Twelve Years!

We celebrated our 12th Anniversary on December 28.  It has been 12 wonderful years!  Tory had some surprises up his sleeve.  I didn't have a clue where we were going.  The first stop was to Sam Moon to get me a purse!  Wahoo!  Mine was falling apart!  Then we went to the Gaylord Texan, a huge convention center here.  He had innitially planned for us to see the big Ice Sculpture Show but when we saw that the tickets were $30 each we decided to skip it and just walk around.  It was so much fun!  It was the first time we had ever been there and there was a lot to see since it was right after Christmas.  The whole place was decked out and the atmosphere was just really fun.  We'd love to take the kids and will definitely be putting it on our to-do list for next year!

 Brooke & Tory

There was a big electric train set up.  It was really cool!

Such a fun place!  All enclosed!

(See my nice new purse strap? :)  Wish I had a better picture!)

There was a little "river walk" that reminded us of a miniature San Antonio.  We stopped for a bit to enjoy it all.  The temperature was perfect.  You'd never know it was frreeezing outside!  (And not just by Texas standards!)  We checked out all the shops and walked around.  Super fun!

On our way home we stopped to see a really fun model home.  It's fun to dream!  

It's been a fun, crazy, happy 12 years!  I sure love this guy!  Now we're starting up on year 13.  We have a feeling it's going to be our lucky 13!  We feel that change is on the horizon.  Can't wait to see what the next year brings!  But as long as I have Tory with me...bring on whatever may come our way! :)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Christmas

Christmas Day was beautiful and special.  We were blessed beyond measure by those we love.  It was a Christmas to remember and we all had a wonderful day filled with surprises!  We are so thankful for everything and for the sweet spirit that was in our home that day.

Tory made us cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  We checked out what Santa brought us then ate cinnamon rolls and then went back to open up the wrapped gifts.  We found Beckham back at the table finishing up the leftovers at one point.  There's always plenty of sugar on Christmas Day!

If our Christmas wasn't magical enough...we looked outside and it was SNOWING!  White Christmases are rare in our part of Texas.  The last one was in 2009.  We've been lucky to be here for both times.  We've also had our fare share of sunny Christmas days so this was a treat!  Of course the kids had to go out and enjoy it.  It was absolutely FRIGID and we aren't equipped with much winter wear.  But luckily they all have a coat and Aunt Feather sent stocking hats for everyone!  With a few gloves and a couple pairs of socks for hands...they were set.

Dallin making snow angels!

 Coen throwing snow balls!  I better get out of the way!

 Claire LOVED the snow!

   Beckham tastes a little snow.  It was his first snow storm that he could actually enjoy.

Austin got right to work on a snow man.  The snow was perfect!  And it was coming down so fast that the grass kept filling back up with snow.

During a lull in the storm.  The kids had to go in and warm up.  We ended up getting about 3 inches!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we had delicious homemeade clam chowder in homemade bread bowls made by Tory.

  

THIS is the recipe he used and it was fantastic!  

The kids opened their Christmas Eve presents from Grandma and Grandpa...which are always new pajamas.  

They changed into them and then we all got cozy and watched "Mr. Kruegar's Christmas".  Watch it HERE.  Love that show! I've watched it every Christmas since I was a little girl.

Finally we set out cookies and milk for Santa...

...and threw out some celery, carrots, and sparkly reindeer food for the reindeer and got ready for bed.  

The kids all had a slumber party in the boys' room.  

Christmas Eve is so exciting!

The Minivan Express

For Family Home Evening on December 17, we ended up with a very fun activity.   I called Tory earlier in the day to see if he had any ideas for FHE.  We wanted to do something fun and Christmas-y.  Tory said that a convenience store here, RaceTrac, was giving out free hot chocolate all week.  We had already talked about doing a "Polar Express" fun night in the van this month and then I had just seen a fun Christmas Light scavenger hunt idea.  We decided to combine all three and surprise the kids.  After dinner I had the kids change into pj's for FHE while we waited for Dada to come home.

