Our Merry Christmas

The Golden family had a wonderful Christmas. Kate hosted Christmas Eve at her house. The girls had a great time, as did their parents. Santa even popped in for a visit. Christmas day we had at our house so the girls could open presents at their own house. It was so fun. Savannah was so spoiled by the grandparents that she had to take a break from opening her presents because it was just all too much. Annabeth was adorable for her first Christmas. She was all smiles and she had a great time opening the gifts. She was a true delight all day. Sean and I were spoiled as well. We got a Nintentdo Wii from my parents. I am not a video game person. That being said, I love the Wii. It is the non-video game person's video game system. It is awesome. Anyway, I digress. It was lovely to have everyone together and have such a great couple of days with family. Here's hoping yours was as wonderful.

Savannah pretending to go to sleep at Aunt Kate's so Santa would come.
Annabeth soaking up all the attention.

Dad and his sister, Carol who came to visit from the Chicago area.

Santa with Sean and the girls.

Savannah on Christmas morning.
Annabeth loved the fox one of the grandparents gave her - she was all smiles al day - so cute!

Christmas Card Rejects

We had lots of fun taking pictures of the girls tonight for our Christmas card. There was laughter and there were tears. To see the winner you will have to wait until we can get our act together and get these sent out, here are some of the rejects.

"Are you done yet?"
"I got her hair!!"

"I'm so tired of Mom and Dad always saying how cute she is..."

"Now this is fun"

Snow. In Houston.

Yes, you read that title correctly. The snow even stuck to the grass. We took video and pictures, so I will let them speak for themselves.

Father and Husband of the Year goes to.... Sean!!

I just want to take a minute and give thanks for my fabulous husband. Today was a busy day. Savannah was invited to the birthday party of her school friend Jackson. Well, Savannah loves Jackson, so even though he lives a good 40 mintues away, Sean was a good sport and took Savannah to the party. I stayed home to get ready for our fun evening we had planned, book club!! We hosted book club at our home tonight (so much fun), at Sean's suggestion. All the girls (meaning children) were able to come (we missed seeing little Jack, hopefully next time). Unfortunately none of the other daddies were able to make it. The ladies all hung out in the adult room leaving Sean with 5 little girls all under the age of 5 to entertain (read: wrangle) for almost 3 hours. It was amazing to watch him in action. He even managed to feed Annabeth in the midst of all the choas. I tried to get photographic evidence, but the camera's batteries died with no new ones readily available. All I know is that I am one lucky lady and he deserves the father and husband of the year awards.

Another week, another trip to the doctor

I took the kids to the doctor yesterday mainly to get them the flu shot and to finally get Annabeth's 6 month shots (I know she is a good 7 months old now, but we kept holding off due to her ear infections and tube surgery). As it turns out, Annabeth still has an ear infection. I knew her ears were bothering her, but didn't realize the extent (again). We ended up giving her the shots anyway because we needed to get them done. Apparently she is going to go to college with an ear infection.

Savannah was just getting her flu shot. I had blatantly bribed her with a trip to Chick-Fil-A (aka chicken and fries) if she was good during the appointment. She was so focused on the reward that she actually told the nurse "yay shots". Who knew how powerful those chicken nuggets really are? Thankfully they both did well during and after the appointment.

Here are some cute pictures from this week. Annabeth is starting to eat finger foods. She loves the Gerber puffs and dried fruit. She also had some finely chopped turkey, yummy!!

This child never sits down!

Note the dried apple on her shoulder, so cute!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Conroe this year. We started out doing the Turkey Trot (2+ mile walk) and ended the day looking like turkeys trampled by the longhorns. However, the dinner was really good, as was the company.

Savannah and I post turkey

Annabeth's first Thanksgiving

Annabeth's first picture with Santa (he attended the Turkey Trot)

We ended our weekend by pulling out all the Christmas decorations. Clearly this is fun for Annabeth who loves to get into anything and everything.

Daily Life Around the Golden Home

We have been settling in and preparing for Thanksgiving this week. One of the most important preparations is putting Savannah in an Aggie shirt and making sure she can "Gig 'Em!!"

Our sweet future Aggie

Here is a video of Annabeth getting her dance on, she loves The Wiggles!!

Tubes, glorious tubes, part two

Annabeth's surgery went well this morning. She is so much happier. This afternoon she actually took a good nap for the first time in weeks. I think we have our sweet, happy baby back. Yeah!!

This morning I'm the bug...

There's a song that says that sometimes you are the windsheild and sometimes you're the bug. Well, today I'm the bug. I don't understand how this always happens when Sean goes out of town. Last night Annabeth was up more than she was asleep (not that she is normally a good night time sleeper, but at least the ratio usually tips in my favor). The thing that kept me going was knowing that I could rest today while Savannah was at school and Annabeth napped. Savannah had been whining all morning, that isn't too unusual for her. I thought she may just be tired because she stayed up partying in her room last night for a good hour after I put her to bed. So, I asked her if she wanted to see her little friend she likes so much at school. Then she started crying and told me she had a booboo in her tummy. Just as I am about to ask her how it hurts, it comes to me. Actually, all over me. That's right I got drenched in vomit. Somehow she missed getting Annabeth, who was sitting on my lap. So, here I am with two sick kids, no husband and no sleep. Awesome.

Tubes, glorious tubes

It's official, Annabeth needs tubes in her ears. The sweet baby's ears are so full of fluid that her little ear drum is not vibrating at all. So, Friday morning we will head to St. Luke's and get this taken care of for her. She was such a good sport during all the testing. She was hungry, tired and sick and she was sweet and calm through the whole exam. The audiologist wanted to keep her. It will be nice to have her feeling better and know she is not in pain any more.

