January iPhone Randomness

Cameron and Colby came in my bathroom one morning and this is what their sister had done to them. They didn't seem to mind!

On New Year's Eve, G-Paw came and spent the night with us and brought fireworks.  Tanner got to do the sparklers in the back yard, but the boys had already gone to bed.  We saved the big fireworks for later when we went to Amy and Clifton's house in the country.

Playing hide and seek.  This is as good a hiding spot as any, if you ask me =).

We took Tanner, along with family and friends, to see The Lion King at the Majestic Theater in San Antonio.  This was the third time that Clinton and I had seen it, but it was just as good as the first!

 

Sefies before the show started.

 

Valentine's Crafting

The kids had a good time doing a Valentine's Day craft using paint and a toilet paper roll.  Yes, that is Spiderman again.  He frequents our house and our pictures a lot these days.

The End of 2014

The day after Christmas was very emotional.  That morning, the doctor's told my aunt that she had an ulcer that appeared to be on the verge of rupturing. We had planned to meet at the hospital as a family that evening to have our family Christmas, but my aunt requested that we all come that morning in case something happened that day.  We each took turns as a family exchanging gifts with her.  We gave her a photobook with all of the photos that we had of her with our little family. She gave me an authentic, antique kimono that she had had for years and wanted to pass on to me. She also gave me a beautiful butter yellow pashmina.  The last present that I opened from her was a beautiful mercury glass bowl that she had on her coffee for as long as I could remember. She knows that I love that mercury glass and that this particular bowl was one of my favorite things of hers.  I cried when I saw what was in the box.  For me, it signified that she would no longer have use for this beautiful bowl, which meant that the end was near.  It was a reality check, in a way.  She had wanted to create a piece of art for each of the girls, but had been unable to so she took each one aside and apologized to them that their Christmas presents weren't ready.  It was heartbreaking.  Throughout the rest of the weekend, we all stayed at Haley's house awaiting news on her condition.  Her ulcer ruptured that Sunday, and she ended up having surgery as a last ditch effort to prolong her life.  It worked, against what the doctor's had predicted, and she ended up stabilizing. It was an extremely emotional time, but we were thankful that she made it through so that we would have more time with her.

The kids really liked looking out the hospital window as we waited in the waiting room.

Colby LOVES his G-Paw

The boys got this spiderman tent from Gammie and PawPaw for Christmas, and they all love it!

Christmas Day

Christmas day, this year, was so much fun. The kids were so excited to see what Santa had brought them, and they were all old enough this year to enjoy opening presents and playing with everything inside the packages.  Tanner was the most excited of all, and she woke up around 2:00am and didn't really want to sleep after that.  We let the kids sleep in our bed on Christmas so that nobody has to walk through the living room in the morning to come and get us.  Every so often, from about 2:00am on, Tanner would roll over and say "can we get up and see if Santa came?".  Needless to say, we didn't feel very rested when we got up for good that morning.  It was worth it, though, to see the excitement on her face and to know that she could not wait to see what Santa had brought.

This picture is totally Colby. The boy is always playing a sport. Always.

 Cameron got his first bike this year, and riding it has been his favorite thing to do ever since.

LOL

Tanner got a big fluffy bean bag to cuddle with, since Santa's elves couldn't make a 4ft stuffed "cheeda". They were to scared of such a large animal that they couldn't finish making it out of fear (according to a note that Santa left for Tanner on the bean bag).  He thought that she would like something else that was large and furry to cuddle with instead.  He was right =). 

Monkey see, monkey do.

Colby got a Dusty Cropphopper ride on toy and it has been the main thing that the kids have fought over.

Cameron in his new pirate costume. Arg!

This is Clinton drinking his coffee and trying not to care about the amount of damage control that would need to be done once all of the presents were opened =).

 Gammie and Paw Paw got the kids this Spiderman tent and they all love playing in it.

Santa was really good to me this year.  He got me several things that I wanted, and I most of them I hadn't even told him about.  Thank you, Santa! ;)  This crock pot was at the top of my list.  I saw it in the store one day and thought that it was the prettiest crock pot I had ever seen.  I love it, and have already enjoyed using it.

She looks like such a big kid, listening to songs on her ipod with her headphones.

This kid would never wear clothes if he had anything to say about it.  I thought this was a funny picture.  Hopefully it doesn't offend anyone, but I wanted to document our real life and this is pretty much a daily occurrence.

The Christmas bomb that went off in our living room.....

After the kids played with their toys for a little while, we loaded up bikes and skates and headed to our favorite park in San Antonio to play.  We had the whole park to ourselves, and we really enjoyed letting the kids run around and do whatever they felt like doing.  Afterward, we picked up fajitas and brought them to the hospital for my mom, dad, and cousin.  They had just made it to the hospital in San Antonio after my aunt was transported from Kerrville, so they had had a long day and spent all of Christmas in a hospital.  We figured that they might want some good food.  It was good to see my aunt, and to give her a kiss on Christmas.

Christmas Eve

This year on Christmas Eve we stayed home instead of going to the candle light service at church.  With the boys being as little and energetic b as they are, we decided that it would be best if we didn't add handheld fire into the mix =).  We had a good time just hanging out as a family.  We got the kids into their Christmas pjs and loaded up in the car to drive around and look at Christmas lights.  This year, we did a scavenger hunt while we drove around.  My sister had seen this idea on Pinterest and I thought it sounded fun, and it really was.  We had to find things like Mrs. Clause, and angel, over sized presents, toy soldiers, and lots of others.  It was so much fun, and the kids really got into and had a blast trying to look for the different things. I think this may be a yearly tradition from now on.  When we got home, we gathered the kids in our room to read the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible.  We do this every year on Christmas Eve, just like Clinton's family did growing up, and it is a great time to remember the reason that we celebrate this joyous holiday and to remind the kids of that.  That being said, it was pure chaos.  There was wrestling, talking, leaving, and everything else going on while Clinton was reading =).

 

 

After Clinton read the story, we tucked the kids in and put a Christmas movie on for them in hopes that they would fall asleep easy so that Santa could come soon. Tanner was all about this, as she was sooooooooo excited for the morning to come.  The others were just excited in general, so we ended up putting Colby in his bed so that he could go to sleep.  Eventually, they were all asleep and Santa got to work.

 

This was the note that Tanner wrote to Santa this year.  Parts of it were published in our local newspaper.  She had very specific requests =).

 These pictures are out of order, but we set out cookies and milk for Santa in the living room, although the kids couldn't help but sample them to make sure they were good enough =). We also left carrots for the reindeer, as always.

 

The kids enjoyed sprinkling reindeer food on the lawn.

 This is the note that Tanner left for Strawberry Shortcake, our elf.  She loves her so much and was sad to see her go.

 She also drew a picture of Buddy, the elf, from the movie "Elf" and gave it to Strawberry,

 This one was for Santa.