Quilts from Great-Grandma Atwood

My grandma has made a quilt for each one of my kids. They love these quilts because of all of the different fabrics she uses. They call them their "picture blankets." This year, Samantha got hers for Christmas. It is so soft and colorful - she loves it, and it has been keeping her warm every night! We treasure our quilts. Thanks, Grandma!

Christmas 2009

I think this was our best Christmas ever! We were able to add a couple traditions, including an advent calendar with a Christmas activity each day, and a visit to the nursing home on Christmas day. It was so nice to have Jerry home all month and to not have as much shopping to do!!! It starting snowing on Christmas Eve morning and snowed all day, so we had a white Christmas - that is pretty much a miracle here in Texas! Our back yard was solid ice and the kids had fun ice skating.

Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Christmas Break at Sea World

We got season passes to Sea World this summer and decided to go one more time before they expired. We were excited to run into the Sheppards while we were there. The weather was beautiful, and the park was almost empty! Darren and I sat on the Steel Eel roller coaster and rode it over and over until we were sick. We also loved hearing the Christmas music and seeing all of the decorations. Our favorite show was the Polar Express in 3-D. Everyone's favorite thing, though, was spraying the people riding the river raft as they went by! You had to time it just right!

The kids also got to build their own toy in "Santa's Workshop"

Sammi at 6 months

We love our Sammi-Boo! Isn't she adorable?!

Soccer 2009

Here is a picture of cute Darren with the all-important trophy at the end of soccer season. He did great this year!

Ocotber

The month of October started out with a field trip to the pumpkin patch with Claire's preschool. We were so glad that Jerry and Miles could come, too. Halloween was so fun this year!!! The weather was perfect and Miles was old enough to really get into it. Each time we left a house, Miles would call "Bye! Thanks!" in his version of a grown-up voice. People loved the sweet little cowboy. He got to wear his favorite boots and shirt. Darren was Harry Potter. He liked wearing Jerry's old glasses so much that he wore them to church the next day (without the lenses,) and asked us several times if we thought he looked smart. Claire was a "wedding girl." Halloween is one of our top-favorite holidays because we LOVE candy!!! The benefit of having lots of kids is getting lots of candy. Sadly, it didn't last long!

According to Darren

Me: Darren, what are you writing?
Darren: Oh, just a list of all my girlfriends . . . I have so many I can't even remember all their names!

Me: Wow! Well, how can they be your girlfriend if you don't even know their name?
Darren: Well, that just means I like them!

Sammi at Five Months

Such a cute, happy baby! Now, if she would just sleep through the night again . . .

Purple Stripes

Happy Birthday, Claire!

We celebrated Claire's 5th birthday with a Princess Party. She got to wear makeup, and I braided her hair the night before so it would be wavy. I think she looks like my mini-me in this picture.

Waiting for the guests to arrive . . .

We kept it simple with some fun games: Pin a kiss on the Frog Prince (using their own lips and lipstick,) Princess, Princess, Frog (like Duck, Duck, Goose,) Crown the Princess (like a cake walk,) and a search for jewelry using the Hot Cold Game.

I made Claire's princess cake. This is as good as it gets with my skills, but in the end we thought she looked beautiful!

We also have a family tradition of having donuts for breakfast and going to Chuck E. Cheese whenever it is someone's birthday, and that is what we did on her actual birthday.

We are so glad that Claire is part of our family. She has gained so much confidence this year. She loves her dance and gymnastics class, preschool, playing barbies, and listening to music. She is a great big sister and will often go to Sammi when she is crying and calm her down by talking and playing with her. Claire is beautiful and sweet.

We love you, Claire!!!!!!!!!

Vacation Part 3: Sea World San Antonio

For the last part of our trip, we stayed in San Antonio and spent three days at Sea World. The house was in a questionable part of town, but very close to the park. The grown-ups also took turns having a date night! The Sheppard's went to the Riverwalk, but Jerry and I went to Olive Garden - we needed some AC after being outside all day!

We loved seeing Shamu. Our favorite shows were with the sea lions and the acrobats.

Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Feeding the dolphins - aren't they cute?!

We had lots of fun on the rides. Darren was tall enough to do all of the rides but one. He rode on the Steel Eel three times! Claire and Miles rode lots of rides, too. Jerry and I felt like kids again on the roller coasters - it's been 7 years since I've been able to go on them - I'm always pregnant! The best part is that it was tax-free shopping weekend, so there were no lines!




I actually lost a little bit of weight on this trip, quite possibly due to all the sweating. It was HOT!!! I was stressed out a lot about having Samantha out all day in the heat. Luckily, we were able to cool off at the water park each day.

We got back just in time for school. We had so much fun - what a great way to end the summer!!!

Vacation Part 2: South Padre Island

We have an annual tradition of going to the beach each summer. This year we met the Sheppard's in South Padre Island and rented a condo together. This is the way to go! We took turns cooking and had game night every night after the kids went to bed. The pool was closed so we got two of our nights for free.

The beach was beautiful! We found lots of great shells.

Darren and Gavin pretty much surfed all day, every day. Jerry and Sam also tried surfing, but I wasn't able to get a good picture of them. Poor Jerry got a really bad sunburn on the first day!

Here are the girls "surfing" and playing together.

Samantha stayed inside most of the time, but when she came out, her hair got sooo curly!!!

These are my favorite pictures of Miles:

And, of course, what visit to the beach would be complete without a sand castle?

We're already looking forward to next year!