Christmas Activities

Every year there are certain traditions that we have for Christmas. I always buy the kids new pajamas and let them open them on Christmas Eve because by then, I've heard, "Can't we just open ONE?!?!" a million and one times! We also leave cookies and milk for Santa Claus. Usually it's a whole plate full, but this year I was able to convince the kids that Santa only needs a couple of cookies since lots of other kids will be leaving him cookies too. We also had to leave carrots for Santa's reindeer because that's what he told them when we saw him at the mall. He said to leave chocolate chip cookies for him and carrots for the reindeer. (Thanks for being so picky Santa! ;-)


















Another tradition that we have is having a picture made with Santa. This year, no one was scared of Santa and everyone sat on his lap! The mall that we went to let me take my own pictures so I was able to get pictures of them talking to him and a group picture.
























We had a musical production at church this year. Nicole was Mary. Natalie and Lauren were angels. Jack was a shepard boy. He did good at practice, but the day of the performance he wouldn't get up there in front of everyone. A wonderful lady at church and her sister made all the costumes! They did a great job. Hopefully, we can make a Christmas performance an annual tradition.









































I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Duck Quiz

I saw this on another friend's blog (Autumn! :-) I'm an Inventive Duck. What kind of duck are you? Click on the picture below to take the quiz and find out.

Christmas Lighting Ceremony

This year Richard's cousin, Jim, invited us to his apartment Thanksgiving day to go to the lighting ceremony at the Galleria. We were able to park at his apartment and walk just a couple blocks to the Galleria. We have never been before, so the kids all had a great time!





















Nicole and Natalie playing with their glow sticks while we were waiting on Santa to make his entrance. There were groups singing too.

















Santa plugging in the cord to light the Christmas trees in downtown Houston.


















Santa giving the thumbs up sign to start the fireworks display.






















Uncle David, Richard's Aunt Joanne's husband, holding Lauren up to see the fireworks. The fireworks were beautiful! You could see the reflections ripple on the nearby buildings. You could feel it in your chest each time a new set were set off.
























































It was COLD, but we stopped long enough after the lighting ceremony to take a quick family picture.















Jim, Aunt Joanne, and Uncle David.

None of the restaurant were open, except for Starbuck's which had a line all the way around the store! We ended up driving around and found a tiny IHOP that was open. As it turned out, they were out of almost everything, but we were all able to find something to eat and we had a great visit. We may have to make this a yearly tradition!

Good-Bye Grandma

It's hard to believe that she is gone. What a life! 94 years old with 4 sons, 9 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great grandson! She was a very strong woman. I'm sure that raising four boys was not an easy job, but she made it look easy. I've heard so many stories about them growing up, and most of them started with, "Mom, look what my brothers did to me!" She and Grandpa sometimes used creative forms of discipline. One day the boys skipped school, so they went to their clubhouse and ate all their lunches! Her sons loved her more than anything. They loved to go see her every morning and have coffee with her, or just sit and play cards and chat with her. Even in their 60s and 70s, she would still threaten to put them over her knee if she needed to! She was a loving wife. I remember her giving Grandpa Thompson his shots of insulin each morning. They were married for over fifty years before he passed away. She lived twenty-two more years after he died. She was able to see her oldest son turn 74! She loved having her family around her and seeing all the children. She spoil each of us rotten. Anytime you went to her house, there were always cookies, candy, orange slices, etc. She loved flowers of all kinds and kept a greenhouse of her own for a while. She will be deeply missed. I love you, Grandma!

Labor Day Weekend

Just a couple of pictures from Labor Day weekend. We stayed at home and grilled steaks and baked potatoes. The kids spent the entire weekend in the pool. Now that school has started back, they won't be able to do that too much more. I LOVED Lauren's smile in this picture.


















Jack had fun with Natalie swimming around with him on her back.
















Here's another picture of all four kids in the pool.

First Barber Shop Experience

Granny "trimmed" Jack's hair one time because she has given all the kids their first haircuts, but Saturday we took him to Milford's Barber Shop for his first barber shop haircut. This is a picture of him holding his number and waiting for his turn to get in the barber's chair.



















His cute little curls before his haircut. (He is sitting on the footstool and leaning his head over, so the angle of the picture looks funny.)














He was NOT happy with the barber at all! I thought once he gave Jack a sucker that he would eat it and quiet down, but no such luck! He fussed the entire time.



















I took this picture of him Sunday after church. Doesn't his big boy haircut look cute?!?! He looks so much older now. When you ask him what happened to his hair, he just pinches a little bit of it and says, "Off!"



















This is what the back looks like now without the curls.

A Fun New Project

I just got this bag this week. It is a Purple Tree bag that will hold a 12 x 12 scrapbook layout. I can change out the scrapbook page when I make new pages and carry the bag back and forth with school stuff. I'm so excited about this! I saw a lady at the Frog Street Press conference in Dallas this summer who had a purse that held an 8 x 8 page, but I don't scrap that size. I saw this bag on the Polka Dot Potato website. They had it for less than half price since they are moving. Can't beat a cute project at a great price! Now to see how often I can change out the page!

Girlie Girls

We told Nicole that if she did well on her TAKS tests this year that we would take her back to Libby Lu. Since she made a PERFECT score on her reading TAKS test, we let her chose a friend to come with her. She has been waiting all summer for this! She and Remy have been best friends since kindergarten. We took them to eat and play games at Chuck E. Cheese and then to Libby Lu. They gave them an outfit to dress up, painted their nails, did their make-up, fixed their hair, and then the danced in the mall. They had a blast! It was a perfect day for a group of "girlie girls".

I took these pictures where you could see the girls in the mirror. I thought they looked so cute!

Nicole and Remy thought it was funny that everyone thought they were sisters!




















Nicole got the "dance diva make-over".




















Natalie got the "Hannah Montana make-over".




























































All the girls posing on the couch at Libby Lu. Remy got the "Rock Princess make-over". Lauren decided that instead of getting a make-over at Libby Lu that she wanted to buy some Dora the Explorer baby twins that she had been wanting for a long time, but she had fun watching the girls and dancing with them.















Dancing in the mall to Hannah Montana's "The Best of Both Worlds".
















Richard and Jack came with us too, but they walked around the mall while the girls were getting their make-overs. Everyone kept asking us, "Are those ALL your children?"

Our Little Soccer Star

These are some pictures that I took of Lauren in her soccer uniform. She is having such a blast playing soccer this summer! She is the smallest one on the team, but she's not afraid to get in there along with everyone else. She was so excited when she made her first goal and had to call all the grandparents on the cell phone.

Kitchen Sneak Peak

I've been meaning to update this blog, but since I started it, the kitchen remodel has pretty much taken over! We aren't quite through with it yet, but here is a sneak peek. We still need to add the crown moulding to the cabinets, and we are going to use African slate tiles for the floor. The backsplash is tumbled marble and the countertop is black granite. We thought the name of the color "Black Pearl" was funny because that's the name of Captain Jack's ship on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I'll post more pictures once we finish.

A Fresh Start

We have been wanting to remodel our kitchen ever since we bought our house almost twelve years ago. It was built in the 1930s and the cabinets are original! Well, since we are off on Winter Break this week, Richard and I got out the sledge hammers and demolished everything except for the floors! That will come out soon as the floor joists need to be replaced and resupported. It will be a lot of work, but I am so excited to finally get started on this project.