November - December 2018

November and December are full of fun, friends, and family! I couldn't love it more! The kids are a hoot (jacked up on extra sweets), the season is wonderful (and I'm so thankful for warm Houston weather), and the joy is in my heart. We are so thankful to have yet another year of amazing and sweet memories all around.

 November 2018:
Visit with Nana and Grandpa: We enjoyed a visit with Nana and Grandpa which included celebrating Grandpa's birthday at his favorite restaurant, watching two soccer games, and seeing the fun involved with Red Ribbon Week at school. The kids are very loved and spoiled!

 

 

December 2018:

Christmas pictures with Santa! 

 

Professional pictures from Dad's and Sharon's wedding (October 2, 2018): All of us...all grown up!

We will miss you Gnocchi:  We had to say good-bye to our Gnocchi baby who was a wedding gift from my mom and sister. She was very loved and she was my and Aubrey's baby. She lived for 15 years a very full life. Here are some of our favorite pictures in the last week.

Baking, baking, and more baking:  We all know that we love to bake and eat sweets! Tis the season where this is acceptable on a daily basis (hahahaha!). I don't know about you, but we love Christmas cookies. My sweet life-long friend had the great idea of getting us team baking t-shirts for Christmas and a fun Christmas tree cookie cut out to make together as a family. What a fun gift!

Happy Birthday Gramma: Happy birthday Gramma, we miss you so much and love you. This year mom/gramma would have turned 68 years old. She is often in our thoughts and we have some good memories that we hold on to. One thing she asked me to do with the kids every year was to set aside time to do gingerbread houses with them together. She did this activity when the kids were 2 and 3 and they loved it. Now we look forward to this special activity and do it on Gramma's birthday in her memory. It really enjoy keeping this memory alive with them and I must say the kids love it too!

 

San Antonio and Six Flags trip: Daddy and Mommy bought the kids season passes to Six Flags in San Antonio for Christmas. The weekend before Christmas, we made a trip to San Antonio and enjoyed the riverwalk, a theater production and Six Flags. It was a really fun trip. 

 

 

Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve: We love our church and one of the things we look forward to at the Christmas Eve Eve service is a professional photograph of the family. It is nice to capture us all dressed up for church. On Christmas Eve, we have some favorite traditions like baking cookies for Santa, leaving out reindeer food on the driveway and carrots on Santa's cookie plate and enjoying a new pair of Christmas pajamas. Good fun and lots of smiles all around.



Christmas day: Each Christmas we enjoy the morning just the four of us. We make monkey bread and an egg casserole. Jay and I joyfully watch the kids open their presents and then they help us open our presents to each other. We enjoy the morning and afternoon relaxing and playing with our new toys and gadgets. This year we then went to Aimee and Israel's house and we were excited to also have Brian and Cathy and Dad and Sharon join us too for dinner. It was a wonderful evening full of laughter.

 Christmas Visit with Midei Family: We had a great visit with Grammy and Poppy. The kids loved all the new gifts and were beyond spoiled with their second Christmas. The kids loved hanging out with their cousin Tessa. We were also so lucky to have the great company of Brian and Cathy and their cute dog, Luna. We also celebrated Grammy's birthday and of course ate lots of good food all week long!

 

 

 

Christmas Visit with Thomas Family: We had a great visit with Nana and Grandpa once again. The kids enjoyed their third Christmas (they are not spoiled at all!) and had lots of fun playing with their new toys. We enjoyed our tradition of making homemade pasta on New Year's Day. We went ice skating downtown which was a fun new outing.