Christmas in Austin

We spent Christmas in Austin at my Aunt and Uncle's house. My two cousins, Paul and Mariette were there, as well as Mariette's little boy, Ben. My mom and brother drove up as well. Even our cousins, Gloria and Holly, were able to make it on Christmas Day.
It was so nice to spend Christmas all together.

It was very cold. That didn't stop Colin from taking them out to play.

They raked leaves, and then played in the piles.
Ahh, life with trees in your yard.
Growing up, trees are something that I took for granted.

Leaf Angels

Rock Stars

Jackson and Ben, coloring at the table.

And Coop, too.

Great Family shot after Christmas Eve mass. Love that I dressed Charlie to match Colin without even noticing until I saw the picture.
Mass was so nice. Nothing beats the singing and the wonderful message at Christmas time.

The boys all got matching pjs.
Charlie wasn't in his yet, but we tried to get a shot of the older boys.

Christmas morning started early.

The boys went through their stockings so fast.
Not sure if they even know what they got.
We cleaned up so quickly because company was coming for lunch.

Wish I had captured some better pictures that morning.
But we really enjoyed every moment.

Santa brought Charlie a keyboard!

And then Charlie took a turn on Santa's gift for Cooper, a scooter.

Jackson with Grandma.

What a Merry Christmas!
Most of the toys are packed away for our move.
Looking forward to having room for the boys to play.
We close on the 10th, and will be spending the first night in the house on the 16th.

We've Got Ourselves a Nodder

Charlie was worn out at lunchtime today after a busy morning of opening presents!

Christmas Party and Ornaments ...

On Jackson's last day of preschool they had a little Christmas party for their class. I didn't get a picture of the two of us together ... but a few of all the boys ...

Charlie and Coop got to sit at the little table for their lunch.

Silly Cooper.
Oh Cooper.

I love this placemat that Jackson made. Colin's gift is my favorite.

Time for a group shot in the front of the cardboard fireplace.
Really Cooper???

There we go.
: )


On Monday we went to paint ornaments at a place called The Art House in downtown McKinney. We hadn't been there before but organized it with our mom's group.
I brought Colin along so it would be possible.

CLAY!!!
So impressed that he did not put it in his mouth one time!

Rolling it out.

Julia

Natalie and Abigail

He was in heaven.

After they cut out their ornaments, they had to let them dry a little.
Jackson, with a little help from Julia,
created a very interesting sculpture using paintbrushes and a roller.

Sweet boy, always building something.

Cooper also made something with his left over clay.
I should let them play with clay more often.

Next, they got to paint them.
Charlie looks happy in this picture, but his temper got the best of him when we stopped him from putting his paint brush in every single color.

We had a great time. And it was so nice to not have to clean everything up.

Jackson's Christmas Program

Jackson's Christmas program was last Monday.

Let me start by saying that Colin took around 100 pictures. I think 15 of them weren't including some parent's head in them. Actually, there were the tops of parents heads in nearly all of them, but some I was able to crop out. I am trying to remember that it is the holiday season and not feel frustrated that these parents had to stand in the middle aisle and take pictures and video throughout the ENTIRE program, therefore blocking the view for the rest of us who stayed in our seats. I'm not bitter at all. I thought I was frustrated while we were there, because I couldn't see Jackson. But then I looked at the pictures later, and realized that even from standing up in the back of the church and zooming in, Colin wasn't able to get hardly any shots of Jackson because so many parents holding their video cameras up in the air.

Okay, I feel a little better after writing that. A little. I'm trying to let it go : )


Cooper and Charlie did great throughtout the program. We had to arrive at 6:30 to bring Jackson, but it didn't start until 7pm. So, I let the two of them run around in the Narthex before it started to burn off some energy.
While I was standing there, a lady asked me if I was having a boy or a girl, and when I told her a girl, she of course clapped and cheered and said, "finally!" Anyway, she asked if I was sure if they were right about it being a girl. I said, "well, yes, because I have had lots of sonograms and they all showed girl parts, not boy parts." She then asked, "Why have you had so many sonograms, did you have some problems?" When I started to answer that everything was okay, but we just had several sonograms to check on a various "issues" ... she interruppted and said, "Oh, and you're high risk because you are over 35, right?"

Ouch. Maybe that is where my frustration began ....

Here are some pictures...

"Dude, why are you standing in the way of me being seen??"

Says Jackson to the guy with curly hair that was in almost every photograph.

And he spotted us!

Charlie had fun showing off where various body parts were.
Still a little confused with the "eyes" ...

Here's our son the donkey.

Can you find him? He's behind some cow horns : )
I don't think Cooper even knew that Jackson was at the front of the church.
He seemed confused as to why we were there.

Alright, well, this was quite the negative post.
I'll make the next one cheery and bright!

Visit the Clampitts

We spent the weekend in Austin with our college friends, the Clampitts. They moved into their house in March and we just now made a trip (kinda ridiculous). But we made it! Before Christmas and before Ms. Maggie arrives.

The kids had so much fun together.

On Saturday we took a drive to Zilker Park and rode the train.

Sam, showing off his mittens and hat.

Cooper, ready to go!

Charlie (not so sure).
Colin just fed him snacks the whole time to calm his nerves - and he loved it!

Sweet Stella. She ate alot of snacks on the ride, too!

And biggest kid, Jackson.
It's so funny to me that he is the "big" kid wherever we go. It goes by so fast!

Freezing!

Sam and Jessica

David and Peek-A-Boo Stella


After the train ride, the kids ran around on the awesome play groud.

Charlie was in heaven with the pea gravel.

Scoop it up, Pour it out, Repeat.

Love when the two littlest ones were swinging together.
Stella was loving the breeze in her face.
Charlie seemed to enjoy it, but stayed slumped over looking down the entire time.
Hilarious.

I tried to prop him up. This is as excited as he looked the whole time.

Colin pushed Cooper on the swing for a while.

And helped him do the monkey bars.

One of my favorite pictures.

When we got home, we fed the kids and got them down for naps.
Then Jessica and I made a "quick" trip to the San Marcos Outlets.
We went to two stores - Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware.
Whew, I wish I lived closer. I was slightly overwhelmed and couldn't focus.
I did find some curtains for the new house and a few other things.
Could have spent all day there.
We almost did spend the whole day in the parking lot trying to get out : )

On Sunday, all the kiddos played in their BEAUTIFUL backyard before we loaded up the van and headed home.

Love when Stella was getting INSIDE the bucket.
Charlie wanted to be part of fun.

I took about 15 pictures. This was the best : )

We had such a wonderful time, and the kids slept very well.
We actually put Charlie in the closet, and he slept in until 8:45 one day.
This kid doesn't sleep in.
Thinking of moving him to a closet here....

Thank you Jessica and David for being such wonderful hosts.
It was an overdue trip, that we will need to do again soon!