Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas

Our Christmas celebrations began Friday, December 23rd! Shhh...don't tell the other kids but Santa visited us FIRST! He got word that our Fiesta Texas trip had to be changed from Wednesday to Friday due to bad weather AND Maddie would be back at her Mom's Christmas day. So, he came Friday morning before we left. It's been nonstop fun since! Today, as we celebrate our Savior's Birthday, we will be surrounded by my side of the family. We have two extra special things to celebrate today. First, my cousin Jeremy will be home from Japan as he is serving in the military and second, my cousin Nick proposed to his girlfriend this morning!!! We have much to be thankful for today. I truly believe God helped this Christmas be extra special so that we wouldn't be having pity parties about our house not being sold yet. For those that do not know, our buyers were not approved for their loan days before we were supposed to close. We have been praying that our new house will be held for us and we get a quick buyer. We've actually had three showings this last week. Pray for us! We love our new house and don't want to start all over!!!

Friday morning...









Around 9:00 AM we headed to San Antonio with Todd's brother, his girlfriend and kids. For three years in a row now, we've gone to Fiesta Texas for their Holiday in the Park. There is something about that place during Christmas. We all leave feeling like a kid again! Cooper and Chloe LOVED it this year because they were able to ride so many rides. Their cousins and Maddie were troopers because they rode all of the rides with them. So fun! SOOOO COLD!!!!

In front of the Christmas tree at our hotel. This year, our decorations for our house were all in storage so we had to go the "Charlie Brown" route at our house! Those that know me know that this stressed me out. But, look how cute she is...oh and by the way...still unable to get all three kids in one picture!


Went down to the Riverwalk first to see the Alamo and eat.





Here we go! Oh what fun!!!








We spent Christmas Eve back at our house. First, exchanged gifts with Cummings side. Made fajitas and tamales for dinner! The drive back from San Antonio was a nasty one! Very rainy and cold.



Then, we went to our church's Christmas Eve service.






After the service, we exchanged gifts with my Mom and brother. This is another tradition for us.


We hope your day is Merry and Bright today! May you be surrounded by the ones you love! There will be another post of today's events. My kids are overjoyed with all the presents. Chloe is chanting, "Oh boy oh boy, I like presents!" Oh...and apparently today is also Tinker Bell's birthday!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Life is Crazy!

Last post title was "Life is Busy!", now life is just plain CRAZY! My house is filled with boxes ready to be moved into our new house. I did a walk through yesterday with the builder and blue tapped everything that needed to be fixed or touched up. Along the way, the builder gave me a run down on all things about the house and even made me go up in the attic. Where was Todd you ask? He was home with a stomach bug. It was a ton of details being communicated to me that I may have gotten about 20% of! My realtor took good notes and I plan on walking through with Todd with the notes hoping it all stuck in my brain somehow.

All of us have been sick over the last few days. First Cooper got sick, then I got food poisoning or stomach bug (we are thinking it was a stomach bug since Todd now has it), then Chloe got sick and now Todd. Good thing Maddie has been at her Moms house.

There have been some issues with our buyers. We think it will all work out but now our closing date is being pushed back even farther...like now just two days before Christmas Eve. (breathe in, breathe out...) My current house is filled with boxes and not one Christmas decoration is up. Now, it's just pushing it to close to Christmas so I'm thinking I need to figure out how to decorate somewhat at our current house. This year my kids are loving the lights, music, magic of it all and squeal with delight when they see a Christmas tree. It breaks my heart that I am not doing this for them. It's killing me actually. So, this weekend, we are going to figure out a way I can put out a few decorations, decorate a smaller tree and then move it all to the new house when the time comes. (breathe in, breathe out...)

So, life is crazy! (breathe in, breathe out...)

I was even waiting to buy Christmas presents until we moved, you know, back when the move in date was the 17th, on a weekend! (breathe in, breathe out...)

It's time to shop! That should make me feel better, right?

Some pics of our almost ready house with landscaping...


Last weekend we took Cooper and Chloe to Santa's Wonderland in College Station. Our friends Meredith and Jason and their kids, Ethan and Kate joined us. It was so fun! I absolutely loved it and the kiddos did too. We will be going back for sure.

If you guys could have heard Chloe through the whole thing. "I like it!" "That's so cute!" "That's cool!"





I saved this picture with the file name "stud". Seriously!?


Sweet thing! This is when she started feeling under the weather!


These goats were aggressive. They would just take all the food. Cooper started getting very authoritative over these goats. He would tell them, "Just a little." "Share." Then, he would pull the cup away and say, "That's enough."

