Pre-Christmas Fun

The week or so leading up to Christmas and our Winter Break is always so much fun and filled with anticipation.  The holiday season is so great when you have little kids... seeing it through their eyes is the best.  

Smitty was super cool to have around each day.  We will miss him until he comes back again in Dec. 2014.  Here he was answering a question from our family gift from Grady, a conversation jar.  We love it!  

Grady's holiday party was great fun, although mine was at the same time so I only got to pop down for 30 seconds or so!  

One morning I made the kids snowman pancakes.  They were yummy!  

Our 10 year anniversary dinner with the kiddos! 

I made 3 courses and even played our wedding song, Nora Jones Come Away With Me.  I lit candles and we ate in the dining room on our fancy wedding china, which had never been used.  We still plan to go out to celebrate sometime soon, but it was great getting to have our kids be a part of it!  

We went on a family date to Mi Cocina and then to Texas Motor Speedway to see the Gift of Lights!  

The lights were great and the kids had fun singing Christmas carols along the way!  

Grady made an awesome gingerbread house!  

We met Daddy for lunch.

Christmas Eve Grady read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to Cole.  

Christmas is up next and we are ready for Santa!!

10 Years

Richard,

So we've made it 10 years (wahoo) and it's true what honest people will tell you about marriage.  It's absolutely the best and the worst, and the hardest partnership you'll ever have.  It also brings more joy than ever imaginable.  We have to work at it, daily. We have great spells and trickier ones.  We're both right, all of the time- it's amazing- ha!   If ultimately we choose to go through all of that with our best friend in the world, through thick and thin, sickness and health and we just happen to love each other more and more with each major life event... then I consider myself lucky.  I think we're ahead of the curve!  :-)

We're not perfect, but we're perfectly imperfect for each other.  I absolutely couldn't imagine going through this roller coaster ride with anybody else.  Sometimes I don't know whether or not I want to smack you or kiss you.  You gave me two of the most beautiful things on the face of this earth.  You are my soulmate.  My quiet supporter.  My heater.  My sensible other half.  My put-er-together-er.  My fixer.  My fact checker and researcher.  My listener. My super handsome (and currently bearded) partner.  You are the love of my life.  You make me a better person, wife, mother, and daughter.  

Let's hang out together another 50 years or so, ok!?!  

With all of my (totally cheesy) love... 

Laura

PS- You complete me- kidding.  I know you are puking right now, but would you expect anything less?!?  

PPS- Also imagine a Kay Jewelry commercial right now playing with a montage of us.  You.are.welcome.  

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Tonight we headed to Bass Pro for our annual trip to see Santa.  

We played games, 

shot a bow and arrow,

drove trucks,

and checked out the cute winter displays.

We looked at fish and animals,

drove a 4 wheeler, 

and then came Santa.  

Grady was cool.  Chatted with Santa.  Told him he wanted some new Wii games and Legos.  He was a pro.  All was well...

Until Cole caught a glimpse of Santa smiling and waving at him.  He proceeded to throw himself on the floor and kick and scream.  "No Santa, no Santa" at the top of his lungs.  Yes, we were "those" people!

I grabbed Cole, threw him on Santa's lap and ran away like any good mother would do and laughed while I took numerous pictures.  

He did manage to tell him he wanted candy and a car and he said thank you through sobs and screams.  

You see, after we stood in line to meet Buzz Lightyear for 45 minutes and then Cole pitched a tantrum and refused, I knew this would be our reality this year.  It's actually pretty funny, at least to the rest of our fam!  Sweet boy...

There's always next year.  

Tis' the season!  

ICE Break 2013

So we got an unexpected break from work/school because of this wonderful little present from Mother Nature...

Thursday afternoon it started sleeting big time and didn't stop for about 24 hours.  We even got a little snow too!  It was so super cold too at 16 degrees.  This meant no school - WAHOO - and no work for Daddy.  We were iced in!  

This looks like snow, but it's 3 inches of solid ice!  

Our umbrella was the only casualty, thankfully.  

We have spent the last 4 days having all kinds of fun!  

We drank lots and lots of hot chocolate and ate a whole bunch of marshmallows...

Finished decorating for Christmas...

Shoveled ice/snow and sledded down icy driveways...

Molly got a little frisky...

Played Legos with neighbors and laughed at Smitty's tricks...

We baked and ate and baked and ate and baked and ate...

Pioneer woman cinnamon rolls- 13 pans

Salted caramel snickerdoodles

We made forts and slept in them...

We watched a few movies... Peter Pan, The Santa Claus, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and we creeped to the theater today to watch Frozen- it was great!  

Want some hot chocolate and cookies, sure.  I'm a cool mom when I'm in my pajamas!  

As you can tell,  we stayed in our pajamas all day long, pretty much every day!  (This might or might not have contributed to the baking and eating situation.) Last night Daddy took us to the store and to Chuys, which are both very close.  It was kinda nice to get out!  

Daddy looks pretty good with the beginnings of a beard.  Check out the no make up and air dried hair from Mommy... Scary!  

We played games and watched lots of football.

I got our Christmas cards ordered and some online holiday shopping done.  

We did lots and lots of snuggling, late night HGTV and ABC Family movies for mom and relaxing.  It was wonderful having Daddy home too Friday.  Pure contentment.  It was so nice to slow down.  No schedules, no racing around, no worries.  It was HEAVEN.  We needed this, I needed this, our family needed this.  

When is our next ice/snow break?!?  Only  9 more days until Winter Break!  

Family Pictures

My friend Missy is a super talented photographer and so we had her take some family pictures.  I think they turned out super cute!  

Everybody looking and smiling- yeehaw!

I love Missy because she captures just as many unposed "real" shots as she can.  

She gets the real faces they make, even if they aren't always smiling.  I look at the pictures and always say to myself- that's a Cole or Grady face!  

Richard and I have our 10 year anniversary coming up in a couple weeks!  He hasn't aged a day and is even more handsome than he was 10 years ago.  

So I'm a little (or a lot) obnoxious about getting regular family pictures taken.  You see for me, a picture takes me back to that exact time in life... the stage, what happened that day, what song we sang on our way in the car, who said/acted a certain way, where we had dinner afterwards, etc.  It's like an instant time travel / flashback when I see pictures... which equals happiness for me.  

This is so priceless... this is sooo Grady and Cole...

Handsome no-so-little man

Cole was happy yelling at the top of his lungs!  

Hard to believe I have an almost 7 year old and almost 3 year old!  

They couldn't resist a little wrestling to mix it up a bit!  It's part of every day of our lives.

Not my baby anymore.  Where has the time gone?!?  Sometimes I just wish I could freeze time.  Cole's sweet little voice right now is absolutely priceless.

My boys

Something is so special about your first born.  

Thanks Missy!  They turned out so good. Now to make a decision for Christmas cards...