The Letter to Santa

There is a backstory to these photos. And only those that fully appreciate Carter will fully appreciate this story.

On December 23rd we were celebrating Christmas with the entire Gorham side of the family. Carter does his best to keep up with Caleb and play with him at all times. Like most older brothers, Caleb gets annoyed with the constant following and copying and retaliates by being mean... you know, punching, being rude, that sort of thing. These are things that Caleb will ONLY do to Carter because he's being pesky.

At some point during the Christmas celebration Carter had had enough. You know, a 6 year old can only take so much abuse from the 8 year old before deciding to take things to a higher authority. That evening he found my mom and asked for a pen and paper. Nanny said she would get it later. Well, that did not suffice. So, Carter found my aunt and requested the same thing. Well, no problem. Aunt Girly found him a post-it note and a pencil. Perfect. She then asked him what he needed it for. He explained that he needed to write a letter to Santa and put it in the mailbox TONIGHT. So he wrote his "letter" aka post-it note to Santa and marched outside in the dark, cold night to put it in the mailbox. My dad later got it out of the box after the kids were in bed. We could not stop laughing...

Santa From, Carter
A drawing of a list:
bad
Caleb


The next day I sat Carter down and asked him if he had written a bad and good list to Santa. He replied in the most serious tone, "Nope. Only bad."

The Door

Our small remodeling project is compete! Since moving in (almost 8 years ago) we've wanted to put in a window or door to the side of our house. Once we put in the pool it became even more important to get this project done. Since the pool is on the side of the house we had no way to actually see our pool from the inside of the house. Above is a photo of the exterior of our home before we put in the pool (or the door).
Here's the interior view before the construction.

A mason came first to remove the brick.

Our friend (and excellent craftsman) did the rest. He worked from the outside in as to minimize the mess in the house and any create very little retouching on the interior wall.

We have a hole! Hi Ron!

The door is in and the mason is back to finish the brick.

Now we can all watch Daddy clean the pool!

And the view from the outside! Ron even poured a stoop just off the new door. And for all those concerned with safety: the door has an exterior keyed lock that remains locked at all times. On the inside there is a "burglar bar" now across the door. For all sense and purposes this is just a giant window. The bar will come off and the door unlocked only when we are all out at the pool at the same time (with a life vest on baby boy). We still use the other door to take Elfy out or for the boys to play in the backyard. Now, we can't wait for summer to enjoy our new addition!

First Haircut

In keeping in James Family tradition, Brenner turned a year and a half and went for a haircut. My boys have always had slow growing hair. With this cold, dry winter it's been getting quite unruly.
It's hardly grown on top- poor guy has a strong Gorham receding hairline already. But the back goes from curly to stringy.

Donna cut it off and shaped it well. Check out the new profile.

Big boy haircut- very blonde and very thin hair

And after the first haircut comes the first sucker. Brenner didn't cry at all. He sat still for the most part while we made animal noises together. Towards the end he got a little restless. But the Dum Dum was a huge hit. Can't believe we cut off those baby locks!

Soup Swap

My friend, Randi, hosted a Soup Swap. I brought 8 single servings of turkey chili- each individually packaged. And then I made some southwestern cornbread to go along with the chili. You can't have one without the other, right?
Then my friends also did the same. We ended up with a variety of soups- most are soups I've never had before! All soups are homemade and perfect for lunch on a cold winter day. Right now it seems every day is cold!

Here are the soup girls:

Cheryl (with Tate), Lisa, Michelle (with Brenner), Randi, Emily, Hannah, and me

Thanks for hosting, Randi! What a great idea!

First Snow

We had our first Arctic blast on January 9th. A couple inches of snow covered the ground and stayed around for a few days. The boys were very excited to get out there and play in it.
Caleb made his very own snowman. No help from anyone else.

That little snowman lasted for 5 days. Everyday he would come home from school and say, "Well, he's still there." I hope we got more snow in the next few weeks!

Medical Week: Tubes, Well-Check, Coughing, and the Stomach Bug

There's nothing as exciting as blowing through most of the health savings account at the start of a new year! HaHa! Actually, it's nice to have health savings! Caleb went in for a 3rd set of tubes. He failed his hearing exam AGAIN and it was determined he had fluid in his ears AGAIN.
Caleb was a rock star! Mom came up and stayed with Carter and Brenner so Steve and I could both go with him for his surgery. Here he is playing Angry Birds on the Ipad before the surgery. He was not nervous until just a few minutes before getting taken back. Even then he was fine. He just got real quiet. And real quiet for him means he was really really quiet.

He got the happy juice and the surgery cap- all ready to go! Everything went great! Fluid is out. Tubes are in. We go back for another hearing test on the 27th. His recovery has been so easy.

Brenner and Elfy- not sure who looks more sad. Brenner went to his well-check last Tuesday. He was completely healthy at the time. He weighed in at 24 pounds (25%) and 33 inches (70%). Then a couple of days later he started throwing up. He's been touch and go since last week.

It's obvious he doesn't feel good. Poor baby.

I can't post about 2 boys and not the 3rd! Carter also went to the doctor last week. He's had non-stop coughing in the evenings. For the past couple of months he gets into coughing fits that don't let up. We're on our 3rd bottle of Delsym so we decided to take him in to see if there's something more going on. Dr. Smalley had three possibilities: asthma, post nasal drip, or allergies. To rule out sinusitis we have him on an antibiotic- there was indication of infection in the back of the throat. He was not wheezing so we don't think it's asthma. We also started Nasonex and Zyrtec to see if it's more allergy or post nasal drip related. If the stopping is gone after 2 weeks then we will have an answer. If he's still coughing then we'll have to see a specialist to try to do breathing tests on him. So far it seems to be helping his cough. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Needless to say it's been a busy new year in our home. We're hoping for HEALTHY children for the rest of the year!

Baylor in the Texas Bowl

Just after Christmas we went to Houston for the Texas Bowl: Baylor vs. Illinois
We had a wonderful lunch and Baylor cupcakes before the game. It's nice having family living in Houston!

We took the chance to get a photo before the game started.

We looked down and saw Aunt Sharon, Uncle George, and Leah. All the Gorhams came to town!

Many thanks to my parents for sponsoring our trip!

Baylor band in the BU formation

Steve and Eric- college roommates! Seeing friends and family was the only highlight of the evening. Baylor played horribly. It's taken me this long to even want to post about it.

On our way out of Houston, Steve took me by his old house. He lived here until he was 12. I was quite impressed he remembered how to get there.

New Look for a New Year!

It was time for a new look. My super creative, sweet friend, Amanda, had created my last "look" for my blog. If you all recall it was a photo of 2 boys- aged 3 and 5 running through some wildflowers. Those 2 boys have aged and a 3rd boy has since joined the gang. I wanted to go for a different vibe- whimsical, bright, and simple. After bugging Amanda for a while to redo my blog, she found a girl who was looking for blog header practice. So, for a small fee I had her update my look. It really was a win-win-win situation. I chose not to post a photo this time because I felt it would get outdated really quickly. Plus, this cartoon version of me has a rockin' body. Happy New Year to all my blog readers! Praying 2011 is the best yet!

18 Months Old

Happy New Year!

Baby Brenner is turning into a little toddler! He's 18 months old today! Hard to believe he'll soon be moving closer to the age of 2! He is such a delight. We all have lots of fun with him. He is starting to say a few more words: Mama, Mommy, Dada, ball, buh-bye, bubba, Car Car, bubbie, Nanny, Papa, Grampa, bath... most of it's his own language, but we usually can translate what he says. He adores our dog, Elfy. Not sure Elfy adores him, though. He wants to get in the bath tub every day. Usually one of the boys gets in with him so it makes my job much easier. He blows kisses freely and has a deep belly laugh that only his daddy can bring out. He runs around on his toes and loves to jump on our bed. He can go up and down the stairs and gives us the "more" sign for anything and everything he's wants to taste, do, drink, or eat. I love this baby more than I can say! I am completely content to just watch him sleep or let him sit on my hip all day long. He is my constant buddy. I am blessed!