Merry Christmas

Holidays always kick my behind.  Not sure why.  I offer to do to much then I get so overwhelmed I have a hard time enjoying things.   A few years ago I learned to scale things down for the boys.  They get just 4 things.  Something they want, need, wear, and read.  Then the main family gift and something from Santa.  It has defiantly made the Christmas shopping less expensive and stressful. That's for sure   This year we was our 1st one in Houston.  I also volunteered to be the room mom for both boys classes.  Luckily just a helper to Gavin's and the main one to Josh's.  so I had their parties to prepare. I was also asked to teach the Christmas lesson and come up with the Christmas present for the entire young women organization in our new ward.  And my parents were coming.  The 1st Christmas anyone has ever joined us.  To say I had a few things on my plate was a bit of a understament.  I'm still trying to find my way here.  This move has been quite the adjustment for me.  Overwhelming adjustment.  Houston is just so different from anyplace I've ever been.  I'll get the hang of it (hopefully)

My parents arrived the 19th and I had all these plans of taking them around.  But my Dad is a homebody (like me) and I was just so exhausted we ended up not doing to much.  We did venture out and see Christmas lights and my Mom and I did a lot of shopping but that's about it.  I thought my Mom was going to go nuts I felt so bad.  Hopefully when I get more comfortable driving around here I'll dare take her to the beach, and the Houston space center and all the things I have been wanting to check out. 

Christmas eve we did our tradition of the Chocolate fountain.  My Mom was surprised that we do this considering how messy it is and how much of a clean freak I am.  But the boys love it so much and I only break it out once a year that it's worth the huge mess.  The thing I love the most about it is we all just sit around the table and talk enjoying yummy chocolate.  My favorite its fresh pineapple and strawberries.  And I put coconut oil with the chocolate chips so it gives it a nice slight coconut flavor.  Yum. 

Gavin is always a huge mess after this.  But Gavin is always a huge mess after I give him a glass of water.  This kid is always sticky.

Our challenge was the upstairs of our house is open on the catwalk, and there is a opening by the game room.  When my SIL Diane came to see the house she asked "how are you going to do Christmas with out the boys seeing?"  Something I didn't think of when we were looking.  And yes it made for a big challenge.   Luckily Santa left a Trampoline for the boys so there wasn't to much that wasn't wrapped for them to see.  I had to put the younger two to bed 700 times that night.  So Santa came in the wee hr.s.  He was going to put up the trampoline that night but was to exhausted from all his deliveries that he just left a spring in the socking for the boys and we all got to put it together Christmas Morning.  It was pretty funny as they kept saying what it this and didn't figure it out for a while.

Josh had been asking for the Mellinum falcon for two years.   It's expensive and the problem we have with getting these big sets is the kids put it together then someone breaks it.  They throw all the pieces in with the 7,000 Legos we have and it never gets built again.   So I decided if he asked again for it this year we would get it and put it up high.  His face was priceless.  He's such a happy kid.

Gavin wanted everything Plants VS zombie related.  This kid is so funny. 

And Trevor wanted the Lebron shoes.  I can't believe we are at the age with our kids where they want only electronics, nike elite socks and super expensive Shoes.  He was thrilled.

My Mom got lots of books.  And some new glasses.  I had to laugh as she was reading with out taking the tag off the glasses.

The trampoline was a huge hit.  They miss our one in Round Rock that got destroyed by a huge windstorm.  And I am more than thrilled to send them outside to wear off some energy when they get wild. 

We did lots of baking.  Well I did.  Ryan always has to have his peanut butter balls (not pictured) and candy cane cookies. 

And I made some orange rolls.  Love these things.

Gavin spent days out on the trampoline just saying "Thanks Santa".  It was beyond cute.

It took him 3 days but he got it done. 

It's been Chilly here (unusually cold for TX) and Sadie refused to go outside.  So we got her a little outfit to keep her warm.  She was less then thrilled to be in it.  We would put it on her and she would just sit there not move and look at us like we were complete idiots.  It was so funny.  And she just looks so stinking cute in it.  The poor thing. 

Gavins Bithday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, football, and Purto Rico.. A really long post!!!!

 Gavin was beyond excited for his 7th Birthday he had to days counted down since September. This little guy loves life and loves anything that has to do with a celebration.  Its always fun celebrating him.  I gave him one gift the night before his birthday. This plants VS zombies shirt.  He loves red and he loves that dumb game so much so he was super cute when he opened it.  He ALWAYS wants to wear it now.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 









 



 

We were lucky that my Parents had come up to see us they wanted to see the new house and spend some time up here.  I love having family here and it was super fun to have Grandma go to lunch with Gavin on his birthday at his school.  He really loved showing us all the kids and telling us all the rules. 



