New Years Eve

We headed over to Mark and Dianes for a New Years Eve party and I actually made it... I even made it until 1:30.  

San Antonio Trip

We surprised the kids with a trip to San Antonio this weekend to see cousins!  We headed out Friday morning and finally had to tell them where we were going, it was killing Jonah.  This is the boy who does NOT like surprises.  He has to know exactly where we are going and if there will be any other stops in between.

It is a given that Luke is GOING TO PUKE at some point during the trip so this momma is always prepared.  We made it about two hours out of town before he started this trip.  I had crawled in the back seat to feed The Hulk and about that time I hear, "mooooommmmmm" look up and Luke had  grabbed the "puke bag" aka a ziplock filled with paper towels.  The Hulk is screaming because he wants more food, I am trying not to start vomiting as I am holding the warm vomit bag so it does not spill and Justin is telling me to look at these cool houses!  REALLY dude... I am a little busy back here :)

Once the vomit stopped and The Hulk was fed I crawled back into the front seat and got situated.  It was then time for lunch.  We stopped at McDonalds so we could grab it and eat in the car.  As we are pulling out I am passing out food, Justin starts eating and we are back on the road... little did we know that we were not on the right road.  WHAT WHAT?  I am looking at the map and telling Justin something is not right.  The map had changed somehow and we were NOT going the right way.  We see a sign and we have NO idea how we even ended up on this road, according to the map we had somehow taken a hard left.  There was NO way, we never stopped going straight.  We pull over and look at the map and finally figure out where to go to get back on track.

We call mom and dad and they tell us that in Lampasses is where the turnoff is to stay on the highway we wanted.  OF COURSE IT IS, that is where we pulled out of McCRAP and NEVER saw the sign telling us that we had to turn right!  So that was about a 30 minute oops.

We finally make it and of course the boys run upstairs to play the XBox.  I am not sure they ever got off of it either.  I pretty much did not see them all weekend.  Stef wanted some family pictures taken so Justin grabbed the camera and they went up the road and got some great shots... even if all four kids were gripping.  My motto is, "Hate me now, thank me later"! HA

Stef had to work Saturday morning so Mimi, Chloe, Sophia and I went shopping.  Lets just say we did more driving than we did shopping.  The construction was horrible and there are NO street signs anywhere and our navigator (Chloe) kept telling us we were going the right way... lets just say, we were NOT going the right way.

Thanks for having us!  We had a great time.  Oh, and the ride home was much less eventful, no wrong turns and no vomit!  Just a couple of meltdowns from The Hulk.

                                                                      

                                                               

Duck Hunt

Justin and Jeff went hunting this morning hoping for a great hunt with all the rain we had and snow still on the ground. When they got to their blind it was 21 degrees. They only saw two ducks and did not get a shot. Just because its perfect duck hunting weather does not always mean there will be ducks!

Morton Christmas

We had Christmas with The Mortons tonight!  The kids loved opening more gifts and dancing on the cat walk with their shirts off as they always do.  Seth loves his elephant from his cousins and as you can see from the picture he has some Texas Red Meemaw sugars all over his face.  Sophia was so excited about her ice cream set too.

                 

Snow Fun

Since we were not home for the snow on Christmas Day we got out the ski gear and let the kids go sled down the hill this afternoon.  Sophia's ski bib and coat are an 18 month and was barley too short.  I cannot believe it fit her, she wears a 3.  Luke was wearing a 4-5 bib and it was so short, Jonah was in a 7/8 and it was short too.  Of course Jonah's snow boots did not fit so he is wearing his mommas!  

The bottom picture is of our neighbor pulling his 10 year old behind his truck on a sled, with no helmet.  Yes, you read correctly!  BEHIND HIS TRUCK.  Not a good idea in my book.  

Christmas Day

... after the long night of sleepless kiddos Jonah and Luke slept in until 7:20!!!  HOLY COW, that was awesome.  THANK YOU BOYS.

The kiddos opened up gifts from us and then from Santa.  They were super excited to open up the XBox that Santa brought them.  

After opening all the gifts the boys played XBox and Sophia played with everyones new things.  

