Santa!

On Saturday while the boys were at the football game, the girls loaded up the kiddos and went to visit Santa.  That morning I asked Brooks what he was going to ask Santa for and he said a "Tractor Party"- we had already started talking about his birthday party which was in two weeks.  The kids reactions were great.  Caleb loved Santa and just smiled a ton, then grabbed his beard and tried to pull his hat off.   Brooks was excited at first but then when it was his turn and I got him out of the stroller, he didn't want to sit on Santa lap- so he sat on my lap instead.  Charlotte was not a fan of him at all, she cried and didn't want to go near him.  Ava went right up and told Santa exactly what she wanted, so I guess 3 is the magic age where they get excited and aren't terrified.  

 Here is Caleb eyeing the hat, then goes in for the grab.

 I believe when we got there Brooks was going to ask for "Happy Cake".  He was very fixed on his upcoming birthday and the things we had been talking about for his party.

These have nothing to do with Santa, but I took a few Christmas pictures of the boys with ideas I stole from Pinterest.   I love how chubby this little guy is!  

Thanksgiving in Dallas

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family in Dallas.   We had a great time not only celebrating Thanksgiving, but also Christmas and my Dad's birthday.  We spent some time playing outside and enjoying the beautiful weather.   Brooks loved riding the tricycle and wearing the "Thomas bike bootball helmet".  He thinks that all helmets are some form of a football helmet (and can't quite say the "f" clearly).

We had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed lots of good food. That evening we celebrated my Dad's birthday.  I would post pictures of that, however my dad was wearing this super silly hat and out of respect for him, I'll just leave those pictures off the blog.   Here are a few of the cousins, and the best group shot we got the entire weekend.  Ava is holding Maggie, then Char, Caleb, Brooks and Beau!

 

Friday morning we woke up and celebrated Christmas!  It was really fun opening presents and watching all the kids get excited.  I wasn't sure what Brooks would do since he hadn't opened presents in so long.  He LOVED seeing what he got and immediately wanted to me to open the item and play with it.  I thought it was so cute how excited he got about each thing he received.  He even tried on his shorts and new shoes.  It must be a toddler thing because my niece put on the undies she got in her stocking ;-)  Caleb loved grabbing the wrapping paper and trying to eat it.  

Caleb is so smiley- it's so easy to get great pictures of him!  If only I could get it when Brooks is looking at the camera too.  All the pics we took of the cousins in matching pj's turned out horrible and everyone was losing it, so here are a few of just our family.  

My mom made this adorable "Carwash" for my boys, it's awesome and I'm sure it will provide them with hours of entertainment in the years to come.  Brooks really likes it and plays in it lots whenever I set it up. We had something similar to this when I was growing up and I remember I loved to play in it, so I'm so glad my boys will have something like it.  

We spent the rest of the weekend playing lots of games, the girls did a little shopping and the boys went to the Baylor v. Tech game (which we won)!  It was a really fun weekend and I loved spending time with my family and having everyone stay together for 3 days.  

Girls Weekend 2012!

I'm lucky enough to have some great friends from college who make it a priority to get together once a year and take a trip together.  It's a great time to relax, catch up with one another, and have some fun!  A new bonus I really experienced this year was the luxury of not having to tend to children for an entire weekend!  This year we kept things local for a number of the girls and met up in Dallas.  Also, this year we had a few more girls join us who hadn't come in years past.  It was so much fun!   We went out to eat at yummy restaurants, hiked, shopped, went to the spa, dinner theater and a rodeo.   Most of all, it was great to catch up with these girls.  I'm not the greatest at calling so this weekend gives us the opportunity to fill each other in on life!

 I'm so thankful for these friendships!  

Here are all the girls at dinner the last night.

 Here are some of the gals at the rodeo (I only had my camera the last night).

Here is our annual "T-shirt" pic and a silly one of course! 

I had a great time and can't wait until 2013- Seattle here we come!!! 