He just couldn't wait to open up his presents.  He always asks for the most bazaar things.  Like a giant gummy bear on a stick, a pea shooter that actually shoots peas, and creepy crystal grower. Watching him open his gifts is always so funny.  He always sais "how did you know I love that?" 


While my parents were here my AWESOME, AMAZING Dad built a out door kitchen.  When we looked for homes we looked at so many and zero had double ovens ZERO and none had a outdoor kitchen.  Two things we really loved about our Round Rock house.  So luckily our patio had a huge cover and we are able to build the out door kitchen.  Now if only I could figure out how to get the double oven.  I felt so bad my poor Dad worked so hard.  It took him the full two weeks to complete this.  And I was super proud of Ryan he was out there the days he could after work and helped.  This is so not Ryan's thing.  But he was eager to learn and happy to help.  It was fun watching the two men I love more than anything work together to create something we will all enjoy for many years to come.

 

 

 

All we need is the granite to finish it.  That has been quite the challenge all on it's own.  Who would of thought finding just a small slab of granite would be so challenging?  Then Ryan can put up his Primo.  Yes he will have two smokers.  He's a little obsessed. 

 

I love it we spend so much time outside here in TX. 

 

 

Trevor completed a whole football season with out any injury's.  No broken bones.  It was so fun to watch him.  I was super nervous as he was the left defense.  I questioned the coach as he's one of the skinniest kids on the team.  But he's tall and fast  and he did such a great job.  I had to laugh at the coach the last game as he told Trevor to gain 10 lbs by the next week because the kid that he's going up against is 100lbs heavier then him.  I really don't think 10lbs was going to do much more of a difference. 

Sadly he couldn't play the last two games he got sick and missed 3 days of school which made him miss 3 practices and put him way behind in Spanish.  His Spanish class is all done in class and if you are missing assignments they wont let you play no excuses.  While it was a bit frustrating for all of us it taught Trevor a great lesson.

Football is pretty crazy here in TX.  Super aggressive.  I was proud of Trevor for sticking with it and rocking it.  Their team rounded out the season with a 5-1 win.  Not to bad.  I sure hope he has gotten it out of his system thought.  I don't think I can handle high school football with this accident prone kid.  I've really been pushing Track.  He's really great at it. And I would love to train and run with him to get my own body back in shape :).


After my parents left Ryans parents came up for a little visit.   While they were here Josh's class had this presentation on a book that they read.  It was such a fun way for the kids to do a book report we all loved it.  Josh and his friend Chase did the book Hatchet.  Josh loves that book and has read it several times.  So they did an amazing job.  Why he wanted to dress up like a rapper was beyond me.  He rapped his part and Chase was very political about his.  It made for a fun book report.

Josh's class.  He has some amazing teacher this year.  Thank goodness!!!!

 

Halloween came and went in a flash.   You have to wait until the day before Halloween to carve pumpkins here or the rot to soon.  So I forgot to buy the pumpkins until that day and it was slim picking.  I mean I got the last 3 that were at the store.  They were sad ones to say the least.  Ryan was working late and so it was up to me.  I figured the kids are old enough this year to do their own.  So I helped Gavin cut his top off he took one whiff of the thing and then threw up. There was no way he was touching the guts.  He was the most excited about the pumpkin carving too.  And he had to have a pea-shooter pumpkin.  Seriously this Mom's not to talented in the drawing, crafting department.  It was quite the challenge to figure out how to carve one. 

Then Josh got his all cut and cleaned out and as he was carving his ghost he stabbed himself.  Just a little nick and this was after I said "be careful you don't carve it that way as he was stabbing the pumpkin"  To which he replied. "don't worry Mom I'm a boy scout."   It looks like we need to work on his knife badge a little more.  So I got to carve his as well.  Trevor was doing his homework and was going to carve his the next day.  Unfortunally it was rotten that morning.  I'm so not a fan of this pumpkin carving tradition.

 

That night the older two went out with some friends and Ryan and I went with trick or treating with Gavin and some people from our neighborhood.  I love Halloween in TX.  It's always perfect weather. Way better then the freezing Halloweens I had in UT. growing up or the wet and freezing ones in Seattle.  That's for sure.

 

 

 

Ryan has worked so hard this last year.  We didn't get to see him much.  And we had so much going on.  Me with my surgery at his most stressful time of the year, then we were trying to find a house and move in the last part of his busy time of year.  And with all the other little crazy things that we call life he somehow managed to rock it and got awarded the the #1 Salesman of the year in his division of Microsoft.  And with that he became a gold club member and was awarded a trip to Purto Rico.  It's not easy to get so this was a huge deal.  And I couldn't tell you how hard he works or how much he deserves it.  He's good at his job, he loves what he does and he's always so thoughtful about others that so many people really look up to him and enjoy working with him. It was fun to meet people I never knew and hear about how great Ryan is.  And how respected he is in his job.  I could go on and on about how proud of him I am.  He's pretty incredible.

