Christmas 2013

We had a GREAT Christmas break. I loved having all 3 kiddos home all day. We had a very laid back Christmas week. My family came to our house the weekend before Christmas to celebrate all together. It is always such a great time when we are all together. Sadly, my brother and his family weren't able to come. He has been SUPER busy with running for Railroad Commissioner (more on that in a later post) that they wanted time to just be home together!
Then Christmas Eve, Brent was on call and ended up having to work most of the day. The kids and I went to our church Christmas Eve program and then headed to my dad's to celebrate Christmas with them, in Boerne.
Thankfully, Brent did not end up having to work Christmas day, so we were able to be together as a family once again on Christmas. I love getting to see family and friends over the break and celebrating with them, but I LOVE having that special time with just the 5 of us on Christmas. I love getting to just hang out, play with all of our new toys, but most important, spending time talking about the real reason for the season.
The day after Christmas, we headed to FBG to celebrate Christmas with Brent's HUGE family. I just LOVE my in-laws. I love that we don't exchange presents, that we come together and have a feast, followed by the grandkids put a Christmas play. It is the coolest, cutest thing I have ever seen. This year, Ezra was a Shepard, Emersyn was an angel and Elynn was Mary! Elynn was the BEST Mary hands down! We even had a REAL lamb in the play, thanks to our baby lamb Oreo. Brent's uncle lives on a farm and had a baby lamb whose mom had died during birth. So we got to take her to our house and bottle feed her for a couple weeks. The kids fell in LOVE. When it was time to give her back, they CRIED so hard and were upset. The good thing is, we still get to see Oreo when we go to the farm.
The weekend after Christmas, we had ANOTHER Christmas get together in Houston with the Lindigs (brent's moms side). Brent's sister, Melanie, hosted everyone. It is always so much fun to get to see everyone. Once again, no presents were exchanged and we just had a feast and fellowship! I just LOVE that.
I love this time of year. I am thankful for family and friends.

This is the only pic I got of them with Santa. Ezra was hunting with Brent and missed the party and we never made it to get all 3 of them with Santa for a picture. I feel like I failed with that this year..

Bass Pro fun. This was my attempt to get a pic of all 3 with Santa, but he was 'booked' the night we went and we never made it back. 

The kids with Oreo.

Sweet Oreo. Oh, she was the sweetest thing. She followed us around everywhere we went and loved to be pet under the chin. She even let the kids hold her. I could have kept her, but they all grow up.

Emersyn bottle feeding her.

My family Christmas 

Mimi made the cutest aprons for the girls!

Getting ready for santa with cookies...

and magical reindeer food.

Santa brought build a bears!

This boy LOVES him some Legos!

These 2 are the BEST of friends. They are constantly hugging and saying, "we are best friends for ever. I love you so much!"

Helping dad put together her Easel. 

WORN OUT!

A trip to build a bear the next day to stuff their animals

Elynn got a bike and has learned to ride it like a PRO! 

SeaWorld

I took the kids to Sea World for their Christmas shows/celebration. It was such a fun time. I love the stage we are at with the kids. I feel like I can pretty much do anything with all 3 of them by myself if I need to. I know Brent feels the same way. It's so much fun. Here are some pictures from our day.

Playing in the snow. They had this awesome snow area with a snow slide that the kids could slide down in a tube. Probably one of our favorite parts. 

Emersyn braving the slide!

Ezra enjoying the slide!

Elynn even went all by herself. She is fearless!!

Making a snow man. (i didn't bring gloves for the girls..)

Snow (ice) angels. 

Making more ice angels. 

They have a new Pets Ahoy show that is AWESOME!! The kids LOVED it. You can go see the pets and pet them after the show.

And, of course, Shamu. 

Thanksgiving (Yes, Thanksgiving)

I am totally behind on my blog..but that is my life right now. I am going to attempt to catch up and then try to do better next year.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was very laid back. We were able to go to Frederickburg and spend time with Brent's family. We even were able to go to his extended Eilers' family Thanksgiving. We hadn't been able to do that in a while! It was fun seeing faces we hadn't seen in a while. One thing I am so very thankful for is Family! I love my family and love brent's family. Truly blessed by that!

Ezra had the cutest Thanksgiving program at his school. It was fun to be able to go to it and watch him perform songs he had been practicing, but keeping secret from us so that we would be surprised. He is the sweetest, tender little guy. I wish he could stay in Kinder forever.

Emersyn's little preschool had a Thanksgiving Feast. I love her school. I can't wait for Elynn to go next year.

Pictures

Here are some pictures from September/October!

A date day with Elynn

Emersyn asked me to curl her hair like mine. Stunning little girl!

My Mini Me

Feeding ducks with Grammie

Lunch after the ducks..

St. Mary's football game

Emersyn's pre-school picture day

Elynn being HILARIOUS

Pumpkins

Bike ride!

Just a morning workout

Cute lil cowgirl

School pics

Love Creek pumpkin patch...

Face Paint: Unicorn

Butterfly

Texas Flag

Lifegroup Family Reunion

Wearing daddy's halloween wig

I MUSTACHE you to say NO to drugs

poor Jager. He was a dragon for Halloween

Ezra's Kinder pic

Oh My!

I have NEGLECTED this blog!! Man, we have been busy. School full time is like having a full time job! That doesn't even included Extra-Cirricular! We aren't even really doing EXTRA stuff. Not sure if I mentioned that Ezra did a Rock Wall climbing class at our gym for a couple months. It was once a week. He LOVED it. The girls are doing swim lessons at the gym. We signed up at a new gym and they gave us a lot of free bucks that we could put towards things/activities at the gym so I chose rock wall and swim for the kids. It has been fun.
Like I said, we have been busy, but not really doing anything in particular. It's kind of a crazy season. We really have just been hanging out with each other. It has been soo good, but I am now missing my girlfriends! Such is the season of life.
Brent has been super busy with work, so when he has 'free' time, he wants to be at the farm getting ready for hunting season and NOW hunting season. He recently went on a little hunting trip, at the farm, from Wed-Sun. Ezra got to go with him from Friday-Sunday. He came home with a pretty big 9 point. He was super excited!! I was so happy for him. Although, now he wants to shoulder mount it as his Christmas present and that means I am going to have to allow it to go in my house somewhere..I have tried to put that off our whole marriage. I will have to let you know how that goes. Ha!
So, to catch up..Ezra is in kinder at EKHLA and LOVING it. He is doing so well. They learn Hebrew at this school and he is just SOAKING IT UP! Hebrew is one of his favorite classes. He calls us by our Hebrew names and is always singing a Hebrew song. So so cute!
Emersyn is at OHC pre-school. She is a lady bug in Ms. Woodard's class. She loves it too. She goes 2 days and wonders why she can't go 3. I am going to be SO SAD when she goes to Kinder next year. She is also riding her bike all by herself. It still has training wheels, but she can now do it by herself everywhere, without being so afraid. She is also swimming like a little fish. She is just getting so big!
Elynn and I are LOVING our one on one time on Wednesdays and Fridays. It is a super sweet time. Wednesdays we do a swim class TOGETHER. Yes, I have to get in the water with her. I have avoided this for so long..always signing the kids up AFTER they turn 3 because of that very reason. However, this little girls is OBSESSED with swimming. She is FEARLESS and just jumps in if you are ready to catch her or NOT. So, swim lessons are a MUST. She absolutely loves that I do them with her, so that in itself is worth it. She is getting super big and knows it. I can't believe she will be 3 in January!!

That's really about it!