The Kemah Boardwalk

Earlier in the month Exxon Mobile hosted their family friendly Christmas Party at the Kemah Boardwalk. How lucky for us (me and the kids) that Mamie works for Exxon and we got tickets to go to this super fun event. Exxon thought of everything! They paid for the parking, they provided lunch, gave us all day ride passes for all the rides on the boardwalk and gave us game vouchers to play the games along the boardwalk. SO.MUCH.FUN!! Mason was tall enough to ride almost everything. I say almost because the one ride he wasn't tall enough for was the big roller coaster and believe it or not he asked to ride it and was completely DEVASTATED that he was 4.5 inches to short. :( It broke my heart!! Samantha didnt get to take as much advantage of the rides as brother but she still had a good time and got her face painted. Let me just tell you that my kids are absolute ride riding junkies. They LOVE it!! We also ended up coming home with about 10 stuffed animals after playing all the games. After tallying it all up a day that would have cost just over $200 (for 4 people for 5 hours) was absolutely free!! Thank you Exxon and Thank you Mamie!!!

We started out simple on the Carousel. Mason on his ostrich

Mamie with Samantha on her Sea Horse

Me and Samantha on the Ferris Wheel

Me and Mason (with his pirate eye haha) on the train

Samantha's awesome face painting. I was shocked when I saw her and couldn't believe she actually sat long enough to let them paint this on her face.

The three of us on the airplanes

My sweet babies loving each other

The three of us in the balloons

O Christmas Tree

This is the first time in 5 years that we have had a REAL christmas tree. I am so excited that both of my kids are finally at an age where we can go back having a real tree. They were so excited to go and pick one out (really it was an hour of me inspecting multiple trees while they ran around the lot with Derrek chasing them haha). Yes, thats right, we spent an hour in the tree lot. Considering the importance of the decision that had to be made (did I mention it has been over 5 years since we had a real tree) it had to be the most perfect tree I could find. And let me just tell you that I found myself a winner. This tree is so perfectly shaped that it actually looks FAKE. haha!! Anyways, we are happy to have us a real tree this year and for many years to come.

Here is our car looking all mountainy with our tree on top of it

The kids with my perfectly shaped christmas tree. :)

Happy Holidays!!

The Duke

Eerily similar dont you think?

haha!! Derrek LOVES John Wayne!! We came across this huge picture of him on our weekend trip to Yorktown, TX with the Smith family and of course had to get a picture. I wont lie though, I admit that my hubs has slightly turned me on to The Duke and I am a fan of a few of his films myself. :)

Backyard Campout

Derrek has been wanting to take Mason camping for some time now. Because of his overly busy schedule we decided that the best chance he would get to actually have this camp out was going to be in our very own backyard. Mason was so excited to get to have his backyard campout.

Here is daddy putting up the tent

The kids checking out the inside of the tent

The finished set up

Well the day passed and it was finally night time. We changed Mason into his jammies and grabbed his reveille (his favorite sleeping buddy) and the guys were ready to go. Derrek also stashed some chocolate away so that they could have a secret surprise when they got into the tent.

Here they are ready to go

My two guys climbing into their tent

Here they are in the tent ready for their night time campout.

I am proud to say that Mason slept out there the WHOLE night. I wasn't sure if he would or not but I was so proud of him for being such a brave boy. What a great experience for both daddy and son. I am pretty sure that after that fun event there will be many more a backyard campout in the future.

Happy Halloween 2011!!

I'm about 2 weeks late with this post but oh well. :) As usual we had a super fun Halloween. I will admit it was a wee bit difficult this year b/c Halloween fell on a Monday and Derrek is in class those nights so I was a solo show for the night. But we pushed on and made it through the night with success!! We started our night out at a party with some friends. The kids played and we ate yummy food then we headed out trick or treating.

The best pic I got of all the kids

All the sweet little girls in the group

Laila- this little sweetie is so petite that this is the exact same costume she wore last year for halloween. So adorable!!

My two little trick or treaters ready to go

Heading out to get some candy in luxury

After making it about 1 block with our friends we decided to head back to our own house for some trick or treating fun and to hand out our candy.

Here are the kids with our neighbor Ian. This was his first halloween. Doesn't he look adorable in his outfit?

The kids had a great time and Samantha picked up super quickly on the whole trick or treat thing at the door. We hope everyone had a fun filled and safe Halloween!!

Pumpkin Patch

We took the kids to the pumpkin Patch at their school to pick out a few pumpkins for the porch. We fully intended to carve one for Halloween but it never actually happened. Oh well! They had fun looking around and playing in all the pumpkins and that is what really counts anyways. On the plus side, I now have pumpkins on my porch as decoration for Thanksgiving!