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Life is Busy!

I am so far behind on blogging. I have so much to say and this time very little pictures. I find myself constantly without a camera and that is so not like me!

First, let's start with Maddie's Baptism. This wasn't given the recognition that it deserved! We are so proud of Maddie for taking this step! We had gone to church that morning and they had a special presenter from the group called, Team Impact. He talked about the program that they would perform that evening and for everyone to come back to see it. Maddie had volleyball that afternoon and asked if after we could go see the program. It's funny thinking back on the evening about how after the day was over, we were actually debating on not going. I remember whispering to Todd, "Babe, we need to go, Maddie asked to go." So, we all headed up there (including the twins) to watch. Halfway through the program, the twins were getting antsy so I took them out to the lobby to wait. I could tell the show was over because of the flood of people that were exiting the doors. It took Todd quite awhile to exit and I remember thinking that it was strange because they were right by the exit doors. He came up to me and said, "Maddie went forward during the alter call." He explained that when people were walking forward, Maddie turned to him and said, "Did you do that?" He replied, "Yes." And that was that...she got up and walked forward. How precious that her Dad could respond, "Yes." About 30 minutes went by without us knowing where she was or what she was doing and we received a text, "I'm getting Baptized." WHOA! We found someone in the "know" to get details of the baptism and hauled over there, tired twins in tow, so that we could watch. How precious that the twins sat on the steps watching their big sister "take a bath". :)

And, how precious that she did it all on her own.

Maddie had been baptized when she was a small child which was a special time as well. But, how precious that she wanted to do this on her own. We are so very proud of her.

Strangely enough, I remember sitting in church that very morning wondering (in my head only when I should have been paying attention to the speaker) if our children would take the step on their own to be baptized. Funny how God works!

Now that my eyes are tearing up, we'll move on to the next thing I haven't blogged about!

OUR NEW HOUSE!!!!

The whole process is soooo crazy! First, we had to sell our current house and that seemed to take FOREVER! That was a very happy day when we got the offer and came to an agreement. In the meantime, our new house had begun construction and seem to be moving along quickly! Now, the plan is to close on our old house on the 15th and on our new house the 16th! I'm oh so happy because as our new house was being built, I was getting more excited and more attached to it. It would have been devastating for us if we would have had to back out because our current house didn't sell. Going to the design center was so fun and I'm loving my choices as they are added to our house. Talk about a busy time to be doing this! Cooper and Chloe's Birthday, Christmas and moving all in December! I'm already exhausted! We will need all our friends support and muscles during this crazy time!!!! Hint Hint! A sneak peak to my favorite part....



Second love...

Back Patio!


Front of the house without stone yet...

The part without brick will be stone...


We did take the time to go to Disney on Ice! However, we don't have many pictures! Chloe LOVED it. Cooper liked it but not that excited silly happiness that Chloe exhibited!

My cute Minnie!


These lights were $22 a piece y'all! Seriously! Nana bought one and I bought one! They are still playing with them so that's good!



This football season we went to a few Cinco Ranch games and let Maddie go with some friends a couple of times. There is something about FNL! I don't think I will ever stop enjoying it. It brings back such good memories too! Maddie will be a 9th grader at Cinco Ranch HS next year! EEK!



Another sweet thing...

Cooper and Chloe love being with the "big kids"! Especially their cousins, Trevor and Brett! Love that they have that relationship!



We also enjoy snuggling in Mom's bed watching movies...




And, somehow we make time to spend with friends! We went dancing the other night and had a blast! I'm fond of these three guys. Shhh...don't tell them! I like to pretend that I think they are nothing but trouble for my husband! Wayne and Matt are Todd's best friends from Highschool.




I'm sure there is so much more to say but this is all I have right now! I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving. I didn't take ONE picture that day! I'm losing my touch! I felt like I needed to blog before this weekend's birthday party for the twins!!! My babies are turning 3!!!!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Pumpkin Patch Pics!

Today, we met our friends, the Caraways and the Richardsons, for our third annual pumpkin patch pictures. They are all such cute kiddos! Chloe has a Snow White and Spider Girl costume. We'll see what she picks for Halloween. Today, she wanted to be the Spider Girl!




There is something that happens to Cooper when he puts his Spider Man costume on, he immediately starts running around really fast! 


Zach the Fireman!


Nathaniel!


Running again!


Chloe was so funny today!





2009, 2010 and 2011...
 





More fun pics from today!