Top 50 Moments of 2014

It was an amazing year, we are loving making memories with our kiddos and can't wait to see what 2015 has to bring:

1. Family vacation to Disneyworld in Florida with Jason, can’t get over Annie’s reaction, the girls dressed up after Bippity Boppity, and getting to see John and Claudia.
2. Summer trip to Gruene with the Rushings and Willards.
3. Visit to see family and friends in Oklahoma over the summer, and Great Grandpa visiting us in Houston before driving up with us.
4. OSU vs Baylor football game with the Willards.
5. Brian and Jacob visiting Grandpa and getting to go to the Cardinals vs Cubs game in St. Louis.
6. Watching OSU beat OU and getting to go to the Cactus Bowl.
7. The kids dressed as Elsa, Anna and Michael Jackson at Halloween.
8. Brian’s year of cakes: Olaf singing Karaoke for Gwyn, and Annie scoring at soccer while Mickey Mouse is playing goalie.
9. Brian’s tribal Halloween pumpkin and his two protégé’s Jacob and Gwyn carving their own this year as well.
10. Watching Gwyn and Annie do a cheer at the Stratford High School foot ball game at half time.
11. Watching all 3 of our Piranhas swim on the neighborhood swim team.
12. ALS ice bucket challenges by Gwyn, Jacob, Brian, Phoebe, Nana, G, and Stacy.
13. Top Golf with the kids, so fun!
14. Weekend trip to Kansas City for cousin Angie’s wedding, Brian getting to dance with all of his girls.
15. Swimming, movies, and hanging out at Uncle Jason’s house.
16. Family bike rides, swimming in our pool, playing on the trampoline, and enjoying being outside playing with the kids almost every day…love Houston weather!
17. Rodeo days, seeing the kids square dance, and Brian beating Jacob and Gwyn at a sack race at neighborhood Rodeo bbq.
18. Family campout during Spring Break with the Rushings and Couches, complete with alligator watching, smores and bike riding.
19. Dance party gone wrong, and Annie knocking her two front teeth out on the coffee table.
20. Annie going to PreK and riding the bus to the same school as Jacob and Gwyn.
21. Annie’s 5^th birthday party at Plaza Oaks Pool and the look on her face when she got her own American Girl doll that looks like her.
22. Annie playing soccer with all her friends, scoring two goals in one game, one for each team.
23. How much Annie has grown this year, we can’t get enough of her little notes she leaves on our bedside tables with pictures of her with me and Brian.
24. Watching Annie love her ballet and tap class with her friends.
25. Annie’s pirate video telling Matey or Platey to walk the plank.
26. Enjoying the inventive and sometimes tragic outfits that Annie comes up with on a daily basis.
27. Brian’s Daddy-Daughter dates with Annie.
28. Annie’s impressions of everyone.
29. Gwyn getting to be a bat girl and ball girl at Stratford High School softball and basketball game.
30. Gwyn’s Daddy-Daughter dates with Brian.
31. Gwyn losing her first two teeth this year.
32. Watching Gwyn score two goals in one game, both for her soccer team.
33. Getting to see Gwyn play softball, and cheering on their team as they won 2^nd place in their division.
34. Gwyn taking a hip-hop / jazz dance class with her friends and getting jiggy with it.
35. Having fun watching Derby girl Gwyn get pretty good at roller blading.
36. Getting to coach Gwyn’s basketball team last January, and Brian doing it this year.
37. Gwyn’s Frozen 6^th birthday at Pink Polka dot, complete with karaoke, makeovers and dancing.
38. Doing science experiments in Gwyn’s Kinder classroom.
39. Watching Jacob get a base hit his first time at bat during a kid-pitch game.
40. Jacob’s 8^th epic birthday complete with Astros game with Jason, movie, dinner, shaving cream and swimming , and wrapping girls houses.
41. Jacob being the Stink Bug in the 2^nd grade play, and moon walking across the stage.
42. Getting to enjoy some awesome Rockets and Astros games with Jacob.
43. Watching Jacob play some awesome basketball and baseball this year.
44. Mom-Son nights out to movies, dinner, basketball games, etc.
45. Seeing Jacob pitch in a game for the first time.
46. Jacob getting so pumped about riding all the awesome roller coasters at Disney.
47. The beginning of our future, girls leaving chalked messages on our driveway, forked, papered, etc.
48. Jacob absolutely LOVING fireworks at 4^th of July in Oklahoma.
49. Family dance parties.
50. An unbelievable year of making memories with our awesome kids, can’t wait to continue in 2015.

A Very Merry Blessed Christmas

 We had a very Merry Christmas with a whirlwind of family visiting from the 19th to the 28th.  The kids loved having their cousins here.  Elijah just loves Jacob and the girls thought it was fun to play little Mommies to Hannah.  Here they are in matching Christmas pjs:

 Opening presents for round 1:

 A very happy boy, as his last Cardinals jersey was getting a bit small!