Flashlight Candy Hunt

Back in September when I was going nuts registering the kids for all their activities through the Pearland Parks and Rec I also signed them up for the Flashlight Candy Hunt that they were going to host in mid October. Well about a week and a half ago we attended our flashlight candy hunt with our BFF's the Smith Family. The kids got to wear their halloween costumes for the first time this halloween season and they were so excited!!

Optimus Prime and the Blossom Fairy

When we got there they had bags for the kids to decorate, some sweet treats and they played a few games before the hunt. When it was time for the hunt they separated the kids by age (luckily all 4 of the kids fell into the same grouping). Since it isn't getting dark outside as early as the event took place they put the candy in a room and turned the lights out so the kids could use their flashlights to look for the candy. In general it was a little cheesetastic but the kids had fun and that is what counts.

These little bff's even chose the same halloween costume this year. They were so funny to watch too b/c they loved that they were both dressed the same.

All of the kids under the giant werewolf blowup

Hope everyone has a safe and happy halloween!!!

Samantha's 2nd Birthday Party

If you know me personally then you know how difficult it was for me to throw this birthday party (especially after last years). Between school starting up, me taking on a new gig and planning a 10 day vacation at the beginning of the month that her birthday falls in, I just did not have the time to devote to it like I did the year before. So Jump N Jungle it was! If you know Samantha then you know the child LOVES to jump so I knew she would have a great time no matter what. At the end of the day that is what truly matters anyways. :) All in all I think it was a great success and everyone in attendance had a great time. Here are a few shots from that day.

The kids all ready to go

Derrek only had to go with her a few times before she managed it on her own

Dr. Rog is the best wrestling buddy ever

Cutie Patootie Savannah (Mason's secret school crush heehee)

Little Miss Ella

Aubrey headed down the slide. She wanted nothing to do with any of teh bounce houses when she arrived and by the end of the party we had converted her. :)

Issac and his mommy Erin

Getting in some daddy play time (she loves hanging upside down)

Our attempts at getting a group picture. haha

After our hour and fifteen minutes of play time we headed into our party room for pizza and cake

My birthday girl enjoying her pizza

And of course and this point in her life no birthday party would have been complete without a DORA cake

Samantha licking her finger after sticking it in the corner of the cake

I cant believe that my baby girl is already 2 (she is definitely letting us know it too) haha. Time flies when you are having fun and we are definitely having fun with this little princess of ours.

Thanks to everyone who made it out to her party and made this day super special for her.

Happy 2nd Birthday Samantha!!!

I can not believe how quickly two years has passed with our little Samantha. I remember so vividly waking up the morning of my c-section and getting dressed to go to the hospital to have my baby. It was the most bizarre thing in the world. I remember telling the nurses at the check in desk that I didn't feel like I was about to HAVE a baby I felt like I was there to PICK out a baby. HAHA!

Although it has only been two short years it is hard to remember a time without her. Did we really only have one child at some point? Though she is the child that Derrek and I have both decided will be the one to give us grey hair early or drive us into the looney bin she really is AMESOME!! It truly has been amazing to witness the so called "maturity" difference between boys and girls. She is so much more vocal then Mason ever was at this age and it blows my mind the way she can understand us so well.

She really is a funny little thing too. The expressions that she makes when she is talking to us are just hilarious, yet they are so impressive b/c we cant believe she knew just what to do to capture our hearts while saying it. Example: Yesterday she was playing with Mason and she is laughing and laughing, then, she comes up to Derrek cocks her head over to her shoulder smiles this big smile and says "Brother so silly." We laughed histerically then later that night thought, man she is going to be trouble. She also loves to ask you a question and then when you give her the answer she repeats it with this high pitched inflection like she is so surprised by the answer. Again it cracks us up! Her little personality is starting to show and she is becoming her own little person with her own likes and dislikes, and trust me, you will know when she doesn't like something. As sweet as she can be (or at least make you think she can be haha) she can also be quite the stinker and her AT-TI-TUDE!! Whew its a doozey! Girlfriend can create some serious DRAMA!! HAHA!!

No matter how difficult she can be sometimes though we are truly blessed to have her and we wouldn't have it any other way. :) She is an answer to a prayer that this mommy has had since she (I) was a little girl. I am very much looking forward to the years that we have ahead of us with her. Mommy, Daddy and brother love you sweet girl. Happy Birthday!!!

Here is a quick look back at her first two years.

Newly born

2 months

4 months

6 months

8 months

11 months

1 year

14 months

18 months

23 months

2 years-Notice that the shirt she is wearing in this picture is the dress that she wore at her 1 yr party. heehee :)