Cooper's 8th Birthday!

We just celebrated Cooper's EIGHTH birthday!  That's right, his eighth.  This sweet guy is just the best!  On October 4th, his actual birthday, Cooper was treated to his name on the marquee at school, cupcakes at cub scouts, and presents at home.  On the following Saturday we celebrated some more with a pool party at home.  The Naisers, Ma-mas and Pa-Pa, and many friends from school came over to join the fun.  Coop is absolutely wild about Angry Birds right now, so that was the theme of the party.  He also received Angry Birds Legos as gifts, amongst other things.  All in all we had a great week celebrating our big guy!

Cooper was surprised and thrilled to see this at school when he was dropped off in the morning.  

The first of the party pics...Cupcakes!

Boys have important things to discuss.

Bad Piggies...

After swimming and cake, Cooper took his friends on a tour which included showing them the chicken coop and playing on the playground.

Angry Birds!

More Angry Birds!

Penny's Sixth Birthday!

 Yesterday we were happy to celebrate Penny's sixth birthday!  We enjoyed a visit from Nonnie and a swim party to help make Penny feel special on her day. Ma-Mas, Pa-Pa, our family of five, and five of Penny's friends came over to swim, make princess crowns, eat cupcakes and open gifts.  It was so much fun and Penny was so happy!

The spread...we are ready for this princess swim party to start!

She's ready!  Here she is making her "princess face."

Our swimming princess.

Penny and friends make their own crowns!

Group shot of all the princesses!

Group shot...plus one photo bomber.

I think she had fun.

Blow out the candles and make a wish!

Girls just keep on having fun!

 Such a fun day!  After the party we all relaxed but we weren't done!  After dinner Penny got to open more presents from Mom and Dad and all the kids played with the new toys until bedtime.

And That's a Wrap!

We tried our best to make the most of  our last month of summer, cramming in every fun thing we could think of.  We spent our time both at and away from home.  Penny took a dance class, giving Mom some extra time with Ellie and Cooper.  We went to the movies and saw "Pete's Dragon." We enjoyed visits from both the Bateys and the Caskeys.  We visited the Frio River, Corpus Christi, Port Aransas and Fredericksburg.  We were treated to an afternoon at the JW Marriott on our very last day before school started.  Overall we  have had a great summer, but we are ready to get back to school!

Penny is ready for her dance class!
Ellie is happy to be wearing a headband like her big sister!

Ellie and Delite enjoy some pool time during the Batey's visit.

River Girls!

Cooper LOVES to jump off the pool waterfall at Ma-mas and Pa-Pa's house!

Cooper enjoys some reflective time at the beach.

Girls' Day in Fredericksburg! Of course we had to visit Dooley's!

Merry Christmas and Happy 2016!

Christmas 2015 did not disappoint!  We had lots of guests, gifts, friends, family, food, and fun in our house!  Ma-Mas, Pa-Pa, and Uncle Clint joined us for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and Nonnie came to visit the day after Christmas.  Our break from school and work flew by because we were in constant motion! After Nonnie's visit we weren't done!  Our friends the Naisers joined us to watch the Aggies play their bowl game (disappointing, of course) before we all headed out on New Year's Eve Day to go to the N-Cinco Ranch!  It was cold but so nice to get away, be outdoors, and decompress after the holidays.

Just one of our activities over the holidays...We also shopped, went to the movies, attended neighborhood holiday parties, played outside (Thank you El Nino for so far a mild winter), and vegged out to countless Christmas movies on DVR.  

Mornings on the porch.

Santa came!  (And so did the kids.)  Penny and Ellie were THRILLED with the Barbie Dreamhouse, Mom not so much with the fights that ensued.  Cooper couldn't believe he got his very own Red Ryder BB gun, golf club and ball retriever. 

Feeling festive and getting into big sister's new markers...

 Christmas night.
The guys played darts in the garage, the kids played with their new toys, and Ma-Mas and Mom just RELAXED.  

Nonnie came after Christmas and took this rare shot of all five of us in one spot. 

Penny hams it up at the ranch.

RARRRR!

These two outdoorsmen had the most fun out of anyone.

