HO HO HO!!!

Here comes Santa Clause!

We visited Santa Clause and he had alot to say! He was not very busy when we saw him so we got to talk to him for along time and he even read our letters.

At the top of Kendall's list is skates, a Barbie that you can fix her hair, a real kitty cat (which she tells me she will keep in her room), and a unicorn.

Taylor's list consist of a Buzz light Year tent and sleeping bag, a bowling game, a Barbie head, and skates also.

The girls are counting down the days and trying to be on their best behavior so "Suzy" (our elf) will give Santa a good report.

Attention: Ugly Sweaters!

Don't be jealous of our beautiful sweaters!

This month Carly and Joe hosted our not so regular dinner club and threw the ugly sweater theme into the mix. I had never been to an ugly sweater party but have own some really seriously ugly sweaters back in the day. It was actually more difficult than I thought to find a Christmas sweater and even more difficult to find a men's Christmas sweater!

Casey, Amy, Ryan, me, Paige, Jon, Carly, and Joe

Yes- Amy and I are wearing the same sweater just in different colors!

No we didn't even shop together, we both just have excellent taste :)

Amy got a new car so we all (Jon, Paige, Casey, Amy, Ryan and I) piled in and took the drive out to The Rodriguez's casa for some drinks, great food, and even better company.

On the ride home we sang and car danced the whole way! It was hilarious. We also got serenaded by Amy or as known as Justin Bieber and turned Jon into a huge fan!

Me and Carly

Thanks Carly and Joe for hosting and for a fabulous evening!

A Christmas Carol

A couple of weeks ago Paige, Caroline, Amy, and Jack joined us in going downtown to the Scottish Rite Children's Theatre to see "A Christmas Carol".

We loaded all four kids up in one car for a noisy but fun ride!

None of us had ever been there but it was nice. They have the theatre set up so that all the kids can sit on the floor right in front of the stage to watch the play, which some of them really liked. The actual play was only 45 minutes (perfect for their attention spans).

The crew with Tiny Tim

After the show they got to met the characters and take pictures with them. Getting all of them to look at the camera was not happening despite all of our effort.

Kendall and ?

After the play we ate lunch at Cantina Laredo and headed home for naps!

Thanks Jack and Caroline for joining us- we love to hang out with ya'll.

Supper with Santa

Supper with Santa was Friday night at my school. The girls were so excited I finally let them wear they Christmas shirts and skirts. When we got there there was lots of things to do:

decorating cookies,

face painting,

taking pictures with the Chick-fil-A cow

writing letters to Santa, making a Christmas frame, and listening to the Polar Express!

And of course taking pictures with Santa! But when we went to get in line, Kendall looked at Santa and said "that's not the real Santa". I looked at her and paused (I had to think quickly) and said "your right (he was not a good Santa- so I had to tell the truth) this is just one of his helpers here tonight, he had to be somewhere else". I asked her if she still wanted to take a picture and she said "no she is waiting for the real Santa". It was pretty funny!

So no picture with Santa yet.

Gymnastics

Kendall has been in gymnastics for a little over two years now. She is naturally VERY limber and flexible (I serious think she may be lacking a few ligaments). The gym that she attends has two gyms- one small gym for children 3-5 and another much larger one for children over 6. So now that she is almost 6 and they had an opening in the 6-8 year class she moved up!

Kendall is wearing the pink leotard

She was very nervous the first week she went. It is much larger, she has a new coach, and new friends in her class. But she did great! They rotated through the vault and then the bars.

After class her coach came up and told me "she did really well and is extremely strong for her age!".

The following week she rotated through the beam and the floor. She totally impressed me on the beam. She can almost do a handstand by herself on the beam and a cartwheel.

It is so weird to sit up in the waiting area watching her because I so remember spending hours at the gym and seeing my mom sitting up there watching me. She is getting so big and blows me away sometimes, I am so proud of her.

Birthday OVER-LOAD!

This weekend we headed back down 35 to San Antonio for Avery's 6th birthday party. It was at Michael's for an arts and crafts party (another of the girls favorite things).

So I let the girls decide what they wanted to wear (which they are both very into right now, and that is a whole another post on its own) which was not a good idea. They looked really cute but were not dress appropriately for the activity. I was a nervous mess while they were painting. I know they are only clothes but I spend so much time getting stains out and they were fairly new outfits that I didn't want them ruined. Back to the party.

Avery had picked out "treasure" boxes to paint and then decorate with more sticker than any one little girl could want. Surprisingly all the girls were calm and followed directions fabulously.

Paint first

Decorate next

Finish with cake and ice cream!

The finished products

Happy Birthday Avery- we love you!

Right after the party was over we got straight back in car and headed back to Austin to go to J and L's 5th birthday party. J and L are twins in Taylor's preschool class for the pass 3 years.

They had Tumblebus come (again they were not dress appropriately for the activity). Tumblebus is a school bus that has be transformed in a mobile gym. They got to jump, run, do somersaults, and zip-line!

Kendall zip-lining!

Taylor zip-lining!

At the end they present each kid with a medal.

Kendall

Taylor

The girls had a blast and were exhausted after the two parties and so was I but it was day FULL of fun.

Thanksgiving

The couple of days before Thanksgiving the girls spent in San Antonio with Grams and Aunt Jennifer. They got to go see "Junie B. Jones: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" at the Magik Theatre.

The girls always have a great time going there and did this time as well. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the girls there but a few of the set.

For Thanksgiving the girls and I had to do a little baking (one of our favorite things to do together). We were at my mom's house and Avery joined us for the fun.

Aunt Jennifer was so kind to pre-bake the cookies for us so all we had to do was decorate them. The girls are very independent right now and wanted to do all the decorating themselves. So we let them.

Taylor concentrating so hard.

Kendall playing attention to detail!

The finished product! Perfect!

For actually Thanksgiving we headed to Nanaw and Popeye's house. There was tons of family there that we had not seen in awhile, so it was nice to catch up. I didn't get many pictures because their was so much going on.

Here is one of the girls eating Nanaw's amazing cooking!

Our 1st Volleyball Game!

So I can't really remember if the title is completely true or not. I maybe remember taking Kendall to a volleyball game when we lived in The Woodlands and she was really little but I am not sure.

Morgan, Taylor, Kendall, Mallory, and Lanie (M & M's cousin)

So Friday night the family loaded up and went to San Marcos to watch our good friend Leslie coach her team (The Woodlands Highlanders) in the State playoffs. The girls were super excited to get to see Mallory and Morgan and even watched some of the game.

Taylor and Case

Her team won so they had to play again the next day but not until 5 so Lonnie packed up the kids and came to play at our house. All four of the girls played so well and had so much fun.

Having a picnic lunch outside

A little extra bonus is that I got to have some baby time with Case (even through he is not so little anymore).

Congrats Leslie on a fabulous season!

Native American Day

Friday at Kendall's school they finished their two week study of the Wampanoag's with a Native American Day.

They started it off with "War Shield's with Dads". The week before her teacher sent home five construction paper feathers and Ryan and I had to write five things we love or were thankful for about Kendall. Then that morning all the Dads joined their Kindergartner's to make a War Shield with those feathers. Kendall told Ryan as he was reading them to her that "loved what we wrote" and kept telling Ryan to "keep reading". It was so sweet.

Ryan and Kendall with her War Shield

The vest that she is wearing is a t-shirt that she stamped in class the week before .

After that all the classes rotated through all the other classrooma doing different crafts and continuing to learn about the Native Americans.

She came home with all kinds of stuff. She made a Dream Catcher, an Indian Baby with papoose (what the Indian mommy carried their babies in), and much more. All of it is now hanging all over her room.

I can not say enough praise for her school. She loves her teacher and has made tons of new friends. She loves going to school and amazes us all the time with what she is learning.

Kendall and Mrs. McCauley talking

World Cup!

This weekend marked the end of Taylor's second soccer season. We had two games on Saturday in the World Cup. They lost the first game in a kick out and won the second game in another kick out!

So that meant the she played again on Sunday in another game. So Sunday afternoon we headed back to the soccer fields for one more game and Team Philadelphia won!

Ellen and Taylor waiting their turn to play.

The team was super excited when Coach awarded them their trophies and said a few kind words about each of them.

Taylor has grown in her soccer skills so much this season. She runs after the ball, follows what is going on in the game, plays defense and offense. She scored about 8 goals this season!

I love how she looks like she is taking off :)

Ryan and I are super proud of her! Great job Taylor!

Happy Halloween!

For Halloween we headed over to our good friends the Huston's for our 2nd annual Halloween get together. We let all the kids play and eat dinner before we got them all dressed and out the door.

Let me present you to "Buzz Light Year"

and "Miss Ballerina"

Taylor had her heart set on Buzz this year (which so fits her personality) and Kendall at first wanted to be a princess (like she is everyday afterschool) but later changed to a ballerina.

Their costumes explain perfectly out different my two children are. Kendall is extremely girly and "doesn't like to sweat" and Taylor is super laid back and passionate about her "interest" (which are soccer, pirates, and Buzz).

Here is the whole gang ready to trick or treat!

Are they not the cutest?

Seriously that cupcake costume was ADORABLE!! I so wanted to eat her up.

The girls were definitely on a mission to get some candy, they ran full force from house to house filling up their bags.

The kids all had a really great time.

One of the highlights of the evening was one house was handing out margarita's to the parents! So going to steal that idea for the future.

Thanks Huston's for having over, as always it was great!

Carnival Cruise

I was so fortunate that I was invited to join my bestie Carly on a cruise to Cozumel. I was super excited about the trip. I had never been on a cruise before and I had never been to Mexico (unless you count going across the border to do a little shopping) which is on my bucket list.

Our ship- Ecstasy

We did a bunch of lounging around,

reading books and magazines, drinking some tasty adult beverages,

riding down an awesome slide,

talking,

and eating some yummy food.

When we got to Cozumel the group we were with had plans to go to a zip line, ropes course, and rock climbing excursion. Right up my alley of fun! I was pumped.

Me zip-lining!!

The afternoon was awesome. The course was so much fun and a bit challenging at times.

After doing the rope course and zip-lining they gave us the option of rock climbing. We could choose between a 24 foot, 36 foot, and 60 foot climb.

Carly and I choose the 60 foot! It was hard but amazing. We made it all the way to top. I was tired after that and ready for some good Mexican food.

Carly on her way up!

After all that hard work, we ate some great food, and did a little swimming in the beautiful and refreshing water.

Carly and I at the resort in Cozumel

Then we ended the day with a little shopping in the market and some tasty beverages at Fat Tuesday before boarding back on the ship.

It was a tall drink!!

The water there was gorgeous!

The whole trip was just what the doctor ordered- a nice, relaxing couple of days! Thanks Carly for taking me, and Ryan and Mom for taking care of the girls so I could go.