December 22 - Snow on the Beach

Winter Formal 2024! 
Theme: Snow on the Beach
Location: The San Luis Resort, Galveston

Julia & Jonathon

Winter Formal is a Sadie Hawkins dance. Last year Julia asked one of her friend's from middle school who went to a different high school. This year, she went with one of her good friend's boyfriend's best friend (get that? LOL). Unfortunately, a last minute basketball game and wrestling match were scheduled for the same night as the dance, so her friend's boyfriend couldn't even meet them for pictures or dinner. Julia's date, Jonathon, (who she barely knew) ended up being the only guy at pictures and dinner. 

Devlyn, Julia, Madi, Mia, Gabi, Tanner, Addie

The big thing in our area is renting beach houses for homecoming, prom and winter formal. Julia's friend's parents rented a house in Galveston, not on the beach, but close by with a pool and hot tub. After school Friday, I drove Julia to the house to get ready with her girlfriends and then we met Jonathon at the picture location. We were at "the" popular spot for pictures and saw a lot of classmates there (some with professional photographers on hand, craziness!). After pictures, the kids had dinner at Landry's Steakhouse. After dropping them off at dinner, I headed to the hotel and worked the registration table for the entire dance. It was great checking in everyone because I saw all the dresses. So fun! 

After the dance, they all went back to the house to go swimming. Jonathon and Andrew (Madi's boyfriend) left at midnight while the girls stayed the night. What a great weekend! And after the last several weeks of last minute planning of this event, I am so glad it's over. Now, time to shift to Christmas planning!

Picture dump....sorry, I have so many good ones!

Beautiful Jules

Julia & Jonathon

Girl Scouts! (Kennedy, Reese, Julia, Kendall, Hannah) & (Lexi & Lauren)

ChrisCo!

Memories with Friends

December 14 - The Holiday Craziness Has Begun

Thanksgiving was late this year, so December craziness is feeling more manic than usual. 

Julia
As fundraising chairs for ChrisCo (the winter formal planning committee), Julia and her friend Kendall were in charge of the winter fundraiser, poinsettias. Orders and payment were due the first week back, so there was A LOT of "We need your order!" emails and texts. Even after we thought we received all the forms and I placed the nursery order, a late order rolled in. Never a dull moment! Luckily the nursery was able to accommodate us. The committee increased sales by 50% over prior year and they sold a combined 550 plants, the highest ever. Great job girls! Plant delivery was this past Monday at school. The delivery truck arrived 30min early and the driver was taken aback when I was the only one there. "Ma'am, we usually have a big crew of people that unload the truck in 5-10min."

Well, they were stuck with me for 20min until Candice (Kendall's mom) got there. It took us 45min but we got the job done! Julia and 2 other girls helped with delivery when school was over and overall, it was a success. This week and next are ticket sales, so I have been at the school daily selling tickets during lunch. Julia also needed a dress for the dance, so after a swim meet last weekend, we headed to a dress shop and she picked one out. Today, she's taking the ACT and there is a swim holiday party tonight (and net week are finals). 

Luke

Luke had not one, but TWO band concerts this past week on back-to-back days. As a 'Band Aide' he was required to go to the 6th grade concert to help organize the kids on Monday night. Tuesday evening was the symphonic band concert and they played several Christmas songs. The concert didn't start until after 8pm so JD went to support him and he was impressed with how much the band has improved since the fall concert.

Thursday night, Luke and I went to the HS to watch their holiday concert (jazz, concert, symphonic and wind ensembles). Every performance was great but the jazz band was super fun and wind ensemble was especially impressive musically. The top trumpet player in Texas (he has also won first place in national competitions) is a senior and it's cool to see someone at that level playing (fun fact-Julia sits next to this boy in one of her classes and one night, after Luke read us his bio at dinner, Julia said "Oliver? That kid. He sits next to me in econ.")  In addition to band, Luke and Riley found time to decorate our little Christmas in the foyer and hung the garland on the staircase. And to my utter shock, Luke came home from school yesterday wearing pajama pants. "Are you wearing pj pants?" - me in shock "Yes, Shawn brought them for me. It was pj day at school." - Luke, acting nonchalant, but this is the first time he's done a spirit day since 3rd grade.

He never ceases to surprise me!

Jillian

Jillian has not been as busy as the big kids but she's stayed active with spirit squad and Girl Scouts. She has a birthday today and two Christmas parties tomorrow. And then next weekend, we are running in the Santa Hustle with her GS troop. Oh! We also found a kitten near our back gate and she spent hours trying to catch it. We fed it for days but it has disappeared. 

Hope everyone is surviving the December craziness!

December 11 - Thanksgiving at the Farm

"I'm sorry, how many people are staying at the house?" - JD

"16." - me

"You have got to be kidding me. We'll never get through showers! We need an AirBNB or VRBO." - JD

"Don't worry, Andrew and I will make a sleeping chart. It will be an adventure." - Luke

Well folks, I'm happy to report that all 16 of us slept in the house and we survived! It was another great Thanksgiving at the farm with so many memories made. Here are some highlights..

*Baby Annabelle!! Cuteness overload

*Lola and Jillian playing together the whole time

*Jillian being tall enough to drive the golf cart (JD was next to her)

*barn puppies!

