Christmas at Our House

Shane's brother Steve and his family came from Florida for Christmas this year. The kids had a BLAST...did I say the kids had fun? I mean a BLAST!! Stevie is 4 just like Chase and Aidan is 8, just old enough to tolerate and enjoy Gabe!! ;) Stevie and Chase immediately took off and were joined at the hip the entire time! The first few days were yucky cold and wet, so we were confined to the house until the kids went to a bounce house place while Landis (my SIL) and I made Chex Mix! (which was supposed to be given to friends and neighbors, but we ate it all!) We all went to Christmas Eve candlelight service and then to Pappasito's for dinner. (a restaurant that every major event has been celebrated at in most of our lives) We heated the hot tub on Christmas day, cranked the Christmas music on the patio and let the kids swim! (We adults hit the hot tub later that night!) The weather cleared up and we LIVED outside. Kids played street hockey with their new gear, rode bikes, drove remote control trucks and rode scooters. It was a great time and sad when we had to say goodbye. Kids are bored now!! :)

Aidan's 8th Birthday

My niece was in town for Christmas and her bday is Dec 22nd, so I took her to get a mani/pedi! She kept saying "this is the life!" They learn fast! ;)

 

 

 

 

Gabe's Christmas Party

Gabe had his "Winter Party" aka Christmas party at school with 5 fun stations, making reindeer food, decorating a cookie, christmas bingo, making christmas cards and making an ornament!



Gabe making a Christmas Card.


Gabe eating his decorated cookie


Gabe with me at the ornament station.



Gabe making reindeer food

Pajama Day at School

Gabe got to wear his LEGO Star Wars pajamas with his robe as a jacket to school! He didn't want to fix his hair either because "you know you dont fix your hair when you are in your pajamas!" What was I thinking?

 

 

 

 

Chase's Christmas Program

 

 

Chase had a part in his Christmas program that we all know so well due to his excessive practicing, "Look in the sky, there's a star!" that he said BEAUTIFULLY! ;)

Santa's Village

Santa's Village is a group of about 12 mini-houses (sheds turned into mini homes) that are turned into a village, there was Santa's house where the kids sat on Santa's lap, Mrs. Claus' bakery where she handed them a cookie, The North Pole Fire Station, where they could dress up like a fireman, and lots of others. It is really a neat place. Santa also is brought in on a firetruck with sirens blaring!! Pretty cool! We went with some good friends Jaime and Jared, and their kids Jenna and Jonah.

 

Gabe, Jonah and Chase climbing on the nutcracker that almost tipped over...hey! they were quiet!! ;)

 

The kids waiting impatiently in line to see Santa.

 

Jenna and Chase looking through the window of Santa's house. Seriously, these two were seperated at birth!

 

Breakfast with Santa

 

 

 

Gabe's school had a breakfast with Santa where all the dads show up and make pancakes and Santa comes. Grandma Wanda and Nana came too! Gabe got to eat with all his friends and Chase even saw some of his buddies! In the gym there was also a store set up for the kids to shop for their family. Elf Land had tons of gifts for the kids to buy. Gabe was SOO excited to shop. We gave him some money and he shopped away. He came out with a gift for everyone wrapped with a gift tag. He then went over it step by step adding at the end that he "felt cheer shopping." Now he understands why I like to shop!! The funniest thing too! Chase went and sat on Santa's lap and Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he looked at him and said "I told you last week in Atlanta!!!" Santa recovered well asking Chase to remind him again!! :)

Thanksgiving in ATL

 

Here is a pic from Thankgiving in ATL. That is Estee reading a book with the boys. Surely I can find some more pics from that trip...I will post more if I can get some!!

Christmas Elves

 

 

 

These christmas elves came a little early this year! We were headed to Atlanta to see my other 2 children (my gorgeous twin neices) for Thanksgiving, so I decided I HAD to decorate for Christmas so when we got back it would be done! Chase found the hat and aprons and had to wear them. Oh and don't let the picture of the boys decorating the tree fool you...I nicely took them off and decorated it later, everyone knows, no one touches mom's tree! ;) They did have a blast decorating thier upside down tree in the toy room though!!

