The Year in Texts

 Our family group text is not a place for the faint of heart.

 I thought you might enjoy reading some of our highlights from this past year. 

We Christmased

 We had a very nice Christmas.

Chloe was proud of her stocking. 

Everyone picked out their favorite gift(s).

And for least favorite presents, Reed coined the new phrase "punishment present"...which was for his glow in the dark running belt (so he won't get hit by a car when he runs in the dark) which he doesn't want to wear. 

And my mom had me take a picture of my table setting, which was the only other picture I took Christmas Day.

We had all of Christmas taken down, and the house pulled back together by noon yesterday, which I think might be a record! 

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas! 

Here are our Santa pictures this year. 

Advent Calendar Drama (Again)

 So you'll remember last year when I posted about how I had to label everybody's advent calendar to keep them from fighting over them.  Well, I labeled them all again this year, and I thought everything was going fine until Jason started complaining about JR's advent calendar.  

Apparently Jason is super upset that JR has already eaten all his candy.  I told Jason that JR was allowed to "play advent calendar however he wanted" and not to worry about it.

But Jason is worried about it. 

So much so that Jason brought it up to me again, and thinks I shouldn't buy JR an advent calendar next year if he "isn't going to do it right."

I. Can't. With. These. People. 

And here's a picture of JR with his finished advent calendar, which if Jason gets his way, will be his last... ever. 

Christmas Eve Eve

 I hope you have as much fun this Christmas Eve eve as Willie!

Cool Pics

 I know I'm doing a terrible job of keeping up with my blogging.  I'd like to say I'm busy trying to make Christmas magical for my kids.  But I don't think you can use that excuse when your kids are teenagers and a grown adult. 

We got these pictures of Kyle the other day and I thought they were great! I'm never able to get any good pictures since natatoriums aren't known for their great lighting. 

He's Back

 JR got home on Friday, and I'm still not sure how he pulled it off, but I just checked his grades and he made the Dean's list.  Here's his recent happenings, and as you'll notice there are no pictures of actual studying or learning. 

New Article

 Reed's latest article came out this week.  He was even nice enough to include his brother! 

December Already!

 How is it already December 4th? I'm not sure how that even happened. Kyle had a dive meet on Friday evening and I, of course, have videos.

Enjoy my commentary on this one...I've complained for years that no matter what his dives look like he's going to get a 5.5, so I hardly know how to react when he doesn't.

He was in the lead on 1 meter until the last dive when this happened.  

You can literally see his knees buckle.  

Luckily he didn't fall in the water (that would have been a no score), so since he saved it, they considered it a balk, and he got half his points for the dive...which here it is. 

And wound up finishing 3rd. 

All the Activities

 Kyle had all his activities on Tuesday. 

He had a dive meet during school where he placed 6th.

Then that evening he had a progress show with Willie.

We knew things weren't going well when Reed got a text from someone on the newspaper staff saying that Kyle's pig was running around the barn.  Apparently Willie just doesn't have the showmanship skills Elvis had.

So here's a video of Willie looking cute eating 

(because Kyle certainly didn't think he was cute on Tuesday). 

Jason's Birthday

 Jason had a day to rest between Thanksgiving and his birthday this year.

We went out to dinner with some friends, and pretty much had everything there is to eat. 

Happy Birthday Jason!

Thanksgiving

 I didn't take any pictures Thanksgiving week, except Thanksgiving morning at the turkey trot.

It rained on us last year, and it rained on us again this year so we've come to expect that. 

Reed lined up with 389 other people.

Since this race is a 5K up and back, Jason and I just stood in the same spot and didn't move for 18 minutes.

We kept up with Reed's progress on Life 360

So we were ready for him at the finish.  

Enjoy our commentary. 

It was a good race for him.

And then we went home to eat, where I took no pictures, except of my turkey!

Big Sunday

 It was a big day on Sunday. 

We went to see the Texans who are finally able to win a game after years of not.

And then we picked up this one from the airport. Someone was extra excited to see him!

No School Again

 Kyle was in Corpus Christi this weekend for a meet.  

(He hasn't gone to school on a Friday this whole month)

He placed 4th, got to see Buc-ee,

And did his 2 1/2

More Tree Pictures

 Reed got inducted into a business society at his school the other night and since he had to dress in "business formal" we decided to use it as an opportunity to take pictures in front of the Christmas tree.

I so rarely wear flat shoes, but yes, this is how "tall" I am in the wild. 

1 Tree and Some Crafts

 I just talked to my mom, and she said she had 4 Christmas trees up.  I told her that was 3 too many, because I did 1 tree again this year.  I didn't get started on it until I got back from Oxford, so I was late this year.  

Yes, one section of lights is out, but oh well.

Chloe's new stocking I made her blends in perfectly with ours.

Speaking of things I made.  I also made JR and Jason new ornaments since I made Kyle and Reed new ones.   I made ornaments from their favorite movies.

JR's is, of course, Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey) from Dazed and Confused. 

And Jason's is Will Ferrell from his favorite dart in the neck scene from Old School. 

I can also show these off as all of JR's friendgirls have already gotten them.

I'm still not sure who this is (besides being a singer) but I feel like I made Jesus with a dog.  

Reed was unimpressed with my lack of ability to make the dog to scale. 

And one of his friends wanted one of herself. 

And some didn't get ornaments, I made them stockings. 

I still have sequins stung all over the office (Jason is so thrilled) so you never know what you might get. 

Last Game

 We didn't know we'd be going to Jimbo Fisher's last A&M game, but we were there.

And we had really, really good seats.

We were right next to the cannon, so I was definitely covering my ears when they shot that off 

We were definitely close to the action

But the only action I really cared about was how close I was to Reville.

She was right by us the whole night.