The last days of December.....

Are the best! Christmas time just puts everybody in a jolly good 'ol spirit....especially me :)

Growing up, both my parent always did there best to bring the holiday spirit in our home. As a kid, Christmas time meant so much more than just presents. I couldn't wait to hop in the car to drive around to see lights, decorate inside and out of our home, and fun family gatherings. Now, as a parent I do anything I can to bring the Christmas magic to our home!! I love to live through Hannah's excitement! Moreover, I'm so glad she was more excited to spend the last nine days of the year with family than all the presents under the tree.

Our festivities started on the 24th in Johnson City then we ended our night in Dallas! We had dinner and the kids opened presents at the ranch and later that evening we drove to Dallas to have a late midnight Christmas snack at my cousin's house. We spent Christmas Day with my parents at my cousins and we had a nice surprise....SNOW! After spending a couple of days in Dallas, we headed to Louisiana to see my sister in law.

****The last photo collage is too much! Lucia is huge into Mardi-grass so she decided to put up her special tree so Hannah could help decorate. It was fun and the kids had a blast with all the beads, and cool looking ornaments. Double clicking on the collage is a must to see the tree and ornaments bigger.

Memories to hold...

Well, I have been wanting to blog about my sister's visit to Texas for some time.  However, I didn't take any pictures on my camera.  She has a fancy camera that she took everywhere and took a ton of snap shots.  Now that I have them on my computer I can finally share our special moments!!!

Michelle and her family came in the beginning part of October for ten days.  I was somewhat shocked how well her island kids adjusted to our Texas life- they loved it out here!  In fact, they didn't want to go back home, they wanted to leave their fabulous life in Hawaii for a country life!  JJ, her oldest fell in love with our animals and happily woke up everyday to help my mom feed her big 'ol 4 legged pets.  The kids couldn't get enough of Rockstar, the donkey, he is a sweet donkey that loves kids.  Of course Dylan, my mom's horse made a big impression on the kids...he's a big horse!  And to top it off the boys had freedom that they cherished....driving the golf cart whenever they pleased to and from my house to my parents house and all over the property.  As far as the girls, Hannah & Sachsa played so well.  They had some nasty moments, but that's to be expected with girls.

Michelle and I had a lot of catching up to do, which resulted into many late nights past 12 am!  I kept my little secret until I saw her to tell her that I'm pregnant.  She was shocked like all of us, but of course was ecstatic.  We reminisced about the last time she visited was nearly two years ago when Lulu was born and a couple months before that she came with her family to visit.  Her visit was a great one and much needed for the both of us to re-connect and to share special moments.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Even though my house is full of Christmas decorations since the last week of November it just didn't feel like Christmas. When you are still wearing capris and flip flops it's hard to believe a special holiday is around the corner! Finally, this week I pulled out our sweaters and jeans :). I don't like being cold but it just doesn't feel like Christmas without some low temperatures, scarves, gloves, rain or snow.

                                                   Gabe brought this mini tree to decorate!

                                                  Love Pinterest for creative ideas to do yourself!

Last week, Gabe's company brought in a beautiful Christmas tree and Santa. They have been doing this for a couple of years and its pretty nice to take the kids and not having to pay for a picture with Santa. I had a slight feeling Lulu would not like Santa as she was already holding me tight as we were in line. Sure enough she cried when she got close to him. So it was just Hannah and Santa this year and its a cute one because the photographer snapped a photo as she is starring him down and asked him- "are you the real Santa Claus or just wearing a costume"?

Lulu scoping out Santa....and she didn't like what she saw! 

Little Ms. Lulu

I had to post this picture of Lulu. She has changed so much from her personality to even her physical appearance. She is no longer a mama's girl! She is very independent very very strong willed. Its so hard to discipline this child because all the methods I used on Hannah does not work on Lulu. She is so different than Hannah it's been challenging on finding ways to reason with her. None of the less, she brings us plenty of laughter and joy. Her best quality: She is beyond affectionate :) she will not let you go until she has given you between 5-10 kisses....no exaggeration! Her bed time routine consists of plenty of hugs and kisses.

I can't believe how this year has gone by so quick and I am more taken away about how much she has learned before 2. She talks so much, jumps and skips everywhere by copying her sister! I give my big girl, Hannah so much credit for teaching her so much like putting her shoes, potty training her, coloring, feeding the dogs and so much more!

Christmas time is here....

Well, for the very first time we bought a tree right after Thanksgiving. We decorated the tree and the rest of the house by Sunday night- 6 days before December!! My girls had a blast putting the ornaments on the tree and only one broke! In fact I am very proud of Lulu for not taking or re-arranging the ornaments through out the day.

We got a small tree this year!