The making of a Christams card

Ah, I love this time of year. The houses all decorated, the kids so happy, the crazy shopping, and of course the Christmas cards. Before we get to ours this year, let's recap Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Eve we had a wonderful dinner with my family at my mom's house. We all celebrated early because Thanksgiving morning we flew out to El Paso for an extended holiday weekend. The kids were excited to see Grandma and Grandpa Vara (and Uncle Michael too!). We had a great time visiting with family and catching up with friends.

Jackson enjoyed his sink baths...


and munching on pears...

and getting hugs from Grandpa

We also met up with Zeke who is 5 weeks younger then Jackson at one of our favorite restaurants, Cattleman's Steakhouse. Zeke is a cutie and so laidback, opposite of Jackson! Haley really liked playing with Zeke too.

Jackson was playing so hard he decided he couldn't hold up his bottle anymore.

And Haley loved playing peak-a-boo with Zeke

Matt's good friend Eric and his daughter, Matt's Goddaughter, Elysia also joined us. We can't believe how big she is getting and how beautiful she is. She was the precious flower girl at our wedding!

Haley has lots of fun in her fort Grandpa built her. Grandma was hanging out inside and wait, who is that coming through the window?

Dusty! What are you doing? Dusty is old and very sick with cancer but really enjoyed the kids. I'm glad he got to experience some fun in his final days...

Hey, if Dusty can climb in through the window, I can come out of it. Haley had a blast.

A few hours before we left we had a BBQ at the house and Zeke came over again. I think Jackson is showing him how to get in trouble...

We had a great visit to El Paso and can't wait to see Grandma and Grandpa in a few weeks when they come visit us for Christmas.

And now....the Christmas card. Every year at Christmas we have taken the kids to get Christmas pictures. 2 of the last 4 years they have been good, but I've never used it for the Christmas card. So this year we saved us the frustration of pictures at the mall and decided to take our own Christmas pictures of the kids. It was...well....fun and adventurous at the same time. We took over 200 photos and managed to get a few good one.

We started off in the house which was a great idea until Haley gave Jackson a hug, pulled him backwards and BAM...right on his head. Our picture taking was almost over before it started...

Then we moved out to the front porch and managed one with both kids looking

Then off to the park near our house.

We managed a good one of Jackson! One of my favorites to date of him. And yes, this made the card.

And a solo of Haley. She was being silly but this also made the card

Flying in the trees with Dad

Oh and look at that precious smile!!!

Most of the time the kids were not listening. I love Matt's face in the background as the kids ran off.

So I tried to coral the kids. Same problem. We could only manage to get 1 kid looking at a time :)

Sometimes we just let them play. I love their smiles.

And then we would make them pose. This one made the card too...love it!

After the park we headed to the golf course across the street. We got a great picture with Daddy. This is one of my favorites too.

By now the kids were done. Haley was more interested in "hugging" Jackson then taking pictures. Jackson was not impressed.

But he began to fight back...

Jackson's getting the upper hand...

And he's free!!!

Payback time. Jackson almost out weighs Haley so it's just a matter of time when he figures out he can sit on her. I do love this picture. They both had the biggest smiles taking these.

l
OK Mom and Dad, we are DONE

I couldn't pick just one photo so I did a collage photo card this year. It was lots of fun taking pictures of the kids but I don't think we'll be doing it again anytime soon. Whew, what hard work!

The kids are getting ready for the Christmas program at school this Friday. It will be the first official party of the Christmas season. We are excited and hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!

Happy Birthday Jackson

Jackson's year in video review

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Jackson's First Birthday

It's official, Jackson is 1. This little guy has been adventurous from day one and has brought so much joy to our lives. Here's a look back at some of the highlights from his first year:

First trip to a fire station (<1 minute old) and a few since
First ambulance ride (<10 minutes old)
3 airplane rides (El Paso, Seattle and Florida)
Trip out of the country (Canada)
Snow in Houston, twice!
Real snow in Whistler, BC
New House
New room
New friends
2 trips to the beach (Galveston & Florida)
All around Texas (El Paso, San Antonio, Ft Worth, Grapevine, College Station, Galveston)
Swimming
First Aggie game (and they won!!)
First trip to The Dixie Chicken
Started "school", more new friends
Walking like a champ!
And much much more...

