Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas Eve the Farris side came over to celebrate and open presents.  They brought lunch of barbecue, so I didn't even have to cook.  Then we all started opening presents. Papaw Richard got to help Alex open most of her presents.

 Grandma Karyn showing off Riley's Christmas Eve pajamas that we bought him.

As Riley was opening his presents, we forgot that he was going to open a game for his new Nintendo DS system that he had not got yet.  So we quickly threw it in a bag to give it to him.  I think it really threw him off.  He hadn't asked for it, and wasn't too sure what it was.  But at least the game made more sense to him. 

Daddy started showing him how to use his new game.

 This was Alex's favorite gift.  She doesn't so much play the keyboard, but LOVES the microphone.  I think I have a little diva on my hands! Since Christmas, I have caught her several times "performing" for our carpet cleaner & furniture delivery people.  I think we will be in trouble when she actually learns some songs and start really singing.

 Just to prove she is a total diva, she loved to wear all of her new jewelry.  Of course, Aunt Kalee had to show her how! :)

The other favorite toy was the remote controlled helicopter.  We all laughed as Riley & Randy played with it about a solid hour while we opened the rest of the gifts.  It was a little hard to control and they both thought it was really funny to buzz each of us.  It felt like I had a bee buzzing around my head.  It was lots of fun until the helicopter hit the ceiling and broke one of its propellers.  Sadly that was the end of the helicopter.  We tried to glue it back together but it just couldn't keep balance and fly.

After the presents were all opened, Alex decided to return the love to Aunt Kalee.  Since Kalee made Alex pretty in all her jewelry, Alex made Kalee "pretty" with bows.  At first she just put one bow in Kalee's hair.  Then she started requesting more bows from me.  To make it worse she wouldn't take just any bow.  She was picky on which ones she took from me.

 Such a good sport! I'm sure her FSU sorority sisters would be so proud.

 Then Karyn remembered one more gift.  After her own personal experience/scare of skin cancer she is so worried about all 3 Farris men working out in the sun all the time.  So she bought them each these visors.  They were actually designed to go around the hard hats, but since they don't seem to "remember" to put them on either, maybe he will actually wear it at least when doing yard work at home.

 As the afternoon wore on, Alex started showing signs of getting sleepy, but Ryan was the one who actually decided to settle in and catch some shut eye.  It just so happened to be on Alex's pink pony.  So cute!!!

 Sadie even decided to sneak in a little "cat nap."  I'm just glad that this time it was under the tree and not in the tree which is where she went at least once a night.  Luckily no ornaments were broken in the process.

 After the Farris family left, we put the kids down for a "quick" nap before heading out to church.  Christmas Eve service is a very important tradition to me and my family.  As long as I can remember we have gone to the candlelight service at First Methodist Hurst, usually at 11pm.  One of the really special things about this service was leaving the church and knowing that it is Christmas.  But things change.  I now have little ones and we live 40 minutes from church.  These kids need to be in bed around 8pm, so we now attend the 6pm service.  Randy is not one to get overly involved in the church service.  He mostly tolerates me and knows I think it is very important in the upbringing of our children.  But this year was different.
     There was just something special about standing there and watching my five year wanting to follow along in the hymnal, all four of us going down to take communion together for the first time as a family, and then finally all four of us lighting our candles at the end of the service.  At the end of our service we all light our individual candles and sing Silent Night together.  It is truly one of the most beautiful sights, seeing our gorgeous sanctuary decorated for Christmas, with no other lights than 600 candles glowing softly.  Randy and I agreed to not let Alex light a candle yet.  But as she looked at us with pleading eyes to be a part of it all, Randy helped her light her candle.  So I held both our candles, while he held her and her candle.  I almost cried at how blessed my life is.  I have two wonderful children, a husband who loves me, and was standing  next to two of the best parents in the world, my own.  It just doesn't get any better than that.  All that and knowing it was the eve of the celebration of Christ's birth.
     After we sang, "Joy to the World", we exited the church and hurried home to tuck my babies into bed.  This year didn't involve any extra assemby, and most of the presents were already wrapped.  Amazingly Randy and I were actually crawling into bed by 10pm ready to be awaken at 7 for Santa!

