Christmas Vacation 2017

Lindsey and her family joined us a few days after Christmas to hang out with us! Some of our adventures included:

 Indoor Trampoline Park

Carter and Bryson's first time roller skating! Carter did really well on his roller blades. Bryson used a rolling support that you can borrow at the rink. He was very timid but doing well by the end!

We also went to Pump It Up (indoor inflatables) and Obstacle Warrior Kids (think America Ninja Warrior).

The girls had a night out to see The Greatest Showman and eat at Panera Bread.

We also did an adult only game night for several hours. So fun, though not long enough!

Shirts from Denmark from Grandma and Grandpa

Christmas 2017

Christmas morning. We started opening presents at about 7:30am.

 My boys were very grateful and happy, so that made everything go smoothly!

The boys with their presents:

And the big present this year was a foosball table!

We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, which I made the day before. We spent the rest of the day trying out all the presents and playing every game. Such a fun day! My siblings joined us that night for dinner, dessert, and games.

Christmas Eve 2017

Christmas is such a magical time of year. I love the Christmas season. We gathered for a Christmas Eve dinner and celebrations at my younger brother's house.

 After dinner the kids acted out the Nativity story.

Austin was excited to be a shepherd

The kids' white elephant game 

 followed by handbells

Short recital--Jared and I played "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"

Then the kids were dismissed to watch a movie so the adults could do chimes, their white elephant game and dice/present game. After that we exchanged family gifts and ended the evening.

December Pictures

Santa visited the neighborhood Christmas party.

(I've never bothered to dress my boys up to see Santa!)

Making gingerbread houses

 Caleb snapped some pictures of his finished product.

 On December 8, we had a snow day in Texas! These are very rare indeed. The boys had a lot of fun and were bummed that school didn't get cancelled (because that's what usually happens if there is snow or ice).

Eating cookies by the fire!

Thanksgiving 2017

My older sister, Ariane, hosted Thanksgiving this year and did an amazing job on the turkey. All the food was wonderful!

 Playing games after dinner. We mostly played Reverse Charades

Austin and Morgan enjoying some popcorn after dinner. 

Unfortunately Austin fell off the stool a few minutes later and got a nasty bruise on his forehead. Mommy's fault. :(

Family Pictures 2017

My sister-in-law was so gracious in offering to take some pictures, and as always, they turned out great!

This picture was just supposed to be the boys, but Austin wouldn't cooperate.

Love this picture--it was during nap time. He held a Hershey kiss in his hand to stay happy, and by the end it was a melty mess.

Cousins

10K Race

Caleb and Carter expressed an interest in running a race, so I signed them up at a local race on November 11th where they had a 1 mile run for kids. The distance turned out to be closer to a 1/2 mile than a mile, but they both had fun and did well. Caleb got 1st place and Carter got 6th!

I signed up for the 10K and realized belatedly that it was a trail run. Whenever I've run a trail run (my Ragnar) it slowed down my time quite a bit, and I'm always looking to PR. Surprisingly, I did run a personal best with 7:38 miles! The other shocking news is that I got 2nd place out of all the women that ran so I got awarded a special medal and prize at the awards ceremony (as did Caleb). It was kind of fun. 1st place, a good friend and neighbor who used to live across the street, smoked me by quite a bit with a 6:40 mile pace. I don't know the total number who ran the race, but it was relatively small--maybe 30 - 40 participants for the 10K.

Now it's time to keep this pace but increase the mileage as I get ready for my next half marathon in March. 

Bryson's 5th Birthday

Bryson could not wait until his birthday! We were counting down the days for over a month.

The big day finally came!

All his presents

(not pictured are the quarters from MeeMaw and Papa)

Knight figurines from Denmark from Grandma and Grandpa 

(and dinosaur from a friend that he insisted had to be in the picture)

Cake balls on his actual birthday

Cousins celebrating with Bryson

Dinosaur birthday party a week after the planned date due to being sick

We did have a pizza fiasco where I ordered Domino's pizzas 2 hours in advance. When Matt went to pick them up, they weren't ready and there was no record of my order! I figured I must have done something wrong when ordering, but at the same time also confident that I double-checked everything. So Matt had to scramble with waiting, hungry children and drove another 15 minutes to a Little Caesars to get some pizza. Meanwhile I was scrambling at home with doing planned activities out of order and some without Matt's help when I had been counting on that. There must have been a glitch in the system with Domino's because my confirmation order finally came through at 6:36pm with all the details correct (including a 5pm pick-up time). Bryson was so pleased with all the dinosaur games/activities and especially the piñata.


Bryson at 5 years old
Bryson can be the sweetest boy if he chooses to be. He likes to follow the rules and also make sure everyone else is following the rules. He can be a stinker and his new tactic is to try to blackmail me into giving him what he wants: "If you don't give me some ice cream then I'm going to throw this at the wall" type of stuff. Not cool. I'm pretty embarrassed about the fact that he won't go swimming unless he has floaties--he's had 2 swim lessons and that was enough for my other boys to be comfortable. I need to get him more lessons I guess. We also haven't practiced enough on being able to ride a bike. Bryson is becoming a great reader and catches on quickly at preschool. He loves to play outside and play with his friends. He's a funny boy, and we love him so much!