Christmas 2008

It's funny how we have the way an event will take place already in mind and when it doesn't turn out to be anything like what you planned, you realize what you plan isn't always the best scenario! What a crazy Holiday season this year! We were planning on having a very small and quiet Christmas this year. It turned out to be anything but. I was almost looking forward to just having my small little family together. I imagined the kids waking up and spending all morning with just the four (soon to be five) of us enjoying each other. Like I said, everything changed, but I think it was for the better.

About 2 weeks before Christmas, my Aunt went into the ER after a doctor suggest that she go because of a large lump in her stomach. About a week later a doctor told her she was in stage 4 ovarian cancer. After seeing the oncologist, they decided to do surgery to remove 2 tumors and to see the significance of the cancer. Although my aunt and most of my dad's family is in Amarillo, she moved to Austin about 6 years ago. So really, me and my sisters are her only family here. We were all (and still are) very scared for Sheila and her daughter Shandy (age 10) and so my cousin and Sheila's oldest daughter, Shelby, my Aunt Vicki, my Mama Lou, my Dad and his wife, Tammy all came down for Sheila's surgery.

So with all these people in town, Matt and I quickly realized our premeditated plan of a quiet, little Christmas was not going to be small anymore and definitely not quiet. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better Christmas though.

For Christmas Eve, we went to Ginger and Paul's new and beautiful home. They insisted on us not bringing anything and treated us all to La Margarita Fajitas that were fabulous! Their home felt so good to be in. It might be a cliche, but the spirit of Christmas truly was in that home. My mom and Grandma came up with us. After opening presents, the kids put on the traditional Kruzie Nativity play as Papa read out loud from the scriptures. Tyler hated every minute of it, but Lexi got to be the angel, so she was ecstatic! She put on one of Taylor's shirts and wore it as a dress. She really felt beautiful in it. It was pretty fun watching all of them.

Michelle came up with the idea to do a white elephant gift exchange. I was not into the idea with all the emotional things going on, so I guess you could say I didn't have the best attitude about it. But then when we started, I quickly realized it would be one of the highlights of the night and probably will be a tradition that sticks. Hopefully, we'll do better next year. This year, we made it home with an Enema.

Christmas morning, Lexi and Tyler slept late from the exhaustion of the night before. I quickly went to work in the kitchen preparing a Christmas Brunch for all of our family. Everything tasted wonderful, especially Mama Lou's famous monkey bread. Lexi and Tyler soon woke up, probably due to my banging in the kitchen, and were extremely overwhelmed by all the presents. I really meant to do a light Christmas, but next year will be even lighter considering Tyler didn't even care to open his last couple of presents. Everyone started showing up around 11:00 am. Since Matt and I have been married, we have never had that much of my family together. I hadn't seen my sister Whitney for a year and a half. I forgot how sweet and kind she was. It meant so much to have her there. It really completed our family. I also hadn't seen my Dad or Tammy for quite a few months, so we were all excited to have them down.

I wont forget this Christmas and the special spirit I felt. I can't really put my finger on why it was so special. Maybe it was because of Sheila's unfortunate diagnosis or maybe because I had so much family around or maybe because I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and completely hormonal.

Whatever the reason, I'm so grateful to have so many people who love me, love Matt and our kids. There can't be a greater gift then that.

Halloween

I know all parents think this, but honestly, my kids were the cutest kids to be seen this year at Halloween! Lexi knew she wanted to be Annie for at least 6 months before Halloween. Grandma Jackson got suckered into making her a dress, which was absolutely perfect! I've already decided that Tyler will forever be Lexi's accessory to her Halloween costume so we just had to decide between Daddy Warbucks and Sandy (the dog). Lexi wanted him to be Sandy, but I just kept thinking about how cute he would look in a baby tuxedo. Well, the pictures speak for themselves. They were adorable....and they knew it too.

Lexi's 3rd Birthday!

I can't believe it, but Lexi is 3 now! She had one of the best and chaotic birthdays ever known to human birthdays! We decided to have a Painting Party. For those of you who don't know, Lexi has turned out to be quite the little artist (which talent definately came from her dad's side). So, we thought this theme would be a perfect party for her! Lexi's apron says, "Kiss me...I'm Three!"

She felt really special in it!

We had over 25 kids show up and it was a BLAST! The kids got messy, but had a great time doing it. My favorite mess was when Dylan, Tyson, Luke and Scottie all painted their faces blue. It probably wasn't as exciting for their Moms, but they had a lot of fun doing it.

The boys were cracking everyone up!

Face Painting was a hit for most of the kids!

After most of the kids left, we opened the presents and everyone seemed to have the same idea or what Lexi wanted. She got so many princess dresses, princess jewelry, princess tiaras....everything PRINCESS! She was on top of the world. Reese and Luke got her a cheerleader outfit with pom-poms that she loves to dress up in too (and so does Rylee).

She also got a trunk full of more dress up clothes from Mama Lou and a Cinderella dress!

She still wears her princess dresses everyday while we're at home. I won't let her wear them in public, or else she would absolutely wear them everywhere! She had a great birthday and asks everyday when her next birthday is. I don't know how we'll top this one!

Zoo pics

We went to the San Antonio Zoo on Labor Day and I'm just now getting around to posting some pictures. It was 104 degrees and pretty miserable. Lexi had a great time and Tyler was up for the ride. After being there for a few hours, the kids were done. Frankly, so were Matt and I. There aren't too many pictures of the kids because the animals were being way more cooperative then the kids. Before we left we took them on a train ride and Lexi hasn't stopped talking about it since!

Lexi is done....It had been a few hours!

Tyler on the train ride...He loved it!

It's a boy!

