Family Reunion 2013

We attended my Dad's Dad's family reunion the first Saturday in June. These pictures are just too cute not to post. I love this sweet girl and her little cousins!

Cousins Road Trip: Brenham and Houston

 My sister and I decided a few months ago that we would take a little road trip with all three kids for Spring Break. We planned a tour of Blue Bell's factory and then the Houston Zoo. We left Monday morning and came home last night. It was lots of fun and I know the kids will remember it for a long time!

We had to wait about 20 minutes for the Blue Bell tour, but they had such a cute and educational waiting area. Spring Break is their busiest time of year. For a 45 minute tour and a scoop of ice cream, it is well worth the $6 I paid.

These old ads were on display...

They even had cute little hats for the kids :)

You can't take pictures on the actual tour to protect the privacy of their employees, but we saw them mixing ice cream, big vats of milk, and the bakery where they make the baked goods that go inside the ice cream, like brownies! They use milk from 60,000 cows each day. Wow!

We also learned the top five flavors are: Homemade Vanilla, Dutch Chocolate, Cookies and Cream, The Great Divide, and Neapolitan. We also learned although they don't sell to all 50 states, they are the #3 ice cream company in America.

We left Brenham and drove to Houston. We checked into the hotel and walked around the Galleria Mall. Everybody did a little shopping and we had a really late lunch in the food court. The older kids then decided they wanted to go swimming despite the fact that the pool was not heated and it was 60 degrees outside.

It didn't last long and they were taking hot showers to warm back up!

We woke up Tuesday morning, grabbed a quick breakfast in the food court and popped in Old Navy before heading to the zoo. It was packed which made it not nearly as fun as last time, but we did get to see all that we wanted to see.

One of my favorite zoo moments.... Tiffany, Kyleigh, Cohen and I noticed an odd looking animal like a horse with zebra stripes on his hind area and a longer neck. We went to read the sign having no clue what this hybrid animal was. Abby then notices it from her stroller and proceeds to say, "Look an okapi. I love okapi with their long purple tongues." Stunned and impressed! Thank you Diego for sharing animals with Abby!

The elephants were fun. They were throwing hay on their backs to cool off (it was mid 70s) and we saw two small baby elephants, about 3 years old.

Silly kids!

We left the zoo about 2:45 and thanks to light traffic and the HOV lane, we were home about 6 last night. 

I hope we take a road trip with the kids annually- it is what childhood should include!

Christmas Holidays

We have had a busy and wonderfully slow holiday. Marcus works one day this week and only 3 days next week, so we have enjoyed quiet time at home. I didn't leave the house from Friday afternoon until Monday late morning and that was only for an hour. I have become a home body!

Our only real busy time was Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We had Marcus' Mom over for lunch on Christmas Eve. We ordered tamales from a local restaurant and had appetizers, dips and chips, and cake to go with it. Abby loved singing to the baby Jesus and insisted he has a candle.

After lunch, we opened presents! We had worked with Abby all week on saying thank you for gifts and she did a good job giving hugs and saying thanks! She loved her silly socks from Mimi.

Carol has always given gifts to our pets and this year she included Captain in the mix. Once Abby had the smell of bacon on her hands, Captain wanted to lick on her!

While Carol was here, we opened our 5 things from Abby. Each year we individually take Abby to Dollar Tree and let her pick out 5 things for Marcus and I. We try to give little direction and see how she views us. I know she'll get better as she gets older, but the randomness of her mind is really cute. Marcus got a toy car, puzzle, basketball towel, Green Lantern books, and the best, "Relax and Sleep" pills. She had no idea!

Mine were super sweet- headbands which I use at home to get those pesky bangs OFF.MY.FACE, candy, mouthwash (which she thought was red, my favorite color, body wash, flowers which she picks me everywhere we go, and the sweetest little bible games because "Momma loves Jesus". In those little moments, you think, maybe I am doing something right!

