Raptors vs. Spurs

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I have three very LUCKY little boys that will not even appreciate it until they are older! Aaron was back in Texas so we took the boys to watch him play in San Antonio. This game completes our tour of Texas Professional Basketball Stadiums ;) We have now seen Aaron play at all three stadiums...Houston, Dallas & San Antonio much to the delight of my people!!! This was by far the best though because they were all sporting custom made, signed, official NBA jerseys from the BIG man (7 ft. tall Aaron) himself! Seriously...how many kids can say that they get to go to these NBA games, score amazing seats, get VIP passes to wait after the game by the locker room AND wear custom Jerseys that a player had made specifically for you?!?!? I cannot wait until they are old enough for it to actually hit them :) Once again, "Mr. Aaron" is the coolest person my kids could ever have as a 'best friend' and truly the nicest guy in the NBA!!!

Christmas Part 2...

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Hooray...we woke up to discover that Santa came! The boys were giddy to discover their WiiU was not under the tree but rather in the fireplace! It must've fell out of the bag! We had a super exciting morning with more gifts than we can ever play with!!! I am personally a fan of the voice changing Transformers helmets!!! Santa did leave some rather questionable gifts :) Bow & arrows and inflatable boxing gloves can only end one way in this house...click to see :)

Christmas Part 1...

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We had the most wonderful Christmas with getting to celebrate two times! We let the boys open their brother gifts on Thursday night, had their class parties (and my last day of teaching!) on Friday then immediately got in the car and headed to my parents :) Kerry, Jeremy & the girls were flying in the next morning so we wanted to make sure we were there! Kelly, Chris & the girls, as well as DJ & Christy all came over as well and we all got to spend time with 7 cousins (Brian, Matt, Luke, Emma, Abby, Molly & Mackenzie) running around and playing together! We literally spent the whole weekend together just hanging out and it was absolutely perfect!!! The highlight was attempting to get all of them to sit together for a picture and all smile at the same time!!! With four girls 2 & under, plus 3 rowdy boys...you can imagine how this went :) Christmas Eve was the official present opening much to the delight of everyone except Molly...she literally slept through the whole four hours! We were all spoiled beyond belief and actually had to attach my Dad's trailer to the back of my car to get everything home! The night ended with a "hairy contest" with even Kerry & Abby joining in! DJ took the grand prize but the boys were runners up with their mustaches from Aunt Key!!! Their coveted trophy now sits in a place of honor on our bookcase :)

Not too big...YET!

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So my sweet 8 year old still is a true believer. Whether or not he has doubts, I am unsure. I am certainly not going to ask and he is too smart to question things aloud right before Christmas! I fear the questions may start rolling in right after the loot arrives, but for now I am enjoying my pictures of my three believers!! Enjoy...

Sledding!!!

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Five years later my kids still look forward to our neighborhood's annual sledding day! They bring in tons of snow, provide sleds, cookies &  hot chocolate and let the kids go at it!!! This year we had our friend's the Rinn Family join us. They have three kids...Riley is in Brian's class, Bryce is in Matt's class and their little guy Ryan is two. The kids all love hanging out together and had such a fun day sledding! It was 74 degrees, our a/c is actually on and the only reason they had on pants/long sleeves was for the muddy, mucky mess!!! Sledding in Texas....you never know what you're gonna get!

Lego Discovery Center & Six Flags!

 

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This past weekend we took the boys to Dallas for a weekend catered to them! Friday night we used our passes to go to Six Flags Over Texas. My guys LOVE this one as it has 3x the coasters as the one in San Antonio and some really HUGE ones! What a GREAT night we had...Brian reached yet another magical height and was finally able to ride Superman Power Tower, launching him and Daddy 32 stories into the sky with a smile on his face the whole time!!! Much to his dismay...Luke was just shy of the next magical height. He is so discouraged always being the short one left behind so him and I have a deal...if he can't ride, Mommy can't ride. While I do enjoy the rides with my big guys, my littlest guy loves having the knowledge that he's not always the one left behind with whoever is willing to stay with him :) Fortunately for us, the two teenagers working the old wooden coaster were paying zero attention so as Craig and the boys were pulling into the station they looked over to see me and Luke heading up the hill! Getting to be the one to experience all of these thrills with Luke for his first time is the most rewarding thing as a Mommy. Him squeezing my hand going up the hill and screaming "we made it Mommy" makes my heart skip a beat!

