December 12- Wheelus Christmas

On December 12th, we had an early Christmas with Matt's parents and brother.  Since we will be gone for Christmas, we decided to have them over for dinner, and give the kids their gifts from them.  I FINALLY got to use some of my fun Christmas dishes that I've had for 8 1/2 years and have never used.  YAY! :)  The kids received tons of great gifts- many of which will be VERY useful on our roadtrip- and we had a super time. We also had a little "party" for Charlie, since we will miss his birthday too. (it's on Dec 17th) Don't you just love the look on his face! HA!

Dec 3rd- CHRISTUS christmas party

On Dec 3rd, Matt's work had their Christmas party at the Witte Museum.  It wasn't much to talk about, but we enjoyed being together. We didn't get very many good pictures either, but these are a couple....

Brian is 7!

On Saturday, Dec. 4, Brian turned 7!! Holy cow! I cannot believe this dude is 7 already.  The years have seriously flown right by.  I think I say this in all my kids birthday posts, but I wish I could just stop time..or make it slow down just a bit.  We celebrated his birthday by taking him and a couple friends to Chuck E Cheese in the morning, that evening he and Sydnee got to be in the Boerne parade on the I9 sports float, and then we went to Longhorn Cafe for his birthday dinner.  On Sunday we had a family party for him. Oh- and we can't forget about our trip to Krispy Kreme to get birthday donuts! 

Here are things about Brian at age 7:

He LOVES legos.  LOVES them. (and he's excellent at putting them together)

He is reading at 3rd grade level

He loves school, and is very smart

He loves the color red

Shaun White and Tony Hawk are his FAVORITES!

He can't wait to learn how to snowboard this winter

He loves playing sports

He loves playing Rock Band on the Wii

He is 49 inches tall

He is 48 pounds (haha, so skinny!)

He has such a big heart, and, beneath all the raucous behavior, is a truly special young man that I am so glad is part of our family! 

Turkey Trot and Thanksgiving...and lights...and Thanksgiving #2

Happy Thanksgiving! On Thanksgiving morning, Nicole and I did our annual 4 mile Turkey Trot with the babies, while Matt, the big kids, and Ryan went to play football.  Afterwards, we all headed over to Charles and Sharons for Thanksgiving dinner.  Every year we order La Madeline's turkey feast and keep the work to a minimum!  I made huge sugar cookies to look like pumpkin pies, and believe me, they tasted MUCH better! :) We played Rock Band, and had tons of fun just hanging out together.  

The next day, Ryan and Nicole came over to our house so that the boys could hang up our outside Christmas lights.  Eek! I was sooo nervous!  We both have very high 2 story houses, and it was kinda windy outside, so I had visions of someone falling and breaking a leg (or two), an arm (or two), or heaven forbid- a NECK!  THANK heavens, everyone was fine, and our lights look spectacular! The kids, Nicole and I worked on gingerbread items while the boys were outside.   I will add that we MAY have done some shopping on Black Friday...and I got everything I wanted (for my kids, of course!) 

On Saturday, we had Thanksgiving #2 with Matt's extended family.  I am usually in charge of the green bean casserole, and I brought another sugar cookie pumpkin pie.  YUMMO! :)  It's always fun getting together with the rest of the family....we always laugh, and everyone is so fun to be around. Thanks, guys, for a great Thanksgiving #2!