jumping for joy

Bailey and Papa W. supervising the assembly of the trampoline.

Now, Mrs.Santa had bought a trampoline about a month before Christmas, and Mr. Santa and the Elves were on a secret mission to set it up on Christmas Eve so it would be ready for jumping on Christmas morning...adding to the true magic of Christmas. BUT, the trampoline Mrs. Santa got was a big piece of junk and folded in half when the elves put it together! So at about 4:00pm on Christmas Eve, Mr. Santa called Mrs. Santa and informed her of the situation. Now, a trampoline is a big gift for a 4 year old and 9 month old, so Santa didn't get them much else. What was Mrs. Santa to do?? Both Santa's were panic stricken and disappointed because they knew how much Bailey had been begging for a trampoline. Luckily Mrs. Santa is an expert shopper and remembered seeing 'industrial' (aka: twice-as-expensive) trampolines at Sam's Club. Mrs. Santa made it to Sam's Club about 30 minutes before closing on Christmas Eve and made the purchase. (GULP!) Meanwhile, Mr.Santa and the Elves disassembled the worthless trampoline and returned it to Wal-Mart (where they found multiple trampolines had been returned already!). By then it was too dark to assemble it, so Santa left a note to Bailey and Benson explaining that a trampoline is too big to fit on a sleigh unless it's in a box, and the boxes were definitely too big to fit down the chimney, so he left it on the back porch and made a path out of wrapping paper to help find it. So if you see Mrs. Santa with a few more gray hairs (yes, more...meaning there are some already at 26! ugh! thank you Dowding genetics.), you'll know why. Did I mention that during all this Mr. Santa had violent case of stomach flu?

This picture makes it all worth it! Bailey (and Mom, and Dad, and the neighborhood friends) all have soooo much fun on it! And I can sit and watch from my "ninny chair" (recliner) inside!

"Mom, Come see my HIEROGLYPHICS!"

Yes, that is what Bailey hollered to me from the bath-tub on Christmas Day. She had gotten bath crayons for Christmas and made 'hieroglyphics' on the tile. I think she learned it from either Little Einsteins or her Jumpstart computer game, but definitely not from me. I didn't know what hieroglyphics were until I was like 10! Smarty pants!

Believe it or not, this is not his most impressive display of his tongue skills. He always gets shy when the camera comes out. When he's concentrating on something it comes out and is busy. It is so funny and cute to watch. It's the pointiest little (or maybe not so little) tongue I've ever seen!

merry monkeys

Here are some pictures of the Wallace cousins (Gavin, Benson, Bailey, and Isaac) on Christmas in their "Monkey Skins" (a term Brandon made up for the tight, body hugging jammies that our kids, aka: monkeys, wear).

Bailey doing her best to corral both of the boys for a picture by Guh's tree.

Gavin and Benz.

Becky told Gavin to take his fingers out of his mouth (he sucks them instead of a binki), and he didn't know what to do with his hand instead! I love the confused look on his face! Benz is just hamming it up for Guh. We took this picture because Gavin wanted to hold "BENCE!" (as he says it!) some more. Boy, is his soon-to-be little sister in for it! (Gavin LOVES babies!)

merry christmas!

Santa brought Benson a Winne the Pooh Walker and Tiger Basketball thing. He also got lots of fun new toys from us and the grandparents. He was pretty overwhelmed/dazed and confused by all of it.

Bailey was so excited for Christmas. She was too busy opening presents and didn't let me get too many pictures. She opened all of Benson's presents too! Santa brought her "Ratatouille" and a trampoline! (pictures to follow in another post!)

Bailey and Dad watching "Ratatouille." She was so excited to get it! It's actually really cute...probably one of my most favorite Pixar/Disney movies...right up there with "Nemo" and "Toy Story"!

ho ho humbug!

Brandon took this entire week off (woo-hoo!), and we went and got pictures with Santa at the Mall today. I have to say, I was totally unimpressed. I've seen much better Santa attractions, that are much friendlier and cheaper! This Santa was COMPLETELY LAME! He didn't even ask the kids what they wanted! He didn't even say "hi!" Bailey was a little confused, so she just told him what she wanted (a trampoline and "Ratatouille") and the Santa said, "Oh." !!!!!!! I was SO mad! He's on my naughty list!

We also saw "Baby Isaac," our newest Wallace cousin/nephew, for the first time today (check out the "STEWART SCOOP" link!). He's super cute and cuddly! Bailey ADORES him! She got to hold him several times. Now she's asking when we can see Baby Laura?, our newest Leseberg cousin/niece (who is just 2 weeks older than Isaac!). Whenever she sees pictures of her or Isaac, Bailey says, "I wonder what her hands feel like. She looks so soft." (Bailey has a thing for baby hands and grown-up feet!)

update

So sorry it has been so long since I've posted...here's what we've been up to.

