Dario's Baptism Day

This past Saturday was Dario's baptism. That day Dario was very excited. It was a wonderful service. Dario was baptized by Daddy. Both of his grandma's spoke and gave great talks. Dario was excited to receive his own set of scriptures from Grammy. After the baptism we went to the park and had a big lunch with everyone. We are thankful for all the family members who shared this special day with us!

from this weekend

This weekend we finally got around to buying our kids bikes. My eight year old and six year do not know how to ride a bike at all, so sad! They were so excited to pick out their bikes. We put training wheels on Aiden's bike and he broke them within 30 minutes. Dario didn't want training wheels on his bike and tried to ride without them while Brian kept the bike from falling over. Hopefully they will learn without any injuries!

icy!

It has been unusually cold and icy here. We were hoping for snow, but instead we got ice. The boys got out of school two hours earlier yesterday and didn't have school today because of the icy road conditions. Brian also didn't have to go into work today, which meant I got to sleep in!

fishing

               Yesterday we took advantage of the mild weather and went fishing at a local park.

Ava loves fishing just like her brothers.

Aiden kept getting his fishing line stuck in the weeds.

Dario was intent on catching a fish, unfortunately

no one caught anything.

Ethan came along and had more fun pretending

to fight alligators than fishing.

Laila enjoyed sitting and watching everyone.

happy friday!

After a miserable week, I'm so glad it's Friday! Everyone here was sick was with a horrible stomach virus, that spread like wild fire. Aiden and Laila were the first ones to get sick. They were hit the hardest. Both of them were throwing up ALL night long, about every 30 minutes. I have never seen anyone throw up that much! Luckily the next day they felt better. The next day Dario was sick. Then, the next day both Ava and I were sick. Then, the next day Brian was sick. Hopefully that is last we'll see of that nasty bug and everyone will be healthy for a couple of weeks!

silly laila

I love two years old, it is such a cute, funny age. The other day Aiden came up to me and told me that he had a splinter in his finger. Laila overheard him and ran up to me and dramatically said, "mommy, I have a splinter in my eye!" Ouch!

New Year's Day

On New Year's day we went to Brazos Bend State Park with my family. It was great weather and the park was filled with huge old oak trees and alligators! I hadn't been there since I was a child and had forgotten how beautiful the park was. It was lots of fun being out with family, enjoying nature. Afterwards we had a big New Year's dinner complete with ham, black eyed peas and mom's homemade pies. It was a great start to the new year!

wishing you....

Christmas cheer! Have a very merry Christmas.

8 years old

Today is Dario's eighth birthday. I swear it seems like just the other day he was born, time needs to slow down! Dario always gets so excited for his birthday and was counting down the days. We had a fun day going to the library, then McDonald's for lunch. When Brian got home from work we went to Chuck E Cheese, then to the Grandparent's house to open presents and have cake. Happy birthday Dario, we love you!

my girls

Playing outside with the kids today it felt more like a spring day, rather than a week before Christmas! Laila is really into Christmas this year and has become obsessed with "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." She asks to watch it several times a day. We were singing Christmas songs and she yelled out "No, sing the Grinch song!"

trimming the tree

This past weekend we went to the Christmas tree farm and picked out a tree. The kids always have lots of fun running through the field looking for the perfect tree. Later that night the kids helped us decorate it. When they went to bed I rearranged all the ornaments that they had clumped at the bottom or had hung on the stand of lights.

gingerbread houses

Yesterday we made gingerbread houses. We had one for the boys to decorate and one for the girls to decorate. The boys didn't put their house together well and it collapsed on them while they were decorating it. As I was laying out the pieces of gingerbread for the houses, Laila grabbed one and was just about to take a big bite out of it. Luckily, I caught her in time!

gracie

I took these pictures of my sweet, little niece last week for her upcoming first birthday. Don't you just love her cute outfits and hair bows? My sister in-law is a hair dresser so we traded a haircut for photos!

thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving spent with both sides of our family. Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon we celebrated Thanksgiving with Brian's side of the family. The rest of Thursday and the weekend we spent with my family. The kids had fun playing with Uncle Carl who is home from his first semester of college. They missed the cousins who went to Utah for Thanksgiving. Ava didn't get the fact that they were out of town and would ask me several times a day when they were coming over. Jessica showed us her new apartment in downtown Houston and took us to some of the trendy shops in the area. We also got a cupcake at Sprinkles, yum!

new shoes

Yesterday Ava got a birthday package from Aunt Jessica, a pair of pink sparkly Toms! Thanks Jessica, Ava loves them.

fun weekend

This past weekend we had a birthday party for Laila and Ava and my family was able to come down. The girls were so excited to see everyone and loved all the nice presents everyone got them. I didn't get that many pictures from the party because I was busy entertaining. On Saturday night night Lauren and her family spent the night. The next day we went to the park and I took pictures of her family. Then, Lauren took pictures of my family.