 The kids enjoyed sitting at the kids table...

 Checking out the lights at Westside, Elijah would say "pretty lights."

 Rick and Sue with all the grandkids on their 40th wedding anniversary...we got to have a nice dinner out and got a sitter for all the kids.

 Biking party of 11, only we could have enough bikes for everyone on one ride!

 A stop to play in the playground at the neighborhood pool:

 Here is Gwyn making some homemade hot chocolate:

 Daddy and Annie both got Legos for Christmas, both are hard at work:

 We went to see the Second Baptist Really Really Big Christmas Show and ran into the Willards:

 Christmas Eve, making cookies for Santa:

 Here are the selected cookies for Santa...Jacob's Angel, Gwyn's Snowman and Annie's Star:

 I love how Annie organized her loot:

 Christmas pic in front of the tree before opening our family presents:

 Jacob got a couple of Fatheads for his room of himself, he loved them!

 Brian, Gwyn and Jacob all got electric scooters...they were a hit!

 More Lego work:

 Little Magician Gwyn trying out some tricks on us:

 Jacob got Mexican Train dominoes:

 My attempt at Santa bread, no one wanted to eat the red part:

 We spent a couple of nights at Jason's house when my mom and dad came into town with Susie.  We had fun hanging out, watching movies, swimming in his pool, and opening up more presents! Here is Gwyn on the drums and my dad on guitar during a jam session:

 Dad trying out Brian's scooter:

 Annie with her new little Ezy Roller that Jason got her, it amazing how fast and good she is at it:

A few videos from the week:







Funny things the kids said this week:
Annie:  This cauliflower is off the hook.
Jacob:  Cauliflower is broccoli's white cousin.
Annie:  And it tastes like nothing.
Jacob to Annie when she said she didn't have any money for a book at Barnes and Noble:  Just lose some more teeth.
Annie:  This medicine tastes like junk, or no, maybe  trash.

Santa Clause is Coming to Town!

We are excited about Christmas and have enjoyed making some fun memories this Christmas season over the past couple of weeks.  We took the kids to see Santa, this time Annie asked for a Santa hat, she has not said the same thing twice, ha!  Gwyn and Jacob have asked for electric scooters, so we'll see if they are on the nice list or not, ha!  We enjoyed the lights at Westside, I took Jason's awesome camera and got a few cool shots:

 Reindeer day at school, we've  got one Rudolph and a dancer and a dasher.  Brian wanted to know why they were going as brown nosers, but they don't know that term, they were just going as regular reindeer which do in fact have brown noses, ha!

 If you are ever missing Annie, look by the Christmas village or by the crafts in the kitchen, two places she could spend entire days at by herself.  She loves this !

 I saw she had set all the people up, apparently they were having a town meeting:

 Kong Kong has been at it at our house again, I had one mom tell me that "okay, this thing with your elf has got to stop, already!"  According to her child they have the lamest elf ever, I told her she could thank Brian for that!

Family Christmas coloring contest...everyone received one vote each, so it was a 5 way tie...Jacob couldn't believe it!

 We watched Elf, our favorite Christmas show, so fun!

 Annie apparently thought a my little pony wrapped in a beaded coaster, a wooden Christmas tree, and a lantern ornament made a good addition to the nativity I had set up.

 A picture with Rudolph, that Rudolph looks a bit messed up!

 Breakfast with Santa before Jacob had basketball pictures.

 We watched two sweet friends in Shrek the Musical, so much fun for  the kids:

 Annie had her ballet program, she loved it.  We aren't continuing in the Spring, going to try out some gymnastics, but she did have a great time!

 Big siblings supporting their little sisters!

Here are a couple of videos of their grand performance!

Gwyn also had her end of year Christmas dance performance...so fun! My video didn't work, but I got these two pics:

 Jacob and I made this gingerbread tree, while the girls stuck with a gingerbread house!

 All dressed up and ready to go to Christmas parties at school, I had several people ask who made the girls t-shirts, so Sue you might be getting some orders for next year!

 We went caroling in the neighborhood, the kids loved it, and the neighbors did too, except one lady who cracked her door and then turned her lights off mid-song, ha!

A short video of a little caroling:

 Grinch day, wear your green to school, we opted for our St. Pats tshirts for the girls, because we don't have very much green...we're loaded with pinks and purples though!

 I was able to go on Gwyn's field trip to the zoo, which was the absolutely most perfect day, cloud cover, in the 70s and no crowds, her grade was practically there by themselves, and the animals were all out and active!!

 This came home in Annie's bag, I loved it!

 Lots of fun Christmas crafts coming home from school:

Annie telling a couple of stories she learned at school: