Is He Real?

November 24, 2015 -  Just a day after pictures with Santa, Cole (9.5 years) asked me "Mom, is Santa Real? All my friends tell me he's not. Will you please tell me the truth?" He knew before he asked, but he needed reassurance. He begged me to tell him and tears streamed down my face. What makes it hard for me is the loss of that magical innocence. Why do they have to grow? We explained that Santa is the magical spirit that lives in his heart and that he would be around as long as he believed in giving.  A bit of a difficult night for Mom and Dad. :)

Puppy Surprise!!!!!

We finally have a puppy! Tiffany and I drove to Azle, Texas (northwest of Fort Worth) to pick up the puppy from a Beagle breeder. We left the house at 6:45am and didn't get home until 8:00pm. It was a long, long day, but so worth it!
I made a pit stop at Mama and Papi's house to let the pup go potty and tie a HUGE pink bow around her neck. By the time I got home, the boys were already in bed. We stood at the bottom of the stairs and called for the boys. The look on their faces was priceless! Cole was super excited but Reid asked "what is that?" repeatedly. He does NOT like surprises but we figured this one would be different, considering he has been begging for a puppy forever! Reid went to bed a little uneasy as he processed the surprise. Cole was ready to have the puppy sleep with him! After they went to bed, Cole came back downstairs to thank us again. He was worried that Reid's reaction had hurt our feelings. My sweet boy.

Poor Azley howled and barked for the first 24 hours (NON STOP) but has since been awesome.
Needless to say, we are in love with this little girl!!!!!!

Chicha is almost as big as Azley. They bark and squeal back and forth. I seriously think they are friends. 

A boy and his dog.

First Day of School & Crutches

The first day of school just came and went. I can't believe the boys have been back in school for 6-7 weeks already.  I now have a  4th grader and a 2nd grader. Hard to believe. They are doing great so far! 

Last day of September,  I took the boys to feed the ducks and play at the park. It was our only day to not have an extracurricular activity so we decided to take advantage of it.  Of course, they took the "baby" outing and turned it into something more age appropriate...... They asked me to time them while they "competed" on the monkey bars, American Ninja Warrior style. Cole was walking on the monkey bars and fell forward. I'm so glad his knee got tangled and kept him from falling head first. Thankfully, it was just a sprained knee and he got crutches. Not sure why, but he was pretty happy about those...  :) 

We are really enjoying the beautiful October weather!

Happy 61st Birthday to my beautiful Mami! She is the sweetest, happiest, most giving and most selfless person I know. I am so thankful to call her MY mom!

Annual Trip to the Beaches of 30A!

We ended the summer vacation with our annual trip to Florida. This year we went to Santa Rosa. I must say, it's my favorite. Well, that and Ally's Beach. We went with the Simmons' and the Knotts. As always, a great time! The weather and beach were wonderful. The house that we rented was perfect for the 12 of us.

My love.

Ice cream stop after a 2 mile bike ride.

Chef night. 

More bike rides.

The Hub!

I think the toothless era, is one of my favorites.  :)

My sweet boys' toothless smiles make ME SMILE SO MUCH!

Minnesota Road Trip

Summer has been great so far! We kicked it off a week before school got out by going to Peru. Then, the boys spent 2 weeks attending Sunshine Days (Communion Prep School). We had a week of "free play" (nothing planned for a week) and then headed to Minnesota for an 11 day vacay over 4th of July.  The Daddy's flew in order to miss less work while Tara and I road tripped the 22 hours with the 4 boys. On the way up there, we stopped at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. We wished we had stayed an extra night at the resort because it had so many fun things for the kids to do! Minnesota was beautifully green and lush with the freshest, most crisp air. So many lakes that you can't help but feel relaxed up there (around 11, 800 of them in the state!).  Temps were in the 50's and 60's at night and 70's and low 80's during the day. Tara's parents were so fun and accommodating! We loved our road trip there, our week long stay on the lake and our road trip back (INCLUDING, the minutes of insanity that we all felt around the 9 hour mark in the car. LOL!).  We have 1 "free week" again next week and then the boys head to Cousin Camp for a  week with Nana and Pops. Then, we are off to Seaside for a week with the Knott's and the Simmons'!
Can't get any better than this!

Pedicures and swimming slumber party with Rylee and Parker during our "free play" week!

We also went to Splash Town
 with our friends, the Bowles.  The boys went down the Free Fall slide several times! I was too scared.....

More fun during "free play" week! We rented a house on Lake LBJ with the Bonazzi's for a weekend.

Too fun. I was sore for 2 days after all the bouncing. [read: old]

Tan-Tara Resort. Amazing views.

Lake LBJ

Tan-Tara Resort. Amazing views.

                       

Minnesota!

Cross Lake town square. Delicious pizza and then old time candy and ice cream shop!

Great fireworks show over the lake on the 4th of July!

Reido and Daddy four-wheeling!

Aunt Tara and Cole.

SILLY BOYS. Videos of the boys trying on their rentals for Maegan and Blake's wedding. They even asked if we could buy instead of rent... :)