Halloween! (A few months late)

Last year on Halloween, Brooks and I were driving back from Dallas and we didn't do anything special, so this was Brooks first year to celebrate.  We went over to our friends, The Whites and trick-or-treated with their boys.  They are so sweet to my boys- Brooks wanted to go inside the houses while he was trick-or-treating and Holden "helped to make sure Brooks didn't go inside".   

Here are some fallish pics I took that morning. 

 Here are some pictures from Brooks first time trick-or-treating.  Good Times!  

Caleb was a football and Brooks was a Baylor football player. 

 It was chilly that evening so I put Caleb in Brooks' puppy outfit from last year.  So cute! 

And these were the pictures I got of both the boys in their costumes. It is becoming increasingly more and more difficult to get a good picture of both the boys, one always isn't looking. 

And in this case, Brooks decided it was necessary to tackle the "football". 

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween! 

Baylor Homecoming

We love Baylor!  Having both graduated from Baylor AND all four of our siblings went to Baylor AND each of them married Baylor graduates- we have a lot of BU spirit in our family (to say the least). Mark and I have gone to almost every homecoming since we graduated; I think we've missed two or three total.  This year I really wanted to go for the entire weekend instead of just the events on Saturday.  Overall, we had a great time! There was one point at the bonfire when we were each holding  one of the boys and had pretty much abandoned the strollers when I thought we may wait a few more years until attempting the entire extravaganza again.  I looked around and realized we, in no way, blend in with the students.  I was really glad we went to the bonfire because we were able to see the Heisman Trophy! 

It was pretty cool to see the Heisman, too bad RGIII wasn't there as well. 

The bonfire was fun, we met up with a couple friends and had fun catching up.  

There were really nice fireworks after the pep rally right as the bonfire was being lit.  

I was so sad this picture wasn't clear.  Caleb liked the Bear, Brooks- not so much.

This picture cracks me up, we stopped in the bookstore on our way back to the car. 

 I think it is safe to say the boys were a little tired and ready to go! 

The next morning we met up with Eric, Sally, Beau and Ava. We had lots of fun watching the parade!

When a stranger offers to take a group picture, you pretty much take what you can get. 

 0 for 4 with kids looking at the camera.  

What's the prefect way to cap off the parade (given the fact that the line at 

Common Grounds was crazy long)?  A little Dr. Pepper Float!!!

Whenever we are back on campus I like to take Brooks' picture with the Brooks sign.  It has nothing to do with why we named him Brooks, just coincidence there is a dorm with the same name. 

One would think we would have pictures from the football game, but while we were at lunch Mark and I decided it wasn't worth it to take two kids to the game during their naptimes.  Instead the 8 of us went to the Baylor Children's Museum.  It was so much fun for the kids and we could have stayed even longer but it closed.  I would recommend if you have kids to stop by for a bit.

Such a fun day with our cousins! 

We were so glad we skipped the game, there was a long rain delay during halftime and it would have been a disaster having to hold the boys the whole time.  We had a great time with "Plan B".

  It is always so much fun to be back on campus!  Sic Em' Bears! 

Kiddo Halloween Party

I had been wanting to start a toddler playgroup and one of my friends, Betsy, wanted to have a Halloween party so we combined them together and had a cute mini-party for our kiddos and their friends.  It was fun to see all the kids in their costumes while they ran around together.  We had a few little games, cookie decorating, a craft and the highlight- bounce houses!  

This year Brooks is a Baylor Football Player and Caleb was dressed like a football.  

Enjoying his snacks.

Brooks and his buddies, Coulter and Cougar- and Caleb. 

Brooks has a good grip on the football. :-) 

Most of the kiddos- pretty difficult to get!  Little Zeke was sitting perfect right on the side of the group smiling but I accidentally didn't get him in the pic, he is adorable.

Some of  the decorations and food- Pinterest is such a help! 

Brooks crawling through the "spider web", decorating his pumpkin, eating his cookie and playing his own version of knock the cans over.   I think he had fun.

He didn't want to go in the bounce houses at first, but then came and asked to jump.  He went in for about two minutes and that was it.  He found a basketball and ran around with that instead.

Caleb had fun too- we had a little ball pit for babies so we didn't have to hold them the whole time. 