Saturday we surprised the kids and our resident elf "Zippy" had tickets waiting at the Lego Discovery Center and Aquarium for us ;) What a dream for my three boys! Matt's dream is to be a marine biologist and obsessed with anything ocean, particularly sharks. We have seen a lot of America's aquariums but had not been here yet so the aquarium was right up his alley! Brian is our Lego freak in the house and was beyond excited to spend the day among his favorite toy! Luke was just thrilled to spend the day with "his boys" being nice to him :) By far the funniest part of the day came when we walked under the blacklights! We have been battling the pink-eye plague since Thanksgiving along with Kelly's family...UGH! The boys and I have been on Vigamox pretty steadily as we keep sharing our disease. Check out the pictures of what Vigamox in your eyes smeared on your face looks like in blacklight!!!

After a fun few hours, we returned to Six Flags for FUN, Round 2! My kids are theme park junkies making the yearly gift of renewing our season passes by my parents the PERFECT gift for our family! And in keeping with Christmas...our kids solidly believe our elf is the coolest!

Raptors vs. Mavericks

 

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"Mr. Aaron" was back in Texas last night playing the Dallas Mavericks. Craig and I decided to make the roundtrip trek (thanks to teaching 3'rd grade!) to Dallas in order to take the boys to the game! Talk about boys dreams coming true...Aaron scored us floor level seats and was texting the boys from the locker room before the game. He was waving at them and giving "air fives" from the court, they made it on the jumbortron a few times, ate nachos, cotton candy and popcorn, and then the best part...had VIP passes to stay after the game and hang out with Aaron. Luke was so excited when he saw him that he literally went running and flung himself into his arms!!! It was seriously a good thing Aaron caught him, as Luke would've fallen on his head :) The boys so LOVE Aaron Gray and we are thankful for his friendship and the way he just loves on our boys! Seriously...what little kid can say they have a best friend in the NBA?!?!?!

Halloween!!!

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Another Halloween has come and gone! My guys all decided to be "hereos" of various forms of a ninja, a ninja turtle and a an army guy! This was the first year they all had independent thoughts on costumes and all picked out their own (Luke's was recycled but he still loved it!) Much to the delight of my boys, we had family friends join us for trick-or-treating! Craig and Russ took the kids begging for candy while Melissa and I sat with sangria and candy in the driveway! I'd say it was a pretty perfect night!

Fall Carnival

 

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So all of my time since school started has gone to the planning and executing of the school carnival! I took on the role of PTL Vice President and alongside five of my closest friends am having a blast! Even though we are crazy busy with all of the fun on our agenda, I wouldn't have it any other way!!! The fall carnival has always been a the "dud" side, with a few games and a jumping castle in the gym. We decided to "GO BIG"!!! We had a teacher auction, a costume contest, trick-or-treating, six HUGE inflatables including a sticky wall, a rockwall, four bungee trampolines, a haunted house, a hayride and food vendors! The catch...we weren't planning on the coldest day in October history to occur...complete with afternoon rain! All said in done...the kids had a blast, the school was amazed and we pulled it off without a hitch! We even managed to bring in $5000 on our teacher auction (our goal was only $500), all which we are giving back 100% to the teachers!!!!!

Pumpkin Patch

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We had so much fun last year at Jersey Farms that we decided to go back! Aunt Kel, Uncle Chris, Emma & Abby came along this year for the fun!!! Unfortunately Uncle Johnny & Aunt Christy couldn't make it due to Uncle Johnny's broken ankle and Gaga & Papa were out of town. Oh my goodness...what fun we had! My oldest friend Andrea happened to be in town so she got to come along for the fun as well :) She was so excited to meet the girls! We saw all the animals, took a hayride, learned how dairy farms work, fed newborn calves, picked our pumpkins and finished our day eating yummy Bluebell ice cream  Even though Abby hated the pumpkin patch and Emma spent the whole day plugging her nose from the yucky smells...we had such a fun day at the farm!

Viva Las Vegas!!!

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Aunt Key, Uncle Jerms and the girls live there, Craig & I have been multiple times, the boys have heard all about it and seen pictures and now....they have been to Las Vegas and done Las Vegas!!!! Craig and I took the kids to Vegas last week to see the sights, do the stuff and best of all...hang with Aunt Key, Uncle Jerms, Molly & Mackenzie! Molly is turning 2 next week so we even got to have an early party with her!!! Aunt Key played the hostess with the mostess and took the boys everywhere kids could have fun in Vegas!!! Uncle Jerms even came home form work for a day to spend time with us! We surprised them with a Ford mustang convertible, saw all the hotels, rode the monorail, played games at Circus Circus winning LOTS of prizes, saw the Bellagio water show, went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, went to M&M world and Coke World, rode spiral escalators, visited the world's largest golden nugget, went to the world's largest gift shop, went to Mandalay's aquarium, spent the might in a castle, watched a volcano erupt, went to the Hoover dam, took a tour of a candy factory, had an Elmo Birthday party complete with angry two year old and so much more!!! We had such a fun time in Vegas and can't wait to go back!!!

