The One Where Santa Comes to Pflugerville

Christmas Day is arguably the best. day. ever. Sure, it's an earthly holiday invented to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, even though there is absolutely no divine inspiration to do such a thing, but, hey... presents. PRESENTS. (Oh, and family.)



Don't let the bright flash of the camera fool you. It's early, too early. Four in the morning-ish early.



Sure, the kids are smiling now, but the joy quickly turns to sorrow when they learn that Santa got lost because the elves couldn't figure out how to spell Pflugerville correctly. Consequently, he ended up in Floogerville, Utah.



There was no time for mourning because while Grandma and Grandpa were already with us, the rest of the whole fam damily was on the way. Kayci showed up and was absolutely elated with the gifts she received from Santa. She was even wearing an "I heart Santa" t-shirt to commemorate the occasion. I think it's great that Santa's elves can spell Brenham but not Pflugerville.



Grandma and Grandpa before the dogpile.



Grandma and Grandpa after the dogpile. Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

(Just a side note to say that Santa did in fact visit our house. We don't have the same hopes for the Easter Bunny, though, as rabbits are inherently stupid creatures.)

The One Where the Hooper Clan Wishes You a Merry Christmas

From our clan of 27 (+2 on the way), Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The One Where We Have Fun with Mac Photo Booth, Pt. 2

Looks like Photo Booth is contagious. Even Amy and Grandmommy got into the action.



Amy's ear. Now THAT's a hot ear. You know what they say about a woman with dangly ear rings... :)



The only thing better than one Grandmommy is TWO Grandmommies. Of course she'll need to pick another eye somewhere...



When Amy took this picture she thought for sure I would post it on the Blog with a caption that reads something like, "This is probably the smallest my nose has ever been." She's wrong, well at least half wrong.


After several attempts at blowing a Gandalf-ian ship, I settle for a Ferrari. With a girl in a bikini behind the wheel. Sweet. [Edit: When Amy saw this post she said, "That doesn't look like a Ferrari!" Duh.]

The One Where We Take Over Pappasito's

Most of the clan was in town tonight, so we all headed down to Pappasito's for some good Tex-Mex and some great company.



With almost the entire family tree sitting at the table (kids, in-laws, grand kids), Don and Sandra beam with pride. And I'll have one more margarita.



Amy's hand is mysteriously missing from the frame of this photo. As it turns out, this is great for me. Verily.



Since I didn't take the pictures, I'm not really sure what this little sculpture is made of. I'm not really sure I want to know. [Edit: I was informed by Amy and Erica that this is dough from the lady who was making flour tortillas. That's a relief, however it is a bit sad that this tortilla never lived up to it's full potential.]



I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille.



Jennifer soon realizes that there are much more effective ways to end it.



Jason gets a sombrero and a lot of clapping for his birthday. Lucky!



Soon after this picture was taken, Pappasito's learned that the balloons they give to children are extremely flammable, thanks to Jason's birthday candle. That's okay - my fajitas were a little rare anyhow.



Erica proudly displaying Jonathan. Jonathan proudly displaying a chip. Both levels of pride are equally warranted. [Edit: Once again, I was informed by Amy and Erica that this is tortilla dough in Jonathan's hand, not a chip. Details...]



Thing 1 (Reagan) about to enjoy a bite of balloon candy cane.



Not really sure what Keely's balloon is supposed to be. Not really sure she knows what it is. Not really sure Keely knows where she is, come to think of it.



Gavin is proudly displaying the best balloon in the whole world. Colton disagreed, "I object to that egregious and preposterous allegation!"



Jonathan realizes that sour cream is not similar to ice cream in any significant way. Of course, I must admit that I helped him make that discovery.



Jennifer, Keely, and Gabby. Not really doing anything, just hanging out. That's all I have to say about that.



What a crowd, what a crowd. Notice that only Andrea is actually posing for the picture. She has an innate ability to spot a camera about to take her picture and quickly strike a pose.



Case in point. Pose!



Camdyn in a rare moment of lucidity.



