HoeDown

I took TONS of pictures at the kids hoedown. It was so fun to see them each dance with their friends.

Here's our Em movin' and groovin' to the music with her Kindergarten class.

While the other moms were dancing with their kids I was taking pictures of my cowgirl.  OK.  Truth? She didn't want me dancing with her.  I got over it though by taking all the pictures.

This is the look I get from Jake with his bff Jayden when I say,"Smile!"

Josh wasn't far from the action.  He was actually dancing with the other kids and Dad.

My Boys!

I know he loves his Momma! He sure does like to give me a hard time though!

And my oldest who usually hides from the camera caught in the middle of "do si do"-ing with her partner.

Gotta love the picture of Ave with her friends!  So cute!

Fun Times

So I'm doing a major scramble to catch up on our family events. Here are some things we did over Christmas break:

A family favorite: feeding the ducks

Painting Avery's room- it's not quite finished yet.  But she, and I, love the teal!

Jake earned his Bobcat badge and is working on his Wolf.  I'm proud to say he's almost done!

We had a large pile of leaves in the front yard the kids were jumping in so I had to get a shot.  Jake  being the funny guy decides to attempt to throw some at me.  At this point I'm grateful for gravity!

Happy Birthdays!

The first week in January is a busy one for us.  Avery turned 10 on New Year's day.  She's a lucky one.  She gets fireworks!

I saw these on the web and thought they were such a cute idea so I made one for Avery.  It's a picture every year starting when she was born.  Its fun to see how much they grow up. 

I made one for Josh too but didn't take a picture of it.  Next year I hope to make it cuter.

 I've been waiting for the right time to paint Avery's room and decided to just get it done even if I don't have all the supplies right off hand.  I LOVE the color and more important she does too.  I'll post more pictures of what her room looks like, even if it's a work in progress.

 Getting sung to is always so embarrassing for me.  I think Avery is the same way.  10 candles crammed onto that little cupcake she requested.

Blowing out those double digits.

Josh's birthday was six days later and I'm embarrassed to say I just figured out that my camera has video capabilities.  I've had it for over a year and I never knew!  Oh, all the fun things I missed!!

Birthday boy turns 3! (with frosting on his face)

So yes I had my birthday as well.  It looks like I turned 63.  I look good for my age wouldn't you say?!

After singing happy birthday twice, having cake, and Josh opening his presents we decided to head to the park across the street.  We had Jackson & Joseph, twin cousins 10 days younger than Josh, over to help celebrate.
They all had fun sliding, swinging, and playing on the equipment.

Josh

Emily

Jack

Joey

Before Spencer & I headed out for our date for my birthday I opened my presents.  My last birthstone for each of my babies.

I also got more toys for my camera and Lightroom so I can play with the pictures I take.  I just started to take the classes that came with the camera so I sure hope I learn something and my pictures improve.

Christmas

So Christmas was very wonderful and the kids had a chance to sit on Santa's lap at a Christmas party at our church. 

Christmas Eve we traditionally go to Grandma & Grandpa's, have our big family dinner, do a gift exchange: one for the kids and then a while elephant gift exchange for the adults.  It's crazy with all these busy grand kids but a TON of fun! This is most of the grand kids that live here in Texas.  The other half of the grand kids are up in Idaho.

Christmas morning brought 3 bright eyed kids and one sleepy head we had to wake up.

We start with our stockings and Santa brought each of the kids some coal.  They were so cute with the snowman painted on that Santa couldn't resist! 

Of course we can't forget the puppy!  Harley chewed this thing until it was soggy and so gross.  Luckily he buried it in the yard before I could throw it away.

We headed over to Grandma & Grandpa's home to exchange gifts for a little bit.

One of Avery's gifts was tickets to the Nutcracker Ballet.  Just the two of us.

Eagerly waiting for the show to start! Funny enough we sat in the same row as friends from church that we hadn't seen in almost a year!

We are blessed to know Sara who danced the Sugar Plum Fairy and was kind enough to give us a tour backstage.

Football

We enrolled Jake in flag football in the fall and he absolutely LOVED it!

It was so much fun to go to his games and cheer for him and his team. 
I loved seeing these little boys running and playing a great game together. It was so great for Jake.
His team name was the Patriots.

 He played center.  What that means I have no idea but he was the one to pass the ball to the quarterback? Did that sound like I knew what I was talking about?

 This is what Emily and I would did before one of his games to get some of her wiggles out. 

 I loved that Coach Larry had a playbook to show the boys certain plays and get them motivated.

 I love this picture of my little boy.  Playing with his flags.

 This is another cute picture of them when defense was playing. Josh would be watching a video on either Mom's or Dad's iTouch while Avery would be reading or watching something on her iPod too.

 Another funny thing with flag football is having the coach on the field when the boys are playing. 

 Some of the boys waiting to play some flag football.

 Jake getting the game started.

Ok, so this picture is after Jake caught a pass and was running to make a touchdown.  Unfortunately his one of his flags was pulled so he wasn't able to make it the whole way but it was really close.

This is a video of Jake catching another pass at one of the Championship Games at the end of the season and scoring a touchdown for the team.  It was so bitter cold and I was watching from a distance in the car with the other kids.  It's a bit hard to see but I'm proud to say it's Jake!  He was so happy!