Chartrand Greetings 2009

We got to see family again a few weeks ago in Dallas. The kids had fun playing with their grandpa and cousins. Thanks Emily and family for hosting a fun little reunion! And thank you Angela for taking these family pictures for us, in spite of the freezing cold!

We are grateful for the Christmas season and the chance it gives us to reflect on the love of our Heavenly Father and our Savior, and all that they have blessed us with. We are so blessed with a wonderful family, and we are so grateful that we can be together forever. (To learn more about our beliefs, go to www.mormon.org)

Thanksgiving

We had lots of fun when cousins, aunts, and uncles came for Thanksgiving! We enjoyed ice skating, park hopping, and hanging out.

Trick or Treat

The kids got tons of candy at the ward Halloween trunk-or-treat on Friday. The boys finally settled on their costumes that afternoon, and we worked like crazy to get them done in time. Thankfully, Claire decided against being the Earth like she had originally planned (that would've been tough to make!). She already had a Snow White dress, and all we had to buy was a Snow White tiara.

Coming home from trick-or-treating last night

Our cute little bunny!

the lovely Snow White

Yes, there's only one way--Scott's way.

I don't know how Tyler came up with this idea, but it sure was creative! With his speed, it's hard to pass him anyway.

Fall Family Fun

Here are some miscellaneous pics of our adventures this fall:

We braved the crowds on Houston's free museum day. I thought the zoo was included, so when we found out it wasn't we went to the Health Museum instead. It was interesting, but extremely crowded. Maybe next time we should just suck it up and pay. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so cheap!

Tim showing off his superhuman jumping.

We went to NASA for Homeschool Day. The kids (especially Tyler) LOVE space and anything to do with it. Tyler wants to be the first astronaut on Mars. We had a fun time, and Claire loved skipping school!

We finally took down our pool, so now our backyard is a big mud pit. Now our big dilemma is what to do about it. At least the kids made good use out of it, making mud pies and building castles. Tim didn't think Claire would join in on the "fun" (she doesn't like to get dirty, yes she's a lot like me), but I guess the fun factor outweighed the mess factor. Thank goodness Tim took care of cleanup!

We loved having my cousin Nadine and her husband Adam over last weekend! It's nice to finally have someone from my side of the family relatively closeby (they live a few hours away). And it was nice to finally meet Adam. I hope they weren't too bored joining in on our family-friendly activities. Nadine played her flute for us (she got a masters in flute performance) and the kids were mesmerized. It was beautiful. We also enjoyed playing a couple flute-piano duets together.

Pretty in pink

The girls' first matching dresses! Meet Claire and Claire Jr :)

Lil' Lily

Our Lily's gone through many milestones just in these past couple weeks! She's eating rice cereal, sitting on her own, and even starting to crawl! How did this all happen so fast?

B-days

Well, this is happened over a month ago, but of course I have to add a bit about our birthdays. As you can see, the kids had fun trying out Tim's new laptop bag. I also made Tim steak, potatoes, and rolls for dinner, one of his favorite meals. I guess we didn't get any pics from my birthday, but Tim made my day very special, starting with donuts for breakfast, taking us out for Chinese food after our science museum visit, and then making omelets (my request), fruit salad, bacon, and hash browns for dinner (breakfast for dinner is common in our house). He asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I decided a steam mop might be nice. So I researched and researched to choose the best one, got the Eureka EnviroMop, and haven't even used it yet... I kinda forgot that usually the kids are the ones that mop for me, so Tim, Claire, and Tyler have all used it. Tim wasn't so impressed with it. Basically it's just like pushing around a warm wet cloth. So maybe it wasn't the best choice for my birthday present, but hopefully at least I can ditch our worthless old mop and bucket and have more space in our bathroom closet.