Finally!

Riley and David's gifts finally came (a day late). Riley got a new G Shock watch, it can do a bunch of cool things, but I don't remember. It's glow in the dark, and it's some fancy schmancy military type watch. He likes it a lot. David of course, got his favorite pears. I get these for him every year because he loves them so much. And Regan got a crimper from Santa, and so we had to play around with it.

Merry Christmas!

I won't bore you with all the Christmas pictures, but here are a few. I don't know how it happened, but it looks like I only took pictures of the kids when they opened  clothes! They really did get more than clothes. First, I made my cinnamon rolls that I make every year, they are so yummy! Then we opened presents upstairs so Hunter wouldn't drive us nuts. Instead he just sat on the other side of the baby gate and whined the whole time! Riley got Beats headphones, some Navy Gear (sweatshirt and t-shirts and a guidebook to the Naval Academy), some paracord, and some stuff from Old Navy. Regan got a One Direction gift basket filled with 1D pencils, pens, stickers, magnets, AND...TICKETS to see 1D in September at the Alamodome in San Antonio! She was super excited to open that one. We will be going with some friends, and making a whole girl's trip out of it. She also got a new iPhone 4s (and a 1D case for it). Her phone has been messed up for a while, so she really needed a new one anyway.

I got David a Fitbit Flex, and he got me a new tea cup and some Christmas tea that I love. And I had to throw in pictures of Elise too, she had a great Christmas! She is such a doll!  The only bad part, was one of David's and Riley's MAIN gift was caught up in UPS hold. Thankfully Riley is old enough to understand! After we opened presents, we went to a friend's house for some appetizers. The kids (and guys) played a bean bag game and we just sat around and visited and had appetizers and sangria! It was a great day.

Jingle and Grinch Punch

In the most obvious of places! Jingle hid in Regan's bed with all her stuffed animals. But who could find him?! It took Regan almost all day to find him there.

And we had a little watching party for The Grinch. I made Grinch Punch and had Regan's friends Piper and Brooklyn over. It was yummy!

Riley and Jingle

I took the opportunity to sleep in for the first day of Christmas break, so Riley took care of Jingle, and so that means Jingle TPed the bathroom!

Christmas #1

After church on Sunday, we had first Christmas with Mimi and Papa. The kids were very excited to finally get to open a present! Riley got a notebook (for school!) and Regan got One Direction perfume and poster! Then we went to dinner at Magnolia and then to Mozart's to check out their light show. It was neat, and very "Austin". Thankfully we got there just in time, and were able to come and go pretty quick, they were SO crowded, so we didn't bother with getting coffee or anything. Came home, and David and Riley were up late getting his notebook all set up.

Jingle Unwrapped

Jingle got caught red handed! He was unwrapping presents! Shame on you, Jingle!

Silly Stringed!

David took the kids Christmas shopping to buy me presents (isn't that sweet!) and they came home and ambushed me as I was getting ready to go out! They silly stringed me in the bathroom, 3 cans all over me! It was all in good fun though, and then David and I headed to Georgetown for tea/coffee and to walk around the square and look at lights and window shop.

Sleepy Head Jingle

Jingle decided to take a nap in Regan's room, on the very comfortable American Girl Doll bed! It took Regan forever to find him too. He looked so snug as a bug in there.

Happy Birthday David!

Typical night at our house, everyone headed in different directions! Regan had a Christmas party with the neighbor kids, and she was spending the night after. They had a White Elephant gift exchange and she brought an Uncle Si Chia Head, from Duck Dynasty! Riley spent the night with his friend Yash, so he got to drive over there and let dad be the passenger for a while (he didn't like it). Then David and I had dinner with his parents for his birthday. It was a nice night out and relaxing and no bickering kids, very enjoyable! The kids and I got David a fancy lighter for his birthday since he complains about the one we have every time he has to light the grill. Not a very fun gift, but practical, and he's hard to buy for!

Hey, Girl!

Jingle left a message for Regan today (Ryan Gosling style) out of M&M's! She loved it. So did Hunter, as he ate the M&M's, and then found the bag they came in, and ate them too.

Riley is LEGIT

Riley had a half day at school and we finally had all his paperwork together, so I took him to get his learner's permit. He's legit now! I let him drive us home too, and it was funny, I had just found the CD I bought when he was a little boy, and played that for him as he drove off. I have a video I will upload soon!! He's very excited, and wanting to drive EVERYWHERE now. I don't mind, I hate to drive anyway so it's nice to be chauffeured around, but dad doesn't give up control that easily!

Elf milk, anyone?

Today Jingle turned our milk green! I didn't want to repeat one from last year, but every day, the first place Regan looks for Jingle is in the refrigerator, and today when she opened it and saw him there, she smiled and said, "I wondered when he would get to that!"

Chess, Jingle?

Regan is still feeling a little feeling a little off from being sick over the weekend. She came home Tuesday after school and fell asleep on the couch, skipped dinner and then just went to bed when I tried to wake her up. She tried to do the same thing today, but I let her sleep for a bit, then woke her up, or rather, Princess did! All the while, Jingle was just trying to get someone to play chess with him! This is the chess set we got in Mexico, I think it's awesome!!

He sees you when you're sleeping...

Okay, I know it's a little creepy, but Regan enjoyed waking up to see his smiling face staring down at her!

Sick Jingle :(

I guess we gave Jingle our sick germs. Poor little Jingle. At least he's still smiling!

Warm Jingle

Since Regan came home early, and not feeling well, Jingle hadn't had a chance to do anything that day! Oopsie. So, on Sunday, after an exhaustive search around the house, we finally found Jingle warming up in the dryer with Regan's clothes.

