December 30 - Wonderful Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas

And a...Happy New Year!

We celebrated Christmas with Bryan and Karma and had a wonderful week. To start off the holiday week, we drove through River Oaks (a wealthy area of Houston where the 'inexpensive' homes are $6M!) to look at Christmas lights, they were incredible! Another day, JD and Bryan took the big kids go-karting and they all had a blast! I took the kids to Urban Air Adventure park (trampolines, climbing wall, zip line, ninja warrior course) another day and we had the place to ourselves for two hours. We spent a lot of time vegging around the house (a round of colds rotated through the kids which wasn't ideal). Karma got along great with Bella and Apollo and the kids had fun with Uncle Bryan. 

All the retrievers!

Wonderful Christmas morning!

Julia loved her Harry Potter ornament

Uncle Bryan may have bought "THE" gift of Christmas for Luke..Timothy the giant bear

Jillian loves the Barbie house from Julia and Luke

Thank you to everyone who helped me this Christmas so special!

December 23 - Christmas Ready

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! The house is decorated!

Christmas cookies are being baked!

Everyone knows I love candles and our house smells incredible!

And someone misses her human sister when she leaves for school:

December 20 - Cross Country Nationals 2019

After an amazing Thanksgiving, Julia and I were home for 4 short days before it was time for cross country nationals. Three people from our team traveled to Knoxville: Julia and Aidan (both competing in the 11 year old division) and Anna (competing in the 13 year old division). We carpooled to the airport with Anna and her mom super early Friday morning and flew out to Tennessee. The plane ride was uneventful but Julia was excited to be on a plane. 

We arrived in Knoxville on-time, headed to a quick lunch (Julia's choice...Subway) and then headed to Victor Ashe Park, site of the race. Julia had a course walk through at 1pm and we just made it. The park was absolutely beautiful. The course? Beautiful but also almost entirely uphill. No exaggeration. I knew pretty quickly that Julia's four practices all season would put her at a major disadvantage. Her race strategy would not work on this course either (she likes to run medium pace for the first mile or so and then speed up and pass people toward the end). While she did complete two bridge practices, that is not the sames as running up a steel rock incline. She was worried she would trip and hurt herself. 

Next up, she officially check-in, received her race packet and then we headed to the hotel. The park was only 4 miles from downtown and I found a great AAA rate at The Tennessian, a fancy hotel (same price as the Holiday Inn!). The hotel was gorgeous and had the most amazing, HUGE shower (big enough for 6 people). Julia did homework for a few hours and then we walked a few blocks to market street for dinner. The downtown area was super cute with an ice skating rink, light display, huge Christmas tree, chocolate shop and even a parade! We didn't stay for the parade but had fun walking around. 

Race day! Julia's goals were to #1-not come in last and #2-not fall. She knew she was not in the best shape due to lack of practice so this performance was on pure talent alone. I was very impressed for an event of this magnitude (there were a lot of kids competing) they were only running 15 minutes behind schedule. You may be wondering..how does this work?

The kids raced oldest to youngest with girls going first (opposite of how they raced during the regular season, they always did youngest to oldest with boys and girls combined). The announcer calls the group and the kids get in a huge line. They are checked in individually where they verify their race number is pinned on their shirt and then they walk through a scanner that verifies their identity (they have an RFID chip on each shoe so this process was extremely fast, a few seconds per athlete). Each kid was assigned a "box" and position at the starting line. The boxes were outlined in white paint and labeled. I think there were around 40 boxes. Once all the athletes were checked in, they lined up (literally a GIANT line) and then they ran. 

The 11-12 year olds run together although they are scored and place separately. There is a rule that is someone falls in the first 100M they will stop everyone and start over. That happened with Julia's group-they got to the 100M mark and made the girls all turn around and start over again. There were 250 11-12 girls running so it was a tad crazy to watch! 

I am so proud of Julia. She ended up placing around 100th  out of 150 11 year olds in the country. That is pretty awesome!! She did great!! She also knows that for next year she needs to practice and she needs to find some real trails in Houston to train on. She really wants to place next year. 

Next up we headed to Dollywood for the afternoon to check out their rollercoasters. The park was absolutely adorable and had the cutest Christmas decorations. The coasters were a blast too! I told Julia we could go to dinner wherever she wanted and we ended up at....I kid you not, Taco Bell LOL.

One more night in the hotel and we flew out the following morning. It was a great trip and such a great experience. 