Sweet smiling Annabeth
Spoiled Savannah in all her stuffed toys

Sean's Successful Surprise

We did it!! We had a surprise party for Sean on Saturday night. Thank you so much to everyone who helped us pull off such a big surprise. He had such a great time. We can't thank all the people who made huge efforts to come in town just for this event enough, thank you all. It was definitely a memorable 30th birthday for him.Sean is realizing this may be a party for him...
Sean with two of his uncles, Uncle Vic and Uncle Dennis
Sean with Marc and Ben
Heather breathing a sigh of relief that we actually pulled off the surprise
Sean with his brother Brian and friend Tommy

Sean with Matt, Chris and baby Chandler

Quick update

Annabeth had her GI study this morning. She was very reluctant to drink the barium milk, but they managed to get enough in her to be able to tell that all looked good. This will allow us to give her more meds for her reflux if we need to do so. We go back to the Dr. tomorrow to check her ear. Hopefully it will look much better. If not, I'm not sure what the next course of action will be for her treatment. Hopefully we won't have to find out.

I'm so sorry Annabeth...

I took Annabeth for her ear recheck today. I knew I was probably going to be told it was not totally gone yet. She had been slightly fussy. Since Annabeth is never fussy, I knew. However, what I did not know was the extent of the infection. He told us he knows we gave her the medicine he prescribed, however he could not tell by looking in her ear. Her infection is so bad Dr. Injac decided she needed an antibiotic shot today and tomorrow. So, Friday we get to go back for another check. This is in addition to the upper GI study on Thursday morning. Hopefully this will help her.

Halloween fun

We had a great time this week. Monday we had a small get together for the kids with everyone in costume. Friday we attended a small party with friends. Savannah was not feeling it with the trick-or-treating, so we decided to head home when it got dark.

Daddy and Annabeth on Halloween
Savannah as Raggedy Ann at our little party

Fun choas

Daddy playing with Savannah

Heather's attempt at a pumpkin cake

Did I mention Savannah likes animals?

The church across the street had a festival yesterday. So, we decided to check it out. Immediately upon arrival we spotted the petting zoo. Well, those of you who know Savannah well can guess what we did for the majority of our time there. When we weren't in the petting zoo, she was asking to go back to said petting zoo. It was Annabeth's first experience with a petting zoo. The donkey seemed to get her attention the most. Here are some fun photos of the girls.

Savannah loving on the bunny

Annabeth petting her first cow. It is a baby too, it was only 3 days old!

Can you believe they let her hold the bunny? She was so gentle too.

Savannah, Savannah and more Savannah

Savannah has been underrepresented on the blog lately. So, this post is all Savannah. She is becoming so chatty. It is nice to see her interested in communicating with words, now if we could only get interested in potty training.... She is such a good big sister to Annabeth. She is still struggling with sharing her toys but she is very free with kisses and hugs.

She has quite a posse that she would take everywhere, if only we would let her. The posse includes a unicorn (called "baby horse"), wags the dog, tripes (a triceratops), a small bear, a tiger and a whale. She loves animals. She can name all the animals at the zoo, even the okapi.

She has such a sweet heart. She will bring me things she thinks I would want. She is such a big girl but still such a baby. She likes to help with baby sister and then I will look over at her and she will be sucking her thumb. I have really loved watching her become more independent.

Sweet Savannah, how we love you.

There goes my mother of the year award...

We took Annabeth for her 6 month well check today. It started out so well. She showed off her sitting and crawling abilities, and the crowd (read: Mama, Dada, and Dr. Injac) went wild. She then proceeds to smile and wiggle through the exam, much to everyone's delight. Then he checked her left ear. (Hear the sound of the other shoe dropping?) His smile disappeared. Evidently she has a raging ear infection. That would explain some of the night waking, except for the fact that she has always had lots of night waking (thank you, acid reflux). We feel lucky if she only wakes us up twice a night. So, now we are taking antibiotics for the next ten days. Then we get to go back in two weeks, check her ear and get her 6 month shots (I don't like vaccinating a sick kiddo).

Here are her stats as of today:

15 lbs 5 oz - 29th percentile

26 inches - 48th percentile

She is a little shorter and a little chubbier than Savannah was at this age. She was 27 inches and 14 lbs. It is nice to have a more proportional child. It sure helps the clothes fit better!!

I promise to have a thorough Savannah update soon, she is such a sweet big sister!!

Onward and Upward

Annabeth is not someone who rests on her laurels, so she has decided to try cruising. Since she is not quite 6 months (Satuday she will hit that milestone), she is too short to use normal sized furniture. Thus, she has decided that Savannah's little chiars are the perfect size for her early adventures in learning to walk.

Good job little one!!

Annabeth has been working day and night (read: no one except Savannah is getting any sleep around here) to learn how to go from crawling to sitting. Today Sean and I went into her room to get her up from a nap and she was sitting up waiting for us. She was so proud of herself. She was all smiles. If you want to check out her new skills, check the video below.

Otherwise we have not been up to too much around here. Sean and I got to go to A&M to meet the student who received the scholarship we endowed a couple of years ago. Her name is Michelle Wong. She was very sweet and we were impressed with her in general. So, that was a fun break (especially for Heather because she rarely gets to go to A&M anymore). The girls got some one-on-one time with the grandparents, so it seems a good time was had by all.

What happens when you turn your back for just a minute?

I had to get up while feeding Annabeth to kill a bug that Savannah had brought to me. As I was killing said bug Savannah decided that Annabeth could not wait for even a second for more of her sweet potatoes. I was shocked and Savannah was so proud of herself for helping Mama and Baby Sister. So sweet (and messy, note the progression from one photo to the next).

On Saturday we went to the zoo all decked out in our Aggie attire. Savannah and Daddy taking in the koala exhibit.

Sean and his ladies.

In another life or at another time this would have been a very different photo.