1. We all contracted a HORRIBLE cold (going on 2 weeks now, 4 for Bailey). Our lungs probably grew mold like everything else here in Houston does. Hopefully we will all recover soon. Luckily, Benson didn't get it too much.

2. We've decided to redecorate and are trying out how the refrigerator looks in our entry way, and two tables in our dining room seems much more functional. Not really. We had the worlds crappiest tile (beautiful, but crappy quality) in our kitchen, example: Bailey dropped a MAGNET, it chipped the floor. The builder had already replaced 10 individual chipped tiles, and in two months we had another 15 that needed to be replaced. I insisted that they just replace the entire floor with a totally different kind of tile that was more durable. After months of harassing they finally came out and did it. Actually it was the irate and threatening phone call I made after our sewer lines had backed up for the SECOND time in one week, and the yard was dug up for the SECOND time, that finally got things done. (I learned from the best, thanks, Dad!) It looks great now, everything is just covered in about 1inch of dust. Oh, and our fridge is still in the hall, until another set of workers decides to come replace the floor mouldings. Fun times. (remind me never to buy new construction again!)

3. In the middle of this maddness, the battery on my van died. In order to squeeze more money out of us, Chevy put the battery under the fuse box and radiator braces, where only specialized mechanics can get it. And the battery is about 3 times the price of a regular one, PLUS labor, because it is so difficult. Nice.

4. Benson remains a "Small Fry" (that is what I said the first time I saw him!). He is nine months old, and weighs 16lbs, 130z (7th Percentile!), and 28 inches (50%), and his head is only in the 25%! (That is SO rare for Leseberg genetics!) He looks plump, but it's all fluff! He loves food, and loves to eat, but I guess since he never sleeps (my last blog entry cursed it! he hasn't slept since!) he never has the chance to grow. He continues to make us laugh...and as you hear in the video, he has a funny little happy laugh when he really likes something or is excited about something...especially ice-cream.

5. See below for an update on Bailey.

who's on first?

Bailey started T-Ball a couple of weeks ago. She is really good and loves to play. She's been playing first base a lot, which is fun because of all the 'action.' (more so than left field!) It's also been really fun for Brandon. They let the parents get really involved to help the kids, and I think Brandon enjoys it more than Bay sometimes. Bailey's team is "The Dodgers" (which warms Papa L's heart!) and they have won both of thier games. Bailey got two hits and two runs her first game!

silent night

my christmas wish came true (KNOCK ON WOOD)! for now, at least. Benson slept all thru the night for the ENTIRE week! In his nine months, he's never done that before. On occasion he's slept thru the night one or two nights in a row. But this week we struck gold! We went from last week, waking up every TWO hours, to sleeping all night this week! It's my own Christmas miracle! I'm so tired from the last 14 months of bad sleep, that I'm pretty much in a coma when I close my eyes. I didn't even move until Bay came and woke me up.

As you can see, we also got our tree up and decorated this week. (I actually had all my christmas stuff up by tuesday!) Benson and Bailey love the tree. Benson rolls and scoots to get to it, and likes to try and get to the plug to inspect it as well. Bailey loves all of the "Advent" calendars/toys/signs/etc. that we have. Here favorites are the Chocolate Advent Calendar (thanks Guh L.!) and a chimney that you pull out bricks every day and Santa slowly falls down the chimney (thanks Guh W!). Bailey also loves watching all of our Christmas shows....which leads me to my next questions...
GUH LESEBERG (MOM), WHY DO YOU HATE ME?
ARE YOU PUNISHING ME FOR MOVING AWAY?

WHAT HAVE I EVER DONE TO DESERVE 90 MINUTES OF CHRISTMAS CAILLOU????!!!!

For those of you who are blessed enough to not know what Caillou is, it is a sickenly sweet PBS cartoon...it is the bane of every preschoolers parent's exisitence. Why every 2-5 yr old loves this show, I'll never understand. But they do LOVE it!