How could our sweet little Christmas Eve turn into these faces?

This game! We bought this for Abby and opened it early to entertain us all with Carol and we played and played and played. Marcus and Abby put on their game face!

We had a lovely Christmas Eve with Mimi!

 Carol left mid afternoon and we rested and then got ready for church. Abby did her best to rally after learning the kids area was closed for the evening. 

We have been visiting a new church, The Church at Canyon Creek, for about 6 weeks now and are impressed by many things they do. We feel led to leave our church of 9 years, but we also still feel like we are "cheating". Changing churches is a hard thing to do. We plan to look at one more church just to make sure Canyon Creek is the one. It feels right, but what do we know?

Abby loved story time on stage and went right up to the front to hear the story of the sparkle box. It was precious and all the kids were given an angel ornament at the end.

The candlelight service was beautiful; however, when the prayer ended and all were quietly taking a seat, Abby loudly proclaimed, " boy, that was a long prayer". Nice!

We came home about 7:30 and changed into our Christmas PJs. We ate leftovers for dinner and opened presents! We do all wrapped gifts on Christmas Eve and save Santa and stockings for Christmas morning.

Abby opened only 3 gifts (clothes, shoes, and a baby doll carrier) and did so well about not asking for more! I was really proud of her. She also was more excited to pass out and give gifts than to receive hers.

Christmas morning she came and got us about 6:45 and wanted to see what Santa brought. She got a basketball goal, Peter Pan, a tea set with rolling cart, Hello Kitty hat, Lalaloopsy doll, and Jake and the Neverland pirates (her favorite Disney show, the pirate she was for Halloween) goods.

Her Bucky ship was her favorite and the thing she asked for from Santa for weeks!

We bought the basketball hoop second hand from a friend to see how much interest Abby takes in playing with it. We need a taller one, but they are so expensive that we wanted to gauge her interest first. She had fun playing in her jammies on Christmas morning.

Marcus and I exchanged pretty practical gifts. His big gift was padded leather kitchen mats- he always complains his back hurts when standing on the tile too long. My big gift was photography lessons. I start next Thursday and go for 6 weeks to Austin School of Photography. I am super excited!

This is probably Marcus' favorite gift. He wanted silly socks and these are perfect for tough days of brutal meetings!

 This is my favorite! I was very specific about the type of case I wanted and the picture to use and Marcus did it! Isn't she cute?

We left our house Christmas day around 11 to meet up with my sister and family at my Dad's house for lunch, presents and general family fun. Abby got a big princess castle from my sister and Daddy had the job of getting inside to assemble. Abby LOVES her new castle. Going to bed on Christmas night, she picked a few babies to sleep inside it.

She also got more Jake gear- I swear she loves all things pirate right now!

She gives a good ARGH face!

Kyleigh came to Christmas was an iPhone and makeup. Marcus was floored- I think she looks just beautiful!

My sister, Tiffany, and Shaun both got perfume/cologne sets from Sephora from us. They had fun smelling all the little bottles before deciding on which big bottle to get. And then, they had smelled too many and the fun ended :)

We came home on Christmas night at 5:30 and Nana arrived shortly thereafter. I ate too many sweets and other bad things and ended up with a migraine. So, we did dinner, opened gifts and I went to bed! We have a couple of quiet days ahead of us with Nana here and then Friday Marcus and I are spending the day wine tasting with friends, and Saturday is Abby's official 4th birthday. I love the mix of quiet and busy we have built into our holidays this year!

Merry Christmas!

Gruene Family Photos

We love taking pictures in Gruene at Thanksgiving. They have so many great little family spots and there is hardly anyone there! We tried to capture a few favorites from last year and also find new spots. We all wore red and brown, but then we didn't really get a great photo all together!

We had Captain with us, so we became those people who include their dog in their photos!

Why yes, my niece is wearing make up. I didn't think her eyes could be any prettier!

What do you think.... are we related?