Grandma Krug

This post is long overdue for many reasons. This year has gotten off to a crazy start. We've been sick and working like crazy! And mostly, I wanted to dedicate this posting my Grandma Krug who passed away on Christmas day. The Maziur family jumped on a plane last minute to head to Wisconsin. It was a beautiful funeral and the most wonderful part was when my Grandfather sang a song that he had written for her. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. To say it was beautiful is a complete understatement. We were all so fascinated that no one got it on video. I was hoping to have the words at least to post but don't have them yet. But I promise you they will come. Here is a picture of me and my Grandma at our wedding.

Grandma Krug had suffered from Parkinson's disease for many years so we all felt it was a blessing that now she is in heaven and pain free. It was a wonderful celebration and we all had so much fun visiting with family. We were hoping to take the kids tubing while we were there but it was less than 20 degrees most days and sometimes in the single digits. So we played outside instead and had just as much fun. Matt and Marlie made snow angels and thought that was super cool!

Here are a few pics of the kids with Great Grandpa...

Thank you to Great Grandpa and my aunt and uncles for taking such good care of Grandma these last few years. And to my cousins for helping her to continue to communicate. She was very blessed to have you all in her life. And thank you to my Grandma for making our summer trips to Wisconsin every year so memorable. I love you tons!

Granny's 92 Birthday Party

The day after Christmas we loaded up and headed south to Laredo for the big event...Granny's 92nd Birthday Party! Let me tell you this...I now know where I learned to party like a rock star...from my Granny! This 92 year old woman was having the time of her life on the dance floor. My Uncle Pole at one point offered to take her back to her seat and she said "no, I'm dancing"! The smile on her face was priceless.

We all had such a good time. The kids were the first on the dance floor and the last off at 11:30pm!! Matt, Marlie, Abby and Kati danced like rock stars too. Matt LOVED the mariachis. On their way out he chased after them asking for a CD, but he had no luck. How funny that he liked them SO much! Marlie was stuck like glue to her godparents. At one point the only person who could hold her was Uncle Tony or she'd throw a good fit! The night ended with Abby on the mic singing "all the single ladies" and Matt singing "and tonight's gonna be a good night".

There are so many good pics. I'll attach a few here and you can see the rest in the slideshow!

Merry CHRISTmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you had as much fun as we did! The holidays were pretty crazy for us with lots of traveling, but the kids do SO well and I'm so proud of them. We clocked so many driving miles and even snuck in a plane ride to Chicago last minute. More on those details later.

We started our celebration in SA with our families. Matt asked Santa for "Yankees" apparel for Christmas. It all started when he asked Uncle Jay to tell him a story one day....well Uncle Jay only knows baseball stories so that's the one Matt heard. Ever since then he's been talking Yankees nonstop! Well guess what Gram had? A Yankees jersey. But not any Yankees jersey....this was an old jersey Doug wore when he played baseball. Matt loved it and we couldn't get it off him. It was pretty darn cute! Thus, the Yankees jersey all Christmas! Thank you Gram - you are like a magician at times with the things you come up with for these kids!

The kids were so lucky to receive so many nice presents. The kids had a blast with their cousins! Matt and Maggie always find each other and have a blast being silly!

Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Let the Festivities Begin!

And we're off! The festivities have begun! We had some friends over the other night. The kids had fun making stockings, cookies and...funny faces!

The next evening we celebrated Christmas with Nene, Uncle Jay, Lynette and Jordan. Jordan got a trip to Disney for Christmas so they are already there having a great time. The kids had so much fun giving and getting gifts! Matt said his favorite gift were a pair of UnderArmour baseball cleats Dad purchased for next season. And Marlie liked anything! Each time someone gave her a gift she said "for me?". She would have been happy with just one thing!

Matt had a Christmas program at school. The boys dressed up as Joseph and the girls as Mary. They sang some really great songs...our favorite was of course "take me out the stable" in the same tune as "take me out to the ball game". It was too cute!
Then of course we had a blast at our Christmas parties at school. Matt's class had a party to celebrate the birth of Christ! Marlie's class attempted a few Christmas carols but I think 1, maybe 2 of the kids actually knew the words. Marlie was too busy just being silly!
We wish everyone a blessed and wonderful Christmas!

San Diego Pics - Part II

So we got our pictures back from our photo shoot in San Diego. There are a few really good ones. But the best are of course of Matt. The session started out great and after about 30 minutes everyone kind of fell apart. While we were trying to calm Marlie down (after a wave snuck up on her and she fell in the cold water...white shirt now brown) the photographer captured Matt being Matt...silly and having fun on his own. I love these pics! We got a few good family ones too. The next one is by far the best shot of Marlie. My little Princess! You can see more in the slideshow!

Some Catching Up To Do!

It's been awhile I apologize. I have been sick for over a month now. Marlie has been sick and even our dog, Hannah, has been sick. It's times like this when we are so thankful that we are generally healthy!

Happy belated Thanksgiving to you all! We actually had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Gram and Aunt Dani came to pick up both kids so Doug and I had a weekend and a few days to ourselves. It was our first time without little Marlie, but she did great!

Doug and I are lucky to have some good friends that like football as much as we do. They invited us to the ATM vs. Baylor game in College Station and to see the Texans play - Monday night football! We tailgated with them at both events and had SUCH a good time. Walking into Kyle Field was so neat. It's been so long since we've been to a college football game and it's just awesome. My mind was on the kids and so I was obviously fast forwarding to the day they will be off to college. Hopefully the will go to Rice University which is not too far and.. .well... they have a great baseball team too.

We are all home now and guess what? It snowed in Houston!! And I mean snowed! The kids loved it. Here's a picture of our backyard...look at it come down!

M&M had fun making snowballs. Matt would get a good one and get about 2 inches away from you and throw it!

Dad helped them make a snowman and they were so excited. It was neat because even after most of the snow melted, their little snowman stood proud a few more hours.

Ironically, the next day was "snow" day in our neighborhood. Each year they bring in snow for the kids and Santa comes to visit. Matt was so excited to see Santa.
Marlie talked about Santa all morning and then froze when she saw him. She was hanging on to me for dear life!
So we went to play in the snow with our friends for awhile.
We tried one more time with Santa, but Marlie still insisted I go with her to see him. She looked at him like he was crazy! Of course when we went home she said "I go see Santa"...and when I asked if she would sit on his lap she smiled and said "YES!". So we might have to try again!

World Cup Champions - The Sharks

Well that's what their trophies say! Soccer season has come to a close and let me tell you...it was SO fun! We started off with Matt not too interested but it wasn't long before he was in full soccer mode. The Sharks took a beating the first game. I mean a real beating. And after that game they completely dominated the remaining games. There was maybe 1 in there that was tough. Not that it matters with 3 and 4 year olds but my point is that these kids were clueless to start with and by the end of the season were SO good. There was no telling them which goal was ours or to kick it IN the goal. These kids were taking the ball down the field and whacking it in the goal. AND we played defense too! When the other team thought they had a breakaway we ran them down and kicked the ball away. We had an awesome goalie who literally dove on top of the ball even if the other team was kicking it. It was unreal. I was so proud of Matt and all of his teammates.

Here are some shots from the last game. I like this series of pictures...Matt and Caden going after the ball during practice...

And here are Matt and his teammates just having fun...who knows what Matt was saying!

The parents hosted an end of season party for the boys at our favorite Chick-fil-A. They were so excited about their trophies. Here are Matt and Evan showing it off!

And when we thought the season couldn't get any better....Coach Joel and his wife Melissa (and Caden too) hosted a party for the boys at their house after our last game. Let's just say that one day maybe someone will host a party like that for me! It was over the top fun for the boys and the parents. We ate pizza and had a great ice cream sundae bar. The kids bounced in the bounce house and played football. And to end the party a few swings at the soccer ball pinata. This was prep for tball next Spring! :) THANK YOU guys for all that you did.

Thank you to the parents who are all amazing! We are blessed to know you all!

Check out the slide show with more soccer pics!