Team Beastmode

Dollywood

December 10 - Farm Fresh Thanksgiving

After a wonderful time in Tampa, we headed north to Uncle Brian's horse farm. The kids had fun camping out the first night (it was chilly!). They spent most of their time outside riding bikes, riding the skateboard, feeding, brushing and riding the horses. The boys also learned how to drive the tractor and mowed a field. This may have been the highlight of the week for both of them. They were so excited. Uncle Brian also created a mystery challenge that JD and Greg helped with (I don't think the kids could have solved it without their help..or rather both of them taking charge LOL).  

Our Thanksgiving meal was delish as always. I made the turkey and a pumpkin cheesecake, Jill and Greg made mashed potatoes, deviled eggs and an apple crisp, while JD made several sides (green bean casserole, stuffing, cornbread, sweet potato casserole, brussel sprout salad). Victoria and Julia also made appetizers! Another yummy Thanksgiving meal!!

Victoria and Jillian spent a lot of time together, Jillian LOVES her cousin

The boys with Uncle Brian

Tractor fun

Horse back riding

A trip to the farm isn't complete without roasting hotdogs and sm'ores

December 9 - Tampa Memories

 More than turkey, Thanksgiving means "family" for our crew. Like prior years, we drove to Tampa to spend half the week with JD's family. Traffic was a beast in Louisiana but we made it safely to Tampa on Saturday afternoon. Our trip started out a little rough when Luke accidentally head butted Julia in the mouth, loosening her two bottom teeth (of which there are no adult teeth behind them). They were super loose, her mouth was sore and Julia was very upset she was going to lose them and be toothless for school. Our orthodontist was closed the week of Thanksgiving but I was able to get a hold of our dentist and he told me to hold tight and do nothing. The teeth would hopefully tighten up a bit and don't do anything until we saw the orthodontist. She eventually figured out how to eat with the loose teeth. Crisis averted! 

Julia, Luke and Leah had a lot of fun together playing on the air mattress and outside on their bikes. We even heard Luke say "Let's go outside and play" which is not typical of him. Jillian discovered her love of Uncle Greg and he was the only person she wanted to spend time with. 'Where is Uncle Greg?' 'Uncle Greg, will you play Barbies with me?' Non-stop! It was adorable. Jillian also loved spending some quality time with Grammie! She loved Grammie's new kitten Lily, a giant Maine Coon! (as well as chasing Aunt Nicole's cat, who wanted NOTHING to do with Jillian).

JD and I took all the kids to see the new Frozen 2 movie and we all loved it. It was Jillian's first movie and she did great! Our last night there we had a delish pizza dinner with Grammie, Greg, Nicole, Chad and his new girlfriend, Michelle. Michelle was awesome! She played a card game (Not Parent Approved) with the kids for a long time and everyone had some great laughs. 

Fantastic trip to Tampa!!

Frozen 2!

Uncle Greg, will you play Barbies with me?

I love Aunt Nicole

Grammie smooch

December 2 - November Catch Up

Work has really become overwhelming recently and I've started to drop some balls..namely the blog last month. Sorry dimpled munchkin fans! Here is a quick update:

JD

JD is also busy at work and continues his short work trips to places like DC and Atlanta. Next week he's heading to Seattle. He is still mentoring the North Pointe Robotics team and is there every Monday afternoon as well as several lunches a week helping the kids. He's been dedicated to working out since the summer and is at the gym 3-4 days a week. 

Yours Truly

As mentioned above, work has been hectic. I feel like Peter Parker running on a wheel, no sense of accomplishment recently. In theory I was on vacation every Thursday and Friday during November but I worked long hours most of those days. I was able to squeeze in a few hours of fun with some friends a few weekends ago. We participated in a detective day in downtown Houston, a virtual game of Clue. It was a lot of fun!

Julia

Julia has been busy balancing the middle school homework load with life outside of school. Her science fair project is due this Thursday and she is stressed out. In good news, she has all A's right now (an accomplishment as one of her teachers is extremely tough). Softball wrapped up two weekends ago with their last tournament. They ended on a high note with a win (their 2nd of the entire season) so that was exciting. She was able to compete in the cross country district championship two weeks ago and placed 2nd in the city of Houston! She earned a spot to the Junior Olympics this Saturday in Knoxville. Super exciting!

Luke

Luke is not the most verbal when it comes to school but I know he is loving his teachers this year. He now wants to be an author when he grows up and sometimes goes to bed with a clipboard and paper so he can write stories. I love it! He is really into Geronimo Stilton books and has been burning through them quickly.

Yesterday he build some wood structures with his blocks and begged me to send the photos to his math/science teacher. Luke is also participating in two clubs this year. Running Club and the Lost and Found Club. Super proud of him! He is starting his advanced wrestling class tonight and we'll see how that goes. 