Around 7:45 Dada finally got home and told them to put on their shoes.  They were REALLY confused now.  He went out to the van and got it all set up with Polar Express Soundtrack music blasting and his hole punch waiting.  They all filed out and got their tickets punched (Tickets printed from HERE.)  They got all settled in and still wondered where we were going.  We drove around for a bit.  The "Hot Chocolate" song came on right as we pulled into RaceTrac.  I don't think they really believed we were getting hot chocolate there.  We had quite the time getting them to actually get out of the van.  They finally did and were quite surprised to each get their own cup of hot chocolate.  We loaded back up and drove to a neighborhood nearby and told them we were doing a Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt.  (Scavenger Hunt we used found HERE.)

It was probably the most fun we've ever had looking at Christmas lights.  I highly suggest doing a scavenger hunt next time you go!  We had the windows down (you can do that here in Texas...it was cold but the hot chocolate warmed us up) and music playing and everyone looking carefully at all the lights so we could find everything.  The only things on the list we didn't find were:  The Grinch, A Decorated Mailbox, and A Camel.  Not bad.  We also took note of unusual decorations that we saw.  The top two winners were an inflatable Christmas cactus and two pink flamingos with lights.  Pretty fun!

Check out the video we made of our fun night:

Santa

Once again we visited Santa at Cabela's.  It was the craziest EVER!  I've never seen it so busy.  The whole store was busy...not just Santa.  In fact they had several extra cashier stands opened up just for the firearms department.  I don't know if it was because it was two days after the Connecticut school shooting or what...but the line to see Santa was insane.  We waited way over an hour.  We played "I Spy" until there was nothing left to spy!  We took turns going on bathroom breaks and diaper changing breaks, checked out the animals, played in the shooting gallery, and finally it was our turn.  And we didn't have our camera setting right so after all that the pics didn't even turn out that great.  But the kids got to see Santa and tell them what they wished and hoped for and that was all worth it for them.  Love Santa.  He is so nice!

Saying "hi" to Mrs. Claus

Claire sitting with a very big moose!

Coen being cute.  He's holding onto Beckham's favorite blanket.  There were times when we were getting pretty desperate to keep that boy (Beckham) happy and nothing does the trick like Fuzzy Quack Quack.

At the shooting range.

Sharp Shooters!

Austin and Dallin in front of the animal mountain.

Dallin is NINE!

December 5th was Dallin's birthday!  He is nine years old!  What a big boy he's getting to be.  So handsome!  We sure love Dallin and we're so thankful for him every single day.  He is such a good big brother, especially to Claire and Beckham.  He has quite the imagination and usually is lost in his own little world...often accompanied by Coen and/or Claire.  He is still a dragon fan, specifically Spyro, and also loves to play with little plastic or stuffed animals he has collected over the years.  The smaller, the better.  He is super creative and loves to play Minecraft as an outlet for all that creativitiy.  He comes up with some amazing things!  For his cake he requested "anything that has to do with Spyro".  I found a cool Skylander Portal cake on pinterest and decided to attempt it.  Major fail.  I'm embarrassed to post pictures.  I made it with an angel food cake base and that was my first mistake.  Totally was collapsing all over the place.  Second was, I didn't realize I was out of black and brown food color when I started so I had to invent my own colors.  Not good.  It ended up to be a verrrry light grayish-blue color with a hint of...green.  Then, my black gel was a runny mess dripping down the sides of the cake.  So much for the nice outlined stones.  But he said he loved it and knew just what it was...so I guess that's all that matters.  Here are a few pictures from his special day:

Love this boy's smile!  

A Spyro poster hanging on the curtain behind him was one of his gifts.

Getting a little help from Beckham.  I'm pretty sure I can guarantee spit was on that cake when they finished. Oh, well!  It's a birthday!  Everything's safe when it comes from candle blowing!

Opening presents.  Dallin was super happy with his dry erase crayon board, his squishy Spyro toy, and new SPYRO books!!  

Happy 9th Birthday Dallin!

We love you!

XOXO

Some December Fun

Here are a few random pictures of some fun throughout the month of December:

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We spent the first Sunday evening in December stringing lots and lots of popcorn for the tree.  I love popcorn on a Christmas tree!  It's my favorite!  I was glad we had so many helpers!

The finished tree!  Beautiful!

A random shot of three of my handsome boys after church.  

We surprised the kids with a night out to see The Polar Express.  It was showing at the Imax at the Fort Worth Science Museaum.  We all loved it!  It's one of our favorite Christmas shows.  Beckham, the train lover, about lost his mind and many random "CHOO-CHOOOOO's" came out of his little mouth as loud as he could during the entire movie.  Sometimes you just can't contain all the excitement and have to let it out.  Good thing it was a very family friendly showing!

