Merry Christmas

For us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on His shoulders. And He would be called WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, MIGHTY GOD, EVERLASTING FATHER, PRINCE OF PEACE.

Isaiah 9:6

The Weather Outside Is Frightful.....

But The Fire Is So Delightful!

And perfect for roasting marshmallows!

Making a fire that lasts hours and hours is something we have learned this winter. Our first couple of fires were not so great. But now we can make a fire last all night. I love the way it smells, looks and warms up the room. And the girls love that they can roast marshmallows!

  Even the dogs enjoy the fire.

The weather has truly been frightful! We have had highs in the upper 20's the last couple of days! Burrrrrrr! I'd stay in all day if I could.

    But the girls still want to go out and play!

A Snow Day

Looks like it will be a White Christmas!

Tori missed out on all the fun. She was at her four year old check-up with Dad. I do not like to miss out on their check-ups, but there was no way I was going to attempt to drive in this, even with my 4-wheel drive!

Happy Birthday Tori

My SWEET little girl is 4 years old today!! Tori is truly a sweet little girl. She is very considerate and easy going. She is quiet and a little shy. She is VERY independent and enjoys making "set ups" with her toys. She'll set up the doll house, Pet Shops, My Little Pony, or Barbies and play and sing for hours. She skips more than she walks and LOVES her dance class. Her favorite presents were "My Little Pony sheets for Lite Brite" from Grandpa Pete and Linda and her "new Hello Kitty pajamas" from Mommy and Daddy. 

Tori had a fun birthday at Chuck E. Cheese yesterday.....again.  She had her party there last year. And, again for the second year in a row, she asked for a polka dot cake. The girl knows what she likes!

Happy Birthday Victoria Grace!

Introducing.....

Dixie Mae- the newest member of our family!

Isn't she adorable?!?

Everyone around here thinks so!

Pete and I thought a new puppy is just what we needed! She was rescued from a kill shelter in Kentucky and brought up here for us to adopt her. We are all in love already.....except Maddie.

Maddie doesn't think much of her! But we hope they will eventually become great playmates. We hear that bringing in a puppy will add some years to a senior dog. And we all want more years with Maddie!

Dixie has been really good. She is a sweet pup and tolerates the girls loving up on her ALL day long.

By the way....

 

we did make it home safe and sound. And our trip home was just as good as the one down. The girls were fantastic in the car! We shortened our trip back and drove all the way in from Memphis! It was all Pete. The girls and I slept! I haven't had any time to update my blog. I have been trying to get back into the daily routine of things, Christmas shop, prepare for a special someone's fourth birthday, put out Christmas' decorations and deal with all the other stuff that seems to be going on right now.

The drive home really made me feel happy about living in New Jersey. Even though we are so (so very) far from home, we live in a great part of the country. It is so pretty here. And so different from what we are use to- the climate, the change of season, the people, the food, and such a neat experience for us all. And of course there is the fact that we are only an hour away from New York City, two hours from Pete's Alma Mater, and we can visit several states by driving just a few hours.

I still love Texas and still have the desire to move back there one day. Please forgive me for saying so, but until this trip, I never realized how un-pretty Texas is! I know there are a lot of pretty areas in Texas, but most of the Texas driving was not as nice as what we were seeing in the other states. But one thing is certain, it is definitely the most proud! I can not tell you how many times I saw the Texas flag on our drive through the state. It was on vehicles, billboards, homes, restaurants, shopping centers, car lots. It was every where. I love that! I love that Alli came home with a Texas flag that she made in preschool. I have been in Jersey for over a year and I am not sure that I have ever seen the NJ flag. I don't even know what it looks like. None of the girls have brought it home from school...yet. I like being from a state that is so proud. I always tell anyone who will listen that I am from Texas. I even have the Texas charm on my James Avery charm bracelet!

And here is the New Jersey flag in case you were curious. And yep, I am still pretty sure I have never seen it.

Road Trip Day 2 & 3

The girls had so much fun at the end of day two playing with Madison, Sam and Ande.



As we continued down the highway on day two of our road trip, things kept on going well. We were able to stop in Little Rock to meet up with a good friend of Pete's for lunch at Jason's Deli. Jason's is another restaurant that is very much missed by our entire family. We found that it was a good idea to actually get out of the car for lunch. Initially, we had planned on eating both breakfast and lunch in the car. But we stopped for lunch on both days. The girls were needing that little break from the car. And it felt great to get out and move around and not be stuck in our seats.
We arrived at our friend's Aaron and LE Yanelli in Dallas at just a little past 5pm. Pete thought we could probably drive all the way through, but I did not think that was a good idea. But we were both happy that we decided to stop. It was so great to be able to visit with friends- for both us and the girls.
We left their house around 8:30am and arrived at my moms at 1pm. It was SO EASY- especially since we had been spending 12 hours in the car for the past two days!
We will definitely do the drive again. We are not dreading our drive back home. I think it will go just as well. And it is such a good family bonding time for us. The girls love staying in a hotel and look forward to staying in one again on the way home. We will stop in Tennessee again and then in Virginia. Hopefully we do not get stuck in traffic for too long on that Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Alli said her favorite part about the road trip was swimming. She actually swam in the deep for the first time! Tori said her favorite part was coloring in car. And I am sure if Katie would fully understand the question, she would say eating snacks whenever she wanted.

Road Trip- Day 1

Pictures taken from Pete's phone on day two.

Day one of our super long road trip went very well!
We were driving off at exactly 5:09am - just 9 minutes later than planned. Not too bad.
We drove from Jersey to Pennsylvania to Maryland to West Virginia to Virginia and finally Tennessee.
It was a very pretty drive for the most part.
Exactly one hour and thirty minutes into our drive, Tori gave us our first, "Are we almost there?"
Our first stop was for breakfast at Chic-fil-A....we do not have one by us and miss it a lot!
There was only one spilt juice and one melt down. Not bad at all for spending 12 hours in the car! The girls are doing great! They have watched movie after movie. Any time they want a snack they get one. We have played games and sang songs. It has really been a nice trip.
We checked into our hotel and immediately put on swim suits. The girls had fun working off all of their energy in the indoor pool. I highly recommend staying at a hotel with a pool when doing a long road trip. It was so nice that they got to do something they really enjoy after being strapped in their seats all day.

Day two is off to a good start. We drove off at only 4 minutes past 5am.
The girls are watching their first movie of the day- The King and I. And Pete is driving and I am using his really cool Air Card! So cool!
The worst part about it is that I have to keep going to the back to hand the girls one thing or another. That is not a good thing for someone who gets motion sickness!

It is now, five hours into our drive, the girls are a little more restless today. They are bored with the movies and bored with the toys. We've played some games and now they are having lollipops...at 10 in the morning. I have done a lot of reading and browsing and now am getting a little car sick..UGH! My driving shift is coming up so more updates later!

My Birthday Celebrations

This past Thursday was my 34th 21st Birthday!!

My first celebration was on Tuesday with my good friends Shannon and Lori.

Me and my Jersey Girls! I met Shannon and Lori in my Bible study last year. I am so thankful for them! They are great friends and make my life here in NJ better.

On the night of my birthday we went to Chili's for dinner. Chili's is the best place to go with kids! Pretty much every table in the restaurant has at least one kid. It is also a "comfort" place for us. It is one of the few restaurants around that we like and have in Texas. NJ is not big on chain restaurants- just diners! On Friday, Pete and I were suppose to go on a "Hot" date, but a last minute doctor appointment for a rash on Alli prevented that. She was fine. I wish we had not taken her and wasted our time and money! But I had to make sure she was ok because I would be gone the next day for an overnight stay in NYC!!! My sweet husband bought my mom and I tickets for the Broadway show Mama Mia. It was SO GOOD!!! He also booked us a room so we could spend the day there. It was a great gift and a great time for my mom and me.

Here is my mom in front of the Rockefeller skating rink. It was my mom's second time to the city, but her first time to visit Time's Square. 

It is still hard for me to believe that I live just an hour away from NYC. I love going to shows on Broadway! Pete and I went to our first show this past June. We have a high school friend, Derek Cecil, who was starring in a drama. We got the tickets through him so we had great seats! It is really such a fun experience. I can't wait to take the girls to a show.

That Clever Little Stinker!

Last week Katie decided to climb out of her crib.

I was so not ready to put her in a "big girl" bed! I really liked her being trapped in her crib. See, she use to take naps. Two hour naps. And she use to wake up at 7:30 in the morning. Now that she has learned to climb out of her crib, she is not taking naps and she is waking up at 6:00! I do not like my mornings being interrupted by anyone! I wake up early to workout by myself. I like to watch Fox News while I am running on the treadmill, not Max and Ruby! Tonight, I was encouraging Katie to go lay down with one of her sisters when she wakes up in the morning. This plan could certainly backfire. I could have two or three girls interrupting my workout instead of the one! We'll see. I'll take it one day at a time until I figure out how to keep her in her room!

  And this is how that clever little stinker learned to climb out of her crib. She stacked up her pillow and blankets and dolls!

And now she is sleeping in her "Big Girl" bed. My baby is growing up too fast!

She was pretty excited about her new bed.

  

Trick or Treating and Trick or Drinking

Here are all the kids in the neighborhood getting ready for trick or treating.

A few houses were vandalized the night before Halloween. The toilet paper was the nicest thing they did. They only hit the houses with older kids so I am sure it was some teenagers.

Our neighborhood has a few traditions. One of them is to go trick or treating together as a group. When it comes time to trick or treat at your house, you just run ahead of the group so you are there to pass out candy.

 

Another tradition of the neighborhood is Trick or Drink, an adult version of trick or treating. We were told about this little tradition shortly after we moved in. On any given Friday or Saturday in October the trick or drinkers can come knocking. This is how Trick or Drink works- they knock on your door, you let them in and serve them a drink of your choice, everyone has about 15 minutes to finish their drink, and then one adult has to go with the group to the next house, and it starts over from there. Unfortunately, my mom was here so both Pete and I could join the group. I don't know what I was thinking! I think the last time I had four drinks, much less shots of liquor, in one hour was way back in college! Needless to say, I was not feeling well the next morning. But we sure are lucky to have moved into such a fun neighborhood.

This was the group that came knocking on our door. Luckily, we were prepared and had some alcohol to pass around. Too bad I did not bring the camera with me to take pictures at every house.

Happy Halloween

A Snow Princess, a Fairy Ballerina and a Bumble Bee.

 

I think this Halloween was the best for me so far as a mom. This was the first year that all three girls were in to getting dressed up and going trick or treating. All of them were so excited about wearing their costumes. And, of course, they were excited about all the treats!

There's Snow On My Pumpkins!

We woke up this morning to snow! Is that crazy or what?!?

This was taken early this morning.

 

And the rest are from this afternoon. It has not stopped snowing!

 

 

I hope this does not mean we are in for a BAD WINTER!

Tori's First Field Trip

Today Tori's class went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch. The weather has been pretty nice. I expected it to be another nice day, but about ten minutes after arriving to the pumpkin patch, the sun went behind the clouds. It became very chilly! And Tori was definitely not appropriately dress. I felt bad, but she did not seem bothered by the cold. We made our way through the pumpkins, a hay ride, the maze, a corn box (instead of sand it was corn) and fed a few farm animals. It was nice to be at a pumpkin patch with the fall foliage and cold weather.

The view from the patch was so nice.

I did not get too many pictures. My hands were in my pockets trying to keep warm!

It Is Snowing Leaves

This is the time of year when Pete we put off raking the leaves as long as possible. Pete has actually picked them up a couple of times already. It is pretty easy since we have this attachment that works as a vacuum for the riding lawn mower. I am thinking that I actually want to do it myself.......it would be a nice break and finally give me some time alone an easy chore once the thing is attached.

The girls and my mom and I had some fun in the leaves this afternoon. It is something new for us Texans. Fall is a beautiful time of the year when the weather is nice and cool. The leaves change from green to yellow, red and orange. It is quite a site! I am truly amazed at the beauty of it all!  Now the leaves are starting to fall off the trees and the cool crisp weather is slowly becoming cold.

It's unbelievable how much fun a pile of leaves can be when you are 6, 3, and 2 years old.

Where did Alli go?

I think this will keep her busy for awhile.