Well, we're officially 21 weeks pregnant as of today! That's more then half way there for those of you who don't get all the weeks. In case you were wondering the baby is about a pound and the length of a carrot. I'm not sure why unborn babies are always compared to food such as pinto bean, grapefruit, etc...I guess food is one thing every pregnant women can relate to. I know I can!

We decided to find out the sex of the baby and after dragging my feet, I finally got an appointment. Matt and I were trying to make it a special family day, especially for Lexi. When we got to the office, both her and Tyler were ecstatic to find the a huge bowl full of tootsie rolls. They went to town on them, which probably didn't help our situation at all seeing that they were already acting like monkeys. When we finally got called back for the ultrasound, Matt was about to lose all his patience trying to keep the kids in line. Tyler was scared and confused because it was dark and Lexi was talking non stop to the ultrasound technician and not letting the poor woman do her job. Well, you could tell the ultrasound technician wasn't too impressed with our parenting and we got that 'and you're having more kids' look. Anybody who has kids has had that look. From right off I knew it was a healthy baby because of it's vibrant energy! We were all getting anxious to find out the sex when the evidence became very clear to anybody watching the screen. It was very obvious we would be having a baby boy. After the ultrasound technician reassured us it was indeed a boy, Lexi got angry with her and was quick to tell her she was having a baby sister. Lexi was sure this lady was wrong. After some arguing the technician decided to leave the discussion for Mom and Dad to explain.

We left the office excited, well, all of us except Lexi. She looked a little confused but still wouldn't admit that she was having a brother. I thought it would be a good idea to go get a treat for the kids and Matt wanted to take them to the park. We were still trying to keep it a special day and maybe get Lexi excited about our newest addition. She hardly touched her ice cream, but couldn't stay angry enough to resist the swings. On the way home we tried talking to her about boy names, but she still didn't want anything to do with a boy. She was definitely having a sister.

It's been 3 weeks since then and she still hasn't given into the fact that this is indeed a baby boy. I tried taking her shopping for boy clothes, but all she wanted to do was look at the baby girl dresses. I've continued to ask her what she thought about baby boy names. She finally suggested Gaston, but once I shot down that name I crushed all hopes of excitement. Hopefully in the next 4 months we can get her excited about a boy...If not, we might have to name him Gaston!

Update on the newest addition....

I'm sure everyone knows by now that the Kruzies will be welcoming their 3rd baby in January! We were quite suprised and taken back by the news. We are officially the luckiest (if you want to look at it that way) people in the world. This baby fell into the .01% chance of coming into the world! The Ultrasound picture I posted was taken at 10 weeks, so I'm sure by now it's moving around even more then the day of the ultrasound.

Of course, Tyler has no idea, which might be a good thing. Lexi on the other hand is very excited about her baby sister coming. We don't know what the sex is yet, but Lexi says she does. The only reason I'm hoping for a girl is because I don't think she will let me bring a baby boy into our house!

The kids are finally getting used to our new lifestyle of laziness and Lexi has officially turned into the biggest boob toob I have ever seen. If I didn't feel so lousy, I would care more. Matt on the other hand, is ready for me to come back to my job. He has been wonderful, but I'm sure he's getting tired of doing everything around here! I couldn't ask for a better partner in all of this and have absolutely no room to complain.

We don't have any new pictures of Lexi, but her Great-Grandma Jackson just made her an "Annie" dress. She has been dying for me to take her picture in it, so as soon as we do, we'll post it up. By the way....she is so much cuter then the Annie in the movie! I might be a tad biased though...

Happy Fathers Day!

Matt has been working so hard lately and has almost been nonexistent from the rest of the world! I know he feels guilty and frustrated coming home late and also feels many frustrations from work and all the other obligations he has going on in his life. But we love him so much and are so proud of the man and worker he is!

Lexi has started a new manipulation tool with me. When I want her to do something, whether it be go to the bathroom, brush her teeth, get dressed, her answer is, "I'll just wait until my daddy gets home." I've always heard about little girls and their dads and I know I was one of those little girls as well, but I've just realized lately that Lexi really does think the world of her dad. I don't know if love is a milestone for a child to hit, but I know that she knows what love is because her dad taught her.

Tyler just wont stop growing! Especially his head! I'm just teasing, well, he really does have a huge head compared to his little body, but I still think he might be the best looking baby boy I have ever seen in my life. The past two months, Tyler has really started to ease off of me and started trusting that it is okay if other people touch him. Sometimes he'll even let them hold him! This has changed my life dramatically! Before, I couldn't put him down, much less take two steps away from him with out him having a total break down. He would follow me around crying and wheezing until I would give in. Of course I had to pick up my little wheezer! ( This has turned into his household nickname with Lexi and I, along with Bubba, Bruder, Bug and Son. He hardly is called by his own name!) Every time Tyler hears the garage door open, or hears keys rattling at the front door, he starts giggling, wheezing of course, and will wiggle his way out of my arms so he can go greet his dad. It amazes me that even in such a short life, he already knows that Matt is his dad and there is a special love for him that Tyler doesn't hold with anyone else!

As for me, I could never tell Matt how proud I am of him and how in love I am with him! I've always loved him, but as we go through more trials or anytime where our character is shown, I realize that I love him more that day then I ever believed was possible! He is a wonderful man and I couldn't imagine sharing our beautiful children with anyone else besides him. He will be very embarrassed by all of this, but that is one of the reasons why I love him as well.

After Matt and Tyler's birthday just a couple of weeks ago, we kind of drained out the budget for holiday gifts, so here's my gift to Matt...To tell the whole world wide web how much we love him! We love you Matt and you are the best daddy ever...Happy Father's Day!