November & December Events

In November Eddie and I had the opportunity to go see a Maverick's game for free. It was a great date night! We were reminded not only of how much we enjoy each other's company, but how much we both love sporting events. (Even when it's not our favorite sport.)



For Thanksgiving this year we stayed in Irving and had a wonderful time celebrating with friends. Our pity party for one turned into a rip-roaring good time. I was feeling so sad to not have any family to spend the holiday with and thinking we were just gonna wind up having Thanksgiving dinner by ourselves. Eddie came to the rescue and discovered another family that we're good friends with was also going to be in town without family. From there it blossomed into a "come one, come all" party and it was totally the way we want to do Thanksgiving from now on. We got to know a really cute new couple in the ward who had just moved in, we got to know an older gentleman and his wonderful wife, get re-acquainted with others and ultimately to walk away with an afternoon spent in wonderful company and delicious food.


You can see behind Eddie that we had set up a few kids tables to eat on and then do some fun activities. Allison S. brought stuff to make this really cute candy turkey and the kids "gobbled" them up. (couldn't resist!) I brought some fun coloring pages but mostly the kids just loved running around the building. They did however perform the cutest "Thanksgiving" play. I wish that I could get video from my video camera onto the computer and not just off my camera. But alas, you'll just have to take my word for it...It was AWESOME! I think my favorite part was when they brutally killed the turkey (Kyra) and then proceeded to eat her.


We had so much food! We had to add a second table to just hold it all. It was soooooo good! Thank you to everyone for making it such a wonderful family holiday!

That next day, Friday, otherwise known as Black Friday, was spent in shopping and decorating the house with Christmas decorations. We had so much fun setting up our tree and the kids got to do 80% of the decorating. (Only a few minor adjustments, but for the most part, they did it!)



Maggie really enjoyed the traditional "Thanksgiving Leftover Day" and ate rolls like there was no tomorrow. We did however manage to capture Maggie's first, true walking. We had captured her first steps, but this was really walking.


Just watch this movie on mute okay? If you don't know how to mute it, just please ignore that crazy, high-pitched mom voice you hear...I promise it isn't me. :)

It seemed like after Thanksgiving, Christmas was around the corner and there really wasn't much down time. We had the wonderful opportunity to go down to San Antonio to see the Davidson's and meet new baby Ella and to be with "family" for the holiday. It was an amazing trip! (Minus the puking...more on that later)

We drove down on a Thursday and got up Friday to walk the Riverwalk.

Maggie enjoyed cruising on Dad's shoulders. Why did I lug the stroller around again?

We passed by the "Ripley's Believe it or not" and most of the kids loved all the statues and other creatures.

Andrew did not. This was about as close as he would get to the dinosaur. It looks like he's squealing with delight, but he's not. He's just squealing.

My sweet, sweet baby girl.

Andrea, Nate and Lacey enjoyed the day together. Drew was somewhere near by and we got a really cute picture of them all together but I think it must be on Jeanette's camera.

Our next stop was...


We managed to get a family photo in front of the "closed for the Holidays" Alamo...maybe on our next trip. We did however get to listen to a very animated telling of the events from an off-duty tour guide.

As we walked back to our cars, we noticed some rain clouds were beginning to look more and more scary. We got to our parking garage and "CRACK"!!! The heavens opened and the rain descended and the flood waters came. It was remarkable....HAD I NOT BEEN THE ONE DRIVING! Let's just suffice it to say that I've been traumatized for life from my return trip home from cali in a rainstorm. I think at one point we were going less than 25 mph on the freeway back to the Davidson's house. It started to get a little lighter and lighter the closer we got to home and as we pulled in to the driveway, the rains ceased and we were able to get all sleeping babies into the house and down for naps. It was amazing! If only the rest of the trip could have been that fate-filled! Unfortunately, it didn't pan out that way. Poor Hyrum was sick on the way down and Andrea fell victim to it next. That night Andrea got sick, really sick and then poor Maggie woke up puking. And after that it was kind of a free-for-all of puke-age. It got Mark next and then Caleb and then myself and then Jeanette I think. Anyways, it was not a pretty sight. But even with all that ickyness, we had a GREAT time. We laughed, we played games, we ate really good food, we re-newed deep friendships and we came away feeling like it was a wonderful Christmas.

Nate on Christmas morning...Love the new Christmas PJ'S! (I think we have a picture of all the kids in their new pj's, but again, I think it's on Jeanette's camera.)

Drew re-enacting Maggie's Christmas morning.

This is how Maggie spent the entire day...practically catatonic on either Eddie or my chest. Poor baby! It was really, really, really hard to see her whole body convulse trying to get what was in her body, out of it. But thankfully it was a fast bug and was over soon.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thank you so much to Joe and Sally and Dawn for letting us crash your family Christmas and for making us feel so welcome despite washing 8 loads of pukey blankets and towels in your washer. We owe you big!

October Events part III

Nathan had his 5th birthday in October too. It kind of got thrown together last minute (a trend in my life) but we had some friends come to the local Chuck-E-Cheese's and help celebrate Nate's special day. He was so excited to finally be 5 and he had a great time with his friends. They got to decorate their own goodie bags and play lots of fun arcade games and eat delicious ghost cupcakes (my first time playing around with fondant...they turned out really cute but I totally forgot to take pictures...also a trend in my life) and a ghost cake with glowing/fire eyes. It was a blast!




Some things about Nate at 5:
He weighs exactly the same as he has for the last 15 months but has grown taller. I've already had to replace his school pants twice.

He still loves to read and color and sort things.

He lights up when we pick him up from school and Drew is in the back seat.