*UF tour with Julia & Victoria 

*Wicked!!! (it was awesome)

*"A Team" - Luke & Victoria, absolute rock stars, washed 80% of the Thanksgiving dishes

*"B Team" - Andrew & Julia, laughing their way through the remaining 20%

*Delicious Thanksgiving dinner! Turkey (Christine, Brian, Bryan), potatoes (Jay), sweet potato casserole (Jill), Brussel sprouts (Rachel), green bean casserole (JD), mac and cheese (JD), and desserts (Publix LOL). 

Thank you Brian and Fernando for hosting, it was an awesome week!!

Farm Life

Go Gators!

Cleanup crew...A Team

B Team

December 2 - He Tip Toed Away From Me

Vacation time! After a long week of robotics, band, swim meets, elementary 'spirit days' and fall festivities, it was time for our Florida adventure. We left Friday afternoon and arrived in Orlando around 8.30pm Saturday evening. We've been doing this drive for 15 years and this year was the worst traffic ever. Luckily, our kids are rockstar travelers so it wasn't too bad. We arrived at Hard Rock Hotel and everyone was excited for our Universal adventure. 

We got up bright and early on Sunday and headed to Islands of Adventure. After Hagrids, we headed to the Velocicoaster, and Jillian did her first REALLY big coaster. You guys, she LOVED it! She loved it so much she thinks the smaller coasters are too "little" for her now LOL. The day could not have been better. Beautiful weather and the park wasn't too busy. 

He ate all of it

Funniest memory of the day: at one point, Julia, Luke and I were separated from JD and Jillian and we headed towards Seuss Landing to find them. Julia and I waited on the side while Luke was confident he could find them. He accidentally bumped into a "Who" who "apologized and was super nice, and then he tiptoped away from me!" After meeting up with JD and Jillian, we tried to get a selfie with the tiptoeing Who, but he asked where my family was, and made them take a picture. So funny!

Monday was another beautiful day. The park was definitely busier but we still got on a lot of rides. After lunch, we headed back to the hotel and headed to the pool. JD and Jillian swam, I read, while Julia and Luke hung out and ate some pretzels. We went to the chocolate factory for dinner. Another great day!

We checked out of the hotel on Tuesday and headed to the park for another half day. We lucked out with more fabulous weather, got in a few rides and some shopping. So fun! 

Next stop, the farm! 

Making Memories!

November 21 - Austin Book Festival

For my birthday earlier this year, JD gifted me a surprise trip to the Austin Book Festival with my best reading friends,  Jill, Teresa and Jacquelyn. What a weekend! Teresa and I picked up Jill at the airport and we drove to Austin. We checked into our awesome condo in the Rainey Street district of downtown with the most incredible views. We went out for pizza and Jacquelyn soon arrived. 

The next day was a relaxing day at the Fairmont spa. After our treatments, we drove to the Oasis for dinner and THE best sunset view in Texas. Then back to the condo for lots of talking and bonding!

We headed to the Austin Book Festival the next day. It was a gorgeous day and we walked from our condo to the festival, about a mile and half. The festival was set up in front of the capital building. Two roads were closed off and they had multiple tents set up for author talks, book signings, merchandise and books for sale. We bought books, met some authors and perused several tents. We walked around the capital grounds and even went inside the capital briefly (capital bathrooms>port-a-potties). We capped off the afternoon with a late brunch and then headed back to the condo for relax. We found some food trucks nestled in the Rainey Street district for dinner and saw a lot of bachelorette parties. It was great people watching! We finished the evening with wine and ice cream on the roof of our building. Great day!

Jacquelyn headed home the following morning while the rest of us went back to the book festival. We listed to several author talks and even listened to one underground in a capital room. Such a cool experience and it's so interesting hearing authors discuss how they come up with ideas, their writing process etc. We finished off the day with book signings and then walked to the UT campus and did a tour on our own. After walking back to the condo (I think we logged 25k steps that day), we relaxed at the condo and found a cute restaurant for dinner. 

Fantastic trip! Great memories!

18th Floor Condo View

Lake Travis

Book Festival

Texas Capital

UT Campus

Making Memories

November 18 - Region Band Concert

Last month, Luke placed 6th chair trumpet at region band auditions and qualified for the Region Symphonic Band (top band for middle schools in our school district). The RSB took the day off of school on Friday to rehearse music all day together and perform a concert that evening. 

Fun Fact: I asked Luke to try on his black pants all week to make sure they fit. He refused and assured me they did. Thursday night, he finally tried them on and...surprise, surprise. They were several inches too short! Thank goodness for Khols and Target!!

The concert was fantastic and definitely a step up from his normal band at middle school. We are very proud of how hard he's worked with trumpet this year (even though I complain about how expensive this elective is..because it is more expensive than any other activity the kids have done LOL). 

They did several songs, here are links to 2 of them. Enjoy!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aLCV3B9NyWSPbxLd9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1nUJMhsqPoHaaBeA8

November 17 - Flair for a Night

Jillian was a Flair for a night at the football game last Saturday. The girls stood on the field with the Flairs while the football players came onto the field, danced in the stands and we got to see several veterans sky dive into the stadium at the beginning of the game. What a cool experience!!

Jillian and Hannah

Jillian and Reese