Samantha's program/The christmas train/A playdate

Since I have fallen behind I am having to lump a bunch of our December activities together. Oh well, at least it is all still getting blogged right? :)

Before school let out for the holidays Samantha's class had a parent luncheon/program. All the kids were so cute but I have to admit (and I probably wouldn't be the only one to say it) but Samantha stole the show. She stood next to the teacher and did the hand motions and sang all the songs. Every time the music started this child was dancing. It was adorable!! I wish I knew how to put videos on here so that I could show you all just how great she did, but regular pics will just have to cut it though. :)

Samantha and one of her favorite friends Madeline waiting for the music to start

In full dance and sing mode

Singing to her hearts content

In mid clap for herself (you can tell she just finished dancing too)

The night after the singing and dancing debut of the great Samantha we made a last minute trip to ride the Christmas Train at Victory Camp in Alvin. This was the second year that we took this little adventure with the Smith family and it was just as fun as it was the year before. The kids loved riding the train and seeing all the light displays.

My kids waiting for their turn to ride the train

All the kids together waiting to ride the train

The boys on the train

Samantha with her daddy on the train

The next week on the 22nd we had a Christmas Pajama Playdate with the Smiths and the Burkharts. The kids wore their pj's and we put on christmas movies and had some breakfast. We also decorated cookies.

Here they all are watching their show and eating breakfast

After breakfast and some crazy play time it was cookie decorating time!!

All the kids had a blast and it was a great way to start off Christmas weekend festivities.

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!