Spring Break & Birthday Blowout!

Don't forget to Click! For Spring Break the boys headed out after Matt's party with Gaga & Papa for two days in Galveston, followed by two days in Dallas (to pick up Aunt Key & Molly!!!) and then met up with everyone at Gaga & Papa's house later in the week to celebrate Matt and my Birthday's on Friday, followed by a family party for all March/April Birthday's (there's 7 of us...Craig, Christy, Katie, Matt, Kelly, Brian & Kerry!!!) on Saturday:) The boys had a ball on their trip (minus Luke's battle with rotovirus along the way) and were full of stories when we saw them on Thursday night!!!

Friday morning Matt woke up beyond thrilled to finally be six like Brian (yes it is that time of year where we have two kids the same age for a few weeks!) and was spoiled by all of his family! Matt and I headed out for our annual Birthday lunch (just me and him!), leaving everyone at home:) Matt's Candyland cake was a HUGE hit so the 2.5 hour drive with it in my lap was worth every minute!!! I love celebrating my Birthday with my little man and wonder how long he will think it's cool to share a Birthday with Mom?!?!?!?

Saturday was spent with swimming, fishing, family tournaments of "Just Dance 2" (even Papa & Emma got into the dance mode!!!) and lots of presents for the seven Birthday people:) Molly had her first swim and the picture of her face says it all:) It was so nice to get to spend three full days snuggling with my two precious nieces and let my family entertain my 3 clowns:) We are all back home after an fun but exhausting weekend of little sleep and Luke has so kindly decided to share his hideous disease with poor Matt!!! Thankfully we are on the homestretch to Summer vacation!!!!

Getting tooooo BIG!!!

Miss Molly is getting too big, too fast! Luckily Aunt Key is great at capturing every detail of her life since they live so far away!!! (We are keeping our fingers and toes crossed that they maybe they can move home soon!!!) Here are a few of my latest favorites:)

Click for a couple pics!!!

Matt's Party

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This year we agreed to let the boys "go BIG" for their Birthdays! Matt invited about 27 kids to his party (luckily only 19 showed up!!!) for his super fun, campout themed birthday party. We rented a GIANT inflatable movie screen, roasted hot dogs and s'mores, made popcorn in our movie popper and had cupcake kabobs in lieu of cake! The GIANT ball you literally get inside of and roll around from Aunt Gretchen and Uncle Mark was a HUGE hit at the party, as well as with my boys! (BIG thanks to you both for that!!!) The kids all ran around and played until it got dark and then we settled in on blankets to watch the movie:) Matt loved his party and all the kids really seemed to have fun! Look for round two of the exact same party in a few weeks for Brian's BIG day!!! Another BIG thanks to Gaga & Papa, Aunt Kel & Uncle Chris & Uncle Johnny & Aunt Christy for coming to help keep things under control:)

Matt's Surprise!!!

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We are so fortunate to be blessed with such amazing friends...the Licht Family! They will be out of town this week for Spring Break, causing them to miss Matt's party tonight :( Last night at the Daddy's softball game (a whole bunch of our friends Daddy's all play together on Friday nights) , they surprised Matt with a mini-surprise party. Matt was so excited to have cupcakes at the ball field, as well as a few awesome gifts...Mario Yahtzee, a giant bag of Reese's and 16 mini-Dr. Pepper's (do they know my Matt well or what?!?!?!) "Thank you Ms. Candice, Mr. Marty, Madi & Drew...you are my best friends! Love, Moose"

It's FINALLY Luke's turn!!!!

Enjoy all the pics by clicking this one:)

After attending Texas day at the preschool every year since he was born...today was finally Luke's turn to be a cowboy!!! He was SOOOOO excited to dress up in his outfit, complete with boots and hat:) We rode a pony named Cinnamon, sang cowboy songs...complete with dancing!!!, made a Texas craft and ended our day with a hot dog picnic:) I am so fortunate to be at home allowing me to spend days with my little man just having fun!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

I think there is no question these are Craig's kids!!! Could they all look more alike???? The man of my world turned 33 today (and as of September I will have been with him for HALF OF MY LIFE!!!)! I can take pleasure in knowing that for the next 11 days he is two years older than me:) We celebrated low key...Matt had a baseball game (and Craig is one of the coaches) and dinner at Chili's. It's pretty lame to get old..right?!?!?! Happy Birthday to the best husband a girl could ever ask for and the best Daddy kids could ever have!!!

Bring it March!!!

So February can just be done...why you might ask?

-Craig managed to walk out the front door to take the kids to school, not realizing our porch was covered in ice and managed to crack open his head...resulting in six staples!

-Luke went to hang out with my parents for a few days and managed to accidentally break my Mom's nose...resulting in a very painful two weeks waiting for surgery and an even more painful recovery from that surgery!

-Craig went out of town for a week, leaving me home with the three boys (need I say more?!?!)

-We are currently trying to figure out how to juggle our weekday schedule between the following...basketball practice (Brian & Matt), soccer practice (Luke), baseball practice (Matt), football practice (Brian), CCD (Brian & Matt), Chess club (Brian & Matt) and the endless errands that seem to keep coming up! (Thank goodness basketball ends next week!!!)

