..and we're back!

I apologize for the long break from posting. I was spoiled by the ease of blogging from my iphone. Unfortunately, I have been having technical difficulties with the app and haven't ironed out the details. With a new year, I hope to renew this habit and keep all up to date on the goings of the Hammonds. Claire and I have some projects ahead of us that we are planning to undertake as well, so I plan to post on those as well.

Enjoying a warm beautiful day!

Finally the sun was out and warm enough to get the kiddos out.. And get a break from s pseudo functioning house heater. Took the kiddos out to Rivery park in Georgetown. Little man was determined to scale the climbing wall on his own... And he did. Now if he would only start walking on his own.





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SNOW!

As soon as it started getting cold here, Claire began asking eagerly "when is it going to snow?" We had to explain as fun as the snow was, it unfortunately is not something we will see often at our home in Texas. Well mother nature made a liar of us and lo and behold, snow two years in a row.

Texas weather always keeps you on your toes. Just when you start to get acclimated "wham", it switches up on you! Last Monday, we enjoyed a lovely day with highs of 80, 48 hours later we were shivering in low 20's. The key is LAYERS always!

To add another twist to the excitement, our heater was non-functional (well 1 of the units, the 1 that heats our family area). So at one point it was 49 degrees inside. Funny thing is we are pretty sure it has never been working since we moved in. We were so used to always being a little chilly in our early 1900 poorly insulated Jacksonville rental that we just thought that was the norm.

So the white stuff came on Friday. It snowed through the night and there were a few inches by morning. As soon as Claire awoke she remembered that it was going to snow and ran to the window and squealed with delight. We pulled out the sleds and bundled and played until the sun melted away the fun. Rhys got to enjoy the snow a bit as well but kept getting frustrated that he was spending more time face planted "in" the white than on it.






































The 49 degrees inside isn't so bad after playing out in the 20 degree weather. Hats off to you northerners who have 3+ months of this. I am a Texan through and through and love my warm weather.. Maybe not the 100 degree junk but I'd take that over the temps in the teens.

Happy 1st Birthday Rhys!

Little man had a blast turning 1. He loved rubbing chocolate cake all over his face. We celebrated his actual birthday with just us and a cake. His birthday party with friends and family was over the weekend.

The party theme was sock monkeys for our own little Rhys monkey. Complete with 3 different flavored cupcakes ( chocolate with monkey faces on top, banana cream and multi-colored vanilla flavor with sprinkles. Geegy made his special cake. Party favors were sock monkey kits (complete with all you need to make your very own personalized sock monkey).

Poor guy pooped out during presents so had to take a nap while mom, dad and sister finished entertaining everyone.


























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a morning visitor

Aunt Hil got her heartrate up early this am with a lovely visitor. She thought for a second there she was back in Africa. Mr Nasty centipede had his little life cut short after his bad decision to break and enter at 308 Oak Meadow dr.



We are definitely back in Texas with our frequent visits from scorpions and now centipedes despite frequent pest control services.

Big boo boo

Claire got her left middle finger trapped in the car window while it was rolling up and got cut pretty bad. We had to go to the ED to get it all fixed up. She did very well and was very brave.

She got a bright pink bandage once it was sutured up and she called it her cotton candy finger. She told mom and dad that she was going to be a doctor too when she grew up. Today, we gave her a surprise we had been holding onto for a special occasion. Scrubs with Dr. Claire embroidered on them and a matching white coat. She always loves to play doctor. She has spent a lot of the day giving each of us digital blocks, sewing our fingers back up and bandaging us.



She stayed distracted by watching Chipmunks on daddy's iphone.



Here she's a little goofy on her pain medicine

Learning baby signs

Rhys is 10 months.

Rhys loves watching other kids and his baby sign videos. Notice the standing in the chair. We are amused at the differences of our two kiddos. Claire never cared much for climbing things nor crawling that much period, pretty much went from scoot to walk. Never put random things in her mouth, still isn't a fan of putting things in her mouth... Even food.

Rhys however, is our mover and shaker. He now covers more ground vertical than horizontal. Pushes things up to the couch to climb up and just nose dives off. He is also our Hoover baby and finds things to put in his mouth that even our roomba missed. He definitely keeps us busy and on our toes. He is such a happy baby though.

Claire keeps our ears busy! She is our talker! She is quite clever with her retorts that we're afraid she might be on track to be a lawyer. She cracks us up. Doesn't miss a detail.

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