Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

I’m a little late posting this… sorry! We had a wonderful Christmas, and New Years; and we hope you did too!! Christmas Eve Adam, Aiden and I went to church for our candlelight service.

After church we headed for our traditionally Christmas Eve meal at Kobe Hibachi grill. During the 10 minute drive Aiden lost his other loose tooth!

After dinner we drove around a looked at Christmas lights. When we got home Aiden got to open one gift – PJs of course!

Afterward we snuggled up to watch Prep and Landing. We love those movies! Read “Twas the Night Before Christmas”,

Put out milk cookies and carrots.

Placed Aiden’s tooth under his pillow and hit the hay. Adam and I woke up before Aiden… again. The weeks leading up to Christmas Aiden was SO EXCITED about Santa coming and finally getting to open all his gifts. Would you believe that when he woke up Christmas morning he completely forgot about it being Christmas at all! He also totally forgot about the tooth fairy coming. He told us, “I slept so good I forgot all about them”. LOL!!!! Once it sunk it that is was finally Christmas he ran out to see what Santa left, and to open the other gifts.

We stayed in our PJs, and went to Gamma and Papa’s house to visit and eat some lunch. After lunch Adam went to pick up Ryann. When they got back we opened gifts again. We were all beyond spoiled. We stayed and visited some more, ate dinner then headed home so Ryann could see what Santa brought and open the gifts from the rest of us. It was a late night – but a ton of fun!!

Did I forget to mention- Santa brought a TRAMPOLINE?!!

Adam was off the entire week following Christmas. He and the kids hung out around the house, ran lots of errands. We also took them rock climbing and to the new trampoline park in Southlake.
Friday Aunt Jamie and Uncle Brent were finally home from their Christmas cruise so we all met back up at Gamma and Papa’s house to have Christmas with them. It was a lot of fun, and we were really excited to have them back safe and sound.

The kids spent the night with their Grandparents’ New Years Eve, and Adam and I got all dolled up and went to the Gaylord Texans NYE Gala. It was so much fun!! We don’t get many nights out, and even fewer that we get to get all dressed up for, so it was defiantly a nice treat!

Sunday we took Ryann back to her Mom. And Monday I spent the ENTIRE DAY cleaning. Yesterday everyone was back to school and work. Boy, was it hard getting up and motivated, but we all made it though ok.

Again, we hope you all had a wonderful Holiday! 2011 was such a wonderful year, I can not wait to see what 2012 will bring!!

Rock Climbing!!

Well, hello there!!! We hope you all had a magical Christmas! We sure did!! I'll have a post up soon to recap ours. But, I wanted to take this time and post a few pictures. Adam and I took the kids to a rock climbing gym Tuesday. Aiden was really excited to go back, and Ryann was dealing with a mixture of excitement and uncertainty. On our last trip to the rock gym Aiden really struggled to make it all the way to the top. By the end of our visit he had conquered one wall, (several times). This trip however, he was a like Spiderman. He scaled every wall with no problems at all. 

Ryann had a bit harder time. Mostly because of her slight fear of heights, and what would happen if she fell. Her first time up she made it about 5 feet off the group before turning around and saying she was scared. So I told her to just jump away from the wall - so she would see that she wasn't just going to plummet to the group. That seemed to ease her fears. After that she had several attempts where she would make it about 3 feet from the top and decide she was scared......... so we took her over to the wall Aiden made it up his last trip... Ryann went straight up - no problems. After that her confidence was high and she was really enjoying herself. I don't think she made it to the top of any other walls, but she was much more willing to try.  

Both kids were kinda bummed to leave, but were beyond exhausted, and they are really looking forward to going back again!

December Happenings... so far

We’ve got less than one week until Christmas, and we’ve got one little boy that CAN NOT WAIT! Aiden is beyond excited! Last we saw Ryann she was really excited too, but that was almost two weeks ago.

So much has happened since our last post, I know I won't remember it all - but I'll hit the high points. First Ryann when to the orthodontist and learned she’ll be getting her braces taken off January 9th, and she is SO EXCITED!!! She has been such a champ dealing with her braces we’ve heard very little complaining this past year! It’s amazing what a difference a year has made. Do you remember what her teeth looked like before?! Her under-bite was so severe that when she bit down her bottom teeth would touch her top gums... she is no longer dealing with that problem!! There is a very good chance she’ll have braces again once all her permanent teeth come in. However, if she will wear her retainer like she is supposed to we MAY get away with not having them put back on… fingers crossed!!

Aiden has lost so many teeth, he is beginning to look like a little old man…He lost one of his top front teeth and the other is loose. The bottom ones are not in all the way – so if he looses that other top tooth before the others come in we’re really going to have to consider a liquid diet for him for a while!

Both kids were dismissed for Christmas break Friday. I was able to take off half the day and go to Aiden’s class Christmas party.

School dismissed at noon, and we spent the reminder of the day hanging out. Adam, Aiden and I spent the weekend playing, watching movies and just enjoying our time together. Saturday night we met Gamma and Papa for dinner. Sunday we made and decorated our Christmas cookies. Both my guys were so much help making the cookies and the royal icing. It was a lot of fun spending that time together.

We each picked our favorite cookie that we decorated to leave out for Santa…

The snowflake is mine, the snowman is Aiden’s and the stocking is Adam’s

The rest of these guys are for us when we drive around and look at Christmas lights later this week!

Jacob the elf has been a busy little guy spying on the kids…..

Riding the dinosaurs, playing Wii



Making "snow" angels, drinking the syrup 

                            And even reading a book!

Aiden has had so much fun finding Jacob every morning! I'm so glad we added this fun, new tradition this year!

We hope you are all enjoying this holiday season. We'll update again soon.

Cookies With Santa

Well, Aiden’s game went really well Monday night. Odyssey won, 7 to 1!!! Aiden made it through the game with out reinjuring his hockey cut. However, he was not able to make out of the game unscathed. In fact he was hurt three times that game…. None of which were terrible, but dude! Needless to say, Monday was a tough day for our little man.

Last night the PTA hosted “Cookies with Santa”. I was at the school from 3 to 7:30, setting up and taking pictures. Adam brought Aiden up after soccer practice to have his pictures made, have a cookie and then get a few books from book fair.

(Check out how well he is healing!)

When we got home Aiden got his first gift out of the advent calendar. Finger soccer. He loved it. Then we started a new tradition when we welcomed Jacob, our new Elf on the Shelf… I’ll update on that more as the month passes; I think it’s something Ryann and Aiden are really going to love!

We don’t have ONE SINGLE THING planned this weekend! I am SO VERY EXCITED!! We haven’t had a completely open weekend in, well; I don’t know how long!  We hope you enjoy your weekend!

Turkey Hangover...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, despite the sickies taking over Adam and I. Wednesday when I got home from work I laid down to take a nap, and didn't wake up until Thursday morning. I was able to pull the dressing together and get everyone dressed so we could head over to Gamma and Papa's house. We had a lovely dinner, and the kids had a wonderful time playing football out front with Uncle Brent, Daddy and Papa. I slept most of the day. Napping all day ended up making it a little easier for me to stay up and watch the Aggie/ Texas game.

 This picture makes me laugh! Ryann got Adam and Aiden to make her a goal post!!!

Friday was a tough day, because Adam and I were exhausted, and didn't feel well but it was the only day we had to get our Christmas decor out while Ryann was still here. Poor girl, she was really looking forward to getting everything out and put up, (she really loves all our Christmas traditions) but it was all Adam or I could do just to get both trees up/decorated and start on the mantel. I felt horrible that we couldn't get more done while she was here, but whatever this little bug was zapped every ounce of energy I had. Saturday Adam took Ryann to her mom and I laid on the couch and slept THE. WHOLE. DAY. It was a good thing Aiden  didn't need me for anything, I was a waste of a human being the entire day. But, all that sleep really paid off, and I woke up yesterday feeling like a new person. Still didn't get anymore decorations up, (I think my guilt is eating at me, and we just may wait for Ryann to come back next weekend before doing anymore...) but I did get some cleaning and grocery shopping done, as well as squeezed in some quality time with  Aiden. Poor Adam was stuck in bed all day yesterday. Hopefully a full day of rest did the trick for him too!!

One of the decorations I was eager, (as eager as I could be) to get up was this painting I did.... It's hard to get a good picture of it, because I painted him a metallic silver - one white canvas. But I LOVE how it turned out!! LOVE!!

Here are the kids with their new 2011 ornaments.. Ryann and her girl chipmunk.

Aiden and his glass swan. YEP, he picked a swan. A swan. A. SWAN. I can't wrap my mind around this choice.... This kid LOVES soccer, and every year we ask, "do you want a soccer ornament?" nope. He LOVES the Saints, and every fleur de lis he sees requires him to shout "SAINTS!" We found several fleur de lis ornaments, a few that were even gold and black (the Saints) colors, but nope didn't want those either. Couldn't talk him into an Aggie ornament - but he is just peachy with a glass swan. I don't think I will ever understand that child. But, he is happy with his girly pretty swan, and that is all that matters. LOL!!!

and a few of the progress.

So, everyone one returned to work and school today. Around 1:20 my phone rings. "Hello?" "Hi Mrs. Nabors, this is the nurse at Independence, cute little Aiden is in the clinic. It seems he was hit in the head during PE with a plastic hockey puck, and I'm afraid he may require stitches". Well, it turns out he was actually hit with the hockey stick, not the puck. And his doctor decided that the school nurse put the butterfly stitch on well enough that he didn't require stitches this time. Praise the Lord!! While we were at the doctor's office I opted to go ahead and get his flu vaccination out of the way. My crazy kid CHOSE THE SHOT over the mist! Again, I will NEVER GET THIS KID! LOL!!! On a side, and I think funny note. Aiden wore a cream colored shirt today, so he was checking out the dried blood and told me, "Mommy, I must be a really big Aggie fan. I even bleed maroon!"

So, we had an eventful afternoon. Aiden has a soccer game today, and I've got my fingers crossed that he doesn't hit his head, and cause this thing to bust open... we'd have him sit out this game except that in doing that there wouldn't be enough boys, and they would have to forfeit the game... so fingers crossed!!

Happy Holidays!!

Can you believe Thanksgiving is TOMORROW?!!! This year has flown by, and we have been blessed beyond words. One of our many blessings is that we get to spend this entire week with Ryann! I picked her up Friday after work. Surprisingly we had an easy drive home, like seriously easy - we made it home in about 50 minutes!! Saturday we had a cleaning day - now the house shines from top to bottom - I just LOVE a clean house!! We also did some clothes shopping. We HAD to get Aiden a new snow jacket. That kid grows so stinking fast! His hands and feet are already bigger than Ryann's! Sunday Aiden had his first indoor game of the season. Some things have changed with soccer.... with the end of the fall season came the end of Aiden's req team. The coach needed a break. So, for now Aiden is only playing with his club team, (I'm SUPER excited about this development - more time at home!!) So, back to Sunday's game. The coach had to be out of town with the '94 boys for a tournament, so Adam stepped in as coach again. The team we played was tough, and our boys only had one sub. They ended up tying the game 3-3. They had about 15 shots on goal, but the other teams keeper was really good. All in all they had a pretty good game. Sunday night the kids went home with Gamma and Papa for a sleep over. Papa dropped them off with me at work Monday afternoon. Ryann and Aiden popped in to say "hi" to my co-workers, and then we were off to Toys R Us to make their Christmas lists. Unfortunately, we'll only have Ryann one weekend in December before Christmas, so we've gotten a jump start on some of our Christmas traditions. We're usually one of those families that refuses to do anything Christmassy until after Thanksgiving, but when you have a blended family sometimes that is difficult - so we just have to roll with the punches. At Toys R Us I learned that Aiden wants pretty much anything LEGO, his list wound up being 25 items long. Ryann was much more selective, she didn't want anything on her list that she just liked. She only added something that she REALLY wanted. She ended up with just 12 items on her list. When we got home each kid had to take their list and put their top 5 picks in order. Obviously this was a much easier task for Ryann - because she was doing that in her head as we looked around. When Daddy got home from work we headed out to pick our new Christmas ornament. We do this every year, it's a tradition the kids really look forward to. The kids took FOREVER picking their ornaments this year, but they both were really happy with their final selections, (Aiden's was really surprising to Adam and I)........I'll post pictures of them with their ornaments when I post about getting the tree up on Friday.

Yesterday we headed out to the Gaylord Texan to see ICE! and ride the snow hills. We had a wonderful time!!!

Pictures in ICE!

 Kids on the snow hill

 Around the Gaylord

We hope you are all having a wonderful holiday week, and that you have a blessed Thanksgiving. I'll update again soon!