Night out for the parents

We had a fun day planned to take the kids to a surprise party in the country. However, Max was running a fever so thankfully my mother volunteered to watch them both.

We had do much fun celebrating with the birthday girl, Sharon and enjoyed cold beer from a keg. Took us back to our old days in College Station. We were checking in with the parents, since Max was sick, but once they were in bed we figured we had some more time for s little after party.


We went over to the Leonard's for dip in the hit tub. We had way too much fun and paid for it the next day, but hey, we gotta have some fun some times.

Typical morning

One of the things I live most about being able to stay home with my kids us that we can have lazy mornings if we want to. It's especially nice In this cold weather. We can snuggle be the fire watching cartoons. Enjoying the moments, because I know it won't always be like this.

BBC Little Christmas party

We celebrated with our workout group. There were so many moms and their babies! We all had a good time and the kids had fun. One if their favorite parts was decorating( and eating) the sugar cookies!

Cheese!!

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Last week of 2011

After an exhaustingly fun trip over Christmas I was so ready to be back home. The kids sleep better, I have all my things, its home after all. We did our usual trips to HEB, target, the park, play dates and re-arranging the house. I had an itch to make a change so we moved some furniture and I love it. Makes the house more open.  In the mean time the kids had fun playing with all their new toys and tearing up the house. 

Maddie has so many qualities that remind me of her Tia Maritza. She LOVES jewelry. She loves putting on all the necklaces, carrying purses and dressing up. Such a girly girl...sometimes!

 We got together with some great friends for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in the Galleria. It was probably the worst place  I could have picked, and it was my idea. The galleria was so hard to get to, find parking, find the restaurant, catch the elevator since I had a stroller. I was also paranoid I'd lose Max or get mugged on my way to the car. Of course, none of those things happened and we had a great visit (in between mini-meltdowns at the table). I was sad I didn't get a picture of all the kids together, but I did get some of my kids by the tree. Max loved looking down at the ice skating rink.  

 disclaimer: Please disregard his fascination with....well you know....boys will be boys. :)

 We had a small New Year's eve get together at our house. So happy my parents, Lisa & Isabel, and our neighbors made it to eat pozole and have spiked punch and margaritas. We had a great time and the kids stayed up until about 10.

 We got some fireworks and sparklers for the kids, but my three (Max, Maddie and Tyson) wanted nothing to do with it. Luckily Isabel loved it, and was pretending to be the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella. She kept saying "bippity boppiy boo"! It was so cute!

 My parents left early and so did the neighbors since they have a newborn. The rest of us stayed up WAY past our bedtimes, but it was all worth it! Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas 2011

He came! Santa came and brought all the kids were wanting and then some. We went to College Station to spend Christmas with our families and spent extra long there since my sister was visiting from her new home in Minnesota/Wisconsin. We pretty much celebrated from Friday-Sunday! I was glad that my mom and Shawn watched the kids so I could go to dinner with friends and actually "enjoy" some adult conversation and vent a little. :) Only downside is I came home to two kids bouncing off the walls.

Christmas Eve we went to visit Cy & Emily to let my parents get the house in order (my kids tend to tear it up). It was great spending some time with them and the kids. Emily was preparing some yummy food for their X-mas Eve bash. Later on we headed back to my parents to prepare for our Mexican fiesta. We had tamales, enchiladas, chips, dips, tres leches and margaritas. It was just like old times with family and friends. The kids loved when my dad and Dr. Arizpe played music. See the pictures of Maddie dancing and clapping and Max playing the bongos. We stayed up and the kids opened up one gift a piece, and went to bed WAY past their bedtime again.

 Christmas Day we woke up and opened gifts. The kids got so many toys!! You can tell they are loved. Max absolutely loved his guitar from his grandpa and they both loved Maddie's new musical Elmo. Can you tell they come from a musical family? Another favorite was balls. My poor kids don't play with them often since our dog loves them too. Let's see how long we can get them to last. We were so thankful for all the gifts and I know the kids will play with them for a long time. Now its time to donate some of their old toys.

The party didn't stop there thought. We went out to Suzy's for a X-mas day brunch and the kids enjoyed seeing their Honey. We managed to eat more yummy food, but once everyone started napping we headed back home to get ready for our Christmas dinner. Since we weren't all together for Thanksgiving we had an old fashioned turkey dinner with all the sides for dinner. Oh, and we decided to clean out Dad's wine cabinet.....that was fun. Max went to bed early and Maddie was cranky and that made my cranky as well. But she eventually went to bed so I got to relax a little.

All in all it was a great Christmas and we all had fun, but it was SO GOOD to get home. Maddie loved here new pajamas she got for X-mas and the kids enjoyed circus shaped waffles for breakfast, thanks to Tia Memi. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Max as Joseph

This year instead of pictures with Santa, Max's school took pictures with baby Jesus. The boys dressed up as Joseph and the girls as Mary. The pictures turned out so cute! I was pleasantly surprised when I went through Max's Christmas cards and gifts from his teachers to find this card from the school. I think it's great that Max is learning that Christmas is not just about Santa, presents and lights, but most importantly about the day Christ was born. 

On a side note, Shawn was more surprised that Max actually put on the costume. He has never liked dressing up for Halloween so we always do something that isn't too silly, i.e., pilot and cowboy the past two years.

Getting ready for Santa

We are getting ready for Santa. So excited that this year Max is getting into it. He has learned about baby Jesus' birthday at school. He understands that Christmas is an event that is coming and he is really excited about presents. He loves all the Christmas lights and wants look at them when the sun goes down, so if we are out we drive around. 

 Just a cute one of the kids playing out front.

We really enjoyed a weekend in College Station. We got together with Justin, Lisa and Isabel. We went to the mall and took pictures with Santa. Max asked Santa for Cars and a cookie. He did great with Santa this year, but Maddie was terrified. Glad we captured that memory anyway though, hopefully next year she'll love it. We walked around the mall and even rode the train. Max loved it, and kept yelling choo-choo and random people, fun! We had a great day playing with Isabel then we went to their cousin Anabelle's 2nd birthday party. Of course the kids fell asleep on the way there and Max was a wreck when I woke him up. He had meltdown after meltdown at the party, which was AMAZING(note sarcasm). Momma needed an adult beverage after that!!! Thankfully Lisa and Isabel helped me out with Maddie who did surprisingly well. So we left early and headed home and got the kids to bed. :)

Our visit to Santa in College Station.

On the train

Daddy & Max