January 27 - Welcome to HEAT

Jillian has dabbled in a lot of activities over the years:

*Ballet: I had to bribe her with cupcakes to complete the classes; recital was cancelled due to COVID

*Hip Hop: she did a trial class, looked like she was having a BLAST..told me in the car "Yeah, I don't want to do that again." 

* Soccer: never wanted to practice; left the field MID GAME one time "well, I already scored several goals so I thought I was done."

*Gymnastics: it was a fight going to practice every week. "I don't want to go."

*Fencing: she actually loved fencing but the program we were doing was the same every month. I found a club to try and..you guessed it "No thanks." 

*Cheer: she does this through school and it's been a success (every other week, with a bunch of friends, helps)

So imagine my surprise when she asked to try out for the club swim team in November. I assumed it was fleeting and didn't take any action until she brought it up multiple times. Two weeks ago I finally contacted the coach and she tried out. She worked her little heart out (practices are much harder than Orcas) but she is now officially part of the team. And her BFF Adelyn is also on HEAT so the girls are excited to spend more time together. 

January 25 - Snow in H-Town!

Happy New Year everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts this month, it's been busy getting back into the swing of things after our long winter break. Julia is busy with school, swim and studying for the SAT/ACT, Luke is busy with band (and he is swimming again), while Jillian is doing Spirit Squad at school, Girl Scouts and she just joined HEAT swim team. Busy little bees!

I've lived in Texas for a combined 19 years (4 - Austin, 15 - Houston) and this past Tuesday and Wednesday were my FAVORITE days ever living in Texas. Last week we kept hearing that a winter storm was coming. I didn't get my hopes up because we've heard that before and nothing really happened (we had a dusting of snow when Julia was in 4th or 5th grade). However, the forecast didn't change all weekend and after a cold Monday, sleet started Monday evening. It sleeted all night, very loud against the windows. When we got up Tuesday morning, it was legit SNOWING! I never appreciated snow growing up in NY ( I never thought too much about it in general because it's normal) but seeing snow here was simply magical. Yes, school was cancelled and the entire city shut down (there are no plows or ways to de-ice the roads) but I had the best day every playing outside with the girls. Luke ventured out briefly but otherwise stayed inside. 

Neighborhood - beautiful white!

Snow Dogs

Sisters having Fun

Park fun

3rd time outside on Tuesday, fun with Ella!

Soaking in every last minute of snow on Wednesday

Luke - shorts, t-shirt and crocs

December 31 - Radio Tave

It's the last week of winter break so you know what that means...forced "family fun"! We went to Meow Wolf Houston the other day. It's an interactive art experience and the theme is a radio station that disappeared as it found portals to alternate dimensions. It's hard to describe the experience but if you find yourself in Santa Fe, Denver, Vegas, Dallas or Houston (the cities with Meow Wolf's, all different theming), definitely go! 

Local artists design exhibits and you can try to solve the mystery as to what happened. I walked around with Jillian so there was no solving going on, we just explored all the different spaces. Since it was a radio station theme, she LOVED all the equipment (and you get to play/experiment with pretty much everything there). JD and Luke solved a few puzzles. Cool experience!

Meow Wolf Houston "Radio Rave"

December 27 - Santa Hustle

Jillian, Adelyn, Guinevere, Ella

When Julia was in elementary school, we did the Santa Hustle for several years with her Girl Scout troop. The event was at Moody Gardens and we followed it with breakfast at Cracker Barrell. We are keeping the tradition alive with Jillian's troop. This year was their first ever Santa Hustle in Galveston! The girls did the half mile kids run and it was at a new location, on the seawall. Everyone except Jacqui was able to come and they had so much fun. My favorite memory was the girls "warming up" for the race with Jillian doing karate kicks and punches like she was heading into the boxing ring. Hilarious! Afterwards, we went to Cracker Barrell for breakfast and the girls came back to the house to play for a little while. Great day and happy to restart the tradition with the littles. 

Love these girls! 

Beautiful morning

Moms taking a quick break from the run for a pic LOL

December 26 - Zoo Lights

Houston Zoo Lights! It's been years since we've been (9 to be exact) so we took the kids and Riley the other night. Parking was a bit of a nightmare but once we entered the zoo, it was incredible. 

Houston Zoo Lights

December 25 - Merry Merry

We wish you a Merry Christmas.

We wish you a Merry Christmas.

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

and a Happy New Year! 

Merry Christmas Dimpled Munchkin readers. JD cooked an amazing Christmas Eve dinner yesterday (ham, scalloped potatoes, mac and cheese, green bean casserole, rolls..everything homemade including the rolls) and we had pumpkin pie for dessert. I baked most of the day, dozens of chocolate chip cookies, peppermint cookies and oatmeal cookies (as I type this, I have peanut butter cookies in the oven). Jillian wrote a note to Santa and Julia read 'The Night Before Christmas' to Luke and Jillian. 

This morning, Louie woke up most of the house (the adults at least) around 5am when he got his head stuck in a gift bag and started running around the house like a wild man. JD was able to get the bag off his head and all was good. Jillian woke up around 7am and finally roused the teenagers around 8am to come downstairs. The kids had a magical Christmas morning and we are so thankful for all the gifts.

Merry Christmas everyone!

December 24 - Welcome Ava!

Bryan and Ava arrived on Saturday and it's a joy to have a little puppy in the house again. She looks like a perfectly toasted biscuit  and 'Biscuit' would be a perfect nickname! I can't remember Amelia or Bella ever being so skinny but I guess they were at some point. She isn't cuddly/snuggly like Bella but she's very playful and loves being around the kids. The girl scouts came over on Sunday and she had so much fun playing with the girls! She also loves to steal socks and is a counter surfer, but overall I think she's pretty calm for her age. 

Welcome Ava!!