Gabe Time

We had a great day out with Gabe by himself! We went to the Heard Museum Dinosaur exhibit. They have dinosaurs throught the nature walk that make noise and move and one even spits water on you! He had a blast! Its been awhile since we have been able to take Gabe by himself to do something!!

Luckiest Girl

 

My handsome boys!

The Great Pumpkin

So you know once you have a big pumpkin one year, the small ones just won't do! Here is last year's pumpkin and this year's! And a candle is so last year...this year we have the strobe light in it!! Super cool! ;)

Halloween 2006




2008

Gabe's first letter..

Shane's brother Steve plays the guitar and Gabe knows this and thinks he is so cool! We were at a restaurant on Sunday on the patio and he found this guitar pick on the ground. First thing he says is, "My Uncle Steve plays the guitar and he has hundreds of guitar toothpicks!" LOL LOL..he then said he wanted to mail it to him "so he could have a hundred and one toothpick." Here is his first letter he wrote all by himself!! SO proud of him!

 

Halloween Festival

We went to a festival at Chase's preschool last night! The boys had a blast!!

Mini Muddy Buddy

So Shane and Brandon (college buddy) decided to do the Muddy Buddy...it is a race where you run/bike and do obstacle courses then at the very end, you army crawl through a huge mud pit...just look at pics...They got 4th place! Not bad for their first one!!

Well we signed the boys up for the Mini Muddy Buddy...they were in HEAVEN. They ran a little obstacle course, crawled through the mud pit, ran across the finish line (where they put a medal around their neck), then got to wash off in the lake!! BOY HEAVEN!! I posted tons of pics/videos, but this was so cool!!

Really random, but Paul Mitchell was the main sponsor, so they were doing $10 haircuts. The boys always need a haircut, they are chia pets, so we take them over there and Chase tells the guy he wants a mohawk! The guy says you dont have enough hair, so he gave him a fauxhawk!! That kid is a trip!

Here are the pics, but scroll down for the videos!!!

Chase's "Field Trip"

So Chase was a little upset that he didn't get to go on a field trip "like Gabe." So, we had a little field trip to the pumpkin patch of our own. We met some of his friends there, then went to McDonald's! Does it get any better?

Gabe's 1st Field Trip

So Gabe had his first field trip the the Pumpkin Patch. He was sooo excited to get to ride a REAL school bus! It was the hit of the trip!

Crazy Hair Day

I am playing catchup...This was Crazy Hair Day at Gabe's school...

 

Doesn't God know what Fall is?

So we are at dinner tonight and Gabe does his usual prayer, thanks for the food and family...so Chase says he wants to pray and starts one of the little songs he learned at school and Shane tells him, don't just repeat that same old song, just talk to God and thank him. So he prays...

"God, when I was at the store getting the hay (for our front yard scarecrow), I got out of the car and it was hot. It is Fall and it is supposed to be cool. Thanks for our food. Amen."

And all of Texas says... AMEN!!

My Chase

 

This is Chase's newly learned trick he was doing at lunch today!

Grandparent's Day/Birthday/Twins

Ok so I am gonna play a little catchup...my new addiction, facebook is keeping me from blogging lately!

GRANDPARENT'S DAY AT SCHOOL



Mamah and Peapa




Nana



GABE'S never-ending 6TH BIRTHDAY!


Gabe's birthday started out with a special birthday breakfast!






Then we had a family party with Lauren and Gav to celebrate!!





Then the BIG "all boys" Transformer party! It was a drop off party, and it turned out to be a BLAST! The boys swam, ate, threw water balloons at Megatron, ate cake and ice cream and opened presents!!






MY GIRLS


My twin 6 mth old nieces were here for 3 weeks and here are a "few" pics of the MOST precious babies on earth...what can I say, we have good genes! :)





MY PRECIOUS BOYS

Here are a few random pics from the last few weeks...