Nine days apart but on the exact same page.

Birthday Party!

This past Saturday we celebrated both Cooper and Penny's birthdays with a pool party! We had a great mix of family, old friends, neighbors, and friends from school come to help us celebrate.  I don't think we have ever had that many kids in the pool at one time!  All the kids had a blast swimming, playing on a slip-n-slide, eating cake, and playing with some of Cooper and Penny's gifts.  Overall the party was a giant success!  We topped off the evening with our friends the Naisers staying over night and some neighbors and Ma-Mas and Pa-Pa staying to watch the Aggies beat the Arkansas Razorbacks...Whoop!  Some party pics...

Not one but TWO cakes!

Kids in the pool, kids everywhere!

How many kids can you fit in one hot tub??

Kids eat cake!

Cooper and Penny were nice enough to share some of their new toys!

The morning after..everyone just wanted to lounge.

Family Vacation 2015...Walt Disney World and Dog Island, Florida!

We just got back a few days ago from an EPIC family vacation!  We took a few days to drive to Orlando, Florida where we met our friends the Edmonds for our first ever visit to Walt Disney World!  We stayed six nights at a resort complete with several pools and a pool slide, mini golf, restaurants, and bars, which we fully enjoyed in between visiting the Magic Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Disney's Animal Kingdom.  It was a long, action-packed week!  The Disney parks are huge, hot, and crowded which proved challenging at times for both the kids and the parents.  Overall though we all had fun and we believe the kids really did experience some magic.  Cooper's favorite was probably Typhoon Lagoon, as he LOVES waterparks.  (Mom and the girls stayed at the resort that day and relaxed!)  Penny most enjoyed meeting the princesses and watching the parades, mostly because she got to see more princesses.  All of us, even Ellie, loved all the shows!  We saw The Lion King (hands down best one), Beauty and the Beast, Finding Nemo, Indiana Jones, and Frozen.   We went to Disney expecting to be glad we had crossed it off our list, but on the drive home we actually discussed not if but when we would be back!  

As if a week in Orlando wasn't enough, we continued our vacation by driving to Carabelle, Florida in order to catch a boat over to Dog Island, Florida.  Our friends' friends had invited us to spend a few days at their beach house with them!  We thoroughly enjoyed three nights spent on a remote island with a nearly secluded beach.  It was the perfect way to decompress after a week at Disney!  Thank you so much Mark and Ginger for having us!!

Naturally our story should end there, yet it doesn't!  After the beach, we met up with Ma-Mas and Pa-Pa for a night in New Orleans! We enjoyed a stroll through the Quarter and a fantastic meal.  (You can NOT beat the seafood or the service in New Orleans. Period.)  The next morning was the beginning of an adventure for Cooper and Penny.   They boarded an Amtrak train with Ma-Mas and Pa-Pa and rode all the way to San Antonio while Mama, Daddy, and Ellie made the nine hour drive back to Boerne.  Cooper, our train connoisseur, loved every second of his first real train trip.  Overall, we were gone 12 days!  We had a great time but it was so nice to sleep in our own beds and get our dogs back!  Who knows what we'll come up with to do next year!

Downtown Disney!  Giant dragons and things made of legos!

Cooper right at home on the slide at our resort.

Penny spent a lot of time in the pool too!

Truly the Magic Kingdom didn't  host a lot of rides that interested Penny.  She sure loved the carousel though!

"Meet the Characters" lunch...Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates!

Sophia the First!

All the first day, Cooper begged for us to buy him a misting fan to keep cool.  We kept refusing, because of Disney's insane prices.  At the end of the day, however, we let each kid choose ONE toy from a souvenir shop.  Guess what he beelined for?

Our final park day was spent at Disney's Animal Kingdom.  First up, a safari!  We got to see tons of cool animals including a lion, elephants, and a gorilla, to name a few.  

Kali River Ride!  Everyone stayed relatively dry...except Mama!

First night after Disney...the beach was a welcome sight.

Cooper, right where he should be...by the water.

Penny loves the beach!

Beach baby! Our hosts ingeniously brought a canopy and a baby pool so the little ones could have fun out of the sun!