Christmas Eve Part 2

After enjoying a good meal and good conversation, it was (finally, according to the boys) time to open presents! John and Robby donned the Santa hats and passed out presents. This is a pretty challenging feat for two little boys that don't know how to read! There was a lot of pointing and shouting to get everything in the right place!

John opening his favorite helicopter!

Robby concentrating opening his present, that's why his tongue is hanging out. He loved his present too!

Daddy helping his boys get everything opened! (And maybe playing a little too!)

Richard and I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Mommy sneaking a Christmas Eve kiss on Daddy!

A special thank you to Becky (Aunt Buckee), Ann and Lisa for making this a very special evening for our family. We had a terrific time! The boys were passed out on the way home ready for Santa to come in the morning!

Christmas Eve

Those in my family that still live in the Houston area met over at my sister Becky's house to celebrate Christmas Eve together. We planned a big meal and had lots of presents to open. Before we ate, and before it got dark, Tommy, Becky's friend, had gotten all of the kids and teenage boys new Nerf guns. So the big gun fight pursued! The rules were that they had to go outside and the big boys couldn't hit the little boys. It was a very windy day, but that didn't seem to matter!

Robby heading outside for some of the fun!

Richard got a hold of one of the boy's guns! Everyone got in on the fun!

New House

We moved in November, right at Thanksgiving to be exact. We love our new house, but we are still trying to get unpacked. It is awful to have to move during the holidays, but the last time we moved it was July! Nobody should move in Texas during the summertime! The weather was nice, but a little cool.





We finally have a contract on our other house! We are supposed to close on January 28th. We are asking for prayers that close goes through as planned! We will have to take the time to say good bye to our other house. We will always have great memories from the other house, but ultimately it was just too far to drive to work! After my illness last year, it was very important to cut out stress where we could. Cutting my 50 mile, one direction, commute in half certainly cuts my stress!

Lots of Projects

I'm in the middle of a lot of projects right now. We bought a new house in November and moved over Thanksgiving weekend. I'm still missing items though! One of the big things that I'm missing is my Photopass CD from Disney which has pictures from our trip to Walt Disney World that we took in September. Of course, these aren't just any pictures, these are the pictures that have most of the character visits and the family pictures at each of the park entrances.

Until I find the CD, I've been working on the Christmas pictures. I hope that you will be patient with me as I update the blog over the next couple of days. I see lots of new posts in the very near future!

Happy New Year to all of my friends and family!

Easter in Tyler

We went to Tyler to my parent's house for Easter this year. Usually we don't travel on Easter, but with so much of my family up there this year, it seemed silly to not take use of the long weekend to travel. We had a family lunch on Saturday since the weather was going to be bad on Sunday (rainy and cooler). Afterwards, my teenage nephews were great sports and hid all of the eggs for the little boys. They did a great job! I think everyone had fun watching my boys hunt eggs. I think little kids add so much to family holidays!

And they're off!




Robby thought he was so clever putting his basket down to gather eggs. He was very proud of himself!








Showing off their finds!




Next, Aunt Becky introduced the boys to confetti eggs. John didn't like the mess ( my type A child who doesn't like his hair messed up), but Robby thought it was hysterically funny!


Robby was laughing so hard that he was crying! He just kept hitting his forehead over and over again breaking each egg and laughing harder and harder!


John stayed by Mommy and just watched the fun that Robby was having.


Look at all the cars that Easter bunny brought!


First family picture with our new dog! This is in my parents' front yard.

Christmas Pictures

So those of you who thought that I forgot to post pictures from Christmas, well here you go. You see, I didn't forget; we just didn't take very many...more like 2. I know, I know...bad mommy. I didn't take any because, Aunt Tracy came to celebrate Christmas with us, and she took lots of pictures! Check out her blog! There is even a video of Robby!

Carnival at the Rodeo

After we finished the pony rides and Robby somewhat calmed down, we went to ride another "horse" on the carousel. They had a good time. However, Robby threw another fit when it was over. We were beginning to wonder if this was going to happen every time!






After taking a water break and letting Robby calm down, John convinced Daddy that he really wanted to go down the long slide! So, John got a sack and climbed the stairs all by himself. Daddy went up with Robby. Here they are climbing up the long stairs!


Here they are at the top of the slide. John is at the top of the yellow slide and Robby and Daddy are at the top of the pink slide.


They came down so fast that I totally missed the picture! :) They were all smiles at the bottom.

Then the boys rode this ride all by themselves. The ride's arms took the boys high and low. They had a great time.

The last thing we rode was the Ferris wheel. The loading and unloading process was a little scary for Mommy, but the boys had no fear! Once the ride got moving it was a lot of fun.

We ate a funnel cake and then headed to the car. The boys had a great day of "firsts". We will come back to the Rodeo on the last weekend. We figure we may let the boys ride a few rides again, but we will take the boys to enjoy the rodeo part and may enjoy part of the concert if they make it that far.