Happy New Year!!!

As the kids are getting older, it's fun to celebrate with them a little later. We had the Hrobars over for a delicious nacho dinner (I think I could eat nachos everyday, all day!) After we ate, the kids played, we had a karaoke party, and then we had cookies and ginger ale drinks to ring in the new year. They left at 11pm - I thought that was pretty impressive. We used the countdown that they did on Netflix with King Julien, and the kids loved it even though it wasn't really midnight! They drank their punch, and said, "Cheers!" and then did some more dancing. I couldn't think of any other way I would rather bring in the new year. We love those crazy Hrobars!

Annual December Frio Trip

Our crew for the Frio December trip got a little bigsger this year because the Hrobars were bored, and they decided to join us. The guys went up early to get some trees and stuff, and Dana and I followed with all the kids and our two dogs. Unfortunately, we got stuck in some major traffic, had to stop more than normal to empty all the little bladders, and we had to get groceries in Hondo. All that being said, it took us about 6 hours to get there. The stops were a little rough because poor Zoe can't jump into the back of the Expedition, so Dana and I would have to lift the old gal up each time. The grocery shopping was the worst! We should have totally expected that. We had six kids, two adults, and two carts, trying to make our way through HEB on a busy shopping day. It was a mess. We were yelling at the kids to stay close, but we realized there was nothing we could do to make it any easier. We just had a lot of people in a small area! Anyway, we survived...barely. We remembered all our groceries, and made it out of there with all 6 kids. I call that a success! The weather was gorgeous, so it was a bummer to have to spend so much of it in the car, but when we got there, we enjoyed it. The kids played at our property while the guys planted the trees, then we hung out around the house, ate hamburgers and played some more before it was time for bed. The next couple days were kind of crappy weather, but we made the most of it. We went down to the river to skip rocks, played video games, watched TV, and played around the house. Saturday morning Brooke woke up and was crying and crying. She kept saying that her stomach hurt, which is usually her go to pain complaint. I thought she might be really constipated, so I headed into Uvalde to see if there was an urgent care that I could take her to. The urgent care didn't take our insurance, and they also said they didn't have any x-ray or anything to look at her stomach, so I decided to just go to Walmart to get some medicine. While we were walking around Walmart, she said that she felt better. I asked her what felt better, she said, "My ear feel better now." What?!?! So, I figured she had an ear infection, I called the TeleDoc, and got a prescription called in. It took about an hour and a half to get the medicine, but we got it! That was a long time to hang out in Walmart for sure, but it could have been much worse. While we were gone, the kids helped the guys at the property digging holes and working. The Hrobars left on Sunday, and we hung out for an extra day. The weather was perfect again on Monday, so we took another uncharted hike up the "mountain". It took a while, and Cory had to carry Brooke most of the way, but it was still fun! It's hard work, but it's always worth it when you get to the top :)

Christmas Day 2014

On Christmas Eve we made our traditional sugar cookies for Santa, what a mess we made this year! We also went to church for a wonderful Christmas Eve service with singing, a little talking about the Christmas story, and a candlelight version of "Silent Night". Those candlelight services always get me! When we got home, we wrote letters to Santa, and left out all the goodies for Santa and all his helpers. Thank goodness, everyone went to sleep at a decent time. We all slept in pretty good in the morning, and we had a wonderful time! All the girls were so excited to get their dolls from Santa. Everyone loved all their other gifts, too. Cory surprised me with a JJ Watt jersey, and I surprised him with a JJ Watt jersey. Great minds think alike, go Texans! :) We also had a lot of fun with the karaoke machine that Santa brought. I think Cory and I had just as much fun as the girls (maybe more) singing on Christmas morning! We had a relaxing morning and afternoon playing with the new toys and making a mess of the house. Brooke's favorite toys were the tiny princesses, Adilyn and Kacy's were their Journey Girl dolls and accessories. Later that day, we went to have Christmas over at Lani's house. Everyone was there except for the Troutmans, and we all had a good dinner and fun being together. Another successful Christmas in the books! :)

Christmas Celebrations in Fort Worth

Our family time in Fort Worth for Christmas is always fun! We love hanging out with everyone up there, and it's always a nice and relaxing time. This year, the girls and I drove up there without Cory because he was in Colorado. We got to Dad and Kris's house, had dinner at our favorite, IHOP, and I left to go pick Cory up from the airport. The next day, we hung out with Mom and Greg. Brandon came with us to see Santa Clause is Coming to Town at Casa Manana. We had heard some negative reviews that it was bad and that the man character was a brat, but we decided to go see it anyway. People are dumb, of course he was a brat, he was a mini version of Scrooge. It was a good play, and the kids seemed to really like it. After that, we went to open presents at Mom's house. The girls loved everything and were so excited to get their Ever After High dolls and the Nerf bows. Greg put some targets out for them to practice shooting at. We stayed there for a while, hanging out and playing with new toys, then it was time to go back to Dad and Kris's. The next day, everyone came over to Dad's house. We ate a lot of food, as usual, danced around the Christmas tree and sang, and opened presents. The cousins had a lot of fun playing together. During the middle of the day, the neighborhood bobcat strolled onto the porch, and sat down right in front of the glass door for a photo shoot. He literally sat there for 5 minutes, it was pretty cool to see him. The net day, we stopped to see my friend, Lindsay and played at an indoor playground for a couple hours. After that, we went to the Griffins for dinner and more playtime. It was a great weekend, filled with friends and family that we love :)