 

I've been looking forward to this trip for so long.  I can't believe it already came and went.  Ryans parents were brave and kind enough to take on the kids for 5 days so we could go.  They rock.

Microsoft went all out. We stayed at this resort on a hill about a hr away from the main part of town.
Puerto Rico was interesting.  It's so poor.  Everything has bars on it.  EVERYTHING.  The crime has gotten so bad there they warned us multiple times to keep our items with us, don't walk around at night etc  I didn't understand why they picked Puerto Rico as the location for this trip but when I realized it was the whole division of Microsoft from, Canada, to Brazil. And it's part of the US so the money exchange wouldn't be so hard I understood a little more.  While I liked it and can't complain it just wouldn't be a place I would pay to go back to again. 

One of my favorite things they did was they rented out a private island. And had a bunch of excursions  you could do on it.  We picked Kayak.  It was nice and relaxing to kayak around the little island to another deserted island.

 Everywhere we went they had a professional photographer.  Constantly taking pictures.  It was funny.

We took a little fairy from our resort to the island.

The island from the resort

 

It was a beautiful beach.  I love just walking in the sand from one end of the beach to the other.
When we got to the island they gave us all a free pair of Kaenon glasses.  There were little surprises like that all along the trip.

 



They smoked us a huge lunch.  Ryan loved that.  They had to take all the equipment from the resort over to the island.  And they brought in portable bathrooms thank goodness. 

The next day we did a food tour of town  San Juan.  Ryan and I love to explore and I love to try new food so it was a perfect day. 

 

 

 

 

The tour group.  Two were from brazil.  And the Lady in the black shirt we found out just moved to Round Rock and in our old neighborhood in July.  She didn't buy our house wouldn't that of been weird.  What a small world we live in huh. The cute couple with the girl in the blue dress is from Canada and is expecting twins. 

 I don't remember the name of this sandwich but it was the best thing I ate there.  And the fresh mango smoothie.  YUMMY!!!

The homes downtown. Every building had a different color or style to differentiate where one started and the other ended.

 

This was a old chapel at the end of a cliff.   It's a very catholic driven city.  A lot of history there.

They had statues like this all over the place.  It looked so real.  I loved it.

 

 

We went to 5 resturants.  At one we made their custom dish called Mofongo.  It's interesting.  I'm not sure I'm a plantain fan.  But it was fun to try it.   The sad part it the night before Ryan and I went to this little restaurant that everyone said we had to go to and try that dish.  So we had it two days in a row.  I liked the one I made better because I could squash the plantain a little more.  I wasn't a fan of it chunky.

 

We had a few down days where we just relaxed by the beach and explored the resort.  We went on a walk outside of the resort walls and ran into some wild dogs so we walked back.  We don't do wild animals.  They looked hungry.

 

The last night they had a huge dinner and show for all the people that came.   They always go over the top.  And I'm always amazed at how much these grown adults cut loose.  Oh man a 70 year old man should get drunk and dance on a table.  But hey he was funny to watch. 

The beautiful golf course on the resort grounds.

 Then we came back the madness.    Trevor decided since he made it all of football with out a injury that he needed to break his leg playing basketball.  What a stressful day this one.  I finally figured out how to get to our dr.  Then he sent me to a orthopedic surgeon out in the middle of no where and my gps leads me astray.  I had all 3 kids with me.  Ryan was out with a customer at a big dinner.  Josh was mad because he was missing scouts and Gavin kept saying he was going to die if he didn't get dinner soon.  5 hourss later.  We learned it was a hairline fracture to his left ankles growth plate.  He just has to wear a boot for 3 weeks then do physical therapy.  4 broken bones for this kid FOUR.  I felt so bad for him.  He was feeing pretty defeated.

 

 

 

Then we had Thanksgiving.  This is the only picture I took.

 



I was super excited to use my life size pot to make my turkey brine.  Usually I have to do it in several batches. 
We had Diane and Fernando with their two cuties and a family from our ward over.  It was a nice day with good food.  Even if my stuffing was off.  UGH. 

 

We started decorating for Christmas.  And my wreath I LOVED flew off the door and broke.  I deemed it unfixable.  I tried but it just crumbled.  So sad.

We went and saw FROZEN.  I loved it.  The music is so wonderful in it.

We started the advent calendar with our traditional decorating of a gingerbread house.  Trevor made the house this year.  He refused to let me take a picture of him.  But he did pretty darn good. 

 

 

It's the busiest my stressful time of the year coming up.  My calendar is filled everyday.  So I can't wait for the boys to be out of school and for us to just spend some quality time as a family reflecting on what is important.  The savior and each other.