Happy Birthday Jesus!!!

Happy Birthday Jesus!!! And Aunt Angela too!

From our family to yours,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

We love you all and hope today is a great day for each of you. God Bless you.

Love,

The Harless Family

Funny things

One of Alyssa's favorite songs is "If all the raindrops." For those of you not well versed in childrens music, it goes like this:

If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops, oh what a rain that would be.

Standing outside with my mouth open wide.

Aaah, aaah, aaah, aaah, aa - aah ah.

If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops, oh what a rain that would be.

Well, the other day, Alyssa asked me to sing: Father Raindrops. I told her I had no clue what song that was. She said: "It goes like this: "Father raindrops were lemon drops..."

April and I told her that it was "if all" because there was no such thing as "father raindrops". She informed us that the big ones were Father raindrops and the little ones were the mommy and baby raindrops! Seems logical to me. :)

The other funny thing is not so funny to me as a dad. It seems that a four year old boy who is the son of some good friends has confiscated our family picture so that "Alyssa can sleep with him at night." I'm going to have to keep a close watch on that kid at church!!

Winter Wonderland

Tomball College offers an annual Winter Wonderland complete with "snow", train rides, hay rides, pictures with Santa, etc.

Alyssa was so cute with Santa. She wasn't too thrilled about having to sit on his lap, but she needed to make sure he knew what she wanted for Christmas. Daddy tried to get her to ask for an x-box, but she stuck with her goal of getting a Handy Manny Talking Toolbox. I'm still unsure of why she wants that...but Santa better get it or we'll have a tough morning!

Cayden screamed within seconds of hitting Santa's lap. He didn't ask for an x-box either. :( I guess we'll have to wait another year.

This is becoming an annual kid picture. We had a hard time getting Cayden out of the chairs! He wanted to rock-rock all night!

Mommy, Alyssa, PawPaw and Cayden riding the train!

ThanksMas in Baton Rouge!

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Baton Rouge with the Harless family celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas! We had a lot of fun visiting with mom and dad, and brought them some luck!! They finally sold their house to someone who came to view it while we were there. Sorry that we didn't come earlier so you didn't have to wait so long!!

Anyhow...on to the pictures. The first two are of shirts that April and the kids made. My little "turkeys" used their handprints to make some cute Thanksgiving shirts! My wife is becoming a regular Martha Stewart - minus the tax evasion and insider trading.

Cayden was having a blast in ColdStone after our family pictures. I love this picture...he looks like a big kid with his baggy jeans, untucked shirt and unkempt hair.

Alyssa tried so hard to catch some dinner.

Holiday Parade!

Today was the Annual Holiday Parade in Tomball. Daddy and Alyssa were very excited because they got to ride in the stagecoach!! Cayden, Mommy, MawMaw and PawPaw got to watch all the fun floats, horses, Shriners cars, etc go by. Daddy and Alyssa were very early in the parade, so we got to watch a lot of the floats near the end. It was a beautiful (and cold) morning.

Cayden is watching intently to see what float is next!!

Alyssa and Daddy riding in the parade!!

What Holiday Parade is complete without Santa & Mrs. Claus? Mrs. Claus must be checking up on things at the North Pole...if you can see, she's on a cell phone!!

Cute Story

I'm going to try and be a better blogger and provide you with classic stories of childhood. Particularly the things my kids do that crack me up!

Tonight, at dinner, we were sitting around and I said to Cayden: "I love you Bear."
Alyssa looked at me very seriously and said: "Dad, can you tell me - I love you Goldilocks?"

I wasn't even thinking that he was a little Bear for Halloween, so it caught me off guard for a second. April started cracking up and I realized what she had just said! So - I love you Goldilocks!!

Random October Pictures!

Weekend Trip

So, after halloween, we took a quick trip to Lake Charles to see the great grandparents, grandparents, great aunts, uncles, etc.

Cayden playing with his truck

Alyssa playing hide and seek!! She was the best hider and seeker!!Showing Uncle Mitch all the worms she found!!

Playing with Daddy's cousins. She had so much fun with cousins Hannah and Hailey. She wanted to rush home and make them a card to thank them for playing with her! So did Mommy and Daddy - it was nice having adult conversations and letting the teenage girls chase around the babies!!

So much for rushing home to write a thank you letter!! Alyssa crashed out on the way home!
Cayden must have been having a great dream! :)

Halloween!!

Ok...so i'm a week late. Sue me. Here's the kids dressed up for Halloween. Alyssa was Goldilocks and Cayden was the little bear!

Daddy trying to steal some candy!