Luke's Family Party

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 Luke is on celebration #3! Since we are in Houston leaving for Vegas, we decided to celebrate Luke's Birthday with the family and save trips for everyone back and forth! Luke is still on his Birthday HIGH and acting like a present crazed maniac!!! He had dramatic reactions for every gift he got and took great delight in ripping open and playing with every present!!!  All I have to say is...Luke is one lucky little boy!!!!

Officially Five!!!!

 

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Little man is officially 5!!!! He woke up over the moon with excitement and I truly don't think his smile left his face all day! Brian and Matt made sure he got up early enough to open presents before school and funny enough...the biggest hit was the angry birds undies!!! He ripped them open and wanted to wear them immediately! After a breakfast a cupcakes and ice cream (does it get any better?!?!?!) we headed off to school. Luke requested a birthday lunch of Subway black olive pizza (not what you picture from Subway!!!) and an Icee so that's what he got ;) I spent the day with him at school, had lunch and then celebrated with his class treat of rainbow push-ups! Luke also got to pick his dinner so Chick-fil-A it was! Mind you...this was directly due to their being a playground and NOT the food! After a free ice cream sundae for the birthday boy from the manager, it was home to bed!

Clearly the last two days of birthday festivities got to Luke...it is 9:15am and Luke should be at school with his brothers...instead he is in my bed sleeping as he was beyond overtired and crabby this morning resulting in a massive meltdown over a green bowl at the breakfast table! He was so out of control, yawning and telling us he is so "sweepy' that we decided back to bed was in order! We actually had to pretend to call his teacher and get permission as meltdown #2 arrived when  we told him the plan! I guess it's not easy to grow up no matter how big or little you are :)

First friend party!

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Luke is officially five tomorrow...a thought that makes me want to cry! We are officially the parents of three kids....no more babies, toddlers or preschoolers...we now have to say we have three kids! Don't get me wrong...I love having three kids! I'm just not sure I'm ready for my sweet baby to cross to the dreaded other side full of eye rolls, sassy mouths, conscious lies and angry attitudes in need of adjustment!

In true growing up fashion Luke requested a "friend" party this year. He was no longer satisfied with a family party consisting of family and close friends...he wanted his school friends to be the guests! (Sorry to those no longer considered cool!!! Don't worry, the family party will still happen and you are all still needed for presents (direct quote) but you are all no longer the cool people he wants to hang with at parties!)

Craig and I honored his request and had a party at the bowling alley today with his Pre-K class. Much to Brian and Matt's dismay...they were also NOT on the guest list! Luke had an absolute blast!!! He ran around with his buddies, bowled, had pizza, cupcakes and soda and totally played up the fact that this was HIS BIG DAY! He sported two birthday badges and a birthday crown and had a smile that never left his face! Tomorrow is Round 2 with a birthday treat of rainbow push-ups at school, Mommy bringing Subway to school for lunch and a special request of...Chick-fil-A for dinner!

A year of firsts...

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Another first day of school has come and this one is by far the most exciting as for the very first time...all three boys are at the same school!!!!! Whoohoo!!!! Luke is completing Pre-K three days/week/full day at the boys school and that means 1 dropoff and 1 pickup each day!!!

Another first is that we have actually have a first day of school picture with all of us in it! We were out front taking pictures and a neighbor heading to work literally stopped his car and asked if we'd like a family picture! Gotta love living in a friendly neighborhood!!!

For the first time ever, much to Brian's delight, I did not cry today!!! All three of my guys were so happy today and so excited to go to school and had such big smiles on their faces that I was truly happy dropping them off. We love their school that we have them in so much and truly feel that there is someone loving on our guys every minute of the day. They each love where they are, we are so blessed to have made such wonderful friends at this school (both the kids and Craig & I) and the boys are academically doing better than we could've ever imagined! I know when I leave them each day that they are safe, happy and loved...what more could a Momma ask for?!?!?!

Yet another first this year was Matt finally grew up and it breaks my heart! Every year as I tuck him in the night before school he has a huge sobfest as to how much he's gonna miss me....not last night!!! Apparently he has moved on and decided that I am in fact not worth missing each day :( As much as I love that he is getting bigger...I hate that he is getting bigger!!!

I am officially the Momma of a 3'rd grader, a 2'nd grader and a Pre-Ker (is that even a word???) and as I look at my three growing boys I am both proud of what amazing little guys they are becoming and so, so sad at the fact that they are in fact growing up and becoming amazing little guys that make me proud each and everyday.

Ice Cream Festival & Teddy Bear Hospital!

