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!