Holiday in the Park 2010

On the Tuesday afternoon before Christmas, we went to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags.  My mom, dad, the kids and I were there as soon as it opened.  We headed to the first big ride, which I can't remember the new name for, it used to be the Avalanche Bob Sled.  Riley was excited, but a little nervous.  He ended up loving the ride, as I knew he would, and this year Nana got to ride with us.  Last year, my mom was set to have her triple bypass surgery within two weeks and was not able to ride any of the rides, so mom was excited to finally get to ride a rollar coaster.  Unfortunately the line was really long, so Gampa and Alex headed to the teacups (rode it twice) and then to the carousel.  Just as we finished up, the rest of the crew arrived. 

 Randy's mother, Sandy, his brother, Travis, and sister in law, Jamie, all met us at the gate.  Grandma Sandy had brought some glow in the dark necklaces for the kids, which was perfect for hanging out at Six Flags in the dark. 

 I wanted to make sure that we caught the show that my student teacher was performing in, so we headed that direction. We had a little extra time, so we all got on the "cave" ride.  Again I can't remember the new name, I can only think of the names from back when we had season passes back in high school. 
Unfortunately, the line was too long for the cave ride and I just barely made it into the show on time.  Randy, Alex, Sandy, Travis, and Jamie did not.  It was a good show, and really fun to see Cynthia in such a different light.  She was so bubbly during the show, quite different from the teacher voice that I heard.

 After the show, we met up with the group again, ate a really nasty hot dog dinner, and then headed to the next ride.  Riley really wanted to ride the snow hill.  Of course, this was another really long line.  But we were spending some quality time as a family. In fact this marked the first of several times over the Christmas break that we spent quality time as a family, even more than usual.  It was really nice!

 The line was long and Alex was being her ornery self, messing with Daddy's eyes, and Nana's mouth, but always having fun. 

 Finally it was time for each of us to sit our dry rear ends on wet cold sleds and take our turns down the snow hill.  Even though it was 50 degrees outside, we all loved it, although we spent the rest of the evening, with cold wet pants.

It was a great evening.  We didn't get to ride near enough rides, but we had fun on those we did ride. 

Santa Pictures

After our first attempt at Christmas pictures, I wasn't sure how Santa pictures would go.  Of course, I had to try....well no grumpy children, but still no smile from Alex.  We made progress because this time Alex was not screaming or crying on Santa's lap.  In fact, she was trying extra hard to frown.  You can almost see the hint of the smile coming on.   She is such a little stinker.  As soon as I agreed with the photographer that we were done, she smiled.  But I couldn't get my camera ready fast enough.

 She even agreed to give Santa a big hug, but no smiles!  She is such a mess.  I know she was doing it more on purpose than on fear factor!  I still think this picture looks so sweet.

 After Santa pictures, I had the brainless idea to walk down to Picture People & see how long was the wait.  After waiting 10 minutes for someone to help me, they told me that they could not get the kids in for another 45 minutes.   I knew I would lose the happy moods in 45 minutes, so I told them, No thank you.  Then I decided to do the next best thing and just take my own pictures right there in the middle of the mall.  Both kids were being silly and chasing each other around and around the circular bench, but I did get this really cute one.  Can you believe it all 4 dimples are showing in this picture?  I think this is the first time ever I have gotten both kids to smile big enough to show all their dimples.  This is my eternal mission for pictures.  I call it the perfect picture and am just sure that one of these days, it will happen.  This was pretty darn close to the perfect picture, just need them looking directly at the camera....I know picky, picky!

 Then I got a close up of my sweet boy with his chapped lips and all!

 I think Alex was trying out her modeling poses!  But at least it shows off her entire Christmas outfit, which is vitally important for a little girl!

Christmas Pictures Attempt #1

Two weeks ago, I asked my teaching partner, friend, and photographer friend, Melissa Chase to take some Christmas pictures for me of the kids.  We both had our student teachers teaching, so we planned to leave right at 3:30.  Everything was going as planned until we picked Alex & Lauren up at Tracey's.  That was when Tracey shockingly told me that Alex did not take a nap today.  I don't know if Alex has EVER not taken a nap at Tracey's.  Sure she does that sometimes at home, especially when we are running errands, but not for Tracey.  That should have been my first clue, but oh no I was determined.  Well of course my kids did not want to cooperate.  But she still got some cute shots.  Here they are unedited and not her professional quality work.  I knew she didn't have time to do anything with them, I had already watched her stressing over editing for 2 weeks straight. 

                                     No smile, but it does show how much she loves her bubba.

Such a good Aggie pose, I didn't even ask him to do this!

Alex's usual pose, when she is determined to not give me her big smile!