Jillian

Our little spunky monkey is such a joy to be around. She has a big personality and is really funny. She is very verbal (I think it's due to the older siblings). She loves her preschool class and her teacher, Miss Moulder. She has also been doing great at ballet the last few weeks and I haven't even had to bribe her to stay in class the whole time! LOL! One funny thing happened last week. Her school was putting on a Thanksgiving lunch. The school called to thank me for the handmade turkey cookies I brought in. One problem-I didn't make them.

They said they were in an unmarked container and Jillian told everyone I was up late the night before frosting them. Little stinker!

Pups

The dogs, or as JD likes to describe them "We have a dog and a fur ball." Fur ball is right. My hesitation for getting a light colored dog with our dark floors and car has proved correct. It's a nightmare trying to keep everything clean. The Roomba runs daily and I also sweep multiple times a day. There is still Bella fur everywhere. I have to keep a lint brush with me at all times. Other than the fur, they are both great (need training but overall great). 

November 15 - Vici Wrestling

Luke started wrestling classes last year and competed in his first tournament last weekend. It was quite the experience! I registered him online for the rookie division. We arrived at the gym bright and early. All of the kids had to get in line to be evaluated by a medical doctor. You may be thinking..why is there a doctor there? Well, the doctor verifies their nails are short and trim and they also do a skin check to ensure there are no open sores or rashes. Once they get the all clear, they are weighed. Luke weighed in at 51lbs. After that, there was a long waiting period until all the kids were checked in and weighed and then the brackets are posted. 

I signed Luke up for the rookie bracket but discovered they also put him in the 'open' bracket which is for experienced wrestlers. So he was in the Open 48-53lbs and the Rookie 53-58lbs. There were six mats going at a time (very chaotic). Each mat was numbered 1 through 6 and then had a match assigned to it. All of Luke's matches were on mats 5 and 6. And then his placement in each match determined his next assignment in the bracket. There is no app that tracks this so you have to rely on the posted brackets for assignments and screens posted near to the mats that have the current match posted. The matches can be very fast (for example if a kid is pinned right away) or could go for several minutes. So..I did a lot of running around to stay on top of where he needed to be. 

So how did my little blonde man do? He was incredible!! I am so proud of him!!!! He absolutely rocked it. He completed in 6 matches (3 per bracket). He pinned his first opponent in match 1. He won in OT in the next 2 matches. He lost his final 3 matches, but two of those were in OT. Overall, he ended up 2nd in both brackets. Congratulations Luke!!! And his coach said he is now ready for the next practice group. So proud of him!!

November 5 - Halloween Adventure

Halloween was last week and Houston experienced it's coldest holiday since 1925. It wasn't that cold (maybe mid-50's) but I was loving the cooler weather! The kids and I decorated the house a few weeks ago and they carved pumpkins on Halloween Eve (the sun and heat is so strong here that we can't do it any earlier, they rot quickly). I cut the tops of the pumpkins off but they did the rest completely by themselves. Great job Julia and Luke! We also won an Astros and Unicorn pumpkin from a pre-school raffle that the kids thought were pretty cool. 

As for Halloween itself we had a small crew this year. JD stayed home and handed out candy while I went out with the kids, our neighbor Kristin and her two kids. 

Decorations

Pumpkins

October 29 - Clear Lake Pumpkin Patch

Autumn means pumpkins! Jillian and I headed to our local pumpkin patch after a trip to the library to pick out a pumpkin. She loved running around the pumpkin patch! This past weekend, we headed back to the same pumpkin patch with Julia, Luke and Kaleb. Waiting until the weekend before Halloween to get more pumpkins proved to be a challenge. They were almost completely out! That's okay, we managed to find decent pumpkin and snapped some cute pictures. Halloween is almost here folks, Houston is expected to have the coldest weather since 1925!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

October 24 - Class Picture

Jillian's preschool pictures were a few weeks ago. She was dressed in the most adorable denim dress with cowboy boots. I expected a fall background and thought it would be the cutest thing ever. Imagine my surprise when they switched photographers and her pictures came back like this. I thin it's a wrinkled grey sheet/drop cloth? And a half painted wall? Turquoise/aqua is my favorite color but an odd choice for autumn pics. Hehe! They are so bad I can't stop laughing!

Love this little person and her big personality!

October 23 - Cross Country

Julia & her friend Brayden

Julia competed in her first ever cross country meet last weekend. Saturday was such a gorgeous, cool day that I kept telling her "It's going to be a perfect day for a run tomorrow!" Well, that perfect day ended up being 90 degrees with sunny skies. Sunny skies are normally great but not optimal for a 2pm afternoon race. There were 9 girls in her age group and she placed 2nd. Fantastic job Julia!!