Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Last Chance

These are the pictures that didn't make the blog cut this fall/winter.
I figured I had today to get them on here before the year ends.
And yes, many I looked at and thought, "Why did I take that picture?"
 
Selfie with Kyle
 
 
Kyle trying to burn off his tongue on a Pu-Pu platter

Jason with a chicken
 
Reed eating ice cream at Dairy Queen
 
 
Reed eating ice cream at Baskin Robbins

 
Kyle at the dermatologist (He's fine.)

 
JR wearing lederhosen

JR's chorus from Hansel un Gretel

 
Reed on pajama day

 
Kyle on pajama day (they were different days)
 
 
Kyle at this football team's pancake breakfast
 
 
I normally wouldn't take pictures of Jason sleeping on an airplane, but look what's on his tray table.
It makes me giggle to think he'd open his eyes and a cow would be looking back at him.
(Stuffed cow...compliments of Kyle)
 
 
The boys after JR's opening night of Best Christmas Pageant Ever.


 Reed on a field trip (Kyle in the background)

 
Hot chocolate break
 
 
A Christmas card picture reject, but one of the few of us all together.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

The other Half

Telluride was nice enough to showcase every single weather system that could possibly show up in December on our 4 ski days.
 
Here's our first morning on the gondola.  We don't have a return gondola picture that day because the 80 mile an hour winds knocked out electricity, and the gondola.  (We had to ride the bus down.)  I also don't have ski pictures from that day because I was having a hard enough time just standing up.  Kyle and Reed were literally getting blown backwards back up the mountain.


 But typical mountain weather, the bad doesn't last long.
We had a gorgeous, perfect Christmas eve day.

This is the very tippy top of Telluride. It's gorgeous.


Now take a good look at the picture above, because the one below was taken at the top of the little hill you see behind Jason's head the next day.

Snow, but at least no wind!
 
And it was for sure a white Christmas since it kept on snowing. (That's Reed)
 
 
This was my ski lift partner.
And no, you don't normally have snow all over your goggles, but when you cartwheel as many times as Kyle does, it tends to end up there.
 
 
Being the daredevil of the family does mean you spend a lot of time trying to find, then dig out your skis.
 
 
What the others looked like on the lifts...
 
and while skiing.
 
 
 
In town we were able to find Rudolph and The Abominable Snowman.
 
 
 The kids left Santa a bowl of Fruit Loops and a Coke for Christmas Eve.
Reed wrote him a letter asking if he could leave them 1 or 2 small things there, but to take their presents to Houston.  Santa was nice enough to honor their request.
 
 
And we had Christmas Day service on the mountain.
A very beautiful "church" indeed.

Monday, December 29, 2014

About Half

I was going to try and wrap up Christmas and before Christmas in this one post, but I think that's too much, so here's about half:
 
Jason took Kyle and Reed to have their picture made with Santa. 
JR and I were someplace else (I'm sure one of his practices for something.) 

 
 
Then the little guys had their Christmas party at school.
I helped in Kyle's class since there were already 25 mamas helping in Reed's.
(Notice the live table decorations...cause 1st graders really appreciate a good centerpiece.)


Crafts in Kyle's room. No tablescapes.

 
That night we had Jason's work Christmas party at our house.
We had about 60 people, a food truck, and a band.
 
There are no pictures, which I'm quite happy about, since at one point in the evening I sang/performed "Girls, Girls, Girls" and a few other 80's ditties in their entirety. 
What can I say...the band gave me the microphone.
 
I would also like to add that I wore winter white from head to toe and didn't spill one thing on myself! (I actually got more compliments on my spill free winter white outfit than my Christmas decorations.)
 
The next morning (and boy did it come early) we did the 12K of Christmas run since Jason's company was a sponsor.  We totally would have bailed, but Kyle had been looking forward to it for weeks.
 
He was most excited that he won the costume contest.
 
He got to stand on the winner's stand and won a bag of hot chocolate. Super exciting stuff.
 