What fun would pictures in the park be without a few in the leaves?

This was about all we could get before her daughter & my children decided they were done!  As soon as we left, I promised Riley that we would stop at QT for a slushie since his throat was hurting.  Each child got their own slurpy.  Alex finished hers in about 5 minutes & then was out, sound asleep for the rest of the night.  She didn't even wake up when I put her pj's on and tucked her into bed.  I guess in hindsight we got some GREAT pictures, considering how tired she was. 

Merry Christmas from Sea World!

Last weekend, my parents & I took the kids to San Antonio & Sea World.  I took a half day off work on Friday so that we could leave early and see the Christmas lights on the riverwalk.  Except along the way, we got distracted and found this great little Santa's wonderland full of lights.  It was 12 acres of land decorated completely in lights.  It was $20 a car, but I think it was well worth it.  Here were some of my faves...

This truck looked like something Randy would do!

 My favorite scene was the ski hill, complete with skiers & chair lift!

Saturday morning we got up & everyone was ready for some Shamu fun. It was a beautiful 78 degree day. 

Crossing through the front gates, we were greeted by Santa Shamu.  Alex loves to see the characters from a distance, but not up close.  She kept making me laugh.  She would reach out to touch him and then freak out and pull back.  Silly girl!

 After Shamu, we decided to try our luck with real animals.   Riley loves to feed the dolphins and they were pretty hungry.  After all six fish were quickly devoured, Riley just wanted to touch one so bad.  Except every time they would get close, he would jerk and then the dolphins would swim away. 

 Our day was going pretty well, so we decided to go see Santa while everyone still looked good.  But Alex was going to have no part in seeing Santa!  Here was our first attempt of the year!

The Shamu show was still the best show of the day.  We were amazed at how small the crowds were.  But that made it easier to get the best seats and see everything we wanted to see. 

 Snowman Village

Around midafternoon we were all dragging, so we headed back to the hotel to take a quick nap before heading back out for the 2 Christmas shows.

The best show of the day was the Christmas Shamu show, Miracles.  I was impressed because:
1. Sea World celebrates Christmas, and not Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings.
2. They mentioned Christ, although it was only in reference but never actually in name, but really close in a public arena. 

Then the show was so sweet because while the 3 killer whales did all their tricks, they had the baby (that was born last January) following his momma around and trying to do all the tricks too.  It was so cute!  Just one of those moments where you feel proud of watching your children and all their accomplishments.
    We ended the weekend by stopping in Round Rock to visist with my cousin Jamie, Chad, Aunt Jeanne, and Caleb (who is exactly 6 weeks older than Alex).  It was fun to visit with everyone.  I love to watch the kids play together.  I just wish we could have spent more time.  They all had so much fun!



Halloween 2010

On Friday our school had Storybook Character Dress Up day for Halloween.  My awesome 4th grade team chose to be nerds!  Definitely the best dressed team at BES!

 I only worked a half day because Randy & I took off  to College Station for our first Aggie football game in 4 years.  Sadly I have zero pictures of hanging out at the Trykoski ranch, going to Midnight Yell, an awesome Aggie football game where we beat Tech, or watching the World Series at some horrible Mexican food restaurant in Huntsville because Randy wanted to bring his little camera instead.  Then just as we took the first picture, the battery died.  Yes, that is why I am never in the pictures, because if you want a job done right, you do it yourself!  But we did have a great time!  Then we woke up Sunday morning, had some pancakes & bacon cooked by Greg, Yummy, and then headed home for Trick or Treating!

 Having Halloween on Sunday made me antsy to get started.  Usually I am rushing home from work and trying to hurry through dinner.  This night we grabbed quarter corn dogs from Sonic and we dressed & were ready to go by 6:30.  Except that Randy wouldn't let us go until it got dark.  I thought that since the Ranger game started at 7:00, that gave us an excuse to start early, but Randy still was not buying it. 

 It took alot of convincing to get Alex to understand that she did not need to bring a purse & a backpack trick or treating.  Her bucket was all she would need!

Riley was the transfomer, Bumble Bee and didn't need any coaching on what to bring!

 First stop of many.  Sadly I think they were more excited about riding in the gator than actually trick or treating, but then again they had trick or treated at Trunk or Treat and Boo at the Zoo already!

One last photo as the night wore on.  Trick or treating was a success, but I wish we had more than 4 kids trick or treat at our own house.  I have a ridiculous amount of candy left over!!!