4th of July Fun!

Christmas Day

This year we celebrated Christmas day at home. Santa made his stop and the kids enjoyed playing with their new toys all morning long. We made a turkey lunch and Grandma S joined us. The kids had a wonderful day just playing and lounging in their Christmas pajamas.

Santa came! Checking out the loot.

Opening one of the gifts from Santa

One of Autumn's gifts ~ a monkey baby

Autumn willingly smiled for me ~ she is so cute!

Opening up another gift from Santa

Autumn got a baby swing from Grandma S

Swinging her baby :)

Merry Christmas!

Butterfly wings from our friend "L"

One of the only smiles Mason would give me all day! I still think he is handsome :)

Christmas Eve

Autumn pushed the chair to the door, climbed up, and was trying to open the closet door. Very clever :)

Mason in his Christmas pajamas and very excited!

Autumn in her Christmas pajamas and also excited!

Trick or Treat 2011

We did the normal trick or treating this year. A few friends joined us this year ~ a total of 5 kiddos tagged along. Our nieghborhood gets pretty busy, so there was plenty of candy. Our friend "R" was the ringleader, and I mean that is a good way. He took charge and the other kiddos followed and before you knew it we had 3 kids going to each door without the parents. Very cute! The little ones ! Autumn and "M" were a little reserved. Autumn got her first candy and she was good! She wanted to hold it and didn't really care about going to more doors.

It was a great evening and we had fun with our friends!

My little pumpkin witch. No hat - oh well!

 

 

The Gang!

 

My firefighter!



Happy Halloween!





Labor Day Festivities

As one trip to the beach wasn't enough, we went again! We decided at the last minute (like 2 days before) to go to Port Aransas for Labor day. Thankfully there were some rooms still on the beach at our favorite place so we booked and took off. My MIL joined us on this impromtu trip. We arrived about 8 Friday night and settled in. We spent all day Saturday and Sunday at the beach - we set up an umbrella and chairs and spent the days playing in the sand, water and walking the beach. There was a storm near New Orleans so the tides we really far in and the shallow water was a good 30 feet into the shore. That gave my kids so much room to run in about 1 feet of water. They loved every minute of it. We pretty much stayed at the beach and our room. The island was crazy busy for the holiday so we ate our meals in the room (gotta love condos with kitchens!) and relaxed. We headed home on Monday. The drive to and from was not bad at all. Of course the first drive (to Florida) was so long this went by super fast.

It was a very fun weekend!

 

4th of July 2011

This year 4th of July was super fun. Our city still did the fireworks, so people from all over central Texas came down for the festivities. It was busy but very worth it. We arrived about an hour before the fireworks and it was already packed. We found a spot and just hung out until the fireworks started. Both kiddos did great! They both sat still and watched the show. Well, Mason kinda sat still but that's normal.

Afterwards we high-tailed it out of there and hit very little traffic. We didn't get lost this year!



Such a cute halter top ~ I could not resist!

 

Cheese!

 

My boys :)

Easter Weekend

We had a fun easter weekend. On Saturday afternoon, we headed to Lee's house so Mason and Lee could play. It just so happens that Lee's grandparents were in town so we got to visit with them for a bit. It was a great visit and the kiddos played hard all afternoon.

Saturday night, Mason helped mommy put out the baskets for the Easter bunny to fill. We left them on the coffee table so the Easter bunny could easily find them. When Mason woke up Sunday morning, mommy pointed out the Easter bunny came and Mason went straight to his basket to check out his goodies! Autumn also checked out her basket with the help of daddy.

After baskets, we got ready and headed to church. We joined Robert's mom at Immanuel Lutheran for their family service. The pastor (Pastor Tom) uses an "aid" to tell the story of Easter to all the kiddos. His aid is a pelican named Peli, of course! Peli told the kids all about his Easter goodies which included chocolate covered fish eyeballs. He even brought some to share. Pastor Tom looks in the basket and says "These are M&M's!" Peli's response? "Yeah, Maui-Maui!" Ha! The rest of the service went nicely and even Autumn was in a good mood. Of course, daddy was feeding her a snack - goldfish!

After the service, we went back to Sherry's house for some yummy ham and fixings. There was plenty of food and we brought home lots of leftovers. Mason, Autumn and Grandma played outside and grandma decided to "hide eggs" and let Mason have an Easter egg hunt in her backyard. Mason starts picking up the eggs, opening them, and dropping them back on the ground saying "no candy." He already got all the candy out of them but he still wanted more!

We finally headed home when we spent the rest of the evening doing stuff around the house. Robert mowed the backyard and Mason had to help, as always. They both (Robert and Mason) had taken off their t-shirts and I so wanted to get a picture of that....maybe next time!



Mason and his Easter basket. Can you see he already got to the candy??

 

Autumn checking out her Easter basket

 

Grandma Sherry with the kids



The Sullivan Gang!

A complete sidenote, but this is the church we were married in. All together now...awh :)

Happy St. Patricks Day!

We are sporting our green so no pinching!

V-Day

Happy Valentine's Day 2011!

Mason did wear a red shirt later on that day, but it was a lightining mcqueen shirt. Mommy knows better than that!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was at our house this year. Both Mason and Autumn got Christmas pajamas to wear-Masons PJs had snowman skiing on candy canes and Autumns PJs said I heart Santa on the front with stars all over. Super cute! After breakfast, we opened gifts. Mommy made the mistake of letting Mason open his stocking first which was filled with the matchbox cars. Mason was so excited about the cars he didn't want to open anything else. Mommy had to help and coax him along. Along with his cars (he got several sets) Mason also got some new books, puzzles and DVDs.
Then Autumn had her turn. She of course was more interested in the wrapping paper and pulling up on the boxes, but she liked to help pull the paper off. Autumn got a couple of new toys that make noise/play music and a new little riding toy.

Mason in his Christmas PJs
Autumn in her Christmas PJs


Later that morning, my parents and sister came over. They came loaded down with gifts for the kids. Lets just say the kids got lots of goodies.

Autumn playing in her new ball house with Aunt Julie

Mason playing with his new train track

Autumn and Grandma Melva


Roberts mom also came over and the kids experienced round 3 of present opening. Everyone gave great stuff, we feel so fortunate to have all this love!

Mason and Grandma Sherry playing

After presents, Robert and I finished making lunch. My mom brought over a turkey and Robert made a ham-yummy! We all sat down for lunch and afterwards the kids went back to playing and we all just hung out. Mason was so excited to play with his new toy cars and train that he didn't want to nap and he played all afternoon. It took us forever to get him to bed. Robert said he woke up about 2am and heard Mason playing. Mason didn't even want to sleep! That is how much he liked his new stuff. Silly kid!

We all had a great Christmas and were happy our family could come over.

Grandma, Grandpa and Mason

Grandpa Rick and Autumn

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas in East Texas 2010

We recently went to east Texas to celebrate Christmas with some of Robert's family. We started in Tyler on Saturday (Dec 18) at Victor and Margie's house for the annual Christmas party. Tyler is where Robert's mom grew up and where she has family. The drive up there was not too bad. The kids were good and we made just one stop in Waco-at the yummy Rudy's BBQ. After lunch we made great time at got to Tyler about 1:30pm. We ended up hanging out at the hotel for a little while just relaxing from the drive and then we headed over to Victor and Margie's. Mason was so good. He spent the whole night playing with cars he found, one car in particular he would not let go of. It was an old school firebird which still had doors that would open. He even convinced Victor he could take it home with him-thanks Uncle Victor!
Autumn was a different story. I don't know if it was the amount of people or just the drive, but she wanted nothing to do with anyone but her mommy. Autumn and I got lots of cuddle time, that's for sure :)

The next morning, we took our time getting ready and left about noon to head over to Lufkin. Lufkin is about 90 miles from Tyler and we decided since we were already going to be up there that we would visit both places. To get to Lufkin from our house is at least 4 hours, so you can see why we made this choice. Lufkin is where Robert's dad and some of his family lives.
We got to Lufkin and were able to check into the hotel early. After a quick stop for a late lunch, we headed over to Eileen's and John's houses. Eileen and John live in two houses on the same lot. Eileen is John's sister and John is Robert's dad. John lives in the one bedroom house with his mom Lottie, who everyone calls Mam-Maw. Robert's sister Leslie and her husband Balaji also came to Lufkin (they live in the Dallas area). For the most part, we all hung out at the house and opened presents. Mason got Robert's old wooded truck, and enjoyed playing with it at the house. About 7pm the kids were done so we went back to the hotel for a little rest.

Mam-Maw, Mason and Grandpa


Mam-Maw and Autumn


Great-Aunt Eileen and Autumn


Autumn and Grandpa


The next morning, we went back over the the house and picked up grandpa and headed to the city park. Best idea ever! Mason got a good hour of playtime before we met everyone for lunch and was really good at the restaurant. Cousin Suzy joined us for lunch. There is a big age difference with John and his older sisters, so even though Suzy is a cousin she feels more like an aunt! After lunch we headed out for the long drive home.

Cousin Suzy and Autumn

Cousin Suzy with Robert, Mason and Autumn