We got ready and headed over to mom and dads around noon and it was still POURING rain from the night before.  We were getting ready to eat lunch and it started snowing.  It continued to snow for a few hours.  After lunch we opened gifts from Mimi, Papa, Grannie, Aunt Carlie and Uncle Nic.  

Daph sent Justin and I a Brew Fest necklace so we are ready for this summers visit!  

We then loaded up the car... again and headed to Garland.  We dropped Grannie off at home and headed to Meemaw and Pops.  We ate a great dinner and opened more gifts.  The boys got Skylanders and Sophia got a castle tent and some Legos.   I am proud to say that the boys got NO Legos for Christmas and that makes for one happy momma!  

Everyone had a great day and enjoyed all they received.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We headed over to Mimi and Papas to stuff some basta for Christmas Eve dinner.  The boys love to do this and Sophia did a couple and was not that impressed.  I cheated and had dad make me a squeez bag to stuff it.    As you can see in the photo Justin and Papa helped get the job done... by having a Crown and 7.  Yes, Papa did get all the meat mixed together to stuff the basta and made the sauce so we let it slide.  

Carlie bought Noah, Seth and Sophia some Christmas jammies so we wanted a picture of all the kids in their jammies... it always sounds SO much easier than it really is!  

I do believe this was the LONGEST night ever!  We got home around 9:00 and got all the kids in bed. Justin and I got in bed around 11:30.  Seth cried out at 1:40, after a few minutes I went up to check on him and he was happy as a clam when I picked him up.  I rocked him for a while and he fell asleep and as soon as I put him down he started screaming again.  I let him cry for a bit and then Justin went up and calmed him down and by this time the storm hit.  It was apparent that Seth was NOT going to go back to sleep any time soon.  Justin finally brought him down to our room and laid him between us and I just sat and stared at him wide awake, talking, laughing and smiling.  He was WIDE awake until 3:30 and finally... a yawn.  I took him back upstairs and put him in bed and then I finally fell back asleep... unitl I hear Sophia crying at 4:46 and she was scared of the storm.  What is going on??? My kids NEVER wake up during storms.  

As you know, I do NOT LIKE TO BE TOUCHED WHEN I AM SLEEPING!!!  For some reason my children love to cuddle with mommy when in bed with her.  WHY WHY WHY?  Your daddy LOVES to cuddle and would love your heat so go cuddle with him... please, with sugar on top.  

So that obviously was not going to happen so I was hanging on the edge of the bed with Sophia thrashing, kicking, beating me with her limbs and breathing down my neck.  I was praying the boys would sleep in.  To Be continued...

Cowboy Game

Justin went to the Cowboy/Saints game today. He was in the end zone first balcony.

Christmas Card

It's that time of year that I dread... Christmas card picture hell... time, picture TIME! My blood pressure rises, I start sweating like a whore in Sunday school and may or may not raise my voice.

The boys start whining about having to get dressed and their hair combed, I start the threats about taking their iTouch away. They are finally dressed and we are ready to start clicking away. Of course the "he's touching me's" start coming out, the feet and elbow "accidents" start happening and we just want them to all smile and look at the camera at the same time!

This year I thought it would be fun for the kids to have props for a Photo Booth shot. Fun? Did I say FUN? Yea right. They of course all wanted to use the same props... go figure!

Attempt One: We took over 200 pictures, the lighting was horrible, all pics were different in color and looked horrible!

Attempt Two: another fun day of getting kids dressed. Of course Seth decided to start crawling the night before so he did NOT want to sit still. 338 pics later, FAIL

Attempt Three: had the greatest idea when I was talking to Carlie asking her to come take pictures. I looked up and saw my "That's It, I'm Calling Santa" sign! I thought the kids could act any way they wanted and I could put the sign in the picture! SUCCESS. Thanks Carlie!

In case you are wondering... Those are real numbers too.

Signed:
One Beat down Momma!

Sherpy Hickman Christmas

Tonight we had the Sherpy/Hickman Christmas at mom and dads.  It was great to see everyone and it has been way too long!  Donna made the Santa cake and we did not want to eat it and mess it up.  Aunt Carlie made gingerbread cookies for the kids to decorate and even Lane decorated one.  I promised to not put it on Facebook and tag him :)