Welcome 2014 and a Look Back @ 2013

January
We started off 2013 with a light dusting of snow. Matty fell off a fence earlier that week and had a huge scab by his eye.  Poor baby. This was Mark's first experience in snow - he was not sure what to do about it.

Mark got his first haircut (actually his 2nd, but the 1st went so poorly that I couldn't get pictures).

February

We celebrated Chinese New Year and the boys made out like a bandit thanks to Poh-Poh and Gong-Gong!

March

Poh-Poh and Gong-Gong came to visit for Michael's 10th birthday. We did some sight-seeing at the Dallas Arboretum.

Michaels' 10th birthday party with friends at FC Dallas soccer game.

Then  quiet celebration with just family.

April
We enjoyed the beginning of Spring outside including an Easter egg hunt and the petting zoo.

May

Yee-Yee, Kow-Foo, Aunt Nicole and Benjamin came to visit.  We took them to buy cowboy boots and hung out.  This month was also my last month as a working mom.  I was blessed to be able to hang up my career hat and stay home with my little people!

June

Michael graduated from Carroll Elementary and school was out for the summer.

We went to CA for 2 weeks! While there, we did so many fun things.  We celebrated Matthew's 8th birthday, went to Lake Tahoe, visited the San Francisco Zoo, went to the beach, went to Six Flags where Matthew rode an elephant!  We had so much fun hanging out with everybody!

Matthew celebrated his 8th birthday with a pool party when we got back from CA.

July
We celebrated 4th of July in the Hill Country at the JW Marriott. The boys loved playing with the other kids there and we hardly saw them during the day.

August
We just hung out.

And M had to catch the ambulance to go to the emergency room after he hurt his back playing soccer. He had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days to recuperate.

Then school started!

September
We celebrated M's birthday on the 5th and our 12th Anniversary on the 8th.

October
We celebrated my 37th birthday and did lots of Fall activities including visiting the pumpkin village!

We also went to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science for the first time together.

We took our family pictures.

                                       

Mark and I enjoyed our times during storytime at the library.

And of course, trick-or-treating on Halloween! Mark had so much fun on his first trick-or-treat outing! He was just too adorable for words.

November
Mark turned 2 on the 3rd!

And we celebrated Thanksgiving! So much to be thankful for.

December
Matthew had his end of season baseball party at the Ranger Stadium.  It was a once in a lifetime experience and we are so grateful to JD for giving us total access to the field and clubhouse.

Then we had an ice storm and no school for 5 days straight.

We got ready for Christmas!

Mark wore a band-aid for the first time.

Then his 2nd (3rd) haircut. He had a lollipop in his mouth the whole time.

Matthew performed in his third grade musical called "It's a Bugz Christmas!"  He was a yellow jacket.  The cutest one I've seen!

 

What a wonderful and full year we've had! I am so blessed to be boys to these little babies.  They fill every year with so much joy.  I'm looking forward to more great things for 2014! Happy New Year!

Christmas 2013

Christmas was a big blur!  It went by fast and furious and I can hardly believe that it's over.  I'm super bummed, but we had a nice, merry little Christmas.  Not a lot of activities.  We had dinner at the in-laws of honey-baked ham on Christmas Eve and had Christmas morning and day was at our house.

We told the boys that they could not come downstairs until their grandparents came over on Christmas morning.  They were at our house at 7:30 at the request of Matthew.  Santa was very kind to the boys this year- electronic scooters for Michael and Matthew and a tricycle for Mark!  The presents were all assembled, charged and ready for Christmas morning.  Santa was so thoughtful. The boys squealed when they saw their gifts.  Mark didn't know what to think.  He slowly walked over to the tricycle, touched it and asked, "Mined?" It was so adorable!

I didn't get any pictures of them tearing through the rest of their gifts because I was videotaping so there are no pictures to share of that,but I'm thankful a got a couple shots before and after.

Milk, gingerbread cookies, pumpkin bread for Santa, carrots for the reindeers were set up on the table.

After all the gifts were opened - tree looks so bare.

Mark watching his new electric toy train.

 Happy to play with Bo-Bo Mashoo

Testing out the new tricycle.

 Getting ready to give the electric scooter a try.

It was a quiet Christmas and it went by so quickly. I'm definitely experiencing withdrawal. It was a shock to turn on the radio in my car and not hear Christmas music the day after Christmas!  

Catching Up

Last week of school until the boys are off for winter break! Michael has half-days for the rest of the week.  Matthew has is Polar Express today and he was super excited.  The first thing he said to me was "Polar Express day!" I'd forgotten all about it.  He got to wear his PJs to school and watch the movie with hot chocolate today. We had to scramble to find PJ bottoms that didn't go up to his knees.  He decided almost a year ago wears athletic shorts to bed and tI haven't bought him PJs in quite awhile. We found some that reached his ankles so we went with that.  He didn't seem to care.

Smitty has been up to some silly things lately. On Sunday night, he made funny faces one one of our Christmas cards.

On Monday night, he took all the stockings off and hung around on the stocking hanger.

Then last night, he decided to decorate our chandelier with some paper chains.

I've been busy planning Matthew's class party. On Monday, Mark and I went to the dollar store and got some decorations for the party.  Mark saw a hat that we wanted to try on. 

Gaylord Texan Christmas

Today, we went to take pictures with Santa Claus and to walk around and look at the Christmas decorations at the Gaylord Texan.  The line to see St. Nick was too long so we ended up just walking around.  The older boys were not all that impressed because we've been there the past couple of years, but Mark loved all the colorful decorations.  He loved looking at the trains and he especially loved the giant gingerbread house. I didn't get a lot a good pictures because Michael and Matthew hate taking pictures, but I'll make do with what I got.

Watching the trains go by

I couldn't get Michael to take a picture with us.

My three little men admiring the gingerbread house.

Finally, a decent picture.

Then we went to Whataburger for lunch.  Mark was enjoying his "lemon juice."

Letter From Santa

Michael and Matthew got a letter from Santa Claus Friday, and it was not good news.  Smitty has been updating Santa on their behavior and it's not all good.  Santa asked them to try very hard to be good because he wants to be able to give them what they ask for for Christmas.

Matthew wanted a picture with the letter.  Mark asked to take a picture with the letter also even though he has no idea what's going on. Michael did not want a picture.