He greets us every morning with a hug and a kiss. He's usually the last one awake too. (Drew is first and then Maggie and then Nate)

He says the most awesome prayers and always look at you like, "Wasn't that a good one?"

He is so in love with his baby sister and get her to smile and laugh almost as much as Eddie can.

He still doesn't eat a variety of food but has added celery and ham to his diet. Baby steps, baby steps. ;)

Nathan is so wonderful and we are lucky to have him in our family. Heavenly Father knew what He was doing sending Nate as our firstborn. We sure need this little man-child in our life.

The last event of October was an amazing Halloween party we attended. It was so much fun and we had to post just 2 more videos of the night. We already posted the one of our "grand entrance" but these were worth not leaving out. (Just ignore my hyena laugh and occasional squeel)

Eddie was the first in his group to get his donut all the way off...

and so we did a match-up between Eddie and Matt...It was pretty entertaining to say the least.

October Events part II

So also in October we celebrated my 29th birthday. I had been sick all week with some kind of sinus infection/cold type thing and was feeling pretty icky. Eddie was so sweet and really wanted it to feel like a birthday party so he invited over some good friends to help celebrate. It really was a wonderful day.




We also were able to go with our Church play group to the Pumpkin Patch. It's the same pumpkin patch we've gone to every year we've been here in Texas. We love it! Just looking at the pictures and video, Nate informed me that he can't wait to go there again. They always have such a wonderful time.


The orange crew. ;)

Nate and Drew sitting still for the only time that day.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but Drew is running away as I snap this photo.

We have a picture of Drew about this same age in the exact same pumpkin. I'll have to go find it and do a comparison.

The boys all time favorite thing to do there is definitely the bounce house slide and trampoline.




It's not very good video, but here is the crew we went with.

Devereaux, Haws, Harrison, Cavaness, Murphey, Craig, Stratton, Ririe, Trayner, Riding, and Cowan. What an awesome group!

October Events

I probably should split up the October events into a few different posts. So here is two of the six.

MAGGIE'S BIRTHDAY
The first event in October that we had was Maggie's 1st birthday! It was really very exciting to see our baby turn one. I can't believe how fast the time flew by. We, as in the ENTIRE family, are constantly telling Maggie how much we love her. You'll also hear things like, "Why are you so beautiful?" and "Hi Princess" and "Yeah for Maggie!". The boys are enamored of her and just want to see her laugh and smile and no doubt about it that Eddie and I are completely whipped. She's a great sleeper, a great eater, and very easy going. She loves to cuddle and doesn't cry too much, but definitely has an opinion of how she thinks things should go and will let you know if they don't. It's kind of embarrassing to admit, but she LOVES to watch movies. She absolutely loves anything soft and will squeeze it and put it in her face as she squeels with delight.

We kept her birthday pretty low key and had cake and presents that night as a family.



Maggie with Dad opening her presents.



Singing Happy Birthday to Maggie.


Getting her first bite of cake.

Are you ready for this?


She was definitely NOT shy about digging in.

GREAY WOLF LODGE

The second big event in October was when we got to go the Great Wolf Lodge for free. We had gotten a 3 day/2 night stay for sitting through a really boring timeshare presentation. (Would do it again in a heartbeat!)



Here we are in the front lobby.

And these next ones are of the kids playing in the water park:









Drew going down the slide. The boys really split their time in half between the slide and the wave pool. They were at the slide until they heard the wolf call and then would run over to the wave pool.



Lovin' the wave pool! I wish I had gotten video of Nate without the innertube. He was in the waves up over his head and loving every second of it. Eddie taught the boys to body surf and they got pretty good at it.

The water park was such fun but the kids loved going in to the hotel room just as much. We let them watch Disney (we don't have cable at home) and we brought in all our own food so we would have picnics on our bed. The boys shared a bed and we had a seperate living area where we put Maggie in her pack-n-play. It was perfect!





We can't wait to do this again as a family...Our goal is to get there one more time before we leave Texas. (Which gives us 4 years to save up...and we'll need that time for sure!)

September

First day of school pics:


Nate is 4 almost 5. He goes to Kinkead Early Childhood Education School. It's a Pre-K class that is Monday-Friday from 11:30 until 3:00. His teacher is Mrs. Dunn and she's amazing. Nathan loves her so much! Nate is also lucky because he has 3 other teacher/aides that are in his class and they're equally wonderful. Miss Rachel, Miss Eden, and Miss Andie.



Drew got to go to a pre-school camp at our local rec center for a few months. It was great while it lasted and Drew loved getting to ride big wheels in the gym.


What generally takes place after school:

Yeah for being silly!


And what post would be complete without a picture of our baby Mags!


I think it is also of import to note that Maggie really started to interact in this month as well. She really loved to mimic and she learned to clap really well this month too.

August Pictures

On August 3rd we celebrated Drew's 3rd birthday. We are so grateful to have this little boy in our lives. He is the family peacemaker. He LOVES his siblings and will do all that he can to make them happy. He is still a daddy's boy and lights up like the 4th of July when Eddie comes home from work. I'm so grateful that Drew and I also have a good relationship. We are buds. I'm so grateful for all the hugs and kisses I get from Drew each day. He loves trains and cars and balls...but that has been his life's theme since his first birthday. He loves running and jumping and karate chopping and being all boy.


For his birthday dinner he asked for yellow pancakes with sprinkles.

Birthday boy...man what a handsome devil!

Maggie enjoying her pancake.

And Nate with his.

Drew opening and enjoying his birthday presents.



These next pictures were taken just hanging around the house waiting for summer to come to a close and for the school year to begin. Can you believe how brown skinned and light haired my kids get during the summer?