Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas with my parents on Christmas Eve this year. The kids were so excited to open all their gifts! :)

Group shot! 

Jillian (4), Kennedy (7), Cooper (5), Kaitlyn (7)

 

Kaitlyn ready to open!

Kennedy

The girls are surrounded by gifts! 

My mom loves to give!! :)

Look mom!

Kennedy showing off her new clothes

Jillian's "American girl doll" (Target edition)

This was their favorite! 

They all got roller skates!! 

Yay!

Excited!

Cooper had fun opening all his gifts too!

Jillian got a cool Superhero cape from Aunt Jenn and Uncle Chris! 

One side is Batgirl and the other side is Supergirl!

Tony got a fire pit! I see roasting marshmallows in our future.

We had a big meal and lots of family time. :)

Lucy is home!

 Last month, I blogged about how our dog, Lucy, had run away. (2 days before Thanksgiving)
Tony went to take the garbage out and the door wasn't closed all the way. Lucy ran out the front door and never came back home. She was young and curious (and we had only had her for 4 months....she had been a stray before). We looked for her, posted on various sites and finally just figured that she wouldn't be found.  (We had JUST gotten her a new collar that day and hadn't transferred her tags over yet! UGH!)

We all thought about her, but Jillian took it the hardest. She was so sad that Lucy was gone and talked about her all the time.

On the Saturday before Christmas, Tony posted on "Lost Dogs of TX" site. Within a few hours, a shelter contacted him and told him that they had Lucy!! It was a high kill shelter in Rosenberg. She had been there for 2 weeks (a very long time in that shelter), but had just been moved that day to a foster home for the holidays.

 After a lot of calling and such, the foster family finally brought her back to us! She was scared and confused...poor baby, BUT as soon as she got home she remembered everything!! She saw Scooter, drank from her water bowl, leaped and played outside and then finally curled up in her favorite spot on our couch. :)  She remembered.  It was 2 days before Christmas when she came home! What a perfect present! (And a great lesson to our girls about how God answers prayer!)

Below are some pictures that one of the shelter volunteers from Ft. Bend Animal control in Rosenberg posted on their FB page. (By the way, the volunteer that helped us get Lucy back ended up being a former student on Tony's from FBCA! How cool is that!)

By the way....they have sooo many cute dogs that need homes. Look at their page first before going to a breeder! It's just so sad!    Ft bend animal control

 Lucy made it into the Ft. Bend Herald!! The shelter was hoping to have dogs adopted for the holidays and they put in this picture. Lucy is the far left. What's funny is that the dog next to her looks like our other dog, Scooter! :)


Below are pictures of her in the shelter that they sent us. Sad. :(
I hate that she was there for so long and we didn't check!! (I didn't even know about this shelter.)

 Giving kisses....she is such a sweetheart.

 Jillian would ofter draw pictures of Lucy. This was her most recent picture.

 It was a "Lucy is Lost" sign.

 Here is my favorite picture of the day we got her back!! What a happy reunion! :) 

We immediately got her collar (with tags!) on her. It has all her info on it and we plan to get her micro chipped soon too!

Her favorite spot on the couch. She went right to it and slept sooo hard that night. We love having her home and we are so thankful she is back!

The week before Christmas

 Last week was the last week of school before Christmas break! One night when I went to check on the girls, I found the twins sleeping in the same bed together. So sweet.

Last Thursday was the last day before the break. All the kids had Christmas parties and had a great day.

 My three cuties before school started

 All my girls

 twin love

All the class parties were around the same time. While my Kinder class was busy, I snuck away to see Kennedy and Kaitlyn during their party.

 Kennedy

 Kennedy

 Miss Kaitlyn

 

 Kaitlyn

On Friday, the kids were off from school, but I had a work day.  I got everything ready for when we come back and I was ready to relax and enjoy the holidays! :)

Saturday morning, we all went to my mom's house to have Christmas with my family from Austin.

 Kaitlyn, Kennedy and Jillian

 The guys! Cooper, Cale and Jarrett

 Cousins!

 This is a great example of Jillian's personality! Such a silly one!

 Ready to open gifts!

 Jillian

 Kennedy

 Kaitlyn

" Frozen" shirt!

 Each of the girls got a different "My Little Pony girl" from Aunt Terri. 

They loved them.

 Next up: Our annual Christmas play. Jarrett is our narrator.

 Jillian (angel), Cooper (Joseph), Kaitlyn (Mary), Cale and Kennedy (shepherds)

 After the play my mom had a cute little nativity story that included passing out candy to help tell the story. Cute.  :)

We had a great day...unfortunately, that night I came down with fever and come to find out..I have the flu. Yuck! No fun!!

Nutcracker Tea

 A week ago, Kennedy and Kaitlyn were invited to go to a Nutcracker Tea with some of their little friends.

 Going to church!

 Kennedy before the tea

 Kaitlyn before the tea

 Sweet girls.

They were super excited to be all dressed up!

 One of their friends at Texas Safari

 Getting a picture with "Clara" from The Nutcracker

 Another friend arrived shortly

 They got autograph books and were very eager to get lots of signatures!

 Group picture! 

Ashlyn, Amanda, "Clara", Skye, Kennedy and Kaitlyn

 Before the show, everyone got to eat.  They had cute sandwiches, veggies, fruit, cheese etc.
They LOVED it!

The famous "Nutcracker"

They got a signature and photo with everyone from the ballet! They had a blast and I'm so glad they got a chance to go!

 This past weekend, they got invited by another group of little girls to decorate Christmas cookies. Fun times!

Tomorrow is our school's Christmas parties and then Christmas break begins!!