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!