Highlight of Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008 was good for the Wenck family. We celebrated Archer's 1st Christmas and Christian's 3rd. It was a busy week. It all started in the Texas Hill Country and spread all the way to Kingwood.

Some of the hightlights were me chatting with Christian at Gran's house after he had opened LOTS of presents. I asked if he had a good time, his reply, Yes. I then I said " you got lots of fun toys, huh?" his reply, "Yeah. Mommy, I love Christmas". Probably not the true meaning of Christmas we want him to embrace ultimately, but hey, he is a kid and he knows what he likes.

Another hightlight was watching the kids open presents and see what Santa brought.

From Christmas

Is it just me or do kids enjoyment of christmas make it just that much more fun?

Another highlight was a very real Christmas miracle.

From Marble Falls

Christmas day in Kingwood was filled with fun. Christian tried to make it thru without a nap, but ended up falling asleep on both me and Daddy a couple of times through out the day.

From Christmas

Archer was a trooper. He did wonderfully.

Friday after Christmas we had a chance to visit some friends. First we visited our friend Diego. His Mom and I met at the Avon 3 day walk in Dallas in 2002. Diego and Christian attended daycare together while they lived near us. We now get to see them in Houston. Diego now has a little brother Enzo. Enzo and Archer are just 7 weeks apart.

From Christmas

I think Christian liked it at Diego's house (that would be an understate really). He loved playing with Diego and his toys. Diego has a bunch of Lightin' McQueen related toys...most everything we don't have. Christian cried when we had to leave. However, we got some great idea for birthday presents for Christian.

From Christmas

After our playdate with Diego it was time to visit the Goerlitz house. The boys were with us for alitle while, then we dropped them off with DoDaddy and returned to the Goerlitz house for an amazing dinner (dinner is always amazing at the Goerlitz house).

From Christmas

Saturday in Kingwood was out playdate with Raphael Goerlitz.

From Christmas

Christian loved the Diner that Santa brough Raphael for Christmas.

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He also loved the Noggin' Channel we discovered at the Goerlitz house.

From Christmas

From Christmas

After that playdate we went to dinner with Dodaddy. Then it was off for more grownup fun while the boys stayed at the house with DoDaddy.

From Christmas

Sunday we headed home to unpack all our goodies.

Christmas pics

Sorry I haven't blogged lately. Work is keeping me busy, but I hope to get some time to chat about Christmas soon. In the mean time here are lots of pictures.

Marble Falls

Grama Nita's BIG FAMILY Christmas party



Christmas in Kingwood


We had a wonderful Christmas, we even had a Christmas Miracle too!
Hope you had a Merry Christmas too...now on to 2009.

Christmas time is here again.

This was the start of the BIG CHRISTMAS WEEK at the Wenck house. It started on Thursday with the sing along at daycare. Then Friday Chris and I took Christian to see Playhouse Disney Live. He loved it. All his favorites were there...Handy Manny, Tigger & Pooh and Darby, Little Einstiens, and Mickey Mouse and his clubhouse friends, Minnie, Donald and Goofy. He loved the food too. He ate cotton candy and kettle corn popcorn. It was a fun show and kept his attention. We had ordered our tickets early and had really good seats, so there was no problems with him seeing over people. He did sit in my lap some of the time.




Saturday we headed to Gran and Pa's for Christmas with my side of the family. Everyone was there. All the aunts and uncles. When we see Gran and Pa, we try to get in a visit with Chris' Great Aunt Phyllis and cousin Glenna. We were lucky enough to get that treat this time.

Christian made out like a bandits and we came home with some much stuff, we had to enlist Uncle JJ to help us bring some home in his truck. The biggest addition to his room was his cool new activity table. It was made by Pa and Uncle JJ. Mom put in a few requests when it came to the construction of the table. I asked that its fit a certain set of measuresments so I know it would fit where I wanted it to go in his room. Then I asked that is be tall enough to have storage boxes underneath, then I asked that the table top have chalkboard paint on it so he could color on it as well. Pa, Gran and Uncle JJ took my requests and made them happen. It fits perfectly in his room. He loves it. Of course he loves all the other toys he got to go with it too...some Thomas trains, some match box cars, a race track, and some chalk.

Sassy bought him a Diego trike that looks a lot like the Big Wheels of our day. I don't know who was more excited about the trike Christian or his Daddy. Daddy has fond memories of riding his big wheel around his drive way.

Aunt Sassy also made out like a bandit too. Gran had some fun making her run around the house on a mini scavenger hunt for her present, but it had a big payoff. Gran got her a laptop for Christmas....and who says just the little kid get spoiled.

Archer didn't do too bad either. He received a few toys and lots of great clothes.



