First Birthday of the New Year: Happy 10th Birthday

The turn of this year brought us some incredible surprises

and the beginnings of  some big things!

We are already filling up our calendar for the entire month of December

and have been working towards getting things set-up for that!

There is another high school graduation on our horizon

and driver's training happening!
We are looking at college trips, SAT tests, mission trips this summer

and a fun visit from my Mom!!

But our first big event this year was the celebration of our youngest

daughter's first year of age in the double-digits!!

It's hard to wrap my brain around the fact that we no longer

have children in the single-digits!!

Big milestone for our family,

and one worth celebrating in a big way!!

Aryn went back and forth about what she wanted to do to 

for her birthday this year,

but finally settled on a sweet little party at home with a few local friends!
She chose to stay home with me that morning to help me shop for last

minute goodies for the party and to open a few presents.

Later that afternoon, we tackled getting the house ready for a sleepover,

farming brothers out to friends for the night, and finishing up her cake.

Once her friends arrived, we went over to our local outdoor shopping mall

where they broke up into teams and ran around taking selfies 

for a scavenger hunt I put together for them!!

We had such a blast with that!!
Once back home, we ate pizza and played some hilarious games!!

They ate cake and ice cream while watching "Soul Surfer" before this Mom realized she is not 10 years old anymore and headed to bed.

In the morning, I was too blitzed to take any pictures, but the girls

played quietly and ate cinnamon rolls and bacon together

before family came to pick them up!!

Happy Birthday, Aryn!!!!

Winter Break Fun 2017

The week after Christmas we wanted to spend some quality fun time with our kids,

and there were some really amazing things to do around our area!! 

Maybe you saw this episode of the Great Christmas Light Fight

 on ABC earlier in December?

If you did, you saw the blue house in Cedar Hill, TX that won!!

Watch a clip of that here.

That home is literally 10 minutes from our house, so one chilly evening,

we piled everyone into our toasty warm van and drove over.

We arrived just in time to find a side street to park on and walk over to

their Cul-De-Sac before a huge line of people started wrapping the street!!

It was truly magical and absolutely deserving of the $50,000 prize!!

My pictures don't even do it justice.

And how gracious the owner was to let people just line-up his drive

 and walk in single-file all the way around his property!!

Truly the spirit of Christmas!!

This year, the Dallas Zoo did something brand new that we absolutely loved!!

After the animals were in for the night, you could meander around very large

gated spaces of the zoo that were completely covered in lights!

As a part of our zoo membership, we could get in for free

and it was delightful just taking a relaxing evening stroll

 around the zoo property and seeing it in a different light!!

Definitely doing this again next year!

Afterward, we stopped into our local favorite Italian spot for the most delicious

pizza and helpful customer service around!!

Another day we took time to just do some fun things out-of-the-house!
The Dad took the boys to do some practice shooting, and I took the girls
to do some "After Christmas" shopping.
We dropped in on Grandma that afternoon as well and scored some
fresh baked cookies!!!

Finally, there was the afternoon we visited with our friends who we do
our homeschool co-op with.
What fun we had just sitting around planning the big girls' graduation
in May, sipping hot chocolate, munching Christmas goodies, and playing games!!

This year's winter break felt deliciously long and unrushed
and we were very refreshed and ready to get the New Year started!!
So thankful for God's rich blessings in our lives!!!

A Family Christmas