Goodbye, 2015!!! We loved you :)

Our annual New Year's Eve party with the Hrobars was a little quieter than last year. I feel like last year there was dancing and singing and being silly! This year, the guys wanted to watch the football game, and the kids just kind of hung out with us. The kids seemed a little tired or laid back or something, but it was no big deal. We had good food, good relaxed fun, and watched some of the Netflix countdowns. I think it's pretty funny that Netflix has all these different characters that do "fake countdowns" so you can trick your kids into going to bed before midnight. I mean, that's pretty crazy to me. If you want your kids to go to bed before midnight, you put them to bed! Anyway, we tried some of the new ones this year, but we still all thought that King Julien's was the best. The 2nd runner up was the CareBear one. After everyone went home, Cory and I stayed up until the "real" midnight and watched the B52's perform in Houston, which was pretty awful (the B52's, not being with Cory).
It's always great to ring in the New Year with the ones that you love the most, and we sure did!

Another December at the Frio

Our December trip to the Frio was a little shorter and a little different than our usual because we stayed on our land in our camper instead of in the Lone Star Lodge. We figured that we might as well use our own land now that it has a working bathroom! Cory went up a little early to work on the cabana and to fix some things that had broken. The girls and I met him up there for a two night stay. Adilyn and Kacy helped Cory a little bit, and they learned how to use a power drill. Brooke and I just hung out :) We climbed trees, made fires, explored the land, and just relaxed. The girls played really well in the camper, and while they made up a Christmas song performance in the barn area. Kacy loved drawing on a lot of the extra pieces of wood that were around. Every year we do a hike to the top of one of the hills on the Frio Acres property, but this year we decided to go to Garner and hike up Old Baldy. It was definitely an easier hike, bushwacking-wise, but it was still pretty hard. It probably took us about 45 minutes each way, but everyone did great! Brooke hiked almost the entire way. At the top of the hill, there was a huge rock pile with an American flag at the top, and the girls loved climbing up and touching the flag. On the way down both Brooke and Kacy loved jumping off the rock ledges while holding Cory's hand. There were some amazing views of the property and the river throughout the hike. It is one of my favorite traditions that we have. I love having our own land there, even if it is a bit of a drive to enjoy it!

Christmas Day Fun!

We were lucky enough to have some visitors for Christmas this year! Dad was off work, and him and Kris decided to come down to see the girls open up their presents. Lani and Amy were also going to come over in the morning. Luckily, Adilyn and Kacy slept in until about 8am. We tried to make them go slow, but we finally just went to wake up Brooke. We opened all the stockings first, and then they blew through the presents like it was nothing! :) So much time to buy and wrap all those things, just to have it be over before you know it. They had a great time, and the best present of all was their bikes from Santa! They all loved them, and luckily, the weather cooperated, so they got to ride them all day. I absolutely love seeing the joy on their faces when they get all their new toys and do the "hunt" that Santa leaves! It was especially cute this year because Brooke was really into it. She kept asking me where I got all the toys, and she told me thank you for all these "special things" about 25 times! I feel so blessed that I get to give these three special girls gifts for Christmas. We had a delicious breakfast and played all day with all our new things!
PS - Yes, we are in shorts and tank tops - it was 85 degrees outside! Didn't feel much like Christmas, but that what happens in Texas sometimes :)

Christmas Sugary Traditions

Every year Mom gives the girls gingerbread houses to decorate. We go the "easy" route and get the ones that are already preassembled! One time, we tried to do our own, and that was quite a disaster! The girls had a lot of fun decorating them this year. I was truly impressed with Brooke's precision and design! Adilyn kept hers very patterned, and Kacy made hers silly. They all captured their personalities quite well! They liked decorating the houses, but I think they liked sneaking all the candy decorations even more. Kacy's house had a gummy bear roof, and somehow by the end of the day every single gummy bear had been stolen :)
We did the gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve this year, so we still had another sugary treat for the day - Santa's cookies! We made sugar cookies and used our cookie cutters to make the shapes. Everyone got pretty floury and had a great time! Mimi and Pops came down for Christmas this year, and they made it in time to help us bake and decorate our cookies.
After they were done, everyone decorated them all up with icing and LOTS of sprinkles, as usual! We left the cookies, a note, and all the other treats for Santa and his buddies.