Crickey Coco

As you saw in a previous blog, Crickey Coco made his appearance on December 1st for this holiday season.  Every night but one he seemed to fly home to the North Pole to see Santa and come back landing in funny places around the house. Each morning Nico anxiously woke up wanting to bound down the stairs to find his little friend!  The excitement was beautiful to see! Here are just a few of the places Nico found our little elf!

On Christmas Eve while our family was at candlelight Christmas Eve service, Crickey Coco had to leave to go to the North Pole to help Santa with the delivery of all the gifts.  We will not see him again until next year now. Nico knew he would be leaving and was sad to say good-bye, but was pretty happy when we came home to find that Crickey Coco had left a nice letter for Nico and Natalee and some Christmas PJs for both of them!

Christmas Prep

Today is December 28th so Christmas is already over, but I am going to post pics and little updates leading up to and Christmas.

Daddy has been out of town quite a bit throughout the last couple of months, but when he came home from his one of his last trips he drug out our outdoors Christmas decorations and set up what he could in our tiny front lawn.  The kids were pretty excited to see Santa and the snowmen blow up to size and blow around in the wind!  Natalee in particular, love the snowmen noses and kept poking them while, shouting, "nose!"  Nico did a great job, especially while Daddy was out of town the following week, making sure the lights were turned on or off when they needed to be.  

First Snow

So far we have had 2 snow falls this season.  Being from Texas, what we got was not what I expected. I thought a foot of snow would fall in a day, but that is certainly not the case. I told the kids to wait a little bit before we went out to go play so that the snow would accumulate some.  After about 30 minutes of so-called waiting, it took us then another 30 minutes to get all geared up in snow suits, boots and hats!  By the time we finally got outside, the snow was starting to melt. The kids were a little sad there was not more to play in, but hopefully some will stick later in the season that they can experience. Strangely enough the week that this snow fell was the same week North Texas had its "Icemageaden" where they were snowed and iced in for about 5 days!  Ironic. 

Dancing Babies

Nico has always had the need to move and groove whenever the music strikes him, but I guess Natalee does too!  Nat found a Butterball Target commercial that she was particular fond of!  It is really hilarious! Every time she hears the song come on, she comes running and begins her little dancing with the biggest grin on her face.


Nico still loves to dance, but in a more goofy, silly way!   While the "olders" were here, Big Sis with the help of Casie ingrained Nico into loving a song called, What does the fox say."  Of course it is a very annoying song that we were lucky enough to hear repeatedly for days!

First Bubble Bath

Blogging apparently has gone on the back burner with me in the last 7 month or so, but I am going to try very hard to be better at posting updates!  So these are pics of Natalee and Nico at Natalee's first bubble bath!  She thought the bubbles were pretty fun to play with, but also found out eating them was not so fun.  I love this little girl's many facial expressions and her precious chatter about anything we are doing, including taking a fun bubble bath. I heard a lot of "Whoas" during this evening of bath time!

Nico's 5th Birthday

Just days after Thanksgiving, my sweet angel boy turned 5 years old!  I can't believe it has been 5 years since the most wonderful and most scariest day in my life occurred.  I am a better person because of this little boy and am thankful everyday he is here with us to fill our hearts and lives with so much joy!

Dear Nico,

I do not even know where to start.  There is so much to say.  You are 5 years old now.  Five seems like such a significant age to be.  I want to thank you....thank you for being my son.  You have changed me in every way for the better.  You are the most selfless person I know.  You authentically care about other people, their feelings and your impact on them.  You have such a huge heart of gold for such a little boy and certainly are a boy after God's own heart!  God has really blessed you with some beautiful spiritual gifts and I am excited to see where He leads you as you grow into a man.  You are so funny, and full of surprises.  You are eager to please and always put forth your best effort in whatever you do.  You have a bit of a competitive streak in you and love playing soccer!  You are also so social and enjoy being around and playing with your friends or really any kids of any age!  You are an incredible big brother....you always seem to be on the watch for Natalee's safety and are always there to help her and give her a snuggle. You are also such a smart boy and seem to have a memory like an elephant!  How could any mother ask for anything more?!  God knew EXACTLY what He was doing when waiting to bring you to us.  Nico,  you are your Daddy's and mine double miracle baby.  We both love you with every fiber of our beings and are so incredibly proud of the little boy you have grown into being.  Thank you for the bottom of our hearts of our hearts for being you. 

Love,
Mommy

Family Christmas Pics

On the last day everyone was here visiting, we decide to take it easy, but not before I could get my family pictures at the giant Christmas tree on the boardwalk!