Christmas

Christmas outfits

The traditional smores after the hayrides

Opening gifts from my aunt and uncle

Christmas at The Mansion

At the time that we took this picture I honestly did NOT see the red tape around that statue/scuplture. I couldn't believe it when I looked at the picture on the computer.

A progressive dinner. This was fun. The kids and the dads and the moms all had dance off competitions w/ Just Dance on the wii. That was funny.

Traditional cookie night w/ my parents!

Snow on Christmas Eve! So glad Cody was home to play w/ the girls out there!

Christmas Eve after church - the girls open their sister gifts

Christmas morning. We open gifts at our house, and my parents come over to see what the girls got. Then, we go over to their house for lunch and so spend the afternoon. Very relaxing and fun.

Volleyball

Marin was able to play volleyball for the first time this year. We made a 3rd and 4th grade team with girls from MCA. They had 8 games in November/December. She really enjoyed it and did well - it was fun to see the girls working together and having so much fun.

The Nutcracker

The week of the Nutcracker was insane around here. They have rehearsals every night that week, so I expected it to be a bit crazy. But, that was combined with Marin's volleyball games and the last week of school for Marin and Bennett. And, then there was the stomach bug. It marched pretty slowly thru our family. Reese had it first. 8 days later Marin had it. Then, thinking/hoping we were in the clear, 4 days later, Bennett woke up vomiting at 4 am the MORNING of The Nutcracker. Help me. It was horrible. They normally have 2 performances, but because of a location change (that was well worth it) they only had 1 performance this year. She got in bed with me and her first question was.....does this mean I can't do nutcracker? A moment in parenting I don't care to ever repeat. I told her no. Because, at that point, I thought that of course there wasn't even a chance of it. The other girls had had it and stayed vomit-y for almost an entire 12-15 hours and then were not fully over it for 2-3 days. But, she is my Bennett. She has a remarkably/almost scary high tolerance of pain. That combined w/ my mom's almost iron stomach....she rarely suffers w/ stomach bugs as much as the rest of us. All that to say.....she only got sick one more time. I basically refused to let her have water and food all day....and called and got permission for her to miss all rehearsals that day and just show up for the performance. She kept telling me she felt great. And, she really seemed to. I had been praying for WEEKS about the health of this child during the Nutcracker.....
Anyway - all that to say. She did it. So thankful. I pretty much didn't breathe thru the entire first Act until I finally saw her happily on stage during the second Act.

Some good friends of ours took these pictures and shared them with us. The are so priceless to me. (the friends and the pictures)

In January we can check the costume out and go get photos taken in it. So, I guess I'll get to do Bon-Bon hair again then. :-) The rest of the story is that Cody's Aunt and Uncle were in town to see the ballet. Afterward, we all went to Logan's for dinner. We let Bennett drink a bit too much water and about half way thru her dinner she looked at me and told me she needed to throw up. Thus began a race across Logan's to get to the restroom. Thankfully, she made it. However, she and I both will be needing new boots......but at least we were technically IN the restroom.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at Lake Brownwood with Cody's family!

Marin and Kate

32 people

The girls had a great time walking/hiking all around the state park - the weather was perfect.

October/November

These are in a really random order. This picture was taken in Austin in October. We were there for the funeral of my 97 year old grandfather. These are his 9 great-grandchildren - in age order - which is kind of hard to believe since my girls are so tall. I always thought it was funny that all 9 are a consistent boy-girl pattern.

Our last preschool feast. Happy. Sad. Ready to have all three girls at one school, but I know it will be shocking to no longer have a preschool aged child after having had one for almost 10 years.

My mom and Reese

Reese the pilgrim

This was a few weeks ago. I hadn't been feeling well for a couple of days. The girls got up early one home day morning, got dressed, made breakfast, set the table, and then came and got me. They were so pleased and it was so sweet.

Back to October. This was trick or treating in our neighborhood.

With our sweet across the street neighbors.

Clara

Rapunzel

Cleopatra

Reese's preschool class had a field trip to the pumpkin patch on a Friday, so the big girls were able to go also.

Bennett's half birthday!!!!!!