-Matt has been soooo excited about his big birthday party (I let him invite the whole class). It is from 5-8 on March 12. Matt got an invitation for a party for a girl in his class (she also invited the whole class), her party is March 12 from 1-5...REALLY?!?!?! (and Matt's invitations are out, so no changing things!!!)

-We went to the Walmart Vision Center 7, yes 7 times this month!

I think I need a vacation from my life:)

Snow Two Years in a Row!!!

Up until last year, it had been over 10 years since Austin had inches of snow actually stick to the ground. Last year we had a fun time with a whopping six inches and this morning we had yet another surprise... we woke up to 2-3 inches covering our yard:) The boys are beginning to like the yearly tradition of one day of snow!!! School was cancelled and all the boys (Craig included) were outside by 7am playing in the snow!!! Turns out Tex LOVES the snow as well...he was running around the yard and rolling in it while Wilbur and Ally watched from inside:) By 8:30, we were cold, wet and tired so inside for hot chocolate we came. Aunt Key called us with a good idea a little later...make snow ice cream! I hadn't done it since student teaching in Flagstaff and the boys were thrilled with the idea! We headed out to collect a gallon of clean snow, mixed it up with some milk, vanilla and sugar...threw in some crushed up oreo cookies and there you have it...cookies and cream snowcream! What a FUN way to start our weekend!!!

Emma's Party

Click for some party pics:)

Our sweet Emma turns 1 today...holy cow...where did the time go?!?!?! Her party was this past weekend in Houston and we had plans to pull the boys out of school early on Friday to head down and spend time with Aunt Key & Molly who flew in from Vegas:) Well like usual...plans changed! Poor Matt came home sick from school on Thursday and on Friday morning...swabbed positive for the flu:( We were soooo bummed and not wanting to contaminate any poor babies so we decided to leave Matt and Daddy home while I took Brian and Luke to the party for the weekend. (I got the all clear from both sisters that the babies had been exposed to far nastier things than my kids in the past few days first!!)

Emma's party was so fun...I got my girlie fix with the pink and purple princess theme and spent time snuggling with both of my sweet nieces! Matt was bummed to miss the fun but sure enjoyed the "party in a box" I bought home for him...complete with the food, cake, decorations, party bag and more:) Thankfully Matt was the only one to get the flu and we have since moved on to runny noses and coughs...oh the joys of Winter!

Wilbur the Tetherball Playing Dog!!!

We are still dumbfounded as to why anyone would've gotten rid of this dog as he is pretty close to perfect! He is far better behaved than Tex (though in Tex's defense he is only 10 months old and Wilbur is around 3!!!) He is fully trained, fetches and retrieves as ball right back to your feet, walks well on a leash, rides great in the car, lets the kids jump and climb all over him, can swim, has learned how to "hug" on command, and pretty much does not much throughout the day except for eat and sleep:) Today the boys discovered a hidden talent...he plays tetherball! Yes, I said tetherball! Brian and Matt were out back playing when Wilbur joined right in, using his snout to volley the ball back and forth with the boys much to the delight of the boys! Notice in the video how much weight he's put on...he's not quite so scary skinny anymore:)

Luke's Surgery

Click for a few more pics of the poor guy :(

Poor Lukey...he has no idea what it feels like to be healthy so we decided to fix the problem. The Tuesday after Christmas, we left the boys with my parents and took Luke to the Children's Hospital in Austin for the insertion of a second round of ear tubes, as well as the removal of his tonsils and adenoids. He has had 12 rounds of antibiotics since May and I don't think I've ever seen him without a runny nose or picking his ears.

The Children's Hospital turned out to be a wonderful experience. Luke arrived and got to pick out a bike from the "garage". While I was busy answering questions with the nurses, Luke was busy driving all around the Pre-Op center with Daddy:) Our ENT (who has become more of a family friend seeing as how we've had six surgeries with him the the past three years) came to get Luke and they went off together, driving to the stop sign, turning right at the green light and eventually heading to the O.R. together. Poor guy...he happily drove off without a clue of what was to come!

Luke went through surgery with flying colors and was admitted to the floor for the night. Texas policy is they stay overnight if they are under five, and don't leave until they are "willing" to take pain meds. on their own. He was extremely upset and miserable when we got upstairs, especially seeing the IV in his hand, but became much happier once he was settled with Mickey on the DVD player and his own "people" pillow:) Later that day we took a walk to the playroom which was the highlight of the whole stay! Luckily for us, Luke was taking his medicine without too much of a battle so the next morning we were discharged by 9am!!!

It's been a little over a week and Luke is doing awesome! We kept him pretty drugged for the first five days which helped him to recover and he is almost back to himself (minus the runny nose and chronic ear pain...HOORAY!!!!). Each day he is taking less and less medicine and getting more and more active:) He was an amazing patient, especially for being 3 and not really understanding why he felt so horrible, and we are just looking forward to a new year with a finally healthy little man!!!

Molly's Baptism

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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

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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!!!

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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:)