Christmas Time

Well we are full in the Christmas Spirit and now we have Jake & Zach here….YEAAAAAA! :) They arrived yesterday around 4:00 and will be here until Christmas day. We will be busy ~ Smores one night, an evening with friends, a graduation party of a friend and someone the boys look up too, Brown Bag goodies for the homeless, build a ginger bread house (we started the tradition last year & it was fun, only Jake & Zach missed out on it…but not this year), Santa will make a stop early for Jake & Zach so they can enjoy their gifts, Christmas Eve Service, and then Christmas morning with a Todd’s FULL breakfast meal, and LOTS & LOTS of LOVE!!!!!

Last Tuesday Gabe had his classroom Christmas Party! We made an ornament together, the children exchanged book gifts, and we enjoyed cookies!

 

A Tradition that we started this year is ADVENT! This year I just have the envelopes in a Christmas bag, so next year I plan on having something a little more creative! :) We were given an advent package at the Birthday Party for Jesus and I had been wanting to do one, so I was really excited. Of course Gabe does not get it all, but seeds are being planted! :)

Hope you all are having a Merry Christmas!

Gabe’s first Christmas Program

Oh my gosh he was super cute! I’m so mad though because our battery was not working for our video camera and I did take a little footage with my little camera, but I was moving around and it was shakey and did not come out that well!

The evening started with a Pancake supper, which he loved and when we first walked in a little boy ran up and started sayng” HI Gabe over and over” it was cute. Once we sat down here came another little boy that said the same thing, it was adorable! Then next thing I know Gabe is pointing to a little boy and telling me look mama its Eric, can I go say hi and I said of course honey and off he went!  I watched him walk over there with his little hands clasped together in front of his body and he smiled and told the little boy hi…I just realized how much Gabe is growing in that moment, what a sweet little boy! Oh and then he saw a little girl named Sienna, he said Mama I’ll stand by Sienna and you take picture, K?!! After dinner we headed over to see Santa… I wasn’t sure if Gabe was going to go for it, because during the day he kept saying he didn’t want to see him and that he “wasn’t” scared of him, which means he IS! To my surprise he was fine, I think seeing all his little friends going too also helped! :) Seth was a little questionable, but did fine.

I was so proud of Gabe he was well behaved and sat so still while with his class waiting to go on stage…awww he was so sweet singing his little songs: SANTA to the tune of Bingo, Jingle Bells, and We Wish you a Merry Christmas! When he first got on stage he saw me and ran towards me, gave me hug and then went back on stage!

My little Charlie Brown did wonderful and we had smiles that lasted all night!

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Seth’s mini 11 month photo session :)

 

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Our little monkey turned 11 months on Nov. 23rd and these are a few pictures we took a few days after.  He is still crawling like crazy and getting close to walking….I’m betting that will be a birthday surprise for everyone…Seth will take his first steps!

I can’t believe how fast he is growing!

Tis the Season….

Last weekend we got out all the decorations and Gabe was excited to say the least! :) OH I that it was fun last year with him, BUT this year WOW even more fun! He was ready to get Tigger & Pooh up in the yard…

 

Gabe and I went to a Birthday Party for Jesus…we had so much fun…

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Seth enjoying all the decorations…

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Our plan was to cut a tree in Elgin this year and one of our friends from church was going to use our fake one…but she ended getting one from someone else and we decided to save money and go with our fake one this year….it is still pretty, just missed going to Elgin…hopefully next year will make it! Gabe thought it was so cool when he got to get on daddy’s shoulders to be the star on and then he wanted to use his stool to put the ornaments on. Gabe also enjoyed his first Hot Coco! :) while watching Charlie Brown Christmas!

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Thanksgiving

We headed for Conroe last Tuesday after Gabe’s Thanksgiving Feast. Todd left around 3:00am Monday morning for Fl to see Jacob, Zach, and some of his family. That drive would be too much for Gabe & Seth…18 hours in a car!?!

 

It was hard to be away from him and I really wanted to see the boys, but they will be here in a few weeks! :)

We did get to SKYPE and that was fun!!!!

Our first stop was at My Aunt & UNcles for dinner and then we headed to my mom & dads. Matthew’s girlfriend Lindsey got in on Wednesday…she was a really sweet and fun girl! We just hung out around the house and Gabe got his ride on the tractor, we went to the park, had a quick trip to Kohl's, played a came of Cootie and mom cooked some for the big day!

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We had Thanksgiving at My Aunt & Uncles, the food was fabulous and the layout was like something out of Martha Stewart..lovely! So So so Yummy!! What a wonderful day after we ate we went for a walk then had a taste of ALL the pies that they made and then headed to the Park! That was fun…..some of us were playing horseshoes, a little hitting the baseball, swinging, sliding, walking and Gabe enjoyed the sand pit UNTIL HE RUBBED HIS EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! POOR BABY!! I ran to him picked him up and ran to the nearest water fountain…there was a beautiful garden and luckily there was a water hose right there, we flushed his eyes out and you could just see all the sand! Once we made it to the car we got a water bottle and leaned him back and OH BOY He did NOT like that! But it was clean! When we got back to the house I got the boys in their PJ’s and Gabe had a little snack outside watching and listening to the music on my Aunt & uncles house! Seth enjoyed his first Thanksgiving, he LOVED the green Bean Casserole and the whip cream on the pies! He also enjoyed being pushed around in his ride! :)

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That evening the boys went down fast and I enjoyed some wine on the back porch with my brother and Lindsey. It was chilly but we bundled up and I even played a little guitar and sang! It was fun!

We headed back to Austin on Saturday since Rain was in the forecast I did not want to be driving in the rain!

We had a great time, BUT I sure was wishing I had leftovers..BIG TIME!!!! Oh well I got some Big Beautiful and very JUICY lemons from my Aunts tree! I am enjoying lemon in my water and will be making some lemonade, plus I won’t have to buy any for cleaning for awhile now!

So thankful for my family and my friends, God has blessed us so much! I hope everyone had a beautiful day.