San Diego Official Pictures

If you read my blog you know that we went to San Diego with the Hatter's just before school started.  I wanted Nicole to take some family pictures for us but didn't want her to have to "work" on vacation so I was so happy that she offered to do it for us!  We definitely had fun and the beach and sunset were absolutely amazing.  Here are some of my favorites...

  I love this one because for some reason Marlie is laughing so hard.  It's adorable !

 And I love this one because the look on Matt's face is SO serious!

Nicole also captured one of my favorite moments...the girls were busy building sand castles and then so bravely decided on their own that they wanted to boogie board in that cold water.  They laughed and had so much fun! We enjoyed watching them too!

It was such a wonderful trip and I'm so thankful to Nicole for capturing my little people's smiles.  There are some other cute pics in the slide show! 

Dewberry Farms

This post is dated but I couldn't resist sharing the pics and the fun moments. 

A few weekends ago the kids got to pick a friend to take to Dewberry Farms.  As usual we had to get through a few soccer games and make the trek out there but it was totally worth it!

Caden and Khloe joined us and we all had so much fun.  I gave everyone strict instructions on staying together at all times so the girls walked in like this...

 Of course I had to stop them at the entrance for a pic!

We did as many fun things as we could.  Sometimes the boys stuck together and the girls did their thing and sometimes they had fun altogether.

 As we were waiting in line to grab lunch I saw a little house that said "The Black Hole".  This was something included with the kid's wristband so the girls and I went over to see what it was.  The man said they would be fine to go in by themselves.  People were going in and coming out fairly quickly and they were all amazed.  So I told the girls to go get the boys.  I paired them up and gave the boys the responsibility of being in charge.  Matt with Khloe (because he'd probably leave Marlie in a heartbeat) and Caden with Marlie.  They were kinda nervous and excited so in they went.  About 3 seconds later they all came back out.  The girls were scared.  I somehow convinced Marlie to go back in and Caden said she caught up with him and grabbed his hand (too cute).  Khloe stayed outside with me until the 3 came out and said it was awesome.  So she and Marlie went back in together. 

We all sat down and had pizza for lunch.  I didn't realize how much of bonding moment that experience was until we went "gem mining".  The boys tried it while the girls were in the ladies room.  When we came out the boys were SO excited to help the girls with the project.  It was really cute and for sure my favorite part of the day.

After we had done everything possible (well except for the corn maze because last time it took awhile to get out and I started feeling claustrophobic!) we headed out to the pumpkin patch.  The pumpkins were all picked over and the leftovers were in pretty bad shape, but we still managed a few good pics. 

Doug and I had so much fun watching the kids have fun.  Even though it was a long day, everyone was so good.  Can't wait to do it again next year! 

What a Great Weekend!

Last weekend was so awesome for many reasons...

It started early which is always good.  We decided to go to the Baylor vs. OU game Thursday night in Waco.  At first I thought the kids were just excited because I was picking them up early from school.  Then I thought they were just excited that we were staying in a hotel.  But they were still excited when we got to Baylor and walked around campus.  I loved taking them there and Doug and I got to take a quick trip down memory lane.  So much has changed and so much is still the same.  I still think it's one of the most beautiful college campuses but I'm sure I'm biased. 

What has definitely changed (thank goodness) is the bear pit!  It's so much nicer and the kids enjoyed watching the bears. 

Then it was off to Floyd Casey stadium for the big game.  I was afraid it was going to be too cold but it was perfectly cold football weather.  We bundled up and I bought the kids a few fun things to keep them warm.  It was blackout night and the fans did a great job because the stadium was full of lots of black!

The game was great!  We stood the entire time and cheered.  Marlie almost fell out in the 4th quarter but we perked her back up with some popcorn.  Our Bears won and proved to the football world that they're the real deal.

We slept in Friday and drove home to make it for the last half of school.  At the school carnival Matt had won a chance to hang out with Mr. Jeffery our Asst. Principal so he invited his friend Micah and they played games and ate candy and popcorn after school.  The boys had a blast.  In the mean time I took Marlie and her very sweet boy-friend Patrick to Tutti Fruitti.  They were hilarious.  Patrick told me that he wished he were in 5th grade because he would be closer to being able to get married! Normally this would have freaked me out but Patrick is the sweetest, smartest, most kind 6 year old boy I have ever met.  His Mom is absolutely amazing too so I'd be happy to arrange this marriage!

Saturday morning we were up early for soccer games.  Both M&M and their teams played great.  Matt scored 2 goals and the boys worked together as a team so well!  Marlie I think scored 3, but my favorite were the big hugs with friends after the goals.  The girls are finally coming around so by the end of the season they will be ready! :)

Saturday was date day with the kids.  Doug took Marlie to Disney on Ice and she loved it.  Doug said it wasn't painful and I know he really enjoyed his time with Marlie.  The kids always love being with Dad because he splurges on good seats and all the random crap they sell at the event.  When they came home Matt said, "you sure gotta lot of stuff". 

I took Matt to the Dynamo playoff game which was a lot of fun too!  Unlike Dad we had good seats, not great and I packed all our Halloween candy in my purse!! I love the Dynamo games because of the small stadium, music, singing, cheering...it's always a fun event.  Although I guess they have to make it fun because as in this game, we left with a score of 0-0! Complete torture.  Matt thanked me at least 5 times that day and I loved every minute with him all to myself! 

We got Chinese take out because Matt wanted to come home to watch the Alabama vs. LSU game so we ate and watched the game in our pj's.  I even let him sleep in our bed too and he couldn't have been happier. 

I love, love my babies and all the fun things we can do now that they're older.  I really don't want them to grow up.  Trying to take in each moment!

Happy Halloween!

We were expecting a huge storm on Halloween so I asked the kids what we were going to do and Matt looked at me like I was crazy and said, "get an umbrella".  I thought we were all going to have to dress up as ghosts with white trash bags over us! Well, thankfully the rain stopped just in time to trick-or-treat. 

Somehow I have still managed to convince the kids to dress up in a similar theme.  Marlie wanted to be a pop star so I asked Matt if he wanted to be rock star.  He said no until I told him we could spike all of his hair up and spray it blue and then he was all in.  Doug said he just looked like a kid with wild hair...so I guess you need to use your imagination. 

I love how Doug always finds some random article of clothing to wear on Halloween.  If you remember he wore his Baylor track outfit a few years ago after we had beat ATM.  You gotta love his hat this year. 

And we are thankful to Nene who always comes over to make sure we have someone at home to hand out candy!

Just in case it rained we had plan B - decorate pumpkins and make monster cupcakes.  So we fit that in too! 

The kids and Nene had fun with the cupcakes.  Here are their creations. The first are Matt's followed by Marlie's.  Nene's were good too but the picture didn't come out.  Too bad because she was the most proud of hers I think. 

We were so excited that Caden joined us for the festivities too and that we got to see other friends including Lyla along the way!

My favorite quotes of the night were...first Marlie runs away home from a house after getting a candy and said the lady looked just like a witch...however she was NOT dressed up...yikes!  Then at the end of the night a little girl (maybe Marlie's age) looked at Caden and said "what are you?" Of all the costumes his might have been the most obvious!  Poor thing has no clue what football is. Bless her future husband.

Our neighborhood was definitely more quiet this year than it's ever been so we're going to have to make up for it next year!  Happy Halloween!