After a few houses, Cayden got the hang of it and really enjoyed getting candy!

Daddy enjoyed it too!! More for me!

Knee update

Yesterday was the big day. We got to the hospital around 9:45 to get checked in. Sometime around 10:30 they called me back and started up on the iv's. They put in a nerve blocker in my thigh to help dull the pain during recovery. April said I slept a lot, then they finally brought me back into the OR. I remember getting on the table, putting on the oxygen mask and the Dr. telling me that i'd feel a slight "stinging" sensation in my arm from the anesthesia medicine. Next thing I know, i'm getting dressed to go home!

The pain has been pretty dull, however I definitely know it's there! I've been resting a lot between yesterday and today since rehab starts tomorrow!

I'm going to try and scan the pics the doc gave me, but essentially I completely tore my acl, had a partial tear of the MCL and tore the medial and lateral meniscus. They used portions of my tendon and bone to repair the acl and put an anchor in to repair my meniscus.

ok...back to bed. I'm tired!

Pumpkin Patch

Today was the day of our annual trek to the Pumpkin Patch at our church! The kids had a good time. Cayden LOVED all the "balls".

Alyssa and Cayden walking down the "yellow brick road"
Dorky Matching Outfits :)
Alyssa wanted the biggest pumpkin she could find!

Cayden showing the latest "ball" he found!

Cayden's Baptism

Cayden was Baptized at our church on October 12th. We were happy to have lots of family in attendence as his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and even great-aunt and great-uncle joined us to celebrate.

Weekend getaway

April and I were able to get away last weekend to the Hyatt Hill Country resort in Bastrop for a few days of R&R. I won a three day weekend trip through work, so it fit my budget! FREE! We were able to just relax and enjoy a great resort. Hiking along the Colorado river, floating in the pool/lazy river, and just hanging out!

Saturday afternoon we went to Georgetown to meet Kyle and Melanie and their beautiful little girl, Julia. They invited us to the Taste of Georgetown where we sampled food and wine from local restaurants and wineries.

Cute video

Nature Fest

Last weekend we had a great opportunity to hang out as a family at Nature Fest. The kids got to go to a petting zoo, learn about animals, watch dogs catch frisbees, and enjoy a great day together.

Ike - Part deux

Well, it is time for clean up! We survived Ike. No major damage, although we had lots of limbs and leaves fall and 1/3rd of our fence is down. The kids were great troopers. Alyssa loved sleeping in the closet during the storm. Cayden is feeling significantly better although he was quite confused at all the commotion!

Alyssa liked listening to headphones to help pass the time without power!!

Not so great weekend...Part 1

Go away Ike. Seriously. I could do without you and your winds.

So after busting my tail organizing the garage so that I could fit all of our backyard stuff, I come inside around 10pm to relax. About 11 or so we realize that Cayden's coughing and breathing aren't normal. He starts fussing and April and I take turns trying to soothe him. Around 1am we gave up. He was coughing violently, wheezing like crazy and having trouble getting his breath. With Ike on his way, we made the decision to take him to the ER, figuring (correctly) that doctors' offices would not be available today and Monday would be WAY too long to wait for him to breath!

So Cayden and I headed up to the local ER. Nothing like a trip to the ER when a major storm is approaching to make you realize how good you have it! There was one lady who was suicidal and psychotic who kept yelling and cursing at everyone. Another guy who nearly chopped his hand off cutting plywood for the storm. There was a grandma who had been beaten up (not sure by whom), and sadly there were several people who had been dropped off at the hospital because they figured it would be safe during the storm.

Anyhow...back to the important part of the story. Cayden's blood/oxygen levels were 88% when we got there and he was running a slight fever. Not horrible, but considering that he was showing no symptoms until early yesterday afternoon, it could have gotten much worse. After hearing him cough a few times the nurse identified his ailment as croup. Cayden got four breathing treatments and a dose of steriods before his lungs were clear enough for the doc to send us home. We made it to the house around 4:45 this morning. It was actually a pretty quick trip to the ER by most standards, but holding down a screaming baby while trying to administer breathing treatments somehow makes for a REALLY long night!

Thankfully we're doing much better today. The drugs seem to be helping and the pharmacy was open to let us get more!! Hopefully daddy and mommy can find some time to sleep today as we're a bit worn out.

Here's the kids playing while Mommy and Daddy get ready for Ike. (obviously Cayden is feeling a bit better!)

Cayden is trying to help board up some windows!

We put Cayden in here so that we could get dressed and get ready for everyone to take a nap. Looks like he couldn't wait!

Good luck to anyone in the path of IKE! Be safe.