Claire, Beckham and I had some fun days at the library and then at the park next door while the big boys were at school.  They love swinging together in this chair swing.  I like it, too.  Only one swing to push!

Austin got to compete in the Reindeer Run at his school.  The kids have to tryout and the top 3-4 runners in each class get to compete in the finals.  He made it to the finals and ran his little legs off.  Unfortunately, he had a good wipe out at the end.  A boy in front of him fell and then Austin tripped on him and went down.  But he got up and finished strong.  Good job, Austin!

Dallin and Coen had "Reindeer Day" at school along with other fun days like Christmas socks, jingle bell day, Charlie Brown Christmas, Santa hat, and Polar Express/PJ day.

December Crafting

We did a lot of crafting this year for Christmas.  It was fun.  Here are some of our masterpieces:

For teacher gifts I made potpourri sacks.  I figured something they could actually use up...quickly...would be nice.  Plus they were really pretty, smelled great, and they were inexpensive since I had everything but the cinnamon sticks.  Unfortunately, one of Austin's teachers never got hers.  It fell out of his sack on the bus and he couldn't find it.  Maybe the bus driver got to enjoy it.  Fortunately, that teacher was sick and missed the last day before Christmas break anyway.  Hopefully she never missed it....

Dallin made a bird feeder out of an orange in scouts.  I thought it was cute and our birds loved it!  Next time we'll have to tie it closer to a branch though.  The birds had a hard time balancing on the edge without tipping it over.  They were trying out their hummingbird hover skills...not very successfully.

Filled with seed.  A bright cheery spot in the bare tree.

Tory got his craft on, too.  He made these wood band saw boxes.  They turned out awesome!  I've put in a request.  Could be awhile since he doesn't have a band saw and had to borrow one at his friend's house.

Fun little drawers!

Pretty detail.  He glued a variety of wood together to form one solid block first.  That's where all the neat grain comes from.

This one is my favorite!

And again, another use for an old white sheet leftover from a mummy costume.  :)  I thought it made a cute bow!

Claire is always looking for a fun craft to do.  I cut up green streamers leftover from someone's birthday and they glued them on Christmas trees that I drew for them.  Then they decorated them with fun scraps of material and ribbon and sequins.

Beckham + glue = One very happy boy!

A craft I saw on pinterest and loved.  Tory made me one out of scraps in the garage.  We even made the wreath.  I love it!

Idea from HERE.

And I saw all kinds of versions of this on pinterest.  I've actually had this marked since before LAST Christmas.  Finally got around to making it this year.  Yet ANOTHER great use for a leftover white sheet from a mummy costume.  Unfortunately, I did run out this time.  But I added a bit of red and some burlap I had and I love the look even more!

Ideas from HERE and HERE.

We made doughnut muffins.  The glaze tasted just like a doughnut.

Recipe HERE.

I made a few things for the boys for Christmas.  It all started with this pillow.  The front of it is Coen's favorite t-shirt that he picked out when we went back-to-school shopping this fall.  He was playing with his brothers and after being drug around on the sidewalk (which they were all enjoying...who knows...) it ended up with a pretty big hole on the back.  He was sooo sad.  I saved it and this is what it turned into.  

He was actually sad all over again when he opened it on Christmas because I cut it up.  He thought I was going to be able to fix it.  But when I told him he could enjoy it every day instead of just once a week...he thought it was a pretty good deal.

So then I thought I should make Austin and Dallin something with an old t-shirt.  I found several of Austin's from his elementary days and cub scouts that he will never wear again.  And somehow I ended up making a quilt!  All in one day!  What was I thinking?!  I thought it turned out nice and I couldn't believe how it all matched so good.  I even found some flannel that I bought years ago...like back in 2006!  I finally found a use for it and it matched perfectly!

Then for Dallin I knew exactly which shirts I would use.  Every year their elementary school puts on a fund raiser at Spring Creek BBQ.  Families can go out to eat there and a portion of their bill goes to the school.  We've never gone but Dallin has been in the winning class for three years!  The winning class (with the most funds earned) get a t-shirt, gift card, cup, pen, etc.  So he's got this nice collection of t-shirts that he never wears.  I made him a big giant reversible pillow.  

Other Side

It was fun to do a little crafting this season.