NYE

The Cottrells know how to party. We stayed out til *gasp* 9:30pm with the kiddos at a friend's house to ring in the new year. Then home, bath, pjs, bed. Right around 10:30pm Jarid yelled down that Morgan had gotten sick {not alcohol related..promise. Ha!} And so it continued the rest of the night. Poor babe. Owen had a small touch of it but nothing like Morgan.

But...they sure looked adorable in their NYE outfits before pukefest 2012 commenced :)

How cute is this party girl (and dress?!?)

First time in a sweater vest!

Trolley

Yesterday Jarid took Morgan on a much anticipated trolley ride. The trolley is free and goes through Uptown and Downtown with lots of fun places to stop along the way. They went to the Art Museum and the Nasher Museum to look at the outside sculptures. They walked thru two cemeteries and saw the new trolley turnpike up close. He said she had a blast and Owen and I loved getting all the pics of them :)














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Jarid's birthday!

Jarid turned 33 today!! We celebrated with pizza from Grimaldi's (gotta love those free coupons for your birthday!) and going to the Galleria to see the big Christmas tree. The kids loved it and got to play in their indoor playground (which I honestly never knew existed!). For his dessert Jarid requested jello with cool whip and cookie crumbs on top. Not a traditional bday cake for this guy! Mo sang happy birthday and said "Daddy it's your birthday!" all day which was so cute to hear :) Happy birthday Jarid! We love you!!














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Christmas

I actually don't have many Christmas pics. Life is a lot busier with two adorable kids to watch unwrap presents, get dressed in sweet outfits and cuddle with :) Needless to say we have SO much fun! We got the kids a few presents each but whew did they get a lot of awesome things from all our family. All in all it was a great way to celebrate Jesus' birthday. {I did forget to take a family picture though. Jarid said that I'll survive but when I realized it while putting a very sleepy Owen to sleep I wasn't so sure!} Next year I'll have to remind someone to take our picture at the *beginning* of the day so I don't think of it when it's just too late.

a few days before Christmas - silly Owen playing in the lights

little reindeer on his FIRST Christmas!

opening gifts with Daddy while Honey videos

What is it Daddy??

Helping Honey open her gift

Owen getting love from Sugar and Brittany

Me and my sweet girl

Owen's new riding toy - can you believe how BIG he looks??

the boys watching the baby boy on his new car toy :)

Ok. This was one of the best pics I got of the 2 of them all day...

Sweet sister giving brother some comfort

He's happy now :)

Daddy and MCC

We opened stockings the next day since we had such a full day on Christmas already

O playing with ornaments

Mr. 10 month old

look at that face! Candy cane covered and all.

This would have been a cute one if I had the focus right. Boo!

I can't help it that I love this one so much!

Tower O' Book

We pulled out all of the kid's downstairs books and Morgan had the great idea to make a tower. It was so fun to watch her put them on one by one and her excitement as they kept piling up. This girl makes us smile :)

Christmas questions

I saw these questions on another blog and thought they would be fun. It being FOUR days away from Christmas and all :)

1.Egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate! I honestly cannot believe people drink eggnog..gross!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? As a kid they were always wrapped (with few exceptions like a bike) and my mom would put NUMBERS on them so we wouldn't know which were who's until they woke up (at a predetermined time that we waited oh so anxiously for.) But with our kids we plan to have Santa deliver presents from Jesus into the stocking only. The things under the tree are from us and we'll keep it to a max of 5 for each kiddo.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White. And I have silver snowflakes, red, green & white rickrack ornaments and silver ones to put on the inside of the tree to make the lights shine brighter. But I know the days are coming where we'll have an all homemade tree and that'll be fun too. 

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, but that would be fun!
5. When do you put your decorations up? I usually start the day after Thanksgiving. I want it up as long as possible!
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Probably the brownie pie my mom always made b/c she knew I didn't like any other type of pie. Oh it's yummy!
 7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Honestly my favorite memories are of me and Jeremy (and later Heather and Trent) sorting all the gifts (numbers only of course) into piles and eagerly waiting for our parents to wake up. It was probably more fun than opening them b/c it was the excitment of all the anticipation - and getting to *touch* them but not open them yet.  

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember the exact year or details but I remember I started helping my mom wrap gifts in elementary school. Then I told Jeremy the next year. Mean big sister.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Some years we did and some we didn't. Of course we told our parents "remember, we always open a gift on Christmas Eve." I plan to give the kids their (washed) Christmas pjs to open and wear on Christmas Eve every year.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Mentioned above. I love the way it looks all perfect and even. And on the back side (that faces the window where our neighbors can see) has all the sentimental ornaments.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it?Love it. For a bit. Ice? No thank you!

12. Can you ice skate? I'd like to answer this with a yes but the truth is it's been so many years since I have that I have NO clue.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? As a kid I always got something just super awesome each year that I couldn't wait to run and tell my best friend/next door neighbor about. As an adult I'm pretty lucky that Jarid always finds something that is that perfect mix of want and need.

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Keeping Jesus as the reason for Christmas. Which, I fully admit, is difficult in this day with commercials starting in October, forever long shopping lines and seeing all these presents that you really really want to get someone.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Hands down brownie pie. With tons of whipped cream. My father in law makes some pretty great fudge every year too.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? singing Happy Birthday to Jesus over His birthday cake. Also just getting together so often with friends and family.

17. What tops your tree? A snowflake to match our ornaments.

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving definitely.

19. Candy canes: yuck or yum? Nope but they sure look cute decorated as reindeers.

20. Favorite Christmas movie? Love Actually and the cartoon version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
21. Saddest Christmas song? um? Grandma got run over by a reindeer?

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? I love singing Silent Night at church on Christmas Eve. I also love Carol of the Bells - it just sounds like Christmas to me!

 

Whew - that was fun!

Kid's museum

We love this place. There is always something fun to do and Morgan loves "showing" people around. This time we took Honey :)

Owen update

This kid is growing. Fast. Too fast. I cannot believe he is almost 10 months. He changes everyday. He is into EVERYTHING. And I mean everything. It's hilarious. He's so so fast. Still doing the army crawl but can get anywhere he wants. He is totally unafraid of anything. He just climbs on things and then sits back down or lays back down like he's been doing it forever. He has started to climb the stairs too. Now, when Morgan started climbing the stairs she's do like 2 and then lay down on them or want to get down. Nope. Not Owen. He wants to go ALLLLLL the way to the top. Of course, sister is at the top saying "come on buddy!" He claps (which I love!) and will clap when you say the word "clap." He also loves to pat and will do that when you say it too. He signs "more" and sometimes "all done." He makes a HUGE mess when eating which is funny. He makes this certain face when he's upset and I totally caught it on camera the other day. He sticks up his chin and makes it and makes this noise. It's cute/funny/sad. He has THREE teeth - 2 bottom and 1 top (that top one gave him major major issues and took about 4 wks to finally come in once we could see the swelling..please Lord, don't let all of them be that way!) He definitely says "dada" and "mama" (only when crying) and is close to saying "more", "ball", "dog" and a few others.

He's just awesome to sum up. I'm so proud of how much he loves his sister, how he pulls up to standing on even moving objects (umm like the dogs!), how sweet he is and just to be his mom in general.

this is the "pick me now b/c I'm just sooo sad" face

he usually picks his chin up more though. It's so cute!

hanging with Reagan

Christmas adorableness

Boy do I love this kid