Riley has a toothless grin

Last night Riley pulled another tooth!  This poor child may be eating straight soft foods or liquid diet before too long.  It really doesn't help that he LOVES to pull his teeth.  In fact, he probably pulls them way too early!  Because it is taking forever for these teeth to grow back in.

The Following Day...

The day after Christmas was spent with my mom's side of the family and a 3rd day in a row of opening presents.  We did brunch, so that everyone could get on the road and get back home to prepare for work the next day.

 Riley got a really cool microscope that he loves to play scientist with!

Caleb had an imaginext Cars theme.

 Alex got more books, Disney princess stuff, and a dollhouse.

 Then here is my effort to make sure that we get pictures with the Great Grandparents every time we all get together.  Sadly Alex was not being cooperative in the least!

 I waited a little while before we tried Papaw & Nemo's picture.  She did smile well for this one, but unfortunately Caleb had already left to go back home.



Christmas Catch Up

We had a great Christmas.  Christmas Eve was spent with the Farris family.  Then we headed to church for our traditional Christmas Eve Service.  Since I had gotten the perfect Christmas card picture at the family wedding a few months back, I never took Christmas pictures of the kids.  So I attempted to get them to pose after the church service. 

Crazy boys!  So much fun together!

Santa Claus brought both kids new bikes! Well technically this was Alex's first bike and helmet!

Riley was in desperate need of a new bike since his knees kept hitting the handlebars.

Then Mommy & Daddy decided it was time for this family to have a basketball goal.  Riley is playing basketball again this season with his fabulous soccer coach, so now he can practice at home.

I think Uncle Ryan was trying to show off his trick skills!

Then Aunt Kalee got in on the bike riding action, or at least trying to help Alex master the pedals.

We so enjoyed having both sides of our family at the house Christmas Day.  It was a deal that we made when Randy and I first got married that anyone was invited to our house, but Christmas day would be spent at our house.  So it was with my parents and Randy's parents.  For now I am just going to enjoy the benefits of being the only one with kids and 2 sides of the family and let everyone congregate at our house.  Maybe this will just become tradition and once Kalee and Ryan get married they will continue to come to our house...

The Real Santa

On the first Monday of my Christmas break, my parents and I took the kids to go see the Prairie Lights in Grand Prairie. We had never been before, but I heard they were great.  I was really insistent that we get there when they opened at 6, so that it wouldn't be too late of an evening.  I am so glad that we did.  We waited in line for about 20 minutes.  But by the time we left around 8, the line was probably about 2 hours long.  Just this huge line of cars stretched almost back to I-20.  CRAZY!! 

Anyway the lights were really good and the kids enjoyed them.  About 2/3 of the way through you have a stopping point.  Which was really good because Riley & I both had to go to the bathroom really bad.  Inside the tented area they had snacks, a laser light show (cost $, so we didn't go), and Santa.  The first thing we did was get in line to see Santa. Ok that HAD to be the real Santa.  While we were standing in line, Alex kept saying that she was not going up there by herself.  As our turn approached, she took off by herself and crawled right up in his lap!  It was precious.  I LOVED the picture!!! Then they both told him they wanted Kung Fu Panda 2 the movie for Christmas.  (That was easy to please!)

After Santa Claus, they each enjoyed some Christmas cookies and hot chocolate.  Everything was reasonably priced (basically just cost value.) Then we headed outside to let Alex ride the Merry Go Round and Riley ride the spinning pandas.  Both rides were free!! Plus the kids loved them.  We had so much fun and then topped off a great evening with a yummy dinner at Sake, a Hibachi place in South Arlington.  What a perfect evening.

Flashback to Jr. High

On Saturday, Dec. 19 I had a flashback to Jr. High when I took the kids rollar skating for the first time.  Our neighborhood association rented out the rink for 2 hours. Not many people showed up, but we sure had lots of  fun.

They have the coolest contraptions made of PVC pipes on wheels to help the kids stand up and enjoy skating more their first time.  Then they also tightened up the skates a little so that it was more like walking.

Don't get me wrong they still spent more time on the ground than skating, but they had fun doing it!

This is my first attempt at taking iphone videos and uploading them to my blog.  Although I still need someone to teach me how to turn them the correct way.

Riley Skating

And then Alex developed a blister and refused to wear her other skate, so she just danced/walked/skated!  Silly girl!

My First Cowboys Game

The next weekend I was so excited to go to my first Cowboys game at the new stadium.  Randy called me at work on Friday and told me he had scored 4 free tickets.  I was so excited.  He had already been once that season and had taken his brother, Ryan.  After that game he commented that my dad and I would love it.  So with these tickets, we decided to take my dad and Ryan.  We couldn't take my mom because somebody had to watch the kids, and it couldn't be just anyone for a Sunday night game.  Plus it was Sunday Night Football against the Giants!  It doesn't get much bigger than that in regular season!

 Here I am during our super long walk to the stadium after we paid $30 to park at the Ballpark in Arlington.

 Yes, our seats were 7 rows from the top, but what a great view of the Jumbotron, right?

The excitement is the stadium was so cool!  There had been rumor of opening the roof that night, I am so glad that they changed their minds.  Sadly we did lose the game, but it was exciting right up to the very end.

A German Christmas in Arlington

Super behind on my blogging and somehow the farther I get behind, the harder it is to motivate myself to try and catch up.  So bear with me for a few days and I will try to play catch up. 

The first weekend in December we went to Arlington to enjoy a little German Christmas by the Ballpark.  It is really small and in the shade (cold) so not too much to do, but we got some great pictures.

 We also got our first Santa picture of the year.  This was actually Father Christmas, but I loved his outfit. Alex wouldn't pose alone, so she is sitting on my dad's knee, but every little bit of exposure helps, right?  Plus the money from the pictures went to the Leukemia society instead of some photo company, so that made me smile.

 Alex had no trouble posing with the beautiful angel on the other hand. 

As we were leaving we noticed that they were doing carriage rides around the ballpark for half the normal price.  So we decided why not.  Especially since we could cover up in the warm blankets.

Me and my handsome boy!

 Ahh! My sweet girl!

Then a picture of my wonderful parents who make most of our activities possible by helping corral the kiddos so that I can enjoy things too.