Ice in Houston

So our kids got to miss a day of school and got out early two days this year due to a storm coming through.  We were expected to get a lot of snow (1 to 3 inches which is a lot here) but instead it just iced.  The kids were NOT very happy about this but they tried to make the most out of it.  There was a pretty good layer of ice on the trampoline so they went out and started to jump until they could get a big pile.  They had a pretty good time out there but got wet really fast so it didn't last too long.  Daddy got to stay home since the beltway was closed that he drives on to get to work.  So we had a great time sitting by the fire and having hot chocolate!  It doesn't happen often but when we get cold the kids really love it.

Charlene's shower!

Well Charlene's shower finally got here, I was so excited about 

getting to throw it since I never thought I would live close enough 

to her for this!!!  She has some really awesome friends that helped 

me throw a really great shower.  We had TONS of food and the

decorations her one friend did were way over the top.  It was 

turned out beautiful.  I made the cake and I wanted it to be dirt 

since Brock had that at his birthday party this year and she LOVED

it.  After one of her friends said she had seen a cake in a dump truck,

I knew I had to do it.  I decided to make them look like big hunks

of dirt so you could get them out of the truck easily, I think it turned

out great.  We played a few games, first where you had to decide what

type of poo (melted candy bars) were in the diapers, second it was a fill in the blank nursery ryhme, and the last everyone was suppose to decide when a baby was going to fall out of a block of ice.  It didn't fal

l so I was a little embarrased about that, but what are you going to do. She got lots of great stuff.

All week long Kenzie was so excited to go to the shower, I kept saying it was just going to be adults but she didn't care.  Then I found out Gnome and Juliet was coming out and they could all go see it during the shower, I thought for sure that would get her wanting to not go to the shower.  Nope she was determined she was going.  Well then on the way there, she says "So Cooper is coming today!"   I tell her "No, this is just for Charlene"  she says "It's a BABY shower!"  I felt so bad she was just sure that Cooper was going to be there.  She was still SO good and a really big helper, she had to make Charlene a card by herself.  She would not let me help at all, she got glue, ribbons, jewels, drew hearts and flowers, it was the cutest thing ever.  I love how big she is getting :)

Grandma and Grandpa Cluver come to visit

We had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa Cluver to start the year off.  They came for a lot longer this time so everyone got to spend time with them and get to know them a little better.  I thought it would take Kaylee a while to get used to them, but nope she went right to both of them which was nice to see.  We didn't do a ton of different things while they were there but we had a good time.  We of course went to Chuck E Cheese, the park a little, we went to the Build N Grow at Lowes, and ate lots of ice cream.  We went out to eat a few times and we made Tommy eat a few things around the house.  Not sure he liked a few of them, but I have never had such great reviews on my chicken EVER.  A few days later he was still talking about it so I know what we will be making when he comes down again!  Mainly we just had a great time hanging out together and letting the kids play with them.  Watching Brock and Grandpa play the Wii together is always one of the highlights of their trips and don't worry it was again this time : Oh and I forgot, Brayden's hockey tickets that he won for selling over $600 worth of popcorn was while they were here.  So I got tickets for Grandpa and Brock to go with them and they had a great time.  I took NO pictures while they were here or they are not on the computer yet so this was really the only one I had.

New Years

Well since we didn't get to spend a lot of time with Chad during break we decided to so something a little extra at the end.  First on New Years Eve we went downtown for the kids celebration which was fun.  They had a kids doing spray paint art and Brock won one which made his day.  Kaylee was asleep before we ever got there and slept through us eating dinner and when we went outside to walk she woke up Kenzie sat down and then she was asleep.  It was really loud with all of the music but they had a few fun shows, we saw some jugglers and the kids ALL loved that.  They count down at 9 to end the kids part and then we left before it got to crazy.  We got home about 9:45 and everyone was awake and ready to go.  So we went outside on the trampoline and watched all of the fireworks that everyone in the neighborhood were lighting off.  We did a few sparklers with the neighbors and some little poppers and then played around outside for a while.  When we came in it was already 11:40 and we got changed in their pjs and counted down to midnight altogether.  It is the first year any of our kids made it and they ALL did.  It was awesome though, being downtown split up the night nicely so it went fast and everyone had a good time.

Then since it was the weekend and the last one that Sea World is open for the season we decided to head to San Antonio.  We went first to my Aunts house see my cousin who had just gotten home from her mission.  She is awesome and I have not gotten to be with her much in my life the same as all of my cousins really.  So we spent the night with them hanging out talking and watching some tv.  Then the next day we headed over to Sea World.  It was a lot of fun, still really busy since it was the last day but fun.  We got to go to all of the shows the timing worked out perfect.  We saw the Polar Express in 4-D which the kids LOVED and then it was getting pretty cold so we got ready to head home.  We rented a movie for them to watch on the way home and they were awesome on the drive home.  It was our best short little trip ever and hopefully is a great sign for the new year.

Christmas 2010

Wow it has been forever again since I have written on here.  I am hoping that I will get better at this slowly at least as I have less kids at home:)  We had a really different Christmas this year staying here in Texas, but it also was really good.  It didn't feel like Christmas in some ways but getting to spend time together all day Christmas without running around and getting to do things the way I would like was REALLY nice.  We opened our presents slowly so everyone could see and we actually got to play with them and put them together, normally they can't open them up there since we would lose parts. 
We went and cut down our tree this year at a new place, that had a big sand hill you could sled down that the kids loved.  They also had big hay bales to run around on which the boys LOVED they were trying to jump across the big holes and we all had a blast.  It was so hot that we went for icees afterward at Sonic.
We also went to the Christmas tree lighting downtown this year that was a lot of fun.  Santa was suppose to repel down the side of the building and got stuck and lost half of his outfit which was kind of funny and a lot annoying to have to explain why he had black hair!  I took the kids to eat a few times during break of course once to Chuck E Cheeses with our good friends the Molinas.  We were invited to their house on Christmas Eve and it was a ton of fun, Helder made some great Venezuelan food and great company!  We also got to go the movies and watch Tangled which was a ton of fun, we never get to go since it is so expensive with the 6 of us. 

All in all we just had a really low key wonderful Christmas!