Sylvester Christmas

Last Sunday we celebrated Sylvester Christmas at my Aunt Tina and Uncle Wayne's house.  Sweet baby, Andie was there at only 8 days old.

Casen LOVED Andie and wanted to hold her. At first he laid down on the floor so I laid her next to him.

Then he sat to hold her like a big boy. He was so gentle and sweet.  Cooper came over to see her and I just loved this picture of my boys doting on a baby. Yes, it instantly made me want to give them a baby! How could it not with a sweet picture like this?

Here is Andie with her big brother, Eli.

And then Casen wanted another turn.  Seriously he was obsessed with holding her. But I can't blame him.

We took pictures of all of the kids before presents.  There were 20 kids there and 3 couldn't be there.

Sweet Andie was 8 days old and Obadiah was only 4 days old.

Before presents the kids played a game for little prizes.

And this sweet boy cuddled on the couch with me

Cameron picked Cooper's name and he got Ninja Turtle stuff.  He was so excited and opened it right away.

Casen got Legos from Adelynn and also had to play with them right away.

Intense turtle playing

Excited about his toy with his cheesy smile

Casen showed Grandad his legos

Casen and Eli had another round of food.

I didn't get a family picture or pictures with all of my cousin.  I wish we would have taken one of those of us that were there.  I think 13 out of 16 of us made it.

It was loud and chaotic but it is also so much fun.  We are blessed to live so close to each other and truly enjoy being together and celebrating the holidays.  Now we will look forward to all getting together for Easter next.  Though we actually a family birthday this weekend and look for any other excuse to all hangout.

Annual College Bowl Pick Challenge

This year is the 8th annual College Bowl Pick Challenge with Kyle's family.  We each pick our winners for every game and the person with the most wins wins!


Well Kyle and I kept meaning to make our picks and then also help the boys with theirs.  But of course we kept forgetting.  Wednesday morning at 6:10 Kyle realized on his way to work that we forgot and sends me a text. So I find the sheet and realize we have to do this before I take the boys to school.


I woke Cooper up and while getting him dressed asked him for each of his picks. These are some of the funny things he said-

• Akron vs Utah State Game-  I want Tetron
• Tulsa vs Virginia Tech- Tulseph sounds like Joseph and he is Jesus' daddy.
• Central Michigan vs. Minnesota- Minnesota like Casen can't have soda!
• LSU vs Texas Tech- 'That's just like Texas A&M!' I told him I don't think the Aggies appreciate that comparison
• Ole Miss vs Oklahoma State- That sounds like home so I want that one
• About halfway through he said 'sometimes I just say the one that I know how to say' Me too buddy, me too.
• TCU vs Oregon- He chose Oregon! I thought he chose Oregon just because it is the second one I said so I asked are you sure and he said 'yep! But we went to a TCU game!'

Then it was Casen's turn! This was quite the challenge and test of my patience.

• While changing his clothes I tried the same method I did with Cooper 'Casen do you want to pick Arizona or New Mexico' to which I got no response. At one point I asked him and he shrugged his shoulders and said 'I no know'.
• Then I tried the pointing method.  This one or this one. to which he pointed correctly once but every time after that he pointed somewhere random on the page. I stopped that and finished getting him ready.
• Next we sat at the kitchen table and I tried pointing again with no luck.  So then I held my fists out and said 'which hand'.  I figured left hand could be the first name on the list and right hand could be the second name.  He intently stared at my hands and promptly touched both hands at the EXACT same time!
• So now I found a quarter and decided heads would be the first name and tails would be the second name.  I gave him the quarter and told him to drop it. He promptly said 'mine!' and refused to drop the quarter. I explained to him that I would let him keep the quarter but I wanted him to drop it and see.  He dropped it once and said 'that loud.' 
• I finally convinced him to drop the quarter for about 6 of the games before he realized there was something more fun than dropping a quarter...throwing a quarter! So we had quite the time running around the kitchen and living room to see what side the quarter was on. And then it happened...He got a little excited and we lost the quarter.
• We found a nickel and continued this fun game. Unfortunately I found the dirtiest nickel ever which made it quite challenging to run and grab it to see if it was heads or tails before Casen picked it up and threw it back to the other side of the room. Seriously it was comical and a good workout.

We successfully finished our picks and left the house only 30 minutes late! I was exhausted and had a headache, but we got it done.  And I will be taking a percentage of their winnings as their bookie.


And worst of all- thanks to that dirty nickel Casen picked Oregon over TCU also!


Let the games begin!

Week of Dec 7th-13th

I had a couple of random days scheduled for December to do shopping for the holidays. On Tuesday the 8th I picked the boys up after nap and brought them to Fort Worth.

Our first stop was my office.  I wanted to introduce the boys to my new team and also let all of my old team/friends see the boys.

Normally Cooper is the shy one until he warms up and Casen has no problem This time it was the opposite.  Cooper was hyper and chatty. Casen was timid and just stared a lot. They both thought my office was so fun. Cooper said 'Mommy your office is so cool.  You EVEN have scissors to cut things!!'

Cooper thought my phone was amazing and wanted to call someone.  I let him call my friend, Lisa because she loves my boys and he talked on the phone with her for a solid 5 minutes.  They chatted about all kinds of things and he just loved it.  She loved it too!

We visited my old boss, John.  He was so sweet with the boys, but I felt bad when Casen spilled M&Ms all over the floor of his office.  We picked them up, but there were lots of cracked shell pieces left behind. Oh and Casen offered an M&M from the floor to John! And I have been told they have found more rogue M&Ms twice since then :)

After that we headed to Chickfila to see Ms. Jamie.  She is a teacher at their old school and loves my boys so much.  She and I stay in contact on Facebook and have become good friends.

We hadn't seen her since July at Cooper's birthday, but both boys instantly hugged her and were excited to see her.  We had such a great visit.

After that Aunt Jen Jen and Uncle David met us there to eat dinner. We were supposed to eat at Texas Roadhouse but this was just easier for our schedules.

Wednesday I volunteered at Salvation Army with work.  We sorted presents for the angel trees and had a great time.  However I got quite the laugh out of the name below.  Do you know what it says? Honestly I laugh but it is also sad to me that a parent chose a silly name like it is a game to come up with something crazy.

Thursday I sent these goodies to day-care for the teachers.  This was from my boys and my sister's girls.

Thursday this little guy joined me at work. Cooper told me he wanted to see my office and all my friends.

I took this picture and Cooper thought it was so funny.

Friday morning before school he wanted to show me something and said 'look what puppy is doing'.  I thought it was so cute that he reenacted my picture.

Saturday we took the boys to breakfast with St. Nicholas at my parents' church.  The breakfast was delicious, the company was great, and the picture...it was a disaster.  Casen was scared and serious.  Cooper was even more scared. I had to drag him up there and beg him to sit on the stairs in front. Then he had his finger in his mouth and his angry face on.  I will try to remember to take a picture so I can share it with you all.  It was a stressful mommy moment.

Afterwards Kyle and I went home and put Christmas lights around our flower beds. Kyle was dreading it and I hadn't had time to do it, but I insisted we do it that day.  Several time Cooper had asked me 'when are we going to have lights on our house' so I knew it had to be done.  Unfortunately it was the windiest day ever and it was kind of a mess, but it got done. Since then Cooper doesn't care anything about the lights but Casen remembers every night to turn them on.

Then we tried a local taqueria for lunch for the first time and it was good. If you know us then you know we like to try little hole in the wall places. We had gorditas and tacos. The gorditas were different than we were used to but yummy. My only complains was no lettuce, tomato, or cheese.

The boys went home with my parents after the breakfast because Kyle and I had a holiday party Saturday night.  We attended my friend Katherine and her husband, Jay's annual Booze for Bundles party.  This was our first year to attend and had a fun time.

I got to visit with Amy a lot which is always fun.  I didn't get a picture with Kat.

Sunday I got to get ready at my own pace without worrying about the boys.  I took this selfie before heading to Ennis for our annual Sylvester Christmas party. I will do a separate post with those pictures.

Sunday night I put together these goodies for my team members and other coworkers.  They got rave reviews.

This sweet boy wanted to play baseball in the house, but mommy didn't think that was a good idea. He is clumsy like his mommy so I pictured the bat flying across the room to the tv or at my face!

I also finished my hotdog puzzle. I stay up to 11:15 that night doing it when I should have been in bed!

Randoms and Weekend Recap (12/5)

One morning I was changing Casen's clothes and he didn't want to wake up.  I took this picture and it made me think of taking newborn pictures.  What happened to my baby? When did he get so big?

 

One night during the week both Kyle and I had to work late.  Luckily Aunt Lusa came to the rescue and took the boys home with her. I got this picture and just loved it!

 

Twice this week we did our Advent wreath and the boys loved it

 

Isn't Casen the sweetest? You should see him do the sign of the cross. It melts you!

 

I made this cinnamon roll bundt cake for my group at work because we had a birthday in the group.

 

Friday night I spent quite some time cleaning up the playroom.  They wreck this room so quickly

 

Saturday we bought a new Christmas tree and then went to visit Mimi and Grandpa after nap.  We went out to dinner at one of our favorite places.

 

I know this bear is in this pic and kinda inappropriate but I wanted pictures of these trees. Aren't the adorable.  I think a smaller version of these would be so cute in my entry.

 

Some made out of metal too

 

The boys had fun riding the horses

 

That night the boys stayed with Mimi and Grandpa so that I could spend all day Sunday making Christmas candy with Melisa and my mom.

 

Mimi sent me some cute pics of what the boys were up to.

 

The dogs love when the boys are over because they get well fed.

 

And they had a pizza picnic!

 

We didn't finish making candy until 7pm and we started around 9 am after going to 7am mass! We were all exhausted by the end.