As you can see, Jackson has been busy this year. At his one year checkup, he weighed in at 22.06 lbs (50%) and 29 inches (25%) with a head of 18+cm (25%). He is back on an antibiotic to hopefully get rid of this cold which has turned into a sinus infection for good. Poor guy's eyes were all red and he still has his cough and runny nose but he was still happy and playing around.

Jackson's birthday celebration lasted a week! His first trip was to the fire station and a visit with the crew that delivered him, and others. He got his first birthday presents there, had some cake and explored the fire engines. What a great time...
Checking out his gifts

Yummy...cake!

All aboard

Here we go, I'm driving this time

Hanging out on the back

And of course my favorite sister got to check it out too. I love my big sister :)

Inspecting the hose

So, what did you think about that last call, it was a doozie huh?

Yeah, I'm the chief

What a handsome dude

Jackson and the crew

Haley, Jackson and the crew

Thanks for the fun time at the fire station!!!

On his actual birthday, Thursday, we took him to Chuck E. Cheese. Grandma came along too. It has become a Vara tradition as we took Haley there too for her first birthday :)

Jackson loved the horse, yee haw Cowboy

Big smiles

Hey Chuck, what's going on?

And to cap off his birthday week, a family party on Saturday. Grandma Vara was going to come down but unfortunately Uncle Michael got sick. We missed her but we are glad Uncle Michael is doing better.

The decorations

The cake and the mini cake. I have to brag that I designed the cake and I think it turned out perfect! And it was yummy too :)

Some of his presents. Check out the cool fire truck Grandpa Vara sent. Jackson loves it

Uncle Mark got Jackson his first electric car. Every kid needs a Lightning McQueen 4 wheeler (and an Uncle Mark!).

Checking out his firetruck

Opening up other gifts while sitting on his firetruck

Blowing out my candle

What Jackson's mini cake started like...

Diving in...

Silly Uncle Nathan made a mustache on Jackson, but he didn't mind...

Oh yeah...get after it Jackson. Several times he decided to forget his hands and went straight for the face in the cake

Almost finished...

But first I'll give some to Uncle Mark

After a quick bath in which the bathtub had to be filled with water twice to get Jackson clean, it was time to open more gifts. Grandma got him a ball pit.

Jackson liked all his presents and we thank everyone for making Jackson's first year memorable. We love you Jackson!

Halloween 2010

We are glad to see November! October was not the best month for us. Both kids came down with upper respiratory infections that lead to double ear infections and two eye infections for Haley. Poor kids were miserable for about 2 weeks but are finally on the mend. Whew!

Despite not feeling 100% we managed to do some fun activities. We visited the pumpkin patch one morning and the kids had fun climbing on the pumpkins, riding the train and taking a hay ride.
Haley loved to climb to the top

Jackson and the pumpkins

Hi Mom and Dad!

I'll take this one

Finally our turn for the train

The silly Vara kids

Jackson was the first to start feeling better. Once he did, Matt put him to work! I died laughing one morning when I looked outside and saw this...

Never too early to train them

Pumpkin carving time! Haley was taking a look at the "gooey stuff". She decided she didn't want to help clean it out and watched Daddy do all the work.

Jackson was too busy eating to help too. Did I mention he is within 4 lbs of Haley? No wonder why, this kid can eat.

Matt did an awesome job on the pumpkin. He created the Disney Castle and had lots of compliments from kids on Halloween night. Yay Daddy!

The kids being silly the night before Halloween. Jackson was walking and jabbering away. His newest word is "Ut Oh".

Cookies...Cookies...Cookies. The kids waiting for the cookies to finish baking.

And finally, Halloween! YAY! Grandma, Uncle Nathan and Uncle Mark took Haley and Jackson to Chuck E Cheese for lunch. This was Jackson's first trip and he really enjoyed the rides. Haley loved it as always. After nap time, it was ready to get dressed and go trick or treating. Grandma stayed and helped pass out candy while Matt and I took the kids down the street. Jackson made it to the end of the street before he was done so I took him back. Haley, on the other hand, was quite the trooper. She caught up to one of the neighborhood girls and they did the entire neighborhood! Matt had to carry her near the end and she wanted to eat her M&Ms but she did great.

Cinderella, Grandma and the little Spider

Darth Vader (a neighbor), the spider and Cinderella

Ready to go to his first house

Brooklyn and Haley hitting up the neighborhood.