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How fun does this Saturday sound...we went to the Austin Ice Cream Festival with all you can eat ice cream, followed by the Austin Humane Society's Teddy Bear Hospital! We literally woke up with no plans...a rare thing for a Saturday in this sports crazy house and saw the ice cream festival advertised on the news. Thinking kids get in free, $10 for adults and all the ice cream you can eat sounded like a good idea to me so getting ready it was! A quick check of my email showed that the humane society was holding a teddy bear hospital right nearby so added that to our list as well :)

What fun our day turned out to be!!! The ice cream festival was exactly what it promised...except it was 100 degrees!!! We were turning into big sticky messes quickly so after about six rounds of ice cream we headed out :) On the plus side...I have officially tried "fried chicken & waffle" flavored ice cream!!!!

The teddy bear hospital was so much more fun than we could've imagined!!! The boys each checked in, got their Drs. badges and set to work coloring in detail where their special friend was "injured". For the record...we had good ol' "gray bear", "big dog" and "giant Jokey smurf" with us to be treated! Once we were called to the back, we scrubbed in and proceeded to the O.R. So much fun!!! The kids held the anesthesia, gave injections, monitored blood pressure and taped up the broken limbs of their friends. From the O.R. we proceeded to the pharmacy where they each received a bag of skittles to take with their friened whenever they were in pain....ummm....adorable!!!! (and totally FREE!!!)

Kelly & Girls visit!

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We had a lazy upcoming week as did Aunt Kel so she decided to come with the girls for a few day visit! We had so much fun!!! We went to a new all abilities park that is more like an outdoor childrens museum than park, went to a super fun pool, went to an indoor jumping castle place that both Emma and Abby LOVED and spent lots of quality cousin time together!! I so loved having my girls even for just a few days!!!

New York City

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New York City has always been one of my bucket list items and now I can cross it off! Craig had to be in upstate NY for work so I joined him and then we headed to Times Square for five days of child free fun! The boys happily spent the week with my parents while Criag and I got to explore the city and we had an absolute blast! In true Craig & Katie tradition...it poured on us the first three days (and I mean poured!) We rode a double decker bus in the rain...complete with ponchos and umbrellas!! We took a pedicab through Central Park, toured Radio City Music Hall and even ate GIANT sandwiches at Carnegie Deli! I think we had the most fun at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum posing with all of the characters...the boys literally believed these were all real as we kept texting them pics to my mom's phone!!! We literally saw everything there is to see, went everywhere there is to go and purchased way too many fun souviners for the boys! It truly was so much fun and I can't wait to go back!!!

Swimteam 2012



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This was a BIG year for swimteam in our house...Luke was finally BIG enough to join! What a great season my boys had...Brian got his freestyle time under 20 seconds, scored multiple heat winners and NEVER placed above the top 10!!! Matt decided this was the year and owned breaststroke!!! He swam in the 7-8 group as a 7 year old and consistently scored in the top 10! He also earned his first ever heat winner ribbon, swimming with his goggles around his mouth!!! Luke managed to swim the full lap during practice, earning himself a spot in the final meet. He is the youngest swimmer on a team of 300 kids and one of only two 4 year olds to attempt the meet! He changed his mind daily leading up to the big day as to if he would swim or not but when the time came....he did it!!! Mind you...he only swam 1/3 of the way but nonetheless he jumped in and swam freestyle like a champ for the 1/3!!! After two breaths he lost his feet and that was the end for Mr. Luke, but we were so proud of him for even attempting it! Mind you he was swimming against 5&6 year olds, all who had already finished, so the entire crowd was focused on and cheering for Luke which is quite intimidating when you are 4!!!  Uncle DJ, Aunt Christy, Gaga, Papa and all of us were cheering from the sides and Luke is in full belief that he did awesome :) The grand finale of our season came when Brian received the Coaches award for the second time in three years at the banquet! How proud we are of him to be chosen for this special award honoring his character, integrity, work ethic, manners, leadership and responsibility!!!

South Padre Island

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 In keeping with tradition...we celebrated 4'th of July at the beach! This time we changed it up and went a few more hours south to South Padre Island instead of North Padre. We stayed at the Hilton right on the beach and spent five days playing in the ocean, catching minnows and keeping them in our homemade sand pool, going on moonlit crab hunts on the beach and swimming in the beautiful pool! We spent the 4'th directly under the fireworks being shot from a barge in the bay covered in glowsticks, went a a super fun boat ride to catch and hold sea creatures (and we caught SO many!!!!) and gave Luke the thrill of his life when we went to the go-karts and little man was actually tall enough to drive!!!! His smile could've lit up the sky it was so bright :) Such a fun, relaxing beach trip...can't wait for the next one!!!!