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 :)

Winter Parties at School

Well, this year I experienced the other side of holiday parties at school - the homeroom mom side...Yikes! The first thing that was interesting was that the other kindergarten moms decided on a pine cone craft. That meant that I had to go gather 30 pine cones that would be "suitable" to use for a craft. That was awesome. 2 afternoon searches and 4 splinters later, I had all 30...Then, I had to get all the other parents to sign up to bring other various items for the party. All the craft supplies were pretty specific, and I didn't trust them to get the right sizes of things, so I got all that stuff on my own. I prepped 30 tiny little baggies of craft supplies earlier in the week to eliminate some of the party day chaos. The day of the party, Lani came over to babysit for Brooke because younger siblings aren't allowed to come. I took the girls to school, and stayed for the party set up. It was cold and rainy, which made it extra difficult to bring all the supplies in. I got to the room, and nobody was there to help me set up. The room next door had 5 moms helping. I was kind of irritated, then as I listened to the 5 moms next door hem and haw about how they should be setting up and what they should do, I was glad it was just me doing what I wanted to do. The kids came in, and it was so much fun! All the parents were very helpful in handing out the supplies, and helping the kids with the crafts. It went very smoothly, and I was really happy that nothing went super wrong. The only big bummer was that Adilyn's party was at the same exact time, so all I could do was run over and give her a quick hug and kiss. She was okay with it, and she had fun with her friend, Audrey. Overall it was a successful party, and a very short day for the girls at school! The homeroom mom thing isn't my favorite, but it was fun to see the kids come in and have fun knowing that I put in a fair amount of work for it to run that smoothly. I had a few pictures on my phone, but they got deleted. So sad!

Favorite Phone Pics of 2014

Phones can definitely be distractions from life. I am definitely guilty of looking on Facebook or texting instead of paying 100% attention to my kids, but one thing I love about phones is that they are always there, which means you almost always have a camera in your hands. Here are some of my favorite moments captured on my phone this year...

 Terrified of the car wash!

 One of our afternoon outings with my two girls at home - we went to the Galleria and played at the Water Wall.

 A rainy morning in the camper, snoozing with two of my favs.

 A beautiful princess

 Sneaking a peek

 My girl, on her 7th birthday

 A day that she didn't want me to work. She threw an awesome fit, then we made up :)

 Kacy, in Daddy's hat at Chad's house

 Back to school fashion show!

 Nammie and Brooke snuggling in a cold Mexican restaurant

 Everyone LOVES the white chair!

 Future Aggies??? College shirt day at school :)

 Sexy lady!!!

 She loved the slushie!

 Kacy loves to do experiments and "cook". She made a bread pie, and she was so proud!

 Pile of cuteness.

 Airplane! Her favorite.

 I have no words...a blonde spider girl working at a hair salon?

 Static Head!!!

 Kacy did my hair. Excessive clips on one side, excessive rubber bands on the other.

Snuggled up right!!!

An Epiphany...

When we went to the Polar Express, I was super bummed that I forgot my camera. So many great photo opportunities there! I had my phone, and I figured that I would just use that. Well, because the train was so bumpy, all my phone pics were blurry and weird. I just gave up early on, and put my phone away. I sat with the girls, they sat on my lap, we read the book together, we enjoyed our hot chocolate and cookies, we snuggled, we danced, etc...The whole time I was experiencing all these things with them, there was a typical "mom-arazzi" taking about 600 pictures. She was posing her family, making them redo certain "cute moments", therefore making them staged and fake. She was getting mad because her daughter wanted to look out the window of the train instead of looking at her and smiling. She posed her son and her mother in various different positions to get it just right. Unfortunately for her, that meant that she didn't sit down once with her kids for the entire hour train ride. She didn't sing one song with them, she didn't hug them, and she barely spoke to them. I don't say all that to judge this mom or say that she was doing a horrible job of parenting. I say it because I saw myself in her. I don't think that I was ever quite that obsessed, but I do know that there have been plenty of moments, dance recitals, performances, etc that I have "missed" because I have been looking through a camera lens. I mean, pictures are important to help us remember those wonderful memories, but aren't the memories themselves more important? If we aren't a part of those pictures we are taking, we surely aren't a part of the action, the place where real memories are being made. Do I want my kids to look at pictures one day and say, "Man, my mom got a great shot here. I mean, look at that lighting?!?" Or would I rather have them remember me singing and dancing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" up and down the aisles of the train acting like a fool right along side of them? Pretty sure it would be the second!
So, with that lesson being learned, I will try to take a couple good pictures, then I will put the camera away and enjoy every moment that I have with these wonderful people I get to be with everyday of my life!

Polar Express!

The Polar Express was a lot of fun again this year. We didn't get the same kind of tickets that we had before, but we still had fun. The seats were a little squished, and we didn't get our hot chocolate in take home mugs, but it was still the same concept. The weather was perfect, not too cold, and we had fun singing and meeting Santa. The girls had a blast, but I would say that they had more fun hanging out in the hotel with Mom and playing at the park the next day. The park was amazing. It was huge, with a bunch of different areas to play in, and the weather was absolutely beautiful! We planned to stay for about an hour before we headed home, but I think we stayed for about two hours. The girls met some friends, and they just played and played. I love exploring new areas and having adventures even if they are close and simple. I think that was our last Polar Express adventure, and it was a great one!