Gordy's first bday

Tiff sent me some pictures from Gordy's birthday party, so I thought I would share.

He is such a cutie pie!  I see so much of both my sister and Chad in him.

 This is one of my favorites!

Love his cute little smile!

 I also love this one of everyone after presents were opened.

Tiff did a few pictures of Gordy with a 'practice' smash cake the weekend before the party.

She got some great pictures that I thought were super cute!

And on his actual birthday they filled his crib with balloons

Can you find him in there?!?!

Love you Gordy Pants!

Feeding fish and being silly

Last weekend we went to Meemaw's to spend some time away so that Brian could continue to work on the kitchen wall without any distractions.

It was a pretty nice day, although terribly windy.

We decided it would be fun to go feed the fish.  Luckily, Meemaw had been saving some old bread in the freezer for this exact moment!

 Ready to go feed some fish!

   You can't really tell from this picture, but the majority of the lake had ice on top.  The little portion that wasn't covered in ice had a TON of big fish ready to eat!

Now on to some random pictures... 

The kids found some sunglasses that they just HAD to try on.

Very fashionable, don't you think?!?!

Meemaw got Moose a really fun squeaky toy.  He had since then tore it up into a million pieces, but it was fun while it lasted ;)

We went to celebrate Gordon's first birthday this weekend.

It was a really fun afternoon.

I was taking pictures for Tiff on their camera, so I will try to track down a couple cute ones.

Gordon did great, even though he wasn't feeling 100%, and was super cute enjoying his smash cake.

  

The kids got these waxed lips in their goody bags.  So much fun!

Crazy cats...

 The current state of my kitchen...

 Moving right along...

Home renovations

So Brian FINALLY got the opportunity to tear down the kitchen wall/cabinet that he has wanted gone since we moved in.  I know how things are never as easy as you think they will be - but he got the project started this past weekend.

A few before pictures - with our sweet navy blue tile backsplash :)

The kids thought this was pretty cool when Brian started cutting into the wall - 

They promptly asked to play "pizza shop" and Brian and I came to the window to order our pizza from the chef (Colin) and server (Maggie)

Just realized my kids aren't wearing pants in this picture - not sure about that...

Isn't the lovely pinkish-red flower wallpaper a nice addition to our kitchen?

Brian etched a portrait of Colin into the wall before he cut it out.  If you look real close you can see it!

And how the wall looks today.

We are going to build up a higher kitchen counter to sit at, so there will be a little room for Brian to have the electrical plug ins put in.  

He will be putting up some dry wall this weekend (while I take the kids to Meemaws to get them out of the house) and hopefully it won't look torn apart.

If you know me at all, you know this is KILLING me to have part of my kitchen all sorts of messed up.  But, I know Brian wants to do it right and is doing a great job so far.  I just can't wait for it to look a little more polished!

Fun days

We took the kids to Yogurtini for some ice cream the other night (they had a really great Facebook deal), in celebration of their wonderful report cards they got back from school.

The kids are doing awesome in school- and we had a fun time enjoying some sweet treats!

The weekend before, Maggie went over to a friend's house for a playdate - so Colin and I headed off to see a movie.  Brian has taken Colin to 2 different movies, but I never have. So this was a wonderful time just the two of us.

We went and saw Big Hero 6, which is a totally cute movie.  I only cried twice :)

Brian snapped a couple pictures of us (and nosey Moose) before we left.

Colin wanted his hair spiked for our date - he was such a gentleman!

The best part - we got to eat candy at the theatre!

While we were gone - Brian started tearing down a cabinet in our kitchen - it was a huge project!

But we will continue to work on it and make this house how we want it.

Oh, and we painted another room in our house this past week too.  We've been busy little people lately!  One room at a time, we will give this off-white house some color!

Goofy kids

We've been playing a lot of games at our house lately.

The kids are getting close to being able to learn strategy and such for boardgames.

Plus, it's always important to know who wins first, who wins second, who wins third, and who wins last (we're all winners at our house!)

So glad I captured these next few pictures.

The kids were getting along like Best Friends one night.

They insisted on doing everything together and helped each other out doing all of their chores.

When it was time for dinner, they shared a seat at the table, and Colin yelled "hey mom, get a picture of us!" and they smiled so sweet for me!

along with a silly smile picture

They really do have the same smile, huh?!

And sharing a seat at the table.  What goofballs!

Christmas Morning at our house

I totally forgot Brian and I took a few pics of Christmas morning at our house.

Santa listened to the kids wishes - Colin wanted a Nerf bow and arrow and Maggie wanted a singing machine (karaoke machine)

"let it go" was playing non-stop that morning!

I got an amazing new cup from the kids

The kids got a couple of games and some other goodies

They each got a new book - this one is super cute (The day the crayons quit!)

And Colin got a "scribbles" book - a great one to take to church with us!

The kids got each other a little something and were so happy to buy / wrap the presents for each other

They also got a cash lock box.  They love keeping their 'prized possessions' in there.

For instance, Maggie has her chap stick and Colin has his miniature superhero weapons in safe keeping.

I imagine the two of them playing store, bank, etc with these someday soon

I surprised Brian with this handstitched KC logo baseball frame.

My buddy from college makes these pictures from real baseball stitching.  Pretty neat!

Colin even loves the singing machine

Watch out everyone.  We have a trained bow and arrow user at our house!

It was a quiet, but wonderful Christmas morning.  

We had yummy egg casserole and the donuts that Santa left in our stockings.

We are so blessed!

Christmas get-togethers

We celebrated Christmas with the Teson's, the Dudley's, the Kemper's and the Teson's (again)!

Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures at all, but I really was trying to be present and not behind the camera.  

We went to Tiff and Chad's last weekend for Christmas on the Dudley side.

It was a nice relaxing afternoon and a delicious prime rib dinner.

Of course, the kids were just spoiled with presents, but it was a lot of fun just hanging out.

Gordon is mid-blink, but I really only got a couple pictures of the entire afternoon.

Moose even got a special treat from Tiff and Chad and Meemaw.  Such a spoiled grand-dog already!

Immediately following the Christmas in Belton, we went up to celebrate the Kemper side for Christmas.  We went from 3 grandkids to 26 grandkids.  It was quite the zoo!

Look at this group.  Pretty crazy to think these kids are all from Grammie and 2 of her 3 sisters.

It was so nice spending time with the Texas Tesons.  There was some sickness/coughing/flu going around, but we all powered through and had a great time.

So glad to have a couple of relaxing weeks off from preschool for the kids, but we're back at it next week.  We're supposed to get some freezing rain/sleet/snow this weekend, so who knows if the kids will have school on Monday.  Oh the joys of winter! :)