Pre-Gobbling Through 11.18

Okay, we're back!  And here is the post covering November 12th through the 18th.  We were so busy this week before Thanksgiving, so I don't have a ton of pics, but I still got a few good ones.  :o)

Monday:

The kids were out of school for Columbus Day, so they spent the day playing games and chillin' like villains.

We gave Matthew his own flash drive to use for his computer club, so we spent some time teaching him how to save to it and eject it correctly and all.

He looks so big sitting at that computer, right?

And I have no idea what's all over his face, haha.  His breakfast maybe?  My bad.

Later, the kids played Monopoly with Daddy while Joshua worked on a research paper.

And then Joshua took over for him when he was done.

Emily saw them posing for a picture, so she jumped in and smiled, but then turned to watch TV.  :oP

Evie had gymnastics later that night, but yeah, it was a great day to spend in our pajamas.  :o)

Tuesday:

Sooo, after we took the kids to school, I took Evie to an appointment with an orthopedics doctor.  At her well-child visit, her pediatrician noticed that Evie had some curving to her spine and was concerned that she could have some type of scoliosis.  :o/  Well, we didn't want to say anything until we knew more, and we can now thankfully say that she does not have anything wrong with her spine.  :oD  They did some x-rays and said that when Evelyn bends down, there is some rotation to her spine that makes her appear to have a curve, but she really doesn't.

Wow, what great news.  We know that God wouldn't give us anything that we couldn't handle, but could we be any more blessed??  Seriously.

Thanks be to God for our healthy midgets.  :o1

When we got home from the doctor, we found the babysitter and the baby fast asleep.

:o)  How sweet!

Haha, that crazy girl was so determined to wear a backpack to pick up the kids from school, but she sooo didn't fit in her little car with it on.

I finally convinced her to carry it.  :o)

So Matthew brought home another book that he wrote in class about his family, and these were my 2 favorite pages.

"Chris - This is my dad.  He has work in the Coast Guard.  His favorite color is pitch.  He is 32 years old."

"Letisha - This is my mom.  She has work as a mom.  Her favorite color is violet.  She is 28 years old."

Ahahaha!  Oh I love that boy!  I said, "Matthew, why did you put that I'm 28?"  He said, "Well, I know that you're not, but I knew it would make you happy because you always say that you're 29, so I put 28!"  Yes!  Awesome.

Napping like a boss.  ;o)

Wednesday:

Emily and I had to return a couple things to the mall.

So we made a pit stop to ride the little honey-bee toy.  She was kinda weirded out when it started moving, and then she really liked it, but then she got sooo mad when it stopped!  Yeah, I had to drag her away crying.  :o/  Booo. We won't be doing that again anytime soon. :oP

The kids had church school today instead of on Tuesday because they were having a children's Mass.

Parents were invited to attend with the kids, so Matthew sat with us.

Joshua and Evelyn were both asked to altar serve.  :o)

So I caught a quick pic of Joshua before Mass started.

And a quick pic of the girl all ready for church.

Yes, she slept the whole time! :oD  

Thursday:

Chris had the day off, so I scheduled a couple of doctor/dentist appointments.  But then we found out it was "Parent Involvement Day" at the school, so Daddy ended up spending almost the whole day there!  He spent the morning in Joshua's math class playing math games on the computer with J.  Then he and Emily shared a Thanksgiving lunch with Matthew.  And later, they went back to the school to have lunch with Joshua and Evelyn.  All the kids were very happy to visit with Daddy and Emily, but Daddy forgot to take any pictures.  :oP  Oh well, we're all very happy he was able to be there with them.  :o)

 I got to go grocery shopping by myself (gasp!) and then spent the rest of the day packing because we were leaving for Houston the next day!

One day she'll learn how to ride this thing, but for now, she's perfectly happy to stand on the back and twist the handle back and forth.  :o)

Later, the best friends played with Legos and tools together.  :o)  

Friday:

We finished up our packing, grabbed the kids as soon as they got out school, and got on the road.  Chris' Thanksgiving leave wouldn't start until the next Wednesday, so Liz met us in Lafayette and took the kids and I the rest of the way to Houston.  We got in around 11 or 12, so not too bad, but yeah, it was a very long day.

And this is the only picture I took.

Lol, I guess with all the packing and trying to get on the road, I just forgot to take any others.

So here is some stuff that Evelyn brought home from school that I thought was just adorable and wanted to share.

It's a kind of poem titled "I Am From" where each line begins with "I am from..." and Evie filled in different descriptions of her life and favorites.

I'm sure you can read it, so I won't list all of them, but a couple of my favorite lines are:

I am from Hamburger Helper Shells

I am from Softball games

I am from The Avengers

I love it!  :oD

And here is another great thing they did in class called "The Best Part of Me".

"The best part of me is my big, brown eyes because I can see everybody and everything.  If I had no eyes, I would run into everything."

Ahaha!  Awesome Evie, I love your big brown eyes too!  :o)

Oh - and here's a little evil midget.

Lol!  Forgotten pic found on Daddy's phone from Halloween.  Scary!

Saturday:

We got up bright and early for our trip to Flatonia to celebrate Thanksgiving with our Rodriguez family.

All ready to go!  :o)

And dude - they roasted a pig!

The kids thought that was so cool.  Except Evie, she thought it was pretty gross, hehe.

There was a piece of wood hanging from a rope that I think used to be a swing, but was now just a piece of wood.

And the kids had a blast with it.

Lol!

They all took several turns swinging around on it, and then began asking me if we had any trees at home that we could hang rope from, haha.

Chillin' with my homies.  :o)

They had tons of fun running around outside and visiting with family and friends.

And they also ate a lot of pecans.  Actually, they probably just cracked a lot of pecans because they kept bringing them to us to eat.

Grandpa blessed the pig.

And a good time was had by all!

"I love piggys!"

Ew.  Hahaha!

All our midgets with their Great-Great-Grandfather.

So cool!  And so glad we got to go out there.  :o)

Emily's turn on the "swing".

He tried to get her to hold on, but she wouldn't.

But they found a way to make it work.

Hehehe.

Matthew was obsessed with that fire pit.

They were trying to build the fire up, so he jumped at the chance to help throw stuff in there.

Epa, Emily and the little pyro warