Molly's Baptism

Click for more:)

We were so fortunate that Kerry and Jeremy arranged to have Molly baptized at my parent's church while they were here so that all of us could attend:) I have the honor of being her Godmother (I think my sister's both feel sorry for me living in testosterone land and let me the surrogate Momma for each of my girls!!!) Sunday morning, bright and early, we headed to the church. Let me tell you...getting 15 of us out the door on time was no easy task but we were successful and even a little early!!! The Baptism was perfect and Molly was awesome...she barely cried (but did fill her pants quite nicely right as we were heading to the water with no time for a quick change!) She was the only baby getting baptized and the priest really did a wonderful job in making the entire mass all about Molly:) In lieu of a party...we all headed home to change and Kerry and Jeremy treated us all to see Yogi Bear! We took up an entire row, the kids ALL behaved and everyone enjoyed treats and a good movie together:)

Christmas...part 2!

Click the top picture for a peek of the fun we had:)

After the opening of Santa, we let the kids play for awhile then headed to my parents for an evening event with EVERYONE present:) Kerry and Jeremy came with Molly (she had her first of many to come plane rides!!!), Kelly and Chris were there with Emma (and stayed the night giving everyone a HUGE laugh the next morning with Emma's morning hairdo!!!) and DJ and Christy arrived right as we did:) We were all beyond spoiled and had such a good time opening present after present after present after present! We are very lucky to have received everything we could've dreamed of and then some:) Craig and the boys got to meet Molly and she is such a trooper (she even let Craig run around playing Laser Tag while holding her!!!) Another highlight was seeing Emma as...she's walking:) She was absolutely precious toddling around like Herman Munster and quite enjoyed herself trying to constantly bug Luke and steal his toys. A family game of Hot Potato concluded our evening of fun and all three boys were thrilled beyond words that everyone was there playing with them and giving them so much attention!!! Now the question is...where am I gonna out all these new toys?!?!?!

Santa came!!!

Click for LOTS more Christmas fun!!!

6:30am sharp we discovered that we did in fact make the good list...Santa came!!! The boys were thrilled to see their loot under the tree with Brian happily shouting "There's like a thousand presents!!!" All of their wishes came true with everything they asked for being checked off of their lists!!! Luke got his "Mickey dance", Matt got his K'Nex roller coaster, Brian got his Madden 11 for the Wii and Laser tag for all of them turned out to be a HUGE hit...with even Craig running around the house shooting the boys in a giant war:) I can only imagine their excitement when they get to my parents tonight and see all of the gifts from their Aunt's, Uncle's and Gaga/Papa:)

Christmas Eve

Click for more:)

Christmas Eve was low key and PERFECT! The day started with the boys acting like Christmas crazed maniacs and Craig threatening to not go to bed so that Santa can't come and the mood quickly turned for the better:) Zippy (our resident elf) surprised the boys with an early gift off the sleigh...a new trampoline net, already put together! This was super exciting as my three goons had destroyed ours when they decided to make their own door back in October and have been banned from the trampoline ever since:) Luckily we got some early morning jumping in as the day turned nasty and poured rain for six hours. The bummer of this was the cancellation of our Christmas tradition dinner...campfire hot dogs and smore's :( but will be rescheduled for as soon as Luke is recovered enough to eat it!!! Thankfully we live extremely close to some awesome Chinese take-out! Opening the gifts the boys bought each other, movie time, checking out Christmas lights, feeding the reindeer, cookies for Santa as well as a thank-you card for the big guy topped off our night:) The boys all went to bed claiming they wouldn't be able to sleep but as you can see if you click the pictures...there was no problems there!!!

Cookies for Santa

On Thursday night, we went to a Cookies for Santa party:) The kids had a ball with their friends rolling, cutting, baking and decorating TONS of "yummy" treats for the big guy! It was a super fun evening and we made it home with a huge tray of BEAUTIFUL cookies:)

Click for a few more!

We know...I'm a GIANT sucker:)

Click to see how skinny the poor guy is :(

So the boys and I took some Christmas treats to the local pound for the doggies without families for Christmas and BIG surprise I fell in love with the sweetest boy...a clone of my Mia, complete with self-induced vet bills! (He managed to lick away all of his sutures from his neuter, resulting in a second surgery and three different ongoing medications!!!) "Wilbur" (as in the AZ Wildcat) is a roughly 3 year old yellow lab that was found running the streets. He is severely underweight (even though he currently weighs 91 lbs.) and in desperate need of some TLC (all things we can do!!!) When I sat down to meet him, he rested his GIANT head on my shoulder and I was hooked! Craig and I figured he'd be a good playmate for "Tex" who is also pushing 90 lbs. (although he is only 9 months old!) and all of us our completely in love with this gentle giant, even Ally & Tex:) The best part is he came trained...he can sit, stay, lie down, retrieve a ball and seems to be potty trained:)

We're halfway there!!!

Click for more:)

School is halfway over....thank the Lord! This waking up every morning is killing me...I feel like I barely get to bed and that stupid alarm is going off! All three boys had such fun last days of school:) Lukey ended on Tuesday with a Holiday sing-along, games and crafts, a present exchange with his class and a pizza party! He had an absolute blast and shocked me when he actually stood up in front of everyone and sang his little Christmas song:) Matt and Brian ended on Friday with jammie day and parties! Craig and I had to tag team them since I have discovered that as hard as I may try...I simply cannot be in two places at once:) Both boys had fun decorating cookies and cupcakes, playing games and making presents for Mom & Dad. I am just giddy that not only are they out of school for the next two weeks...I get a two week break from school as well:)

Next up...Christmas, Molly's Baptism and Luke's surgery (sounds like busy days ahead!!!)

A Fun, Chilly Weekend in San Antonio!!!

Click for more??? Of course!!!

We are so lucky to live so close to so many fun things and this weekend decided to meet Aunt Kel, Uncle Chris and Emma in San Antonio for a mini getaway! We had so much fun with all of the kids!!! On Saturday we met at the hotel, got checked in and bundled up (of course we picked the weekend of a nasty cold front!!!) to head to Six Flags Christmas festival. Emma got to ride her first rides and seemed to enjoy everything but the carousel:) The park spends a month closed decorating and we were not let down...there were so many light absolutely everywhere and all of us had a fantastic time!

On Sunday we all got up and headed to one of my absolute favorite places... the Japanese Tea Gardens. If I could ever get "remarried" (to Craig of course) and have the big celebration again... it would be here. It is the most beautiful, peaceful place in the world and as soon as you walk in you completely forget you are standing in the middle of downtown San Antonio. The kids a ball going under and over waterfalls, climbing endless trails and watching the massive koi fish. I had a blast watching Aunt Kel try to maneuver the stroller in all of these places:)

After the Japanese tea Gardens, we headed across the street to the zoo. Craig and I have heard so many times that the San Antonio Zoo is amazing and is actually ranked the third best zoo in the nation but we've never made it there. Boy have we been missing out...this was the best zoo I have been to! You are right up in the face of each animal, they have all authentic lands (like a stroll through Africa) and quite possibly the coolest kiddie land I have ever seen! This place beat all of the children's museums I have ever been to!!! They have a multiple areas of which all are designed to get kids outside and have fun. There was a farm area, complete with live chickens laying eggs, a riverbank with a man made stream and sandy beach for the kids to wade in in warm weather, a camping area, complete with a campfire and tent to play with, an indoor learning center with a "fishing" stream (and of course Luke managed to fall in it!), a baby play area and a crawl out tunnel that takes you right into the heart of the prairie dogs exhibit and my kids favorite area...the park. The sign outside says "Go wild, be a kid" and my boys did just that! They had races against Uncle Chris and Daddy, wrestled up and down the hills, played with Emma in the grass and made a boy pyramid on top of Daddy!!!

We were sad to see our fun weekend come to end and excited to see Aunt Kel, Uncle Chris and Emma in two weeks for Christmas!

Our First SUCCESSFUL House!

For the past four years I have dropped $10-20 on a gingerbread house kit and for the past four years, we have ended up throwing the collapsed house in the garbage within hours (or even minutes) making my $10-20 investment a total waste of money! I was not surprised when my boys asked to make another house, but came up with a plan to make it work:) That's right...I hot glued my house together!!! The boys played hookey and we built our house...seven glue sticks later we had a standing house for the boys to happily decorate! The finished product turned out so pretty I think I might like to live in it:)

WHEW...What a busy few days!!!!

Click for pics of our crazy busy few days!!!

Christmas season is in full swing in the Rose household! The house is decorated, the lights are up (and look fantastic I might add!!!), the tree is up (and finally decorated!!!) and Zippy...our family elf, has been coming every night and leaving treasure hunts for the boys! The past few days have been beyond busy, with me falling into bed each night hoping I remembered to do everything:)

We kicked off December with a visit to see who else...Santa!!! December 1, with no exceptions, we met Daddy at the mall to make sure we told Santa in plenty of time what we need for Christmas!!! Luke is on a HUGE Santa kick (about as BIG as his Mickey kick!!!) and was downright giddy to meet him:) After buying our ridiculously expensive picture, we headed to the food court for dinner and ice cream before falling into our beds, dreaming of Santa and his elves busy making what we asked for!!!

This weekend is when the true craziness started...Saturday began with Daddy's IBM Family Christmas Party at his office. We got our faces painted, had balloon animals made, went to a petting zoo, played in the jumping castles, watched Mr. Puppet's show and ate more hot dogs, chips, popcorn and ice cream then we needed:) Afterwards we headed out on some of my errands (which took MUCH longer than necessary with the WHOLE family along) and got the boys new sneakers (Daddy got to discover I'm not lying when I tell him how expensive decent kids shoes are!!!) and finally ended our day with pizza and football.

On Sunday we headed to Church where Brian got to be an usher this week. Each RE grade level takes turns performing the different jobs and this week was 1'st grade's turn. Brian took his role very seriously, even using hand gestures to order people around during communion:) Once we got home we made a mad dash into "get wet" clothes so we could head to the annual snow day in our neighborhood! This is a super fun event that is funded by our HOA dues in which they bring in tons of snow to a hill on the golf course and provide sleds, hot chocolate and cookies to everyone. The kids have an absolute blast sledding and having snowball fights with all of the kids in the neighborhood:) It's even more fun now that they are in school and actually know lots more kids! Once we got home, I made yet another quick change in order to make it on time to a cookie exchange I had to go to...that's right, last night after pizza and football I got to make 12 dozen cookies!!!

I mentioned we had an exhausting last few days...right?!?!?!

Warrior Dash Weekend!!!!

Click for LOTS more muddy pics!!!

Craig and I love to watch the Travel Channel and once saw this episode about an insane 3 mile 12 obstacle course that travels the country that looked like SO much fun ( I thought it looked hilarious and perhaps a good time...Craig was all about trying it out!!!)! I found out that it would be in Austin this weekend so I summoned up the nerve to do it with (and for!!!) my hubby, as well as convinced Uncle DJ and Aunt Christy to do it with us:)

My parents came up on Friday with DJ and Christy so Saturday was spent with the girls hitting up a craft fair and the outlets while the boys had babysitting duty! we managed to fill the car with fabulous finds and the boys had a ball not having to follow rules and getting to be gross all day with no girls around so the day was a HUGE success:)

Sunday was the BIG day...we arrived in time to pick up our warrior helmets, t-shirts and race packets and were ready to begin (after snapping a few pics of ourselves and the guy in full Warrior costume!!!)! Gaga and Papa had kid and photo duty while we were on our three mile adventure. We ended up having such a fun time...completely covered in mud and all!!! We climbed over junky cars, ran (okay maybe walked) a 1/2 mile through the most disgusting mud filled, pothole like stream (this was surprisingly our favorite obstacle), climbed over stacked hay bales, did a tire run, slid down a mud hill like a water slide (okay...Craig, Christy and DJ managed to stay standing and get down the hill; it was me who "rode" down the hill) and then rope climbed back up it, got across a 15 yard net suspended in the air, hurdled a few things, climbed up and over a net wall, jumped over fire and finished with an army crawl under barbed wire thorough mud!!! We all crossed the finish line together after staying together the whole race (team motto..."even if Mommy is the weakest link, we stay together!!) and our three guys were proudly at the finish line holding up signs and cheering us on with Gaga & Papa! It was an incredibly fun first "marathon" for the four of us and was complete with a hose off by giant water tanker trucks! It was such a fun thing to experience together with my husband and I find it amusing that he claims I've "never looked sexier than army crawling through mud"! I guess I'll take whatever compliment I can get:) Who's up for next year?!?!?!?!

PS-A BIG thanks to Gaga for all the awesome pics and a BIG thanks to Papa for watching the boys so Gaga could take all the awesome pics!!!

My sweet and adorable Molly!!!

Click for a few more pics!!!

I was a lucky girl...I got to take four days off and head to Vegas to have endless snuggles with my newest niece...Molly! Papa came to Austin to help out Daddy and turned out to be the BEST Nanny ever!!! He has a permanent job offer, room and board included, if he ever so chooses!!!

Miss Molly had just gotten out of her week long stay in the hospital and I was more than willing to give her Mommy (Aunt Key) some mornings to sleep in and showers without worry! Daddy (Uncle Jeremy) had to return to work for a short shift so I only got to spend one night with him but it gave me all the more reason to give Aunt Key a few minutes break! I had a blast taking endless photos of this precious sweetie and even had the honor of painting her piggies for the first time! (Both of my fabulous sisters have taken pity on my life in testosterone land and gave me the honors on both of my girls...Molly & Emma!) Leaving on Saturday was hard after so much time with a precious newborn but my Moose made it easier by calling me while throwing up asking me to come home...time to get back to reality:)

Orange Treats, Pumpkins and Trick-or-Treating!!!

There's LOTS more pics if you click!!!

Well another super fun Halloween has come and gone! Our boys truly enjoyed the whole weekend...we made orange rice krispie treats AND orange sugar cookies, carved pumpkins to specification of the examples they drew for us, went to the annual Halloweenie fest around the corner for hotdogs, friends (we found a Luigi for Matt and a Minnie for Luke!!!) and a Halloween parade and topped off our night with Trick-or Treating:)

Luke was NOT a fan of pumpkin goo but the other two had a grand ole time in it!!! My personal favorite pictures show that my boys have some learning left to do as I think they believe there is a buried treasure in the bottom of pumpkins:) They were all sooo proud of their costumes, Luke and Brian even sat still in the "makeup" chair so they could look the part:) Matt was beyond thrilled to find out that he had quite the popular outfit this year as he saw a few other Mario's on his journeys! Little man LOVED running up to all the houses to beg for candy and only dropped his entire bag once!!!

Everyone was in their beds dreaming of the fun they had by 8pm so Mommy is a happy camper too:)

Luke's 1'st Official School Halloween Party:)

Make sure to click the pic for LOTS more!

Luke had the time of his life today...he got to go to school dressed as his hero, Mickey! My little man joined the big kids club today and had his very first costume parade and Halloween party at preschool. He waved like Miss America the entire parade and proudly sported his costume, leggings and all:) We spent the rest of the morning doing Halloween rotations which included games, crafts, snacks and LOTS of fun! Luke really likes Emi, a little girl in his class and spent the better part of his day posing for pictures with her:) All of the fun wore him out...he came home and took a 3.5 hour nap!!!

Brian's 1'st Grade Performance

Brian was the STAR tonight in our house...he had his 1'st grade performance and sang his little heart out. He turned and smiled at my camera half the time which even made it more precious:) We videotaped it, especially for Gaga & Papa since they were M.I.A. for an excellent reason...Miss Molly is arriving tomorrow-we can hardly wait!!!! Enjoy the video...you can thank Luke for the choppiness (he wouldn't stop yanking my arm!!!)

A lazy Sunday...

Click for more pics...

After a crazy Saturday with four baseball games in three hours, we thought we'd spend Sunday just playing with the kids. What a fun day we had...after some morning goofing around and haircuts, we headed downtown in the perfect 75 degree weather for some outside fun! The Austin Botanical Gardens is one of my favorite places...it is this peaceful, hidden, beautiful place with hundreds of different paths leading to various areas such as the butterfly gardens, the rose gardens, the Japanese Tea Garden and many more (not to mention completely free!!!). The boys love just being able to run around, climb rocks, go under waterfalls and see fish, butterflies, birds, flowers, statues, plants, trees and even dinosaurs! After almost two hours of exploring, we headed across the street for a train ride circling the entire park. The boys love climbing aboard this little train and the fifteen minute ride completed our day of fun...almost:)

We had so much fun just being outside and enjoying our family time that we completed our evening at our favorite restaurant, Freddie's Place... a true Austin style hangout complete with picnic tables, live music, a fun playground and the best part being that it's all fenced in so the kids can just run around while waiting for the food to arrive!!! I truly can't think of a more perfect way to spend my Sunday than just being outside with my four best guys!!!

Halloween Fest at Six Flags

Click for more pics!!!

With Halloween quickly approaching, we decided it was time for Six Flag's Halloween fest and this year we were lucky enough to have Gaga & Papa join us for the fun! Since we have season passes. we get to go frequently and enjoy the fun but this time was EXTRA special and the most fun ever as...Luke FINALLY made the 36inch cutoff!!! (with a hat on, but nonetheless he MADE it!!!) He was beyond thrilled to get to ride on the rides his brothers go on (the only exception being the BIG coasters) and had the best time being a big boy at Six Flags...he even put his hands up on the Wiggle coaster:)

There was lots of fun to be had besides Luke getting on the rides! The highlights of the day were...a dance party with all of the Looney Toons characters, discovering Gaga has a secret "darts" talent which resulted in her winning three basketballs for the boys, getting Trick-or-Treat bags from Scooby & Scrappy and the boys refusing to sit with Craig on the kiddie flying swings which resulted in him getting asked to get off (like a pedophile!!) since he had no children:)

Paging Dr. Moose...

Click for parade pics!

Matt's current dream is to be a vet with Brian, own their own ranch that houses their vet office with a lake in the middle separating them and employ Luke as the kennel help:) Craig, me and my parents have all been assigned jobs as well and will all apparently live on this giant commune together with them!!! This whole week in Kindergarten has been centered on community helpers ending with a parade today around the whole school. Matt dressed up as a vet and proudly marched around the school with his class waving to the big kids like he was Miss America:) It was adorable to see and really fun to hear all of the other grades cheering for them in the halls as they walked by!!!

After the parade, lunch was an all school picnic and burger cookout which Luke and I got to enjoy twice...once with Brian and once with Matt! A fun end to a busy week...oh wait, that's right, we have THREE baseball games tomorrow!!!

Luke's 3!!!!

Click on each pic for LOTS more!!!

Time sure flies and somehow my baby is now three!!! Luke's birthday was this weekend and since Luke is not very social and has a very small circle of people he actually likes and will speak to, we had a very small party with all of his people in the circle (minus Aunt Key & Uncle Jeremy who are in Vegas getting ready to have Miss Molly in just a few weeks!!!).

Luke's fun started on Thursday when Gaga and I got to spend the day with him at Preschool to celebrate his birthday. Papa, Aunt Kel, Uncle Chris, Emma, Uncle DJ and Christy all came up on Friday to spend the night and celebrate Luke's big day! The day began with three, yes three baseball games! Each boy is on a different team this year, with Craig coaching two of those teams:) The nine o'clock hour was divided up since both Brian and Matt had games at the exact same time. Matt drafted Daddy, Papa, Uncle Chris and Christy to his game while Brian drafted Mommy, Gaga, Aunt Kel, Uncle DJ (and Luke & Emma by default!!). Both boys played awesome and we all met up to head to the debut of Luke's baseball career!! This was his first game EVER and since he missed his only practice due to vacationing in Florida last week, he was utterly clueless as to the rule of the game!! He didn't mind at all and had an absolute blast wearing his WAY TOO BIG uniform, having two turns at bat and playing in the field. Papa, Uncle DJ, Uncle Chris, Christy, Brian and Matt all took turns helping him throughout the game and other than a few runs to wrong bases...he did great!!! He is super excited to go again next week:)
After baseball, we all headed home, along with our close family friends for lunch, presents, cake and football on TV! Luke was completely spoiled with the majority of his presents being Mickey and Elmo themed and was quite the happy little man. Once everyone headed home, Luke finished off his birthday with a swim before heading to bed dreaming of all of his fun he had:)

Make sure to click for more pics!!!

I never thought this day would come...Luke started preschool today!!! My tiny little man who gave me so many troubles during my pregnancy and had me crying everyday for virtually the whole thing, the teeny tiny baby I brought home from the hospital at only 4 pounds and was terrified I was going to break, the little guy who had all odds against him from day 1 and traumatized me so much that I made poor Craig get snipped, my little tiny professor who went into glasses before he was even 15 pounds...is now a real BIG boy! He runs (never walks), he holds full conversations, he wears big boy undies, he has an attitude, he can crack jokes, and now he goes to school!!!

Preparing myself, I truly thought I was going to have to be carried out of the preschool but I got lucky...they ended up needing a sub. for the 4's....so I got to stay and spy on him ALL day!!! He didn't drop a single tear at drop-off (though I had a few) and happily waved bye to us. Some might say "That's great, he was excited and not upset!" I say "Seriously child, after all I've been through with you...why don't you just rip out my heart and stomp on it!!!"

I have to admit...I was so proud when I was peeking in on him throughout the day. He did awesome (minus one meltdown in music when Ms. Candice dropped them off and he was horrified!!!) and by 12:30 was passed out on his new Mickey napmat (custom-made by ME I might add!!!) and snoring louder than the cd player:) When I went to get him at 2:00, he was waiting with a smile and jumped into my arms for the biggest hug I've received to date! He was so proud to show me his art project and is actually excited to go again on Thursday:)