this one's for the grandparents

Here are some videos of the kids doing thier latest "tricks." I'm warning you that I'm NOT a cinematographer or anything close. I don't know how to edit out the boring parts or filter or anything like that. If you're not one of the Grandparents, you might be bored (but you'd better not tell me if you are, or I might have to ban you from the blog! :)) As for my family that hasn't seen Benson in action in 6-9 months...I hope you find it amusing. Don't cry, Guh L! :) :( As you can see, Benson can wave and play "Patty Cake," but is easily distracted by 'beautiful' or 'interesting' things, like the polka dots on the high chair. His new thing is his "cheesey face" or "scrunchy face." It's SO cute, and he's such a ham. He will be 9 months old on Saturday, and he's finally getting his first tooth (Bailey got her first one at 5 months!), which is a bottom EYE tooth...he's going to have a little jack-o-lantern smile! How cute is that? Bailey LOVES the movie Annie and has all the songs memorized, and sings them all day long. The funny thing is, most of the time she gets 'stuck' singing "Tomorrow" and doesn't know how to end it. She just keeps saying "...tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow..." over and over again. :) And she's not at all camera shy.

bucking tradition

my mother-in-law and I decided to buck tradition this year and go out to eat on Thanksgiving. We went to Cracker Barrel. Their turkey dinner was less than stellar, but I have to say, the over-all experience was very nice. It was nice to be able to spend the day relaxing with family. We had a busy week, though. Brandon took the entire week off, and we got a lot done around the house. We also finally registered my car in Texas (only because my UT registration was expiring), and we got our drivers licenses. I know those things are always a hassle, but as the saying goes, 'every thing's bigger in Texas.' Even the hassle. But I'm an official Texan now (oh, dear). We also did a bunch of yard work (which was completely destroyed yesterday morning when I came home to find a backhoe in my front yard digging everything up. The backhoe was there to 'remedy' our plumbing that was incorrectly installed causing our sewage to back up Monday night. But don't get me started. I just hope the big-bad-wolf never comes, because he'll blow our house of straw down.)

a week of milestones!

Here are some of the milestones from our week...Bailey got her first trophy, which ended a very fun soccer season (pictured with Coach Chip). Thursday starts T-Ball! I was hoping for a week off, but no. Benson can now sit endlessly with out being propped and rarely falling over. He's so cute. He just sat on a blanket and played all thru Primary yesterday. What a difference a week makes! Last week he'd fall over after about 30 seconds! This week he sat for 30 minutes! He was growling at his toys and making the kids (and adults) laugh, so I then had to take him out for a while.

i'm so glad when daddy comes home...

I took this picture last week, and just got it downloaded onto the computer. Brandon had just gotten home and Benson was so excited to see him, he was jumping up and down in his Exersaucer. Brandon picked him up and you could tell Benson was glad to have Daddy home. Benson is such a lovey little guy, and wears his heart on his sleeve. He melts my heart!

Unfortunately the poor little guy has an ear infection right now. He started on antibiotics yesterday afternoon, so I'm hoping he'll perk up soon. It's been rough for everyone. The worst part is, he's lost weight since his "8 Month Well Baby" check-up last week. He's down to 17lbs 4oz. Such a small fry! (Last week he was 17lbs 12 0z).

a fisher-price family night

I've been reading Bailey and Benson all of our Thanksgiving books lately, and trying to teach Bay what Thanksgiving is all about (besides Turkey and Pie). Mostly she gets all confused, and just like to play "Pirates" with the Mayflower (which is a super-cute, super-fun toy, that I'll have to keep out all year!). So for Family Night, I read our "Pilgrim" book and re-enacted the story, complete with the Mayflower coming from England (the fireplace), across the ocean (aka: Benson's play mat) to America (the ottoman). It was fun, and she wanted to do the "Pilgrim Play" all by herself when it was over. Best of all, when we asked her questions about the story after, she really remembered and got it straight! Benson mostly just wanted to taste it all, so we let him chew on the Captain.

I'm a Spaz!!

Okay, so I forgot to enable comments. I'm such a dork. I'm new at this.

Last night I went on a 'date' with my sister-in-law, Becky (check out her blog..."J.Wallace's"). We went to the Brad Paisley, Rodney Atkins, and Taylor Swift Concert together. She is my lone country ally in the Wallace Family, our husbands would rather be skinned alive than go to a country concert. We got a great deal on tickets thru a friend of Brianne's (my other sis.-in-law, check out "Stewart Scoop"), and had a blast, minus our soggy bums. (It was an outdoor amphitheater, and we forgot a blanket to sit on.) A lot of the nights entertainment came not from the performers, but from the group of drunks that sat in front of us. We pretty much smelled like a dirty bar stool when we got home (stale beer, stale cigarettes, and Houston Mud...which has a weird swampy smell). It was a lot of fun. I'm so glad to have such great sisters-in-law!

PS: Here is a cute little turkey (prounouced "Jurky" by Bailey) that Bay made. :)

How cute are they?!

Blog, Blog, Blog

Everyone I know has a blog. So why not me? I don't know.

But here it goes....