It's October 31st....time to put up the Christmas Decorations!

Several sweet friends came over yesterday morning to help put up all of our Christmas decorations and the outdoor holiday lighting. In the spirit of Brad Wims Christams decorating, we set up the tree and started the Christmas carols on October 31st. In years past Brad used my mid-November Holiday Open House as his excuse for pulling out everything so early, but everyone who knew Brad's love for the holiday season knew he couldn't wait to string up the lights.

K chose to take the time while we were all a little preoccupied to try on some of Mommy's MK makeup. She has quickly discovered that she has a BIG interest in cosmetics...ahhh....a little Mary Kay consultant in the making :)

Kaelyn hasn't been acting like herself, so Lisa checked K's ears while she was here and it looks like K has been suffering from a double ear infection. No wonder she hasn't been feeling well...poor thing.

How many men does it take to find the short in the light circuit?

The ladies deliberate over where to put everything...


My little holiday helpers...the girls put up most of the Christmas ornaments for me...of course that meant that the tree was largely decorated from 3 feet down...but hey, it was decorated!





Matlock decided to lend a hand today by offering a business card of a "light-hanging service contractor"





Tah Dah! Didn't they do a GREAT job?! I LOVE IT...and I know that Brad is smiling to know that his friends have carried on his fanatical Christmas traditions! :)

Halloween 2009

This year for Halloween Zeke carefully selected his costume 4 or 5 weeks in advance. He saw a picture of a "Happy Skeleton" in a magazine and declared that he REALLY wanted to be that for Halloween. I went online...scoped out some options and ordered his costume. When it arrived, there was just a small problem...that was it...the costume was WAY too small. I ordered the largest size that the "Happy Skeleton" came in which was a 4-6. Being that Zeke is only 5, I thought surely this costume would work...because Zeke is so big I thought it might be a little snug...but surely it would work. Well, when he tried it on the pants were a good 10 inches off the ground...the body of the outfit, fit like a leotard and I could just barely get the hood to go over his head. It looked a little on the rediculous side, but Zeke insisted on wearing it. Since I had already bought it...I let him.

Kaelyn chose to be Tinkerbell...she wavered at one point, thinking she might consider Cinderella...but in the end Tink won.

We drove to Baytown to meet up with the Hanna's to Trick-or-Treat. Crazy enough...even with the cold weather we still had to apply mosquitoe spray to the kids AGAIN this year...I couldn't believe it. The Wims actually made it past 8:00 this year which is a record for us. It ended up being a late night but at least we gain an extra hour!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Bringing Home Angel Bear

Zeke was given the opportunity to bring home the class pet, Angel Bear for the weekend. He is responsible for taking care of Angel Bear, feeding her, giving her water, and cleaning out her cage. Zeke has been anxiously awaiting this moment for the last couple of weeks. He has reminded me every day for the last 5 that Angel Bear would be coming home with him after the party. He has taken his responsibilites VERY seriously and has hardly left the guinea pig alone since she arrived. I hope we don't completely wear the poor thing out!

Zeke's 50's Party

Zeke's Kindergarten class held a 50's party today in lu of a Halloween celebration. Our next door neight, Alicia is the room mom and she did a terrific job with decorations, music and refreshments...the kids really seemed to enjoy it. "The Twist" was played at one point and all the kids got up and showed off their moves.

My New Friend

 

I was blessed today to have lunch with my new friend, Julie Williams. Julie is the sister-in-law of my good friend, Camille Denton, and Julie & I also share the unfortunate history of both having lost our husbands at a very young age. Julie was so thoughtful to reach out to me through a letter she sent just a few months after Brad's passing. I picked up that same letter last week and gave her a call to meet for lunch.

It was so cathartic to sit and talk with her today about the ups and downs of our shared experiences. I am so impressed by Julie...her strong character and love for others really shines through. I look forward to the opportunity to get to know her better.

Lunch with Brother

Kaelyn and I decided to take lunch to Zeke during the day yesterday. She was so excited to get to go inside the building and talk with the other kids....I think she thought that the visit meant she would get to attend class that day...she insisted on wearing her backpact...she was VERY excited!

Zeke hammed it up for the camera while I was there...he kept saying..."Take a picture of me doing this Momma!" "Now take another one!" He is such a mess!

Weekend with G.G. & Papa

Mom & Dad and Kelly & Brent Hankins took care of my kiddos this weekend while I attended a Mary Kay fall conference just outside of Austin. Mom wrote me this note today to tell me a couple of memorable moments from her weekend. They seemed blog-worthy so I had to add it of course!

Kaelyn has done very well the last three days with potty training. She has been very emphatic about washing her hands after using the potty. A couple of times I heard her talking to herself saying she had to wash her hands because she touched the potty seat. We went to Kemah this afternoon and had to use the public facility. Before I put her on the potty I put a seat cover on it and then held her and helped her get her clothes back up. As we were leaving I drew her over to the sink to wash her hands. She emphatically told me that she didn't have to wash her hands because she didn't touch the seat. (She had me there. She didn't.) I tried a couple of other reasons for washing her hands but she wasn't convinced. We used wet wipes later.

When we got back from Kemah Rick took K directly to get her bath. Zeke and I finished unloading the car and then I told him it was his turn for a bath. He proceeded to take off his clothes in the den. I told him to go and put them in the washer. He went to the laundry room and sat on the floor and started pulling out his pockets. He saw me looking at him in a puzzled fashion and proceeded to explain to me that when you put things in the washer that you had to clean out the pockets because things that are left in the pockets get ruined in the washer. (I can't tell you how many years and how many things were ruined before I trained your Dad to clean out his pockets) Zeke is growing up.
-Mom

Hanna/Cassedy Wedding

Here are pictures I took at Alli's wedding...in no particular order...very mixed up in accordance with time line.

It was a gorgeous wedding and a very exciting day!

The Robertson Family

Dan & The Girls

Jane singing "You Can't Hurry Love" to Alli

Bryan & Doug listening to the Aggie game as soon as the ceremony was over.

Beautiful Callie

Zekel & Me