Jason and Hannah/Emma.



Caleb is extremely happy that he's not part of Gavin and Colton's cheek-to-cheek pose.

The One Where We Spend a Day in Missouri City as Roaming Gypsies

We drove into the Houston area this weekend to see some friends and some family. Hopefully this will be our last trip at least for a while, as 290 has become way to familiar the last several months.



We spent the night with David and Kandy - they were gracious enough to put all five of us up for the night, even though Amy has a tendency to snore. Ethan's look says it all - its going to be a long day.



A quick hug from Ethan and we were off to our next stop - Jennifer and Steve's.



As hard as you try, Camdyn, you're not fooling anybody.



This is actually Colton doing a running back-flip. But for all you know it could be me doing a running back-flip, thanks to the blur.



Next stop? Andrea and Chad's house. She's probably laughing at something her favorite brother-in-law said. But then, that's a given.



A day of being gypsies is starting to have an effect on Reagan. Randomly roaming from house to house in search of shelter, food, and a nice potty is taking its toll on all of us.



Being a gypsy hasn't really affected Keely all that much - she always looks like this.



Just when we think we can't take it anymore, it's just about over and we can finally head over to Pappasito's for the true family gathering.

The One Where Chad Makes the Blog

We were informed today by Andrea that Chad was not in our blog. I assure you that this is not by design. Rather, he will learn that when you have small children (especially those as cute as Gabby) that people generally start to look past you to find your children.

So without further adieu, Chad has now officially made it into the Ronamy blog:



Snap! Got ya:



Welcome to the Internet 2.0, Chad.

The One Where We Have Fun with Mac Photo Booth

While we were over at Jennifer's house, I whipped out the Mac and we had some good old fashioned fun with Photo Booth, just like the pioneers used to do in the calistogas.



Like totally! Gag me with a spoon!



Colton doing his impression of the troll from the Harry Potter movie.



This is actually a regular picture of Camdyn that we took with the camera. She normally looks like that. We also got Reagan and her twin sister to stand in as well.



The thought of having two Coltons and two Calebs was enough to drive Jennifer to consider ending it all.



This picture would have been good except some fat bald guy jumped in at the last second.

Open Letter to Pottery Barn from Residents of Falcon Pointe

Dear Austin Arboretum Pottery Barn,

The residents of pFalcon Pointe in Pflugerville, TX would like to extend a hearty thank you for assisting Ron and Amy with the hanging of curtains at their residence. We cannot tell you how much this has raised the standard of living here in our little corner of the most ridiculously spelled city (um, town) in the world. It was getting to the point where we couldn't even let our children walk to school past their house in the morning due to the "Russian Roulette" nature of what they might see through the bare naked windows.

Please accept these complimentary passes to the Pflugervile Pflight Pfestival as a token of our humble gratitude.

The Residents of pFalcon Pointe (minus Ron and Amy)

cc: Ron and Amy

The One Where Santa Uses the Force to See What's on Gavin's List

Amy wasn't doing much of anything the other day when Gavin came up and asked,

"Does Santa bring you stuff that's in your heart and not just the stuff that's on your list?"

Now keep in mind that Gavin has given us a verbal Santa list almost every day for over a month. The list changes daily, much like a politician reading the polls. Pray tell, Gavin, why don't you just tell us what's in your heart?

"I can't because it's in the back of my brain and I can't turn it around. Unless I'm sleeping."

Indeed. Makes sense. Hopefully, Santa will know just what's in there, because I'm not sure we know. Stay tuned.

Multiplication, by Reagan

This week Reagan got a poem published in the world-renowned Brookhollow Beat. If you're looking for it in the Library of Congress, the specific issue is December 2006, Issue 5.

Multiplication

M is for Multiplying numbers
U is for Unit in math
L is for Live with it
T is for Two's
I is for It is so fun
P is for Practice them
L is for Love it
I is for Invert it
C is for Can do it
A is for A mind thinker
T is for Three's
I is for Intelligence
O is for One's
N is for Nine's

And that is what you call multiplication! You will love it, so ...
try it like I did!

Christmas 8oo8i3s

I just love Christmas, and I love the fact that ABC Family is airing all the old Rankin and Bass Christmas specials that we watched as kids before there were things like Cable and Satellite and TiVo. Last night we were sitting around watching The Year Without a Santa Claus (by the way, Shirley Booth is a hottie) when Amy was prompted by the Christmas Spirit to say, "Mrs. Claus has big boobies."

To which Gavin replied without missing a beat, "So do you."

Technically, this picture has nothing in common with that story other than boobies:



Kayci, don't be such a boob.

(Surely by now I've broken the "boob" record for a single blog post. Boobie. There - just wanted to be sure. Boobie.)

Christmas Letter 2006

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Dear Friends and Family,

I’ve come to the conclusion that Christmas card letters are a lot like a bad car wreck – you grimace when you first see one, but then you just can’t stand to look away. For us, 2006 started out like any other year. We were about as settled as we could be: school, work, church, friends, family… We were 100% entrenched. On April 27th that all changed. I happened to be in Washington D.C. when I got the word that NetIQ, my employer of almost 8 years, was being sold. I didn’t have to leave, but something was nudging me in that direction. It was time. Fast forward to November 30th and with the closing on our house in Missouri City, we are now 100% entrenched in Pflugerville, TX, which is right outside of Austin. By the way, it’s pronounced “Flooger-ville.”

2006 started off really well for Keely as she was selected as the school mascot for the 2006-2007 school year. Unfortunately, that was before the move, but we were proud of her and thanks to Uncle James for helping her prepare. She seems to be adjusting as well as any of us and her first boyfriend has already come and gone. We’re not 100% sure what happened, but it was a traumatic event that involved “dead man’s curve” or something.





Reagan is now in 3rd grade and she continues to be the most helpful and bossy person all at the same time. She already knows everyone at Amy’s new school and has slowly been taking inventory of everybody on our new street. But the biggest news of all for 2006 is that Reagan was baptized! She had Mister Buddy, an Elder from Sugar Grove, baptize her and she was joined by tons of family and friends! We’re extremely proud of her for making such a mature and life-changing decision!

Gavin is in 2nd grade and has picked up a book worm somewhere between Missouri City and Pflugerville. We’re not sure, but we think it happened when he got out of the car to relieve himself somewhere near Brenham. He didn’t play baseball this fall due to the hectic schedule around moving, but he is sorely looking forward to the spring when he plans on playing baseball and football, and Game Boy.

Amy went back to teaching this fall and she is teaching 5th Grade at Brookhollow Elementary. Reagan and Gavin both go with her every day to school. She is still selling Mary Kay, but has really been concentrating on getting back in the teaching groove as well as trying to learn how to get around the large metropolis that is Pflugerville.

Me? I went to work for a great company here in Austin as a Product Manager and I’m loving it. It’s a much smaller company than I’m used to the last few years, but it’s a nice change of pace and the people there have been great throughout our transition. Now that we’re out and apart from family and friends, I have waged a renewed effort on keeping our family blog up-to-date with pictures and such: ronamy.blogspot.com. We didn’t see as many of you this year as we’d like, but we’re hoping that 2007 brings a renewed opportunity to make this happen. God bless you and I hope your 2006 has been as blessed as ours has been.

Ron, Amy, Keely, Reagan, and Gavin

S'mores and Franks

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The finalists for "Father of the Year" are being nominated this week and so I decided that we would roast hot dogs and then do S'mores. The weather outside was definitely frightful, and Amy would tell you that there was nothing at all delightful about it, even with 2 coats on.



Three seemingly normal kids go crazy after being fed grahams, marshmallows, and chocolate.

Gavin... ummm... you got something on your, um.... oh, nevermind.



I think I only have 1 long-sleeve shirt. Santa, are you listening?



I'd say that I kissed the chocolate off of Amy's lip, but this is (largely) a family site.

That and it didn't really happen. Sigh.