Santa's Wonderland

I was able to take a few days off this week and Jimmy is off as well. This meant we were able to spend some fun family time together.  We decided to drive to College Station and visit Sant's Wonderland.  It ended up being perfect winter weather and since it was after Christmas the crowds were not bad at all.  We didn't have to wait in line for anything.  

I splurged on tickets to do a horse and carriage ride to see the lights.  It was a fun experience.  The kids loved the horses and of course the lights were beautiful. 

They had all kinds of activities like bull riding, live singing, a petting zoo and roasting marshmallows.

 

It was a great time and we will defiantly do it again next year!

Christmas 2015

I didn't want to skip a post about Christmas this year but to be honest I didn't really get many pictures.  We had a candlelight service at church Christmas Eve that was beautiful.  I always love starting off the festivities focusing on the real meaning of Christmas.  Afterwards we went to Amy's for dinner with family.  The kids exchanged gifts and we had a wonderful dinner.  I found some gag gift boxes and it was hilarious to watch Brayden open his gift.  No one knew I did it and I could see the poor guy look at the box and politely push it to the side confused.  The box said it was an earwax candle kit.  Lol!  It was actually very real looking.  It had everyone fooled.  Ha!  I had to convince him to open it to get the real gift inside.  The kids out out cookies for Santa before going to bed.  They could not pick their favorite so needless to say he had a lot of cookies to eat!

The next morning we opened gifts as a family and later that day went to my mom and dads for dinner.  It was a wonderful day. I can't believe it is over already!  Usually I keep my decorations up until after New Years but today Jimmyand I were both off so the kids and Jimmy worked on the yard and I took the tree and decorations down.  It feels nice to have the house back in order.  Here at a few pics from Christmas including the kids parties at school.

Random acts of kindness

I wasn't sure what to title this post.  But I didn't want to skip this one!  Several months ago I started reading a book called Cleaning House : Putting an end to childhood entitlement.  Since then I have been trying to implement a few of the things in the book into our lives. That has included giving the kids more responsibilities at home and since it is December we have been working on small acts of kindness.  Nothing big just trying to make it a point to think of others first.  And to be honest I am usually the one who forgets we are working on these things first.  To say the last few months have been overwhelming is an understatement.  Long story short after a busy day I slammed a basket of laundry on the bed and told the kids I had to hurry and take a shower before we moved on to whatever else it was we needed to do that evening.  Can I just say I was brought to tears when I walked out after getting dressed to find Paige doing this. 

She had folded the entire basket while I was taking a shower.  I let her know how much her small act of kindness meant to me.  She was so proud of her work and I was so proud of her.  

Ugly sweater girls night

Tonight I went with my sister and cousins to The Melting Pot.  All I can say is yum!  It was ugly sweater night so we all dressed the part. the food was wonderful but the company was even better.  It was just what I needed.  Some time of laughter and support from people I love.  It was a great night.  

Robotics

Today was the last official day of robotics this year for Caden.  There are 11 teams of fourth and fifth graders and they are only taking 5 of them to area competition.  So today they had a mini competition to decide which teams would go.  To be honest Caden has tried to explain to me what they do there but I still did not fully understand it.  Today I got a close up look.  I have to admit it was really impressive to see the kids robots and know that they programmed them to do certain commands.  There were three rounds to the competition.  They have been working on programming the "cars" to move certain ways to manuvor different objects into certain markers on their board.  For each successful move they received points. After each round they were allowed to make adjustments to correct mistakes.  It was actually pretty intense.  Lol. It was fun to watch each team strategize and work together.  Caden and his team ended up 3rd overall.  That means he will be going to compete against other schools in our area and he couldn't be happier.  Way to go guys!

Holiday happenings

This time of year is crazy but also so much fun!  The day after thanksgiving we shifted into full Christmas mode and put up our tree.  I let the kids have full control this year.  They put up every ornament.  They did pretty good and I have not moved any around.  Lol. I let them pick out their new ornaments and they both picked food items.  Ha!  Not sure what that says about us.  Caden loves hamburgers and of course Paige was even a donut for Halloween last year.  Caden hung his front and center.  I do have to admit I have a hard time not moving that giant hamburger every time I look at the tree.  

I also decorated the house and the Elf has made his appearance again.  Of course Caden no longer believes he is real so he has had fun helping me move him around.  

We also decorated gingerbread houses.  I am sure we will decorate several more before it is all said and done.

Since the Christmas program is over Kids on a mission has started again.  I found a memory card game on Pinterest that tells the story of The birth of Jesus.  It was a big hit and Paige even played it with me at home.  After the lesson we played Christmas bingo and it was a blast!

The next few weeks will be crazy but we are looking forward to more fun times.  

2015 Christmas Program

It has been several years since our church has put on a children's play at Christmas.  But this year a wonderful couple at church stepped up and have been working with the kids for months now.  Saturday was dress rehearsal and then afterwards we had a party for the kids.

The story was about a man that owned a tree lot and some kids that help him realize the real meaning of Christmas. Caden and Paige both had speaking and singing parts.  Paige and her friend Cailyn played two friends that were running a bake sale.  They also sang a duet together.  As shy as Paige is she loved every minute of it.  I was worried that she would be shy on stage but she took it very serious and did great!  Caden had one of the main roles along with two other kids. They were funny and did wonderful.  He even sang a solo!  Originally Caden was not sure about having such a major part.  He is such a nervous kid.  But he worked so hard and overcame his fears.  Of course the smaller kids are always entertaining.  During a song called "the Christmas Boggie". Sam and his friend Trent put on quite a show.  It was so cute. Brayden played a cop sent to shut down the tree lot.  He was hilarious!  I was so proud of all the kids.  Besides the kids doing so wonderfully the play had such a beautiful message about family and the birth of our Savior.  I am so happy my kids got to experience this.