 
And the next morning we boarded a plane for Telluride.
 
And that seems a good place to stop.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Almost Back

Well, I almost feel like I'm back in the land of the living.
We got home from Telluride the night of the 26th and we spent most of yesterday trying to get Christmas put away.
 
The house gets so torn up from putting up Christmas and putting out the "normal" stuff, that the kids said it looked like we were moving in...again.
 
And though the decorations are put away, all the Christmas presents haven't found a home yet, so there's still plenty of stuff around.
 
Here's hoping we'll all be back to normal again tomorrow.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Merry Christmas

Nothing says "we're celebrating the birth of Jesus" quite like Kyle in his gingerbread man costume with the Chick-fil-A Santa cows.

So I will leave you with that image.

I'll be back after Christmas! 

Friday, December 19, 2014

It's a Wrap

With 2 weeks left in the year, we finally wrapped up all of JR's shows.
 
This year he was in:
4 musicals
1 play and
1 opera
 
We (the fan club) all turned out to see him as Daddy Warbucks in Annie.
He looked so handsome in his suit we all had to have a turn getting our pictures made again.
 
This is his big musical number of NYC.
 
And this is the end scene with the song Tomorrow
 
If you're a fan of the 1982 movie, look for a picture of Albert Finney as Daddy Warbucks hanging on the wall.  It gave me a giggle.
 
 
Also true to form, Kyle told me he'd meet me outside after the show was over (the lobby was pretty crowded). Here's how I found him.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

More Cuteness

Kyle and Paw-Paw made a little cat from a sewing kit the other day.
Kyle was very proud of his sewing, and then told me he was giving the cat he made to Lucky, so Lucky would have his very own stuffed animal.
 
And then I found this on his bed.
Oh my. The cuteness!

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

The First Nowe Well

Reed's favorite Christmas song is The First Noel
He likes it so much he has me sing it to him all year. He also sings it at the top of his lungs when it comes on Sunny 99.1 (our all Christmas station this time of year).
 
He brought this home today, and it's pretty much one of my favorite things ever.
He said he had to rush to make Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, and The Wise Man...which is fine cause I'm loving the angels. ("They're praying, ya know".)
 
 
Also, his spelling of Israel is pretty spot on if you ask me.
 
He said lots of kids did Jingle Bells, 1 girl did Feliz Navidad, and 2 kids (whose moms are clearly the exact same age as me and were big Wham fans, but can also appreciate a little Taylor Swift) did Last Christmas.

Monday, December 15, 2014

All That Matters

Jason and I tried to get a picture before we left for a Christmas party Saturday night.
They were all fuzzy/blurry and turned out like this.
 
 
This selfie Jason took wasn't blurry, but you can hardly see his face because of the lights.
I still posted it on Facebook because it was good of me...which is really all that matters.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Christmas Fashion Fabulous Friday

Today was "Dress the School" day, which means somebody's mom paid a bunch of money at the school auction so their child could pick what everybody would wear today.
 
They picked "Santa Claus", so everybody was supposed to come as something Christmas related.
 
Now, I can't claim Reed's outfit since my friend, Denise, made it a few Halloweens ago.
But I'm pretty excited with how my Buddy the Elf and gingerbread man costume came out.
 

 
I actually sewed Kyle's instead of hot gluing.
If I had girls, I'm pretty sure I'd have to learn how to use a sewing machine...and cut out a pattern.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Fancy for Recital

Sunday evening was JR's musical theater class "showcase", which I think is just a fancy word for "recital".
 
He took this musical theater class for the dance. Putting him in just a jazz or tap class isn't as helpful has having a class geared toward musical theater dance.  But with everything else that kept popping up this fall, musical theater class seemed to keep getting put on the back burner. 
 



Here's a video from one of their songs.
(I can't make it load here, so just click the link)
 
 
 
Four kids from his class were chosen to perform their monologues.  Here's JR's.
 
 
And here's his fan club.
I'm not sure why we all got individual pictures with him. I think it's because we're not used to seeing him dressed up.