Monday, December 24, 2012

Jake's Work Party

A photo booth! What a great idea!
The props don't hurt either.
This yearly Christmas date always provides great food and a fun night out with my best friend. 

Tessa's 6th Birthday

Tessa gets the choice of having a birthday party in the even years, and this year she most definitely wanted a party. A "My Little Pony rainbow baking party"... We all know my minimalist efforts, but, hey, we pulled it off for her. 
We had ten little girls show up for the party --a mixture of school friends and church friends. What a beautiful and sweet group:
Paige, Tessa, Elli, Aniyah, Eva, Anna, Ella, Evy, Izzy, Saneen, and Emberly (Emily came later.)
 They started out coloring on the paper tablecloth as they arrived. Then, we had a fashion relay game, spent time out jumping on the trampoline with balloons, played Pass the Pony, had lunch, decorated and ate cupcakes, opened presents, passed out party favors, and sent them on their way.
The school friend moms or grandmoms stayed. It was nice to get to know them a little.
Here's Tessa blowing out her candle:


 Seriously, how cute are they?!?!
Tessa received quite the load and was buzzing with happiness over her party for days after.
Here she is on her actual birthday a couple of days later, eating breakfast before school:
Six blessed years with my Tessa so far. What a generous, sweet, silly, creative, precocious, fun, clever, and kind little girl she is.

Most Mornings

Most mornings Cole makes it in to see Paige before I do.
 Most mornings she is done with him after thirty seconds...



Saturday, December 22, 2012

San Antonio Thanksgiving 2012

Last year Jake's cousin and his family joined us in our neck of the woods for Thanksgiving, so this year we headed their direction. It took much too long to get to San Antonio, but we were so happy that we could make the trip. What a fantastic and relaxing weekend we had with the Hansens.
Here are Tessa and Lizzy right before eating our truly delicious meal:

 Cole and Zach got to have their own fancy dining area. Two peas in a pod, I tell you.

 Paige was happy that she got to munch on some grown up food.
The next day we went to Sea World! We love Sea World. It was decorated for Christmas, and the shows took on more Christmasy themes. Very fun. Cole was so excited to go on his first real rides. (And Jake and I were thrilled that we were able to go on the grown up roller coasters.)

 On the carousel:
 It's a Sesame Street style carousel, which is cute, but I snapped pictures and had to look away for the rest of the time. The spinning makes me sick to my stomach, but hey, if the kids like it, more power to them.

 This is what Paige and I did while they rode the horsies:
 She did get to go on one ride, kind of a swirling rocking boat one. I'm not sure what thought...
Here is Amanda and Zach:
 The next day we headed into downtown San Antonio. Here are all the kids, minus baby Colin, on the ever lovely Riverwalk:
 Paige, Zach, Too Cool Cole, Lizzy, Tyler, and Tessa. What a good looking group.
We ate at a restaurant on the Riverwalk:
 Snapped some more pictures...




And then we had to be on our way. We love spending time with those San Antonio cousins. I'm not sure there are nicer people to be found. It was a great break from our usual routine and gave us even more for which to be thankful!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

We Like The Dad

The force is strong with this one...

 I love watching and listening to Jake play with the kids. I'm grateful that he does it often and enjoys it so much.
 It's true that "we like the dad" --even when he has an unfortunate pirate eye patch and out of control nose hair. Baaahahahaha.
And since this happened on the same day: Cole got into the felt book (not unusual) I made years ago. The kids have had some fun destroying that thing. Good grief. This day, though, I burst out laughing when I saw that Cole put the cowboy hat on Paige. Silly kids in mini hats.