Christmas Morning 2011

Santa stopped at our house!

Even the kitty knows the Christmas morning rule: no one leaves the stair case until Mom or Dad say so.

Just the 6 of us. Kind of a quiet Christmas but not really with 3 of them being young boys.

No more matching pajamas.

Pat Pat's made with love stockings.

Logan kept all the magic in Christmas for us. Any little decoration would excite him.

Everyone had a very nice Christmas indeed!

Jaden loved her kitty toys.

She has a pretty good vertical jump.

This is the best part for me. Christmas morning is over with and all the presents have been opened. This is the part where I can finally take a break, let the house get trashed, and just enjoy the kids.

The week after Christmas is always my favorite.

Christmas Eve

Only if this was theirs to keep...

We got to babysit this cute little thing as he was a big Christmas surprise for Fischer and Reece on Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve was pretty easy for us as we had kids eager to go to bed. The sooner they got to sleep the sooner that Christmas morning would be here.

Santa is Coming Tonight

Our "CHRISmas"

We are thankful for the rain but so glad the kids could get out today and burn some of their energy off.

Uncle Chris was leaving for a Toledo Christmas so we had our own celebration tonight.

He had Tina and Tristan with him.

Making Buckeyes was on the agenda for the night.

Sharing a few gifts with each other.

We love Uncle Chris and so glad we could spend this night all together.

Baking With a Little Help From Friends

I love serving in Young Womens with these girls. Love being surrounded by them and all that they add to my life. During a meeting last week, Tracy said lets have a day where we bake all day, so here it is.

Not sure they had my four kids in mind but it sure did add for some laughs. I know that my kids loved this day. Tracy and Tracey are 2 people you want to be around no matter what age you are.

Jackson's dough man

Larson, you can ice the cookies as long as you dont eat the frosting!

Tracy was the one to catch our little guy with the green tongue.

Homemade carmels by Tracey.

We ended up with cut out cookies, carmels, fudge, toffee bark, and I added in buckeyes.

This was such a great idea. I had a wonderful day with my family and friends, didnt worry about all that still needed to be done, and ended up with a ton of goodies to share!

A very successful baking day.

Austin City Limits

I love doing first time things in Austin. Here is another for me. I had never been to Trulucks before. Thanks Chris for a wonderful dinner. Really like Trulucks.

First time going to Austin City Limits

We saw Robert Earl Keens. I did not even know who he is but he is really big in Texas. Loved his music. Really enjoyed the concert. The venue is amazing. Totally comfortable in this setting and would love to go back and see a show here.

Also, the first time going inside the W hotel downtown. I felt like I was in Vegas. Pretty amazing hotel.

Tom and I had a great night with Tina and Chris. Dinner was great, being downtown is always fun for me. We saw a really crazy cross dresser. Wish I had a picture of that, or her, or him.

Jordan's Winter Concert

This has been a great Freshman year for Jordan in Choir.

It started off a little rocky as her schedule put her in the varsity choir so she was not with her friends in Freshman choir. Mr. Ferris, brand new director at VHS did not approve of this. He tried to get her switched out the first day but realized that her schedule would not allow for any other choir. He was not too happy with her and said this didnt mean she would be in varsity next year and that she certainly would not be going to UIL with the choir. This was all a little intimidating and stressful for Jordan. Not to mention the Freshman that did not approve of her varsity ranking either. I told her to hold her head up and take advantage of this and learn as much as she could.

Within 2 weeks they had started auditions for district choir. Jordan had to learn the music all on her own as they did not have a voice coach for her yet. She had a cross country meet the day of her auditions. She had to get approval for a late check in at the audition and we had to hurry from the meet to Marble Falls. It was very stressful once she got there because no one would get her checked in and then when someone did, her name was already being called in the other room.

End result was good! We were there when Mr. Ferris announced her name with 10 other VHS students.

Her success continued has she made it to Regional choir and even was chosen for a solo. Too bad, the choir could not get that piece together and it was cut from the concert. We also learned that day that Jordan missed the Pre Area choir by 2 seats. That is an accomplishment as a Freshman. Mr. Ferris quickly learned to love his little Freshman and is very excited to have her in his Varsity choir. She went on to sing in his Broadway Nights and is currently in the school musical and practicing for Solo and Ensemble. Mr. Ferris has her practicing the UIL music with the choir but he hasnt actually said that she is going yet. We will see! Very proud of Jordan and the hard work that she has put into this years choir.

I made the comment to Mr. Ferris that Jordan has a lot going on but is trying her very best in it all. He looked right at me and said "Yes, she does have a lot going on. She has more going on than a lot of the seniors in there". That was such a nice comment to hear about your daughter when you know that she is giving it her all in everything she does.

Larson Christmas Party

Here is Larson so excited to be at his holiday party at school. He even wore jeans to school because he wanted to look nice. They had holes in both knees and he had a ragged old sports shirt on but that was dressing nice for his party. I use to be so into these parties. Making things at home and I was queen of the bingo games but after 10 years of doing these school parties, I have to admit that Im just not as into them. I act all excited for Larson and I attend so that he knows Im there with him. I take the one picture to capture the moment but I have to admit I have other things on my mind. Poor Logan! Maybe I will get a new burst of energy for him knowing that each thing I do with him will be the last.

It is fun to be with Larson and see how happy he always is!

Jake Robo the Robot

Larson in Quest creating a recycle robot

BAAA!

Logan was a very good little sheep in his school Nativity

Merry Texmas Ya'll

December is here and we are trying to take some time this year to just do some things that we want to do and not be so scheduled.

We were driving through Marble Falls and along the lake they have a festival of lights. No schedule, on our own time so we were able to stop and enjoy the night.

This was a bonus since Austin isnt doing the Trail of lights for the second year in a row.

This is the first year that we have made it to Burnet, TX for the Main St. Bethlehem. I had always heard about it and wanted to see it. On this day, it had rained all day but was a really nice night. We only had to wait 20 minutes to get in. Some people wait over an hour and even this night it was very crowded inside.

So this is a live portrayal of what the city may have been like on the night that Jesus was born.

It was really neat to go in each of the buildings and see candles or rope being made. Guards were walking around and arresting people. Fresh bread was being baked in stone ovens. There were live animals including camels and donkeys. The Inn was very full and lots of people in it.

The last stop was seeing the little baby in a quite stable.

Logan was the only one that wanted to get in the chariot and he doesnt look too happy here.

Cookies & Hot Chocolate

The Young Women singing, Stand Tall, You Are a Daughter of God

Love this song and a great moment to just be with each of them.

Naomi made from scratch all these ginger bread houses for each girl to decorate.

Jordan's fun creation.

A little more shopping to do but most things taken care of for the Christmas season.

A couple parties scheduled but most of our time with be to do anything that we want to.

Tonight Larson made his own football board game and I just had the pleasure of the first person to play it with him.

Tom and Jackson are hunting with Uncle Chris

Jordan is taking a break from studying and is at Naomis birthday party.

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

Its fun to still have a little one and watch him being so excited about Christmas.

He loved watching Rudolph with all of us.

He would hide every time the Abominable Snowman would appear.

I did end up sleeping most of the night with him because of that but he really did love it!

After he went to sleep, the big kids and myself laughed so hard at how old and ridiculous the show really is. Poor Rudolph, because he was a little different, he wasnt able to play in any reindeer games. I told the kids, lucky for them that times have changed a little.

It was a fun night- so sweet with our little one and just having a great time laughing with the older ones.