Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Heading to the Great White North!

Hey Y'all!

Our flight leaves in about 3.5 hours so I'm running around vacuuming and sweeping and packing like mad so I can come home to a clean house! Jon has a ton to finish up at work before he can leave on vakay so he's been super busy. I think we got 5 hours of sleep last night, possibly! But I wanted to pop on here and share the latest video Jon created for The Met. It's the continuation of Samuel's story (and it's kind of long, so grab a snack and sit a while). Hopefully we're seeing a lot of your smiling faces soon!

Mylius Family Story from The MET Church on Vimeo.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Our Little Christmas



On Saturday morning, we celebrated Christmas just the three of us. I wanted to do it on a morning when Jon didn't have to rush off to work. To be honest, Jon and I were so excited to give Brennan his wooden train set that we didn't even sleep that well. We set it all up the night before so when he came out into the living room he'd see it. It was awesome, he loooves it! The kid loves his milk, so when he played with the trains all morning without one sip of milk, we knew we had a winner.



Jon and I weren't going to exchange gifts, just like last year. However, my sweet husband called me up last week and said, "Guess what? I bought you a Christmas present. And I got a really good deal on it, it was only $100.00".

Are you kidding me? So although I love his heart for giving (this guy has the most generous spirit out of anyone I know), I felt really scrambled and rushed trying to find him a gift. Thankfully, my friend, Cherish called with an awesome idea to have Brennan paint a picture for Jon's office at work. Brennan had a blast "colowing" and Jon loved the gift, whew.


Working on his masterpiece.

After opening presents, Jon made us a yummy breakfast, I'm convinced guys are innately better at cooking breakfast than girls. At least that's been my experience.



We fly to Detroit on Wednesday for Christmas with our families, so excited! It's supposed to be 75 degrees here tomorrow so I'm pretty sure our bodies will go into shock once we land, ha!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

It's The Little Things


I had been wanting to get Brennan a particular toy for a while and even put it on his wishpot. Wishpot is awesome, by the way. So his birthday came and went in February and we never bought the toy, mainly because we don't really spend money on toys for him. He gets toys from garage sales or his wonderful Grandparents or hand me downs so really, he has plenty.

Fast forward to Saturday and we're driving through our neighborhood and see that exact same toy I wanted for him sitting in front of someone's house waiting to be picked up by the trash man. So we grabbed, I cleaned it off, and here it is! Brennan loves it!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Randomness, really.


-I'm not a very good "stay at home" mom. What I mean is, I'm not good at staying at home with Brennan. I get antsy if we stay home even one day. I neeeed to get out, NEEED! Even if it's just to Target or the park. Anyways, I took Brennan to the doctor last Thursday because he was a walking disaster and I figured something must be wrong. He rarely gets fevers or pulls at his ears, so the only way I know he's sick is when he just has meltdowns for every little thing. He had an ear infection. So Thursday and Friday we stayed home and tried to lay low. Ugh. Hated it. Anyone else feel me on this?

-Thankfully he's feeling better this week so we can do our usual routine of playgroups, bible study, MOPS, walking with friends, etc. Did I tell you I'm the new playgroup coordinator for our Lifegroup? We meet once a week at various places, people's houses, the mall, parks, splash pads, etc. It's fun for me to find new areas to meet at and it helps me get to know Houston better.

-This morning, our MOPS table had a Christmas cookie exchange and my husband is officially in sugar heaven. Last year, we had the exchange the day before we flew to Michigan for Christmas, so I gave them all away. This year, they're all ours, ha!!! :)

-Last week, our Bible study (we studied this book) finished up for the year and we all went out to lunch at the Bake Shoppe It's awesome! I snapped a few photos on my cell phone:



Kind of "Texas" in design but I really like it. (see, told you, random post). Is anybody still reading this? Helllo? Hello?

Can you believe Christmas is NEXT week? Holy guacamole. It was 78 degrees here on Saturday, I can't believe Christmas is next Saturday, it's not computing. That's all I have for today. Maybe I'll post some more randomness tomorrow, that is, if anyone is still reading by this point. . .

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Christmas- Texas Style


Last night, Jon and I were planning on going out on a date (sushi for him, Charming Charlies for me, it's all about the compromise in this relationship, ha!). But Brennan has an ear infection, so we had to cancel. Instead, we decided to drive around the Prestonwood Neighborhood which is known for their Christmas light displays.

It was pretty neat, each road within the neighborhood had a theme, such as Frosty the Snowman, the 12 Days of Christmas, etc. Then, we came across the "Texas Christmas" street. Check it out:







Oh Texas, you kill me sometimes.

This morning, I really wanted/needed to get out of the house. After being home with Brennan for a few days, I get antsy. So we went to some Tomball Festival we stumbled upon and walked around. Today is gorrrrgeous outside so we wanted to be outside and enjoy the weather (high of 78 today). The market was a perfect place to do that! There were all sorts of vendors, rides, food, etc. We even got to see this gem:





"Swingin' Home for Christmas"

This state is awesome.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Christmas Stuff

So the Christmas craziness has begun in the Ackerman household and I love it! It seems like there is something going on every single night with Christmas parties and get togethers. It's kind of weird because it doesn't SEEM like Christmas, it's not that cold and there's no snow on the ground. But it is the Christmas season and my favorite time of year!!


Our FPU Class

Wednesday night was our last FPU class and we ended it with a little party. Let the Christmas eating begin, right? :) The last session was about giving. Be responsible with your money, live below your means, so you can give! Not so you can hoard. It was my favorite lesson of the entire session.

Thursday night we had dinner with some other staff families. Friday night was our Life Group's Christmas party, thank you Jesus for Parents Night Out! Saturday, Jon and I went to the shooting range with some friends of ours. The husband is a police officer and had all sorts of guns to shoot with. If I do say so myself, I'm a pretty good shot. :)



Jon at the range. We are totally Texans now.

Saturday night, our friends Ashley and Daniel had us over for dinner. Ashley's been a blessing in my life, she has a son almost the exact same age as Brennan and they are little buddies. I met Ashley at a StrollerFit class I went to once. She came up to me in our Life Group and said, "you look familiar". Turns out a few weeks after that class, her and her hubby decided to join our class. They grilled steak on Saturday night with this amazing sauce and it was soooo delicious.

This year, I decided to make these cinnamon rolls for some Christmas presents (neighbors, co-workers, etc.). Lord have mercy. They are amazing (and calorie free, in case you were wondering). I've mentioned Pioneer Women several times before on this blog because she's awesome and everything I've made from her recipes has been good! Here's the final results:

See? Totally calorie free!

Yesterday afternoon was The Met's Staff Christmas Party. They had a pretty-darn-close-to-real-looking Santa Clause there. B was not a fan.


Classic.