Christmas Blessings

We are definitely counting our blessings this Christmas.  We are safe, we are healthy and most of the time pretty happy!!

Christmas started with school parties and as usual the room moms did a great job planning the festivities.  Marlie's class decorated bags for Lunches of Love and she loved telling everyone about how we went there to volunteer for her birthday party.  Matt's class played all sort of games including this one where you have to throw the marshmallow in the bucket. The kids were told several times NOT to eat the marshmallows but I'm pretty sure I saw one kid sneak one into his mouth that had been on the floor and through everyone's hands!  Grrrrrooossssss!

We had a nice Christmas visit with family.  We went to children's mass at 4:00 on Christmas Eve and then spent the evening eating, drinking and being Merry!  I think what my kid's love most about our Christmas Eve celebration is the annual gift card exchange. This year Marlie, Doug and Nene ended up with the special $50 cards and all 3 were overly excited!

 The kids enjoyed exchanging presents with their grandparents and Uncle Jay. 

Marlie's favorite gift was Pinky that she got from Matt. She loves these animals with the big eyes and this is by far the largest one she has.  She couldn't have been more excited!  Surprisingly Matt was super excited about "socks" that he really wanted that Marlie bought for him.  If you saw the price tag on these socks you'd flip. Do they massage your feet while you're walking?

Christmas morning was so fun.  I was so exhausted that it took me a few hours to wake up and pull out my camera.  But I managed to at least snap a picture of Matt trying out the new scooter Santa brought him. This thing is even fun for adults too!  I wonder if Santa was riding it around the house when he brought it? I bet he did! 

The second annual gingerbread house decorating with Papa and Nona Lisa started bright and early too.  The competition got a little intense and the kids (and I think grandparents) loved it!

For New Year's weekend we went to Dallas to watch Baylor play in the Cotton Bowl.  We got to go back to the ICE exhibit which I think is just amazing!! This year the theme was Frosty the Snowman! The kids (and Dad too) loved the ice slides. The exhibit ends with a separate room with ice sculptures of the nativity scene.  It's just beautiful!

After the ICE exhibit the kids got to go snow tubing! On the way out we ran into Matt McKinney (Doug's fraternity brother from Baylor) & his cute family.  We ended up meeting them for dinner later that night and had a great time getting to know their very sweet kids.  So sad I didn't get any pictures.  We also got to see Kascie Smith and his family. Kascie and Doug ran track together in college and Kascie was the best man in our wedding.  He and his wife have the cutest and sweetest little boy named Elijah that jumped into my arms when we first met him.  I would have taken him home with us if they would have let us!  

 

Dad got us great seats to the Cotton Bowl. It was a tough loss but we had fun seeing friends and cheering on the Bears. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and got to enjoy the season with their families!  Merry Christmas!  Blessings to you all! 

 

Futbol!

You know I love Soccer Saturdays and another season has come and gone.  This year Matt played soccer through the Texans Academy and wow what a completely different experience.  Marlie played again on the Fairy Ponies and had lots of fun with all her friends! Doug and I are always proud of these two tiny people who look adorable in their uniforms!

The Texans Academy is coached by soccer professionals, so Doug was able to sit back, relax and enjoy the show!  There were about 40 kids in the Academy and Matt had several friends that participated.  They broke the boys up into 4 teams and I was so proud that Matt made the highest level team.  Now let me say, the boys on his team were really GOOD.  And the competition was good too. Most of these kids play soccer year round so it was hard for Matt to keep up.  But in typical Matt fashion he worked hard and hustled like crazy.

Matt didn't have any good friends on his team but had fun making new friends.  His main coach, Coach Ossie was adorable (although I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate that description).  He is an older British guy and Matt learned so much. He was always yelling but with his British accent it always sounded sweet.  He was very positive and joked a lot with the boys. Doug and I really loved the whole experience and Matt had a blast!  He got to play almost every position and scored several goals.  Sometimes he'd miss the easy ones but made the tough ones from the outside.  He played goalie once and DID NOT like it, so he may have to practice that a bit more next fall.  Great job 335!!

Then there's Marlie's team...oh boy...the Fairy Ponies only won 1 game this season.  Marlie started the season off great!!! She scored almost every game for the first 7 games and was the only one on her team that scored.  Then her coach kept yelling her to stay in position and that was it. He pulled her out once because she went to the other side of the field and then after that her feet were firmly planted in the ground...not the best for soccer.  I will say that the team was made up of all her neighborhood friends and she loved being with them.

Marlie you did great this year.  I'm always amazed at how fast your run.  The picture below reminds me of how you like to out run the other team!! 

I'm sad that this might possibly be our last year of soccer.  We will see.  Marlie loves dancing and it seems to be taking up more time every year. 

Walk by Faith

A few weekends ago we were honored to participate in the Walk by Faith.  All proceeds from this event go to the Addi Faith Foundation that funds childhood cancer research and also provides financial assistance to families who are caring for a child with cancer. 

The two largest teams at this event were Team Teague and L3 and we proudly wore our shirts for both of these teams.  Doug and Matt were on Team Teague.  Teague is Matt's friend that he met through baseball who recently had a brain tumor.  Praise God they were able to remove the tumor and after proton radiation his scans look good!!  It meant a lot to participate in the walk with Teague and his family and the rest of the Hooks baseball team!



Marlie and I walked for the L3 team, Live. Love. Landon.  Landon Ahrendt fought a tough battle with rhabdomyosarcoma, which is a rare soft tissue cancer. He went to heaven in May of this year and the L3 Foundation has been going strong to continue to help others kids fighting cancer.  What I love about this Foundation is that it's run by kids, Landon's friends and family. Landon's older sister Teagan dances at Marlie's dance studio.  Marlie fell in love with Teagan a couple of years ago when she was helping in one of her summer classes.  We are so blessed to know Teagan who is amazingly beautiful inside and out.  And you should see this girl dance!!  We were honored to be walking for Landon and his family!

The kids decided they wanted to enter the 1K kid's run and Matt as you might expect was super excited.  He made sure he was at the front of the starting line and was ready to race.  He went out in a definite sprint, not realizing that a 1K wasn't really a full out sprint race.  He got tired at the end and slowed down to give high five's to his teammates along the way, but still came in 3rd for the boys and 3rd overall!

After Matt crossed the finish line I turned my focus back down the track and guess who was leading the pack?  Marlie!!! She finished really strong, with great running form and I was SO proud of her.  She said she saw a shadow behind her at the end and kicked it into gear.  She placed 2nd for the girls and maybe 5th or 6th overall.  Please excuse the proud Mom comments in this video!

 The kids were really excited about placing and they were happy to represent Teague and Landon!

After the 1K race we all participated in the 5K. Of course Doug and I walked and Marlie had fun walking with Skylar.

But the boys wanted to run and so some of the Dads decided to run with them to make sure they were ok.  I think most of the boys petered out along the way but Matt didn't stop.  Coach Raymond, Jayden's Dad said he tried to keep up with Matt as best he could but he lost him when Matt decided to sprint coming down the home stretch.  Matt finished the 5K in about 30 minutes and I wish I would have seen him cross the finish line.  He was extremely proud of finishing it with a good time.  Matt is in the running club at school and was the 2nd kid in the entire school to reach the 26 mile mark. 

Maybe both my kids will take after their Daddy and be runners after all.  Matt with his intense desire to finish and Marlie with her amazing running form!  It sure doesn't come from Momma!!