MEANWHILE BACK AT THE RANCH

We were having some lovely 75 degree weather, so we headed out to the Water Wall! This is a HUGE wall that has water flowing down it on both sides. This is the front side of it, you can see how big it is with all the people next to it. At night it lights up and looks really cool. We decided to sit in this little field and enjoy the weather and just relax on our last day of the holiday vacation.

I don't think Brystal can get enough of her Daddy

Always a look of surprise on this girls face.

And here is a new face that we are starting to see alot more of lately. Let the fun of toddlerhood begin.

WHAT IS THIS WHITE POWDERY STUFF?

On Wednesday, it got very cold here, I was so excited to put a fire in the fireplace and cozy up. Then, I walked by the window and saw this strange white stuff falling from the sky. What could this be? I know I've seen this stuff before, but where? And what is it?

I was so amazed that it was sticking to the fence and our flowerbeds. I was so excited! It was snow I remembered. SNOW! How could this be happening in Houston!! Is it possible? The snow made the whole city in a happy giddy mood. People were shouting Merry Christmas on the streets of Downtown to eachother. People were bundled up and all chatty and happy. I thought, I once had a coat, where is it? Oh ya, it is packed in a box never to be seen again as long as I'm living in Texas. Dang it. Then that evening after all the excitement seemed to be over from the flurries that afternoon, we heard quite the commotion going on outside our house. People were screaming and yelling. I had to see what was going on.

When I opened my door, I couldn't believe my eyes! What's this! I then heard what all the commotion was about, all the neighbors were outside yelling "It's SNOWING it's SNOWING! Grab a jacket!" I head children laughing and suddenly the neighborhood was bustling with people out on their front lawns with cameras and excited faces. These people had never seen anything like this. I can only imagine being a child growing up here with no hope of ever seeing snow. No wonder they were so happy!

The snow collected on the rooftops and the grass. It was a very exciting moment for me. Though it wasn't much it was enough for me to remember what Christmas should feel like in the winter. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!!

A DAY IN THE PARK

Our friends Andy and Missy Wegener
Came to visit us here in Houston for the weekend. We had such a great time with them. We went to an awsome Texas Barbecue Restaurant on Friday, then on Saturday we found this really great art festival downtown at this park. They had a couple streets blocked off where artists came and did some chalk art and did made art on the streets. It was really amazing. Plus the park itself was really beautiful right downtown as you can see the city buildings in the background. We had lots of fun rolling around on the grass and just enjoying the nice weather.

Brystal crawled down this hill so many times till she got to the edge of the pond, then she would scream her way back to the top as I carried her up so she wouldn't crawl herself into the pond.

On the Go.

Here she is looking at some ducks. Yes those are ducks. From far away I thought they were turkeys, but when I got close I realized they were just really big ducks. They waddle right up to you for some food.

Some of the art, this must be a dog.

This picture is sideways but it's cool.

A Shark! and a half done octopus.

Nathan and I had a chance to cuddle up a little bit. It was nice.

Missy's upclose and personal interaction with the ducks. I didn't feed them, I was scared.

Andy having a conversation with the duck. I didn't have any conversations with them, I was too scared. I mean look at that thing!

Brystal is being silly crawling all over her daddy. She really did have fun playing in this grass.

Family cuddle time!

We have such a cute family.

Brystal is so close to walking, she can do it she is just scared the minute we let go of her. She'll be walking soon though.

We had such a fun day. It was a beautiful day and it was so fun to have the Wegeners be with us.

THE CHILDRENS MUSEUM

Did I get your attention? Good! Well, this last weekend, my good old cousin Kimi and her family came to visit us. We spent one day at the children's museum downtown. This is a great place for kids, we had such a blast. Our first stop in the Children's Museum takes us to Mexico. Here Brystal dresses as a little Mexican chica while dining on her plastic taco and spanish rice. Mmmmm.

She seems a little confused as to why she is wearing that ridiculous hat and scarf.

She got to play on some Mexican instruments.

Here is a giant statue completely made out of telephones!

In the science room, Brystal got to experiment with slime and electricity.

Here are some cute baby chicks that whenever Brystal put her hands on the glass they would come running toward her hands. She liked this part.

Here we are at the grocery store. They have a whole room that is designed into a grocery store with the actual wrappers of the stuff they sell in the grocery store, and all the plastic fruit, veggies, meat, cheese, milk, and even ice cream. They give you a little shopping list and you go around and pick out the things on the list and put them in your basket. Here she is filling up her basket with a few of her favorite fruits, applesauce and raisins.

Here we are in the checkout line.

This picture didn't really work. It was hard to hold her over like that and get her to cooperate. Oh well.

Her favorite part was the toddler room, they have a little area that is blocked off for babies. Since she is still too little to do most of the things in the museum this little area was right up her alley. Here she is driving a car.

Look out people! I have a feeling we have a reckless driver on our hands here!

DINNER BY CANDLELIGHT

After the storm, we were without power for 6 days. It was a very long long time to be without power, we are very blessed that it finally came back on last Thursday because most people in our ward are still without power. It's really sad. Things seem to be getting back to normal somewhat around here, the grocery stores finally have food, and you don't have to wait 2 hours to get gas anymore. Our good friends Mike and Andrea have been staying with us this week because they are Hurricane Ike evacuees. Mike is going to Med school in Galveston, and they left a week before the storm hit with about 3 days worth of clothes not knowing the storm would hit Galveston and not knowing how bad it would be. They were finally able to get to Galveston yesterday to go through their muddy smelly apartment to salvage what they could. We have enjoyed having them here. They are going to Utah in a couple of days till further notice.
Anyways, things here are ok now. We luckily had a gas stove so we could still cook, and a generator to run our fridge to keep our food cool. We are so much luckier than most people around here. What would we have done without that generator? Here is how we spent our evenings. Dinner by candlelight.

WAITING FOR THE STORM

Brystal looks adorable as usual decked out in her Utah State attire including bows.

Sitting on the grass waiting for the storm to hit. It was a very eerie evening with everyone home waiting for this storm.

The calm before the storm.

Here comes the storm

FINALLY THERE IS LIGHT

Unfortunately the worst of the storm hit us in the middle of the night and it was hard to see what was happening out there. The sounds were terrifying, and occasionally I would see the sky light up with bright green and blue, and then I'd hear the sound of electricity buzzing in the sky as the power would go out. We lost power at abou 2:30 and will probably most likely be out of power for the next few days. Luckily we have my in laws generator to help us keep our refrigerator going. Here is a clip of the storm when we got up around 7. The storm was starting to settle down but as you can see it was still very strong. It was probably twice this bad during the night but this is what I got from our backyard.

THE DAMAGE IS DONE

Our house and neighborhood managed to get away with little or no damage. After driving around the neighborhoods in our area, I realized how blessed and lucky we were. Here are just a few of the pictures of the wreckage.

This is the creek, it is way over flooded, usually there is a gully under this bridge, now it looks like a lake.

The streets are flooded in some areas, you can't even get by.


This is a typical picture of what almost every other house looked like. HUGE trees just uprooted. The lucky ones fell into the street of yard.

The unlucky ones had trees in their house. This is a hard picture to see, but the tree actually fell right through their house and crunched even the bricks.

We are so lucky that we were untouched by anything like this