The Electric Slide

We've been so blessed to have some beautiful Sunday afternoons this winter. We've enjoyed riding bikes and playing on the playground. I've said this before but I feel like Rylan has the best of both Reese and Tucker's personalities. She's friendly and fearless like Tucker, and confident and independent like Reese. She has some qualities all her own too... she's got to be the sweetest, snuggliest girl alive! I kept fearing that it would go away as she got older, but so far so good! Just last night, Tucker went in and turned on her light in the middle of the night (long story) and woke her up. I didn't mind so much because she wanted to snuggle with me all night. Every time I stopped tickling her back she would wiggle and say "tickle" in her sweet little voice. While I don't miss the 3 am feedings, I do miss our snuggle time!

Anyway, I say all that because she is also like Reese when it comes to twisty slides... that girl could slide all day long. You can tell from her hair that she pretty much did!

 

Now that's what you call the "Electric Slide!" 

 Rylan wasn't the only one loving our Sunday afternoon playtime...

 At first I thought "Awww look at Rylan holding Tucker's hand." Then I realized she was really just trying to get him to get his hand off of her. Hey, a mother can dream can't she?! 

 The slides aren't the only things we like at the part... we enjoy climbing and monkeying around too!

We're SOOO ready for Spring it hurts!!! 

Happy Valentine's Day

We had fun making the kids' valentine cards again this year.  Of course I stole the ideas from pinterest, but they were still so stinkin' cute.  Their principal took a picture of them with her phone and I caught her showing all the other principals at our meeting the other day.  I love that she loves them so much! 

We started with a couple pictures outside...

Then I added the little message...

 

 

Then we stuck the suckers in...

They were a big hit!  I can't believe this terrible cell phone picture is the only one I have of the finished products. I didn't even make an extra for the scrapbook.  What's happening to me?

 

Poor Rylan didn't get to make a valentine card this year.  She just gets left out of everything.  I know I'm going to hear about it later.  She says "Happy Valentine's Day" too! 

Our Little Gymnast

Reese said she wanted to do gymnastics about a year ago so we went and gave it a whirl.  It's a good thing they let you try it for free because she sat and wouldn't talk to anyone or participate in anything.  Needless to say, we decided to try again when she was a little older.  One year later, here we are...

This just might turn my little "miss priss" into an athlete after all.  jumping, flipping, spinning, turning, stretching, etc..  She's already getting more coordinated.  And losing a little of her baby fat too. ha!

Backflips on the yellow wedge are fun! 

 

Someday soon she'll be flipping over these things, instead of just hanging upside down like a monkey. 

She just graduated to the next class up, so I guess I have to go buy those leotards that she wants now.  I'm sure Rylan will be out there with our little gymnast before we know it! 

Biker Kids

The kids got bikes for Christmas from grandma and grandpa and they LOVE them! It was FREEZING on Christmas but they were determined  to ride...

 

 Reese needed a little "hands on" from Grandma, but then she was off all on her own!

 

 Tucker took off and wanted to "stand up" and pedal just like Caden!  Don't run out in front of these kids - can't get them to look where they are going... gotta concentrate on what the feet are doing. 

Since then, we've been blessed with lots of 70 degree Sundays so they've been riding like crazy. 

Sidewalks, streets, grass.  They'll ride anywhere.  Can't believe they are already this big.

Christmas Eve

My Christmas posts are all out of order... that's what happens when you try to blog with 3 kids running around you. 

We had fun with our Elf Dobby, visiting Santa and all the commercial parts of Christmas.  But the best part was reading the Christmas story and seeing the kids really understand what Christmas was all about. 

We went to the Christmas Eve Service that was complete with snow this year.  Then we spent the evening at mom's house... all together - eating, making cookies and all kinds of fun family stuff.

 We went to Amber's church for the Christmas Eve Service.  When it started snowing in the sanctuary, Reese said, "That's not snow... that's soap."  Can't pull anything over on her.  The kids were less than cooperative for Christmas pictures at church this year.  But I still tried. 

We got a couple more at Grandma's house...

 

 This one makes me laugh out loud.  Reese said she wanted to take a picture with Easton.  Since he wasn't there, she grabbed his picture and insisted that I take the picture.

After tamales and other yummy Mexican grub, the kids all made cookies for Santa.  Not sure anyone else would want to eat the cookies though... all kinds of finger-lickin' going on. 

Even Rylan decorated a cookie for Santa this year.

Merry Christmas!  Can't wait to see what Santa brought us!

White Christmas

Only in Texas can you have a White Christmas after it being 75 degree five days before that! 

Hopefully this is a sign that we'll have more snow this season... when we're all well enough to go out and really play in it.  So far our vacation has been full of, runny noses, cough medicine, breathing treatments, doctor visits, fevers, the works.  We went from one sick kid on Christmas, to three by New Years. 

One week left of vacation... hopefully we'll all be well enough to enjoy it! 

The Nice List

Well, we weren't sure for a while, but the kids ended up on Santa's nice list after all.  They had more than enough to unwrap this year.  We've been working on being grateful.  It paid off... I think we only heard "do I have another one?" a few hundred times. 

We had some very excited little kids...

 

Santa wraps everything at our house... even the stocking suffers.  That's the way he did it when I was growing up, so that's how he does it now.  More to unwrap... makes the fun last longer.   

Reese is really into Lalaloopsy right now... she got several fun things to add to her collection. 

Tucker has been asking for a basketball and finally got one.  He cried when he didn't get a skateboard though.  We reminded him that Santa knows just what to get you.  At my parents house later, he opened his very own skateboard and pads.  It was the hit of his Christmas! 

We're still using the skinny tree that we started using when the kids were little to keep them out of the tree.  I think its time to bust out the big one next year!  Although, this one does come down in like 10 minutes.  I love that part! 

Merry Christmas from our Family to Yours! Hope you've had as blessed a year as we have!