonderful hubby

Enjoying the food and family

Aunt Hollie's yummy cupcakes

Playing with Payton

At children's time with Chance

Enjoying his train

He LOVES his wagon

3 of our favorite people - we're so glad they spent Christmas with us!

Aunt Kay's Birthday

Today is Aunt Kay's birthday. We are so happy she's here with us to celebrate. We took her (and everyone else) to Dax's Gymboree class. The teachers were a little surprised to see 3 adults and 2 teenagers coming in to the class! As usual, Dax had a great time and we enjoyed watching Aunt Kay play with Dax. Dane and Chance both took Gymboree classes when they were little, so they had fun reminiscing (they still knew some of the songs -- but, then again, it's really hard to get them out of your head sometimes).

After a tour of Concordia University's new campus (Dane has been accepted there), we drove out to the Salt Lick for bar-b-que. Oh, just the smell when you're driving up is enough to make you happy! Dax was in rare, amped-up form. Good thing we outnumbered him 5-to-1.

To cap off the day, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights (a tradition for Aunt Kay's birthday -- it's also a tradition for her to play peek-a-boo with Dax so that he laughs, and then suddenly starts crying, but there was no crying this year). We were happy to see that 35th Street has kept up the crazy light displays. Since we figured we'd done enough walking at the Trail of Lights the day before, we just drove 35th Street. But, it was still fun (and much warmer).

At Gymboree

Bubbles!

Waiting patiently for his stamp (on his belly, obviously)

Fired up at the Salt Lick BBQ

Checking out the pit at Salt Lick

One of the houses on 35th Street

Trail of Lights with the Grays

The Grays came in to town today. To celebrate, we loaded everyone up and headed down to the Zilker Park Christmas Tree (the world's largest man-made Christmas tree) and the Trail of Lights. It was in the 30s, so we had Dax bundled up like the kid in A Christmas Story. He LOVED it when Chance held him and spun in circles under the tree. He kept asking for more, but we eventually had to call it off before Chance threw-up. Dax enjoyed the Trail of Lights, too. We really enjoyed walking in the brisk air, drinking hot chocolate, laughing and sharing with family. What a great start to the Christmas week.

Under the tree

All bundled up

The whole crew

New Babysitter

Last night, Duane's company had their Christmas party. Grandma wan't available to babysit, so we had the 6th grade girl from around the corner come over. Dax has been waving to Taylor as she walked to/from the bus stop all school year. A couple months ago he really got to know her at our neighborhood block party. At that party, he kept grabbing her hand and walking away with her, sitting in her lap, etc. He definitely has a crush on her. Well, when she showed up at the house last night, Dax was still eating his dinner. And when he saw her, he lit up like a pinball machine. He then looked at us with wonder and joy as if to say, "You brought her here? For me? This is the best Christmas ever!" Needless to say, he wouldn't eat another bite. As soon as we got him clean and down, he ran right over to her and just stared up at her, with a goofy smile on his face. Finally, Duane suggested he show Taylor some of his toys. He jumped into action and started rifling thru his toy box. He found a book, patted the couch for Taylor to come sit down, and then he crawled into her lap so she could read to him. We barely got a wave goodbye. He is IN LOVE.

Dax's new crush, Taylor

Hangin' out with Payton and Aunt Hollie

Today Aunt Hollie and Payton came over for lunch. It was cold and overcast outside, so the homemade turkey soup and hot, fresh bread were perfect to warm our insides. Dax and Payton enjoyed playing together and jostling for position on the trike. While the kiddos napped, the mommies had a cup of cocoa and worked on putting pictures in frames. A most relaxing and rewarding day.

Some quality time with Aunt Hollie and Payton

Grandmas' Christmas Cantata & Elisabeth's 1st Birthday

Dax spent the night with Grandma last night so Mommy could have her annual Cookie Exchange party. It was great to catch up with friends and relax. And, to not worry about waking up the kiddo.

This morning, Dax went to church with Grandma. She is in the choir and they had their Christmas cantata. They did a lovely job and it was fun to see Grandma up at the front of the church. When I went to pick Dax up from the nursery, he RAN to me with his arms outstreched and a big smile. It was GREAT to feel so loved!

We had some quality time this afternoon playing in the backyard. Then we went downtown for Elisabeth's first birthday party. Her mommy is in my MOMs group at church. The party was at the Austin Children's Museum. Dax had a ton of fun. Mostly with the trains, the dump trucks, and driving the kid-sized version of the Metro-Rail train. He was so wired, I thought for sure he'd crash in the car on the way home, but nope. I dropped him off with Duane (who had just gotten back in town from a Texans game - they won!), and then I took off for a friend's holiday party. Duane eventually got him to sleep and I managed to snag a Tiffany pen from the white elephant game a the party. So, a really good night! :)

Playing IN the sandbox


Trains!

Driving the Metro-Rail

Fish are fun

Another New Tooth

Dax finally got another tooth. He's had 3 on the bottom front for a while, now, and just yesterday the 4th one came in. The last one popped up to full size pretty quickly, hopefully this one will do the same. Then he'll have 4 on top, 4 on bottom and all 4 molars. He's just missing the canines I guess. It's amazing how different he looks with the teeth, I think it'll be weird when he has his full set. He'll look like a little boy, not a toddler. Oh, they grow so quickly.

Trinity Graduates!

