Fun filled weekend Part 2...picture overload

This past weekend we traveled to Corpus Christi for an early Christmas celebration. We had the best time visiting with my family. First up on our weekend was a breakfast with my grandparents and my cousin Jessica. It was great to get to visit with them and I LOVE LOVE LOVED seeing them. My grandparents are the most wonderful people. I cherish them dearly and I am so glad that I have gotten to share my kids with them. While in CC this weekend we got our first photo shoot of them with Samantha.

After our breakfast we headed to the Texas State Aquarium with the kids. This was the first time that Mason had ever been there and it was a great day to go b/c it was EMPTY. We were able to take our time and see all the exhibits as many times as we wanted too. Mason had a blast!! He loved looking at all the fish. I have to admit that the Dolphins were by far my favorite.

Mason watching the sting rays. He really liked them and later on in our visit was even brave enough to reach into the water and pet one.

Both Mason and I loved this little guy. How cute is he? But as cute as he is, this little porcupine would not be so pleasant to touch.

He was in amazed by these big guys.

But, as shown below he loved looking at fish of all sizes.

Our favorite part of the visit. These animals are so beautiful. I could have sat in the underwater viewing area all day long. They put on a great show for us.

The underwater viewing area.

The last part of our visit in Corpus was the gift exchange with my sisters family. We always buy gifts for all the kids so that is who exchanged presents. They had a great time opening their presents and they all loved what they got.

Mason and his cousins Zachary and Jacquelyn waiting to get their presents.

Mason tearing into his gift

Zachary wearing his gift. :)

Jacquelyn wearing part of her gift. I love these maraboo clips.

Samantha and her cousin Nathan. She is only 6 days older then he is but she is a bit shorter and chubbier. haha Aren't they so cute??

As you can see we had an amazing weekend. Merry Christmas!!!

Fun filled weekend

On Friday after we picked Mason up from school we set out on the road for College Station. Why you might ask? Well on HWY 6 as you are coming into CS there is a place called Santa's Wonderland. It is made up of millions of lights (literally) and we wanted to drive Mason through it because we knew he would love it. We let him jump to the front of the car and sit with mommy while we drove through and as expected he LOVED it. We also got to have dinner with Mamie in celebration of her birthday which had just passed. As an added bonus we got to visit with Uncle Mark and Aunt Macie. :) Uncle Mark has all sorts of fun "grown up" toys and let Mason play with them. On Saturday we left CS to head to Kenney, TX so that Paw Paw Tuck and Gigi Joy could finally meet baby Samantha. We had a great time and Mason and Samantha both enjoyed their visit with them.

Uncle Mark feeding Samantha as Aunt Macie admires the view :)

The entrance

A tunnel of lights

Mason and me checking out the tunnel as we drive through

Gig Em Aggies

Mason loved this choo choo train

How cute is he?

Paw Paw Tuck with baby Samantha

Paw paw and Gi gi with Samantha

Meeting the big man himself!

This evening we took Mason and Samantha to see Santa. You know that you live in Texas when you can go to a Bass Pro Shop store to see him. haha :) Anyways, I had been talking Santa up to Mason all day. Telling him that we were going to see him and he was going to sit on his lap. I told him that he was going to ask him what he wanted for christmas and to this Mason replied "presents". I said yes presents but what kind of presents? Since he didnt actually understand that question I sneakily planted a good answer into his head and told him that he should tell Santa that he wanted a choo choo train. Why a choo choo train you might ask? Because this IS one of the things that he is getting christmas. I know I am bad :) Anywho, Mason did a great job and did not get scared to sit on Santa's lap at all. He walked right up there and sat on his lap, talked to him for a bit and then took his picture. I was so proud of him for not being scared. The added plus to going to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop was that he got to look around at all the cool stuff in the store and he had a really good time. Thanks Santa for the fun memory.

Walking up to meet Santa

Both my babies with Santa

Playing on the four wheeler powerwheel (we may have to get him one of these next year)

Growling at the giant bear

Early christmas gift FUN!!

The gift giving started early in the LeRouax house this year. On the 25th Mason and Samantha will get presents from Santa but the gift today was from Mommy, Daddy, Mamie, Memaw, Paw Paw, Pop and Ya Ya. We are so thrilled to be able to give the kids their very own PLAYSET!!! The install company came this morning at 8 am to start putting it up and did not leave here until noon. I covered the back door with wrapping paper so that 1. Mason wouldnt be able to see out the window and 2. so that it would be like he was opening a big present when he did finally get to take a peek at it. On a side note it was a great way to use all my extra wrapping paper that isn't going to get used this year. :)

So this tactic worked all morning. He had no idea that there were people working in the back yard. Then after changing his diaper we were walking to the stairs and Derrek and I caught him do a double take at the eyebrow windows in the den. He had caught a glimpse and knew something was in the back yard. When we got to the bottom of the steps he immediately ran to the back door and said " I go outside." Derrek and I just had to laugh :) So we put some shoes on him and Derrek went with one camera to the back and I got the other from the inside and this is what we got.

Mason "opening" his present from the inside

And from the outside

His first good look with the door open

Now you are probably saying to yourself that he doesn't look very excited and in general you are right. The reason why he looks so down about it is b/c when we opened the door to get a good look it was RAINING!!! Poor kid! He gets this brand new playset that we knew he was itching to try out and it is raining. :( Well his father and I said to heck with the rain and eventually fun was had. He still had a blast!! Here he is enjoying his brand new playset as best he can in the rain.

Climbing the rock wall. He can actually do this by himself but since it was wet daddy the protector was there just in case

Turning the wheel

Trying to peer out the binoculars

At this moment he is yelling at me " Hi mom"

A view of the whole set.

Sorry the pictures aren't great but I was NOT going out into the rain. haha.

As you can see we have a lovely mud pit at the bottom of our set BUT in a few weeks the install company is coming back in and putting up a perimeter with some wood chips to fill it in as fall protection. Its pretty stinking awesome!!! A huge thanks to all of our family members who helped make this possible for our babies. Ya'll are THE BEST!!! We are very much looking forward to dryer weather so that Mason can have all his little friends over to play.

Photo shoot

Well there is nothing like trying to get your toddler to cooperate for a christmas card photo shoot. Needless to say we managed to get some decent ones and do mean only decent none of them were GREAT but I guess I will take what I can get. Mason just did not really want to work with us and Samantha well at least she isn't screaming in the one that we decided to put in the card. Here are some of the not so great ones :)

Puckering up his lips

That is one unhappy little girl

Giving rudolph's nose a squeeze

Pouting b/c he didnt want to listen

Merry Christmas!!!

SNOW!!!

ITS SNOWING!!!! We are so excited to have snow here for the 2nd year in a row. This morning we took Mason to school as usual and it was just melting on contact. By the time I got back on the road 20 minutes later it was fat and sticking. By 11 am we got the call from the school they were closing down and we needed to pick Mason up. Since Derrek took the day off he is on his way to get Mason. I hope he will have a blast playing in it when he gets home. Here are some pictures of the house on this beautiful WHITE snow day.

The front yard

The back yard. We may have a solid chunk of ice in the sand table later. haha :)

Across the street

Everything looks so much better with a light dusting of snow on it. HAPPY WINTER!!

Totally Chillaxin

The title says it all :)