Dreaming of a White Christmas

We spent 3 nights in Houston over the Christmas weekend. On Saturday, we spent the night with the Simmon's and the Knott's. It felt like our get togethers when we lived in Houston.  The kids get along so well and they really do love each other. We miss those 2 families so much.

On Sunday, we celebrated Christmas with my in-laws, Bobs (not a typo, that's what I call him), Mike, Tara, their boys and Tara's parents. We did the same thing last year, and it has been great the past 2 years. The 4 cousins love each others company and all they do is run around, sweat and play.  Even on Christmas, little boys smell so much like wet puppies. :) That night, we spent the night at my in-laws and had a great breakfast casserole the next morning.  

Christmas at Tara's Mom and Dad's house.  This is the only picture I have from this night. :( My camera was buried in the back of our car amongst suitcases and gifts. 

On Christmas Eve morning, we headed to my parents. We were able to relax most of the day (and it was a beautiful spring-like day) so that we could start celebrating and last long enough to welcome Christmas Day.  I always love my Mom's food. All of her meals are perfectly seasoned and very yummy. She may have burned a bread roll or two in her life, but her meals are always DELICIOUS!
;-) We enjoyed our usual Christmas Eve party with my sis, brother, his girlfriend and family friends. 

Relaxing in Papi's hammock.  I think these two even fell asleep for a little bit. 

Reid's fake picture smile. :)

La familia.

Pogo Stick. I still need to master this thing.  Not sure why it's so difficult for me!! :)

Electric Scooter. 

Opening Psycho Cycle.

We spent the night at my parents on Christmas Eve.  Thankfully, Cole had the idea to write Santa a letter and have it delivered by Shadow (our elf).  He kindly asked if Santa could bring one or two to Mama and Papi's house and deliver the rest to our house.

Remains of milk and cookies left for Santa. 

On Christmas Day, we stopped by Grandma Rentfro's to visit for a bit before we headed back. I wish we could spend more time at her house, as well as all the other houses. I've said this before. We don't miss Houston one single bit. However, we do miss our family and friends a bunch! 

The boys ended up with motorized scooters, an indoor basketball game, pogo stix, Maverick jersey's, a real archery set, a Psycho Cycle, PJ's, Walkie-Talkies, Sports books, Nike and Polo hoodies, a globe, Lego Superhero's and the list seriously goes on.  

One of the best Christmas' in my book. :) 

Our White Christmas!

My little angel, making snow angels.

Shadow, lets not make a habit of forgetting to go to the North Pole, OK?  Yes, "he" forgot to hide twice. Luckily, we recovered without a hitch. :)

To say that the boys loved the snow- is an understatement! 

Playing in the snow. 

Our tree.

His real archery set. He is so excited!

A Disney World Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving, we decided to surprise the boys and take them to Disney World. They had no idea of the plan that we've had for months.  And somehow. I was able to keep my mouth shut all along.  After the boys went to sleep on Saturday night, we packed and loaded the suitcases in the car. We woke the boys up on Sunday morning at 5:40am and had them dressed and in the car by 6:00am. They were almost too tired to ask where we were going or what we were doing. When Cole noticed the suitcases in the car, he asked if we were going to donate clothes to boys that need them. So, we went along with that... When we got to the airport, they asked if we were at a train station even though this was their 3rd time to fly. They finally overheard the aiport staff mention that we were going to Orlando, but they still never guessed Disney. Cole thought we were going to an Orlando Magic game. It wasn't until we arrived at the hotel that they guessed where we were going. Then, we walked into our hotel room and had them open the "closet door" in our room. This "closet door" was an adjacent door to Kevin, Lisa, Addison and Cooper's hotel room. Wow, were they surprised!! After the shock wore off, Cole said "I didn't see that one coming!". :)

We were in Orlando from Sunday morning until Friday afternoon. On Monday, we went to Magic Kingdom. Tuesday, we went to Epcot. Wednesday, we went to Hollywood Studios and then we went back to Magic Kingdom on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day). We had such an amazing time. Every day was perfect (in terms of fun factor as well as weather), except for about 3 hours on Thanksgiving Day. Our Thanksgiving meal was spent having brunch with "Chef Micky" and therefore didn't get to Magic Kingdom until 12:30pm. When we got there, the crowds were INSANE. Thankfully, they died down after a couple of hours.

I am so glad we didn't wait a day longer to take the boys to Disney World. I"m also thankful that we didn't take them sooner either. Ages 4-6 were just right. The little ones (Reid and Cooper) were able to ride all of the rides, except for one. They were too short for the Aerosmith roller coaster ride. Other than that, all 4 rode every single ride. It was so fun to watch them **LOVE** roller coasters. Addi and Cole rode Aerosmith twice and that one was fast-twisty and upside down! :)

I somehow lost pictures from my camera (about 30 of them!). I still have over 100 but lost some cute ones. :( Here are a couple of pictures of our time there but I'm not taking the time to put them in any order.  Sowwy. :) Life has been hectic lately. Joe has pretty much been single dad since we got back.  The week after Disney, I flew to Chicago and will be going to Louisiana next week. Ready for us to get back into some sort of normalcy. Soon enough. :)

Have a great week!