Happy New Year

I can't believe it's 2008 already. Christmas is past, and Mike's holidays are half over. We had a wonderful Christmas break in San Antonio with my parents and Mike's parents (yes, both sets of parents at one time...in one house for a week!) I love the fact that our families get along well enough that we can spend a holiday together like that. It was such a precious time, filled with lots of good memories. We toured the Riverwalk, went to the Alamo and the other four missions in the area. We also went shopping a few times, went to listen to Max Lucado preach, got lost a time or two in San Antonio, hung out in the hot tub, ate at Johnny Carino's, Mi Tierra, and Whataburger, and we even had a turkey dinner! The week went by too fast, but it was so much fun and I am glad they made the effort to travel all this way to see us.

So we actually celebrated Christmas day here in Abilene, just our little family of four. We got some small presents for the kids, and some stocking stuffers, so when they woke up Tuesday morning we all opened presents together. Jesse ate a candy cane from his stocking, and Rebecca ate a cracker from hers. It was fun. At dinner time we ate a roast chicken with all the yummy side dishes. Then Jesse and Rebecca napped, and Mike and I just hung out. It is so nice to have him around...I think I will find it difficult when he has to go back to school.

Jesse has started this annoying habit of taking his diaper off. He will strip off his pants and the undo his diaper. If we redress him, he will have it off again in a matter of minutes. This wouldn't be a big deal if he was potty trained, but he will just pee wherever he feels like. And since most of our house is carpet, it can be a pain to clean up. We have tried several tactics to keep pants on him including putting him in jeans (with a button and zipper), which he finds more difficult but not impossible to get off. We have also put the diaper on him backwards, which helps overnight. And we also continue to try potty training him, but he just doesn't seem to get the concept of peeing in the potty. I will put him on there (because I know he needs to go), and he won't do anything while he's sitting there, but a minute after I let him down he will have gone somewhere else in the house. It's frustrating. Rebecca can be frustrating too. Not because we are trying to potty train her, but because we are trying to get her to eat solid foods. She ate fine several weeks ago. Then she got the stomach flu, had a few periods of throwing up, and since then she does not want to eat from a spoon. She will eat crackers, and cheerios by the handful, but will not open her mouth to eat from the spoon. So, I have to be sneaky. When she opens her mouth to eat a cheerio, I will shove a spoonful of fruit, veggies, or cereal into her mouth. She seems to liked cooked sweet potato or carrots diced up better than the pureed variety. And I can tell she's hungry because she is wanting to eat every few hours which is really annoying during the night. But, I think she is getting better. It's just too bad that we have to deal with both children being frustrating at the same time!

We had a fairly uneventful New Years Eve. I guess that happens when you have babies. We didn't even bother going anywhere because we knew Jesse would be going to bed around 8. I woke up at 11:45 to feed Rebecca. We heard some fireworks that people were setting off around the apartment complex. And then I went back to bed. That's about as exciting as it gets!

Dan is coming to visit, and I can't wait. It will be so much fun to have him here and show him around Abilene and have him meet our friends down here. Hopefully we have some nice warm weather for him to enjoy.