Sunday it was off to Grama Nita's big family Christmas party. This is my extended side of the family. It is about 40+ of my nearest and dearest family members. We are quite a bunch when you get us all together. The highlight of the party, besides catching up with each other, is the christmas gift exchange. It is mainly made up of fun and silly gifts with some classics that reappear year after year.



It was a busy weekend. The boys kept up well, but there were some long night that made for a few grumpy moments. Luckily there were naps when they were needed. Mommy and Daddy can't believe it is Sunday and they have to work tomorrow. It will be another busy week, but lots of fun to be had.

Christmas sing along 2008

So the Christmas sing along was a success and the plan to hide worked for a little while. Remember the Thanksgiving sing along ? Well this time we were told that we could go up in the balcony and take pictures or film the program. We also thought this was a great place to hide. It worked. Christian went up there with no problems. He eventually saw us, but never cried. He didn't really sing either. The funniest thing was that he fell asleep up there. Yep with about 50-70 daycare friends on the stage, he falls asleep. We didn't get to see that part, but other parents told us and Landon's mom said she got some cute pictures of it. I saw him yawning and then he sat down. Well once he sat down, a little girl standing next to him was blocking my view from above. The entire program was very cute and sweet. His class cracked me up. I think because they are the youngest they are the easiestly distracted. Some walked around, some swayed, some started in the top row and were on the bottom row by the end, some laid down on the stairs. But then again that is what makes these events to much fun. Not that they sing perfectly, the fun is not knowing what cute thing they will do next.

So here are the pictures.

New Playmate

Our newest playmate is Joel Fox Petty. Here are some more pictures of this little guy.





Here is a little video too. We were trying to get him snorting on camera. It is too cute when he would snort. I didn't get the snort, but this is cute anyway.

From video

New little sweetie joined our world today

Welcome baby boy Petty (name to be announced tomorrow).

Born 11:01 am, 7.5 lbs. 20 inches long.

I can't wait to get my hands on your and my camera around you.

I'm gonna give you tons of kisses and then take bunches of pictures!

You sure are cute!

"Be nice to Daddy."

Last night at dinner Chris and I were talking. I guess my tone was getting heated (read my voice was getting louder). I'm sure we were discussion the Big 3 Bailout or the Governor of Illinois or something else that might be me irriated to discuss. I guess when I discuss these things and I raise my voice Christian thinks I'm mad at Daddy, when I'm really just mad at other people or the situation. So last night while Chris and I were talking Christian tells me, "Be nice to Daddy". I think he also wanted some attention because we were having adult conversation and not paying attention to him (heaven forbid).

Did I mention Chris LOVED this?!?!

So for the rest of the night Chris repeated "Be nice to Daddy"...over and over again.

Christmas prep

This weekend we were able to enjoy a little christmas cheer.
Friday night we all made gingerbread cookies. Not gingerbread men because I don't have those cookie cutters. We made gingerbread animals. Sometimes I have these grand visions of our family time. Many times the actual event falls short of what I have invisioned. Luckily this wasn't one of those times. Christian did great and I did great. We had lots of fun making these cookies. He knew how to roll out the dough. He did a wonderful job of cutting out the cookies.

Then Saturday night we got the tree out of the attic, put a fun Christmas CD on and put on Christmas decorations. That was lots of fun too. Archer was in the swing facing the tree enjoying the lights. Christian enjoyed picking through all the ornaments. I enjoyed putting up all my Capitol Christmas ornaments. I have almost ten years worth. Chris loves putting on the ornaments Gammy has passed down to us. Christian's daycare classes usually make a cute craft. I have the ornament that was made when he was in the infant room. A sweet glass ornament with his little hand print on it. It is so precious. Hard to believe it was only a few years ago, he was Archer's size. We made some sweet little family memories tonight.

Brotherly Love

Christian kept Archer entertained at dinner tonight. (click on photo to go to Picasa and see video)

From itsy bitsy spider video

He has started requesting Archer sit by him at dinner time. It is cute how well he entertained him with his song.

Christmas cards

I LOVE CHRISTMAS CARDS!!! I love giving them. I love receiving them. I love deciding how to design them. I send out a bunch too.

Well this year I had some BIG help with the Christmas card pictures. My friend and co-worker Erik has an amazing eye for photography and some great equipment to back it up. Here is some of his work http://picasaweb.google.com/esmoore68

After Archer was born he offered to take some family pictures of us. I jumped at the chance, of course! Here is a collage of the results and I think they are a great representation of our family at this stage in all our lives.

From Collages

So this is kind of a sneak peek of our cards. This isn't the exact card. This is just something I had fun putting together with Erik's pictures.

If you will notice Christian is quite busy in most of the photos and the rest of us are watching....that is pretty much our lives right now...and that's fine with us.