I have been taking Trinity to Level 1 Obedience Class for the past 2 months. I was doing it not for the sit/stay stuff, but because I thought it would be good practice for her to learn to focus on me, even when other dogs are around. The class was great and we really enjoyed the other families and dogs (although always from a distance). Last night was graduation. Trinity and Ace (a pug/beagle mix) had a friendly competition for Top Dog. They are both very food motivated, so getting them to do stuff for treats was pretty easy. T won the "down/stay" competition, but Ace won the "puppy pushups" (sit/down/sit/down), but I didn't have my treat ready, so I think she could have won that one, too. T also had the best "come" (I could go all the way across the field and she'd come flying like a rocket). All in all, Trinity did great at class and I really do think she was the best one. :) To celebrate her graduation, after class I ran an errand at the very swanky Domain shopping center, and I took her with me. She walked calmly down the sidewalks with me, and she even went in a couple of the stores with me. I was very proud of her. She got some extra kibble for dinner when we got home. I'm looking forward to taking her out and about more often to keep her in practice.

Santa with Payton

Today we met Aunt Hollie and Payton at the mall so we could see Santa together. Even after waiting over an hour (Santa took his lunch break in there), the kids were still in good moods. While we were waiting in line, Dax caught a glimpse of Santa and recognized him right away. He got big-eyed, pointed at Santa, and said, "DahDah", which I'm sure was supposed to be "Santa". When it was our turn, the kids were trying to figure out what was going on, but Dax crawled right up. He even waved bye-bye and blew Santa a kiss. I can only image how excited he'll be when he eventually figures out that Santa brings gifts!

It's a Christmas Miracle!

We've been experiencing a Christmas miracle here for the past week. Dax has been sleeping for over 12 hours a night and not waking up until after 7:20. One morning he even slept until 7:50! This is a FAR cry from the 5:15am wake up of just a few months ago. It is truely a miracle and we are very thankful for this gift of sleep!

The other nice thing about when Dax wakes up is that he wants to cuddle. So, I get him out of the crib and we cuddle in the rocking chair. It's only a minute or two until he wakes up and starts talking/smiling/squirming, but it has become my favorite part of the day.

Snow and Tomatoes

It's crazy weather here. Yesterday was 81 degrees, but last night a strong cold front came through and brought sleet (with thunder!) and, believe it or not, SNOW! Of course, it was just a little bit, and it melted as soon as it hit the ground, but it was real snow and there was enough to accumulate on the roofs. The other thing I did yesterday was pick my tomatoes off the vine before they froze. Snow and tomatoes should not be in the same sentence. But, this is Texas!

Snow on our neighbor's house

My December Tomatoes

Ornament Playdate

Today we had a playdate with Kaylee and some of her friends. The mommies ate brunch, Dax ate crayons, and everyone made a Christmas ornament. We had a great time and hope to get together with our new friends again soon.

Dax loves Kaylee (she's just playing hard to get)

Hmmm, which sticker will really "complete" this ornament?

Christmas Tree Farm

We have started an annual tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree. There is a tree farm about 30 minutes away and it's a lot of fun. Of course it brings back all sorts of wonderful memories of Grandpa Smith's Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania. Dax really enjoyed running up and down the rows of trees and weaving in and out. Maybe as much as he enjoyed the donkey(naturally!) and the goats at the petting zoo area. But only "maybe as much" - it was really funny when the goats licked his hands, and well, donkeys are really cool. And, Duane enjoyed the cutting this year, because he actually had a saw that was sharp.

The tree is now home and decorated. Only non-breakable ornaments this year. Dax likes to bat at the ornaments, so he's spent some time in time out, but he's getting better. It's just so hard to not play with all the shiny objects!

He's off to find the perfect tree


So, a sharp saw makes a difference, huh, Daddy?


Daddy's little helper


Dax loved feeding the goats - they were very gentle and tickled his hands with their tongues

Gettin' in the Christmas Spirit

Typical Saturday Morning

Here is a video with a few minutes of a typical Saturday morning in the DeRouen household. FYI - video is over 5 minutes (I wanted to give you the full effect).

Busta Move

Due to popular demand, here is a video montage of Dax's dance moves. We have no idea where he gets his, umm, rhythm.

Momma

Since Dax was the only 17 month old (in the world, I'm sure) who did NOT say "momma", Duane and I worked with him for a couple days. He now has it down. That little embarassed half-smile when he says it and the way he sticks out his bottom lip, are all just too cute. It melts my heart every single time.

Thanksgiving (and more donkeys)

We went to visit Annette and the boys for Thanksgiving. We got there Wednesday morning and ended up staying until the following Tuesday morning. Lots of family time. And many, many trips to see the donkeys. Dax now calls them, "dah-gahs". We got out a bag of carrots the first day and they were Dax's best friends for the rest of the week.

On Thanksgiving day, we got together with Aunt Fay and her family. Since this was the first Thanksgiving without Uncle Joe, everyone decided it would be best to change things up a bit, so we met at Kyle and Joani's house. They just remodeled their kitchen, too. (And, by "just", I mean, "they installed the stove hood the day before.") It was a really nice family time. Who'd have thought that at the end on November we could sit outside and be perfectly comfortable?! Kyle was even wearing shorts! Dax thought his 2nd cousins Thomas and Luke were a lot of fun. The boys were great with Dax, too. So patient - even when Dax tried to join in their big boy games.

Another day, we went to The Woodlands mall to let Dax run around on their playscape. And, we walked right by Santa, with not a single kid in line! So, we got Dax's picture taken with him. Then, Aunt Kay took Dax for a ride on the merry-go-round. He loved it!

I think the most fun of the week, though, was watching Dax bust out his dancing moves. We'll post a video soon.

We hope everyone had a pleasant holiday - we sure enjoyed counting all of God's many blessings.

Feeding the donkeys

Ready to dig in to the Thanksgiving spread

hanging with Luke


having some laughs with Thomas

not completely sure about Santa

enjoying the merry-go-round