 It wouldn't have been the best idea to set them down with 15 toddlers running around.

It was really fun to plan and I think the kids had fun too!  Next month Betsy is planning a Thanksgiving playdate- we are looking forward to it!

Pumpkin Patch with my Pumpkins

While we were in Dallas celebrating my nephew's 5th birthday, we went to the pumpkin patch.  I had gone last year with my sister, sister-in-law and mom- it was really cute and wanted to take Brooks again this year since I thought he'd appreciate it more.  I knew they had a tractor ride and he is in love with tractors so I was excited to take him.  I was right- he loved it, we all had a great time.  I was glad Mark was able to come and see how excited Brooks was.  

They had an area to feed goats- who were all apparently starving.

The hayride!  Yea!!  He wouldn't take his eyes off the tractor the whole ride.

Brooks rode the big tractor for a little bit- highlight of the pumpkin patch!  How old are you? "One!"

Brooks picked out a pumpkin for Caleb, then one for himself.  It was cute because he seemed to actually be carefully choosing each one he wanted.  Then he carried them over and put them in the stroller, he was really proud of himself. "Heavy pumpkins!"

Lots to choose from!

Sometimes he likes to get his picture taken, and even asks to "take picture".

Brooks and the Big Orange Pumpkin!

Our first time "Glamping"!

Mark had been wanting to go camping for a long time and I thought that sounded slightly horrible given the fact we have two boys under two.  However, he said we could go in his parents RV and slowly that sounded like something I'd be on board with.  I was telling my sister about how we were going to go camping, and she said, "Thats not camping, its glamping." I had no idea what she was talking about so she enlightened me to the new term- glamorous camping.  It was fitting for what we did- and I find the term hilarious. The weekends just kept on coming and going and we knew we'd have to commit if we were going to make it happen so we decided on a weekend and we determined to go.  It ended up being SO fun and we for sure are going to make it a more regular trip for our family.  We had a great time getting away, just the four of us and spending sometime together.  It wasn't the "campfire and s'more" camping that I normally like, but it was perfect for our family right now.  We went to Ruidoso for three days and enjoyed seeing the leaves changing, a little hiking and shopping in the cute town.  

The first day Mark and Brooks came across a couple deer, Brooks wasn't shy at all!  They were very calm deer and hung around while we watched them.  

 The boys and a Baylor Bear.

 Me and my boys- such sweet cuties!

Standard Saturday morning- cinnamon rolls and cartoons.

 Does sitting in a camping chair make it closer to actual camping? 

 Snuggly brothers in their football jams.

The second day we went driving around and looked at the changing leaves- so pretty!

We took a hike in the National Park.  Sadly the place we were going to go hiking burnt down this summer and we were told it won't reopen for 5-10 years!

It was really fun, the trail was smooth enough that we took a stroller and the boys took turns riding in it.  Brooks found a stick early in the hike (the "hardly over a mile hike") which he loved dragging along and hitting pine cones with like a golf club.  Then he would run as fast as he could and "race" either Mark or myself.  He came close to beating me.  Here he is "driving" on the bench and running with Mark- his face was hilarious while they were running- he was just screaming and laughing so hard!

 Little Man Caleb had a good time too!  He is so easy! 

 Here I am with my boys- they are so much fun!

After we went back for naps then headed to the race cars so Brooks could really "drive".

"Butch drive race car!" (Brooks calls himself Butch- and speaks in 3rd person. It's funny.)

 "More drive race car." So I got to go with him- he was all business while driving.  It got the seal of approval from Brooks- a thumbs up!

Caleb was watching all the action- he got a little ride in the motorized car :-)  I love that I only need to take one quick picture of him and he smiles perfectly in it.  I have to take 3134 of Brooks just to try to get one of him smiling.  

And we finished it off with a quick ride in a boat.  Brooks liked squirting the water and they would try to reach me, luckily they were too far away ;-)  

It was a beautiful weekend and we had such a good time getting away as a family.  The boys were great and everything went so smoothly!  We loved seeing the trees change and getting out in nature, even if it was only semi-camping.