Christmas Concert

Regan's Winterfest Christmas Concert was tonight, as well as an annual Christmas party at a friend's house that we always go to! So it was double duty. We went to the concert and left early to head to the party. Regan stayed to see the dancers and went home with her BFF to spend the night. The choir did a great job, they sang a ton of songs, and I did record a couple, so I will put them on YouTube soon, and post here. It hit me while we were sitting there, this is our last elementary Christmas event! More than likely, our last elementary event ever. My babies are growing up!!

The party was fun, it's a White Elephant gift exchange, and I brought the funny gold Yoga frogs I got there last year! We also brought a Potty Golf set that Riley REALLY wanted, and he ended up with it! He loves it.

Came home, watched some TV with the boy, and was awoken early the next morning by a sick girlie. I have been having major allergy issues, so she and I laid around all weekend taking care of each other.

And just because I think this is the absolute cutest thing ever, here is a before and after picture of Elise, and her first time meeting Santa. Trista said she stood there talking to Santa and Elise loved him, she was all smiles until Trista put her on his lap and backed away. So funny!! I so love that baby girl!

Hide, Jingle!!

Jingle tried to hide, but he's just not that good at it I guess. It still took Regan a bit to find him. Where will he show up next? (No, really, I'm running out of ideas already!)

He Came in Like A Wrecking Ball!

If you've never seen the Miley Cyrus video "Wrecking Ball" well, consider yourself lucky! I've never seen the whole thing, but I've seen clips of it, from people making fun of it. Well, what a way for Jingle to make his entrance this year!  And the bottom picture, it's just hilarious, and David's already told me absolutely not!

It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!!

It's been an adventure already! We went to put the tree up (way later than I would normally put the tree up) and the cords to the lights had gotten caught in the attic ladder and were all frayed. I didn't want to worry all season about a tree fire, so we tossed it and David and I went to Garden Ridge to find a new tree. And here is where the fun begins. David likes big, huge, full trees with colored lights. I like smaller trees I can wrangle myself (since we disagree on when decorations should go up), and white lights! Well, we "compromised" and got a huge fluffy tree with no lights, cause it was a lot cheaper than the one with lights. David thinks after Christmas he can spend some time wrapping the tree with lights (that were much cheaper to buy separately) and then pack it away with the lights on.  The only lights they had though, are white lights, so yay for me!

Whatevs, it's up and done and it looks pretty. We had our annual tradition of watching White Christmas with Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby while we pulled out the ornaments and laughed at all the ones the kids made when they were little, and talked about all the ones they pick out every year. Riley has a little collection of Navy ones going, that he wants in a clump.  Regan has a bunch of horse ornaments that all have to have a very important spot on the tree!

Oh, and we had to keep all the "good" ones up high, just in case Hunter decides to eat them. (side note, the lollipop at the bottom didn't make it one day, and sadly, neither did Baby Jesus in a nutshell that Regan made when she was 3!)

And you know who comes once the tree is up...

Annual Decorating of the Gingerbread!

Our Girl Scout troop has been doing this for years now, one of our leader's church hosts a Gingerbread House decorating event, and we've gone for 5 or 6 years. Our whole troop goes, and it's a nice fun family event. But, they made some changes this year and the houses were much smaller, and the icing was WAY runnier! And the kids just weren't as into it as before (growing up, they need to stop that!) So, Regan sat with her friends and they decorated their houses while Riley and David goofed off. It was still fun, but a little sad that it will be our last year to do it.

And Regan boxed her house up before I got a picture of it, and then it didn't quite make the ride home too well. It kind of tilted and some of the roof fell off. So, these are the only pictures I got.

Six Flags for Black Friday

I am SO anti-shopping on Black Friday. I don't care if other people do it, but I hate crowds, and there's nothing I need that badly!! I just don't feel it.

So instead, we headed off to Six Flags! It was great, no lines, and it's the "Holiday in the Park" so there was yummy cocoa. It didn't open until 4, so we had a lazy morning at home and then headed down to San Antonio, hit the rides the kids wanted to ride, had some cocoa, met Bugs Bunny, bought some capes, and headed home. We have season passes that we got last year, and this was our first time to use them. We are planning on using them again over Christmas break too. It's fun because it's not crowded!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! David and the kids were off Wednesday, so David and I went grocery shopping to get all the food we needed, and checked out the new Costco. David smoked a practice turkey just for us Wednesday night, to make sure the wood wasn't wet, and it would taste okay! So Thursday morning, we didn't have much to do, smoke the second turkey and I made sweet potato casserole. We headed over to Pam and Dave's around 1, and they had a house full! We had 31 people there with all the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. The kids had fun playing the Wii, and we had so much food.

It was fun to catch up with everyone and just spend time together. It wasn't a crazy busy holiday and we came home with a lot of yummy leftovers :)

And I didn't take one picture. Shame on me!

Mystery Meat Lunch and Progress Report

Regan's school was having a special "Thanksgiving" lunch for parents, so I went and met her, but "forgot" to order a lunch from the school! It didn't look like I missed out on too much either! But it was fun to sit there and talk with her and hear about her day.

The next day, I had a 504 meeting with her teachers and the school staff and it was a very good report. They re-evaluated her dyslexia and dysgraphia and she has shown so much improvement! They look for an 80 point increase in one program over a years time and Regan made over 180 point increase! They were all very nice and had wonderful things to say about Regan and her dedication to her education. She's doing so well in math and has really been getting into reading, and is on book 5 of a chapter book series, which is a big deal for her! She and I have been reading Harry Potter together in the evenings too, because she's been wanting to read them but I think the size of them has been a bit daunting. But I don't mind, it's probably my 5th time reading the books, I love to read and gladly read them to her!!

I'm just proud of her for sticking to it, and not getting discouraged, and making such huge improvements. She wants to be a vet so bad, loving reading and math will make that so much easier for her in the long run!