December Adventures-part 1

December was yet another month full of fun adventures. The thing the kids were most excited about was Chris coming back on December 1st! But I believe he deserves his own post- so stay tuned!!
Brenna got a solo in the school Christmas play. She played Dolly Holiday. And she was supposed to be a cross between Dolly Parton, Ethel Murman, and Annie Oakley. What the heck??? I gave it some thought, and after reading her lines that referenced a Dolly Parton song- we just went with Dolly!
Finding costumes for things like this gives me the same anxiety as school projects...which I should tell you makes me feel the need to drink...heavily. But eventually it all came together, as it always does. And Brandi loaned us their rollers for Brenna's hair. Because Dolly must have big hair! She must also have big other things.....but I drew the line at that!
Brandi made these curlers look and sound super simple. That should have been my clue that they would be anything but simple. If it looks simple, and sounds simple...It's usually NOT simple! And these were not. There were tears and screaming. From Brenna AND me. Not my best parenting moment.

This child has SO much hair!!!

The next night I got her all gussied up and ready to go! Big hair and sparkly pants!

And just like when she did her solo at the talent show... she blew us all away. Man- this child has talent AND confidence! I love it!!! While she was singing, people were texting me from the crowd telling me how awesome she was! I was slightly glad I wasn't sitting next to Josh, since he gets nervous enough for 10 people when she performs! ha! At the talent show- I thought he was going to throw up!

Our little star had quite the crowd too! Nina, Aunt Kim, Pops, Memaw, Aunt Emily, Uncle Joey, Wyatt, Walker, Mrs. Kathy, Mrs. Jackie, Mrs. Brandi, Madison, and Maylee! As well as Mommy, Daddy and Macie! Whew! That's a lot of people!
Afterwards- we went to Fuzzys with Pops, Memaw, and the Popes to celebrate Pops' birthday! Nothing beats family time!
Walker found himself a new chew toy!

Yep- shouldn't every baby chew on pocket knife??! ha!
The next morning- yes, the very next morning- Brenna had to be at school at 6:30 to leave for UIL. She was SO excited about it that she would tell anyone that would listen that she had to be at school at 6:30 AM. I can remember the days of doing things like this. And I remember that it made me feel so important to have to be there early or late. And the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
So we got up super early and got ready for her big day in Eastland!

And let me tell you- sending her off was hard! I wanted to go with her. I wanted to make her stay home and tell her she wasn't old enough to go off to Eastland for 12 hours for a competition. But alas- I got my emotions in check and went on to work wondering every minute how it was going. I did get lucky and our friend Jackie Pilgrim was with them and sent me updates on how B did! And pictures!!

She'll never know how grateful I was for her that day! And I was super excited to get the news that B had advanced to the finals!!! WOOHOO!! She worked so hard on her poem, and read it for everyone who would listen. The most special part for me was that she read the same poem that I read in 8th grade UIL- Mrs. Stein by Bill Dodds. It melted my heart to hear her read it.
And later that evening- I got the final word...she got 3rd place! I was SO very proud of our baby girl! She wanted it, she worked for it, and she did it!!! And she was still on cloud 9 when I picked her up at 7pm that night at the school! Needless to say- it was a long two days for our little star!

One Thursday we made a last minute decision to take the girls out of school early and set out on a little family fun adventure. We all needed some family time, and sometimes you just gotta take the time when you can! We started off with lunch at Papasitos, and moved on to the ICE exhibit at the Gaylord Texan!

I love walking around in there and seeing all the decorations.
Family selfie attempt!

Thankfully a nice gentleman saw our pathetic attempt to all be in the picture and offered to take one for us!

The ICE was beautiful- as usual!

The ice slide in the middle provided endless entertainment for us all! Macie especially enjoyed watching her Daddy slide down it!

Macie watching her Daddy slide, and giggling SO loud the whole time!

After the ICE exhibit, the girls did some snow tubing.

They had a blast! And we enjoyed watching them have fun!

When we left the Gaylord, we decided to make a run by Nana and Papa's house to see them for a few minutes.

It didn't take these two long to start searching for treats in the kitchen! That's what I love about a grandparent's house... you can always find something good in the kitchen. On this day it was cookies and candy.
Nana had her tree up and it was, as always, beautiful!

Man they look so big here.

During a discussion on phones, Papa showed Brenna and Macie that not all cell phones are Iphones. This totally blew their minds!! His phone didn't have ANY games OR the internet!!

Then he taught them about phones with cords! Yall- we totally rocked their worlds with these concepts! Brenna had to see for herself how it worked.

I laughed SO hard! Important life lessons were learned that evening!
We had a great visit! It was nice to catch up and let the girls spend a little time with their great grandparents. We don't get to see Nana and Papa nearly often enough. But hugs were plentiful on our way out!

Those two armed Macie hugs are the BEST!!

Not much longer and she'll be as tall as her Nana!

We ended the evening with dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Such a great family day! And much needed. It always seems that during the holiday season, schedules get crazy and we all get wrapped up in the hustle and bustle and we just needed some time to be together. Just us.

The girls and I all 3 had Santa hat day at school on the same day!

This right here deserves being remembered...
When I was little, I always remember my Nina stapling a piece of paper to her purse strap with something written on it that she needed to remember. Very rarely did I see her that there wasn't a note stapled to her purse strap. This concept always made me laugh. As a child, I couldn't fathom why she would need to do this. Why couldn't she just remember to do the thing? Well, at 37 years old, this happened....

Yep- I stapled a note to my purse strap to remember something I needed to do. And I couldn't help but laugh! I was becoming my Nina! But I was afraid I would forget to do the thing I needed to do. And I wasn't sure what time I would get to do it, so setting an alarm on my phone wouldn't do me any good. So I resorted to the resourcefulness I learned many years ago from my grandmother! The good news? I remembered to do the thing! So this method is effective!

One Saturday, I got tickets to take the girls to have breakfast with Santa at Central Christian Church. It is sponsored by the local CASA for children, so it's for a great cause! We went last year and absolutely loved it. Santa pictures were first up on the list when we walked in. Followed by pancakes and bacon!

Oh man- I love these two so much it hurts! 

After they ate, they made the rounds at the craft tables.

Balloons!

Decorating stockings! With glitter glue.... I HATE glitter glue.

More crafts

Writing a letter to Santa!

After we left there, we NEEDED a picture for our Christmas Cards! So we went over to Holland Lake Park. Did I mention that it was like 25 degrees outside and the wind was blowing like crazy??? So as any good mom would do, I bribed them to take a decent picture. I'm not even a little ashamed. Christmas card pictures are serious business people. So I bundled them up and we set off to find the perfect spot. I would pose them, tell them to remember that pose, and then take their coats off of them while telling them to smile pretty and to not look like they were freezing! (yes- my Mom of the year trophy should be arriving any day now...) Luckily I managed to get a few good ones!

By this last one, you can certainly tell that Macie was DONE!

Thankfully we got a good one I could use and we were out of there!

On the last day of school before break, Brenna had her UIL awards assembly and Macie had her Christmas party! I was so glad to be able to be there for both!
My 3rd place champ!!!!

And my sweet first grader!

We were so excited to be out of school for Christmas break!!! They got to leave a few minutes early and come back to work with me for our faculty luncheon. They always look forward to coming to Mommy's school!
The Saturday before Christmas, we went to the Pizza Place to have lunch with Sara (or as Macie says "My Mrs. Sara") Don, Prissy and Leo. We love our Saturday Pizza Place lunches with this great group of people! And they are always so sweet to welcome us to join them. Almost every Saturday the girls ask "Can we go eat with Mrs Sara at Pizza Place?!" I'm not sure if that is sweet or pathetic! LOL! Either way, they enjoy it and so do I.
Sara and Prissy had ensured that we would be there that day, and I quickly realized why! They had gifts for the girls! And they spoiled them big time! Prissy had goody bags full of fun things for them, and Sara got them monogrammed bows! They loved it all! And then Mr. Don taught them an important life lesson....how to scratch lottery tickets!

Macie was super into it!

And I was a tad ashamed that they had never scratched lotto tickets before! Poor deprived children! But thanks to Mr. Don, they now know what Lotto tickets are and Brenna asks for them regularly!
As soon as we got home, Macie put on her new bow got to work on the coloring page that Mrs. Prissy gave her!

These ladies will never know what it means to me that they love my girls the way they do.

That evening Josh and I went to the Riley's Christmas party with Chuck, Brandi, and Steve. Jamie was at another party with some girlfriends. And Madison and Tori kept all of the little ones. Sure is nice to have a sitter just down the street!
We all had a blast eating, laughing, drinking, laughing, and being Merry! But every time we are all together it sure makes me miss the days of when we all lived in the same neighborhood.

Just missing Jamie!

LOVED Sarah's skirt! It was a tacky Christmas party, but we didn't dress up. Josh wouldn't do it, and I am more of a follower than a leader...

The guys...Minus Santa Schaef! Not sure where he was...but we snapped the picture anyway!

And before we left, we decided that a group picture was in order, and we would just hold up Jamie's picture so that she could be in it too! Steve was assigned the task of holding her picture up, and he took his job very seriously! The rest of us were the ones that couldn't quit laughing! But in our defense- when Schaef Riley is involved in a picture you can rest assured that he won't take it seriously! I'll let the pictures tell the story for themselves.

And this picture right here sums up our friendship! (notice how everyone is laughing hysterically and there's Steve....holding the picture just as he was instructed to do!)

Thanks for a great evening Riley's!!! Now- move back to our neighborhood where you belong!!!!