Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!

This has been the best Christmas I've had in years. We got to spend a lot of time with family. Brady really got excited about all of his gifts too. In these photos, he's playing with the Thomas the Train set that Grammy and Pappaw bought him.

Brady and Luke loved playing with eachother's toys.

Today, Brady started sticking out his tongue in concentration. Taylor does this occasionally, but it's very reminiscent of Nana to do this "tongue-on-the-side" move.

This is the guitar for "Guitar Hero" on our new Wii. Brady looks like such a cool kid.

Brady got a lot of Star Wars paraphernalia. Aunt Megan got him an R2D2, this vintage tin lunchbox and a tee shirt. We got him a pillow case and Darth Vader suitcase. Papa got him a Star Wars sleeping bag.

Grammy and Pappaw also gave Brady this great Thomas the Train storage bin for all of his extra train set pieces.

Brady was SO excited when he came down the stairs this morning; it brought a little tear to my eye.

Look what Santa brought! (It's the Imaginarium train set.)

The Livingston's first Christmas.

We ate a very lovely Christmas Eve dinner at Brennans. The food, service and (most importantly) company were fantastic.

Great Grandpa Jim, Uncle David (Taylor's oldest brother) and Uncle Phillip all serve(d) in the U.S. Air Force. My Pappaw also flew planes, but for the Navy. Maybe it's in Brady's blood?

Flying his F16 and sporting his new jacket...

Grandma and Grandpa were very generous to Brady this year. In addition to the Liebert crane model they ordered for him, they gave him clothes, a Continental Airplane, an F-16 and this super cool Air Force bomber jacket (Brady LOVES the jacket and is very proud to show it off).

Christmas Season Fun

It was Christmas pajama week at gymnastics this week. They have a row of three trampolines which they covered with mats and then balloons. It was the most magical and fun thing ever. Brady ran lap after lap kicking and stumbling over the balloons. They had other fun things, but the balloons were definitely the best.

Brady's new favorite movie is The Grinch with Jim Carey.

Brady can sing most of Santa Clause is Coming to Town, but I can only catch it on video while I'm singing along too.

Fire Update

Our townhouse really smelled like smoke when we returned. My air filtration company at work was kind enough to lend us a massive air cleaner, which took the smoke odors out almost immediately. We are VERY grateful for clean air.

The primary fire was in the townhouse directly in front of ours, and not really in our building. Our house is set back a little bit from my next door neighbor, and the front of her house had some fire and water damage too. We really feel very very fortunate to have steered clear of this disaster. It was definitely close!

Our neighbor, Barbara Franzheim, is the one whose townhouse burned down. On the night of the fire, she left with minor burns to her hands and feet and smoke inhalation. All reports were that she would easily make a full recovery, but she was not so fortunate. They were unable to take her off the incubators and she passed away Friday night.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, which slows the clean up efforts. They should determine the cause before Christmas.

FIRE!!!

If anything is worth three exclamation marks, it's our crazy evening last night. We were getting ready for bed, and we let Brady watch a movie with us for 10 - 15 minutes before we put him in bed. During this period, I hear someone yell, "FIRE!" I open the window shutter by my bed and realize that my shutter and window are very hot and the neighbor's 3rd floor is completely in flames. Here's a video of the fire from the side of the burning townhouse. You can see that the burning townhouse's front door faces our front door. We were afraid of one of the trees falling on our unit.

We put the dogs on the back patio, where they would be accessible (if the fire spread to our house). Once we were out by the street we realized our dogs had run off; I think the fire chief was going through our house to keep an eye on the fire and let the dogs escape. One of my neighbors caught Daisy, but Bailey was gone. I knew he probably went for a little exploration trip to Memorial Park, and we didn't worry about him when we decided to take the rest of the family and spend the night at Grammy's. Our cars were blocked in, so we were grateful that Grammy had a car seat, diapers and a safe place for us to sleep. Here's a video Taylor took from our carport. Our house is the all white, 2 story unit.

The news this morning reported there were 41 emergency vehicles on site. The fire was a 2 alarm fire upon arrival and escalated to a 3 alarm fire before the fire department got it under control. A cute little news reporter in a suit tried to interview me while I was in my pajamas, carrying Brady and my cell phone. I was just the type of pregnant white trash she would love to get on camera. I obviously denied the interview.

Grammy brought us back this morning where we found Bailey laying patiently by our front door; we knew that nose would help him find his way home. The remediation personnel say that the unit across from ours and the one next door will have to be taken back to the studs and rebuilt. I'm surprised that anything on the main house could be salvaged. Here's a picture of the view from our front window last night and a photo of the burnt house this morning.

I normally consider myself cool under pressure, but last night certainly shook our nerves. All night I was worried about looters in our home. We left everything unlocked because the fire department wanted access. I left my purse, keys, wedding ring, computer, photos, etc. at the house. I'm relieved to be home and see that all is well. Fortunately, all of our family, neighbors, pets and neighbor's pets are okay this morning.

Crescent Christmas Party

Taylor and I went to the Crescent Christmas party last night while Grammy Bradysat. It was a lot of fun, but we were tired this morning. The whole family slept 'til 6:30am! We're usually awake by 5:00am. I didn't think of it when I bought this sequin shirt, but my belly was like a traveling disco ball the whole night.

Brady really loves the Christmas tree this year. He's good about not damaging the ornaments. He loves when we ask him to find each of the ornaments, which makes me want to put all the good ornaments on the bottom of the tree so he can see them better. I think that's opposite of most Christmas trees in toddlers homes.

Lunch after Gymnastics

We go to gymnastics with Becky and Luke every Saturday, and we've begun doing lunch afterwards each week. We tried to go to Clay's, which was unbelievably crowded. We ended up at Los Cucos where Taylor took these photos and videos with his phone.

Kids Room

Anna Belle's art came in, so here's what the kids room looks like now.

I look forward to our townhouse selling, so we can move into a single family home where the kids will have their own rooms. I will miss all this built in storage; hopefully I can replicate a lot of it in the new house.

Brady's harmonica playing is pretty cute!

Catching up on Videos

Taylor's new iPhone takes great videos, but we've been very slow to download them.

Brett and Allison came over for dinner one night, and Brady really enjoyed playing catch with his Uncle Brett. I don't think I've mentioned it on the blog, but I have little "Yoga for Kids" flashcards, and one of them is a Peacock pose (AKA straddle) which Brady references in this video.

I didn't specifically ask, but I don't think pregnant women are supposed to jump on trampolines. This was taken the Saturday before Halloween, and all the kids got to wear their costumes.

Yet another video of Brady laughing and chasing the dogs...

Santa on a Fire Truck

What more could a boy want? A gentleman I work with played Santa for his neighborhood's Christmas breakfast. I went to high school with his son, and we have kids the same age (and haven't spoken in 11 years). I was glad for the invite and Brady shed no tears on his first Santa visit.

Santa came riding in on a fire truck; it was really quite exciting.

Brady wouldn't smile for the camera, but he would, "Ho, ho, ho."

Brady got to get into a fire truck for the first time. It was pretty fancy.

The Bacot family with Santa.