No Hills for Houston Hudsons

this morning i found out that truman had learned how to crawl up our stairs. see our bottom stair is wood so it's been able to keep him from climbing them for quite some time now just because it's slippery. so up my cute gate went in front of the stairs.

we had been hearing for the last couple of days that there was a chance of snow for friday. last year sam called from work and told me it was snowing there well it wasn't snowing at home and it was little more that thick rain were sam was. so when we woke up in the morning it looked cold and wet but that was it no snow. as the morning wore on, it gradually picked up. the first pictures i took that you could actually see anything in looked like this...

i grabbed isaac and threw some clothes on him and ran out the door to take pictures not convinced that it would keep snowing for very long but then...

i got the other boys outside and it picked up some. isaac got freezing and ran back to the house before i could get many pictures.

but then i looked out and it was getting going even better.

i convinced beckam to go outside with me by telling him it was a "big boy" thing. he's totally into that right now, and so am i.

which let to...

watching it from the comfort of your own home fire roaring, elf advent calendar full of candy. (it a great place especially when you're 2 and you just don't understand one pocket a day.)

so then i called sam and told him he needed to get home for some pictures of this awesome phenomenon.and when he got home the real fun began...

there were snowball fights, and snowmen, and lots of neighbors and friends, and frozen children, and lots of laughter and fun! can you even believe how awesome!! we had total stranger stopping to take pictures of our snowmen. all our neighbors were amazed by our skills and as you can tell by the pictures enjoyed dressing him up.

so i'm a little behind again. well that's because it has been one crazy week. let me take you on the journey with me. it involves adventure, mysteries, suspense, and snow. snow you ask, yes snow i know i live in houston. but we'll get to that last of all. (all while trying catch up on laundry still backed up from when i busted the latch on my washer trying to wash too much at one time. and trying to get my christmas decorations up so we can enjoy them for a minute before we leave for christmas in utah.)

it began with monday and i was on a quest to find cool places in this fine area where we live. it took me to old katy and here area a few of the pictures...(that is if my computer will let me upload them in to blogger ahh!)

we even had a little time to work on our moves.

and yes we found santa, chained to a tree. this spot was beckam's request.

this spot changes the course of my next couple of day but more on that later.
we found some cool places had some laughs and a few tears. i've got quite the troupers by the way. and it all ended with a fun dinner at pei wei with lots of honey chicken = happy kidos.

tuesday morning i woke up late to the screams of my children who had found comet, our new reindeer who had crashed due to a broken leg. i quickly realize what time it was and that it was a school morning and rushed to try and get out the door asap. (truman usually doesn't let me sleep in but he had woken up early and had fallen back asleep after i fed him and so did i.) i had a half an hour where it usually takes me an hour and a half. oh and did i mention that come to find out (too late) my clock in the kitchen was 10 minutes slow that morning. so we were just a tiny bit late, but late enough that we all had to walk isaac into school. and just so you get a true picture of my mornings lately beckam whines and/or cries for about 2 hours to start them off on the right foot. this behavior also continues several times throughout the day depending on if isaac growls at him, or if the color of dish i give him is wrong, or if i pour his drink improperly, etc. etc. so we made it through the part of our isaac free day and got a good chunk of laundry done, and some sweet chritmas decorating. after picking up issac we went to go check out another neighborhoods park, and mom took more pictures. we'll just stick to one this time. we had to run to the store after the park and the rain had started to pour. made it home just in time to cook dinner that the kids didn't like suprise, suprise. and then hurried off to the church for sam to begin his new church calling (cub scouts) and to get our temple recommend interview. (my cousin's getting married in utah while we are home and of course our recommends expired that last day of nov. just one more thing to do.) after several games of sharks and minoes we get home and stuck the kids in bed. that's when i started to realize that it had been a while since i last had me wallet. i had quickly looked a few times for it as i was walking out the door. so i started to look.

and then when i woke up on wednesday i looked some more and some more and some more. and then i called sam and told him i don't think i can find my wallet and then we strung lights on the big branch that is now hanging in my house (looks awesome). then i called sam again cause truman was up from his morning nap and i still hadn't found it. so he asked me when i last knew i had it. i grabbed it just as was walking out the door to go take pictures in old katy on monday but i'm not sure when i saw it after that. so we loaded up the car and headed north with not high hopes. we stoped at our first destination i grabbed the kids out of the car and we tried to avoid all the new water as we looked for my wallet. (oh i forgot to tell you that rain i mentioned ended up flooding streets and we had to take a detour home from the church tuesday night.) we got back in the car, everyone cold already no wallet and lots of ground to cover and issac said to me why don't we ask jesus to help? to which i replied i've prayed and prayed all day, but praying again would be a great idea. so i hopped into the car and said a little prayer asking for help. the next 2 stops i was able to get out myself and just look around the car a bit. we got to the fourth stop and i was starting to wonder why we were up here and was convinced that i had just missed at home somewhere. but i got out and looked around anyway and the last place i looked before heading to the car i found this...

my wallet soaking wet (it's still drying out several days later), on the ground and untouched. i was stunned to say the least. i walked back to the car with the soaking wet thing in my had and showed it to my kids. they were so excited. we said another prayer later when we got home to say thanks!

we went home just long enough to eat the chick-fil-la i had picked up for my starving kids (2:00), and then headed back out to the car to start handing out the first 1/2 of beckam's birthday party invitations. the boys had fun running up to the doors, getting me to distract the other moms and then they would slip in the house behind them. and play with their friends until we could coax them out to the car again with the promise of another delievery. we got home after sam and again quickly had dinner so we could head off to the stake center to finish getting our temple recommends renewed. beckam and truman fell asleep on the way so sam and i took turns running in while the other got to hang out with isaac in the car. man he's getting old (didn't mention lately we've been starting to read these learing to read books that were my little brothers isaac is doing awesome and loves it) we got home and got the kids in bed. ( don't think i got to bed before 12:00 all week and alway ended up with one or more kids in the bed before too long, and just if you were wondering it has been freezing here and our bedroom is like 10 degrees colder than another room in the entire house.

the next morning aka thursday we got isaac to school using the drop off lane. and as soon as truman finished his 15 minute moring nap and i showered we were off to deliver the rest of the invitation for the party and then ran to the h.e.b. to pick up candy to put into our elf advent calendar, yes i know your supposed to start those things on the first day of december but he was in the one box that wasn't in the house that day and i kinda forgot. we then let truman sleep for and hour of his usual two hour nap, beckam and i ate lunch and then we headed off to get isaac from school (i miss you amy!!, and not just because of carpool.) i then called sam and asked him to come home early because kim i had talked to kim and she was going to let me use her three darling kids to be my guinea pigs for my first real photo shoot ever. (you know one that doesn't include my children.) so i was able to run and do that- so much fun, i was nervous about it but it went great. it was a great first.

you'll have to check out my new photography blog to check out the pictures.

i got home, fed kids. we finally were able to decorate our two little christmas trees. we got them this year, not a real one since we're heading to utah. got the kids in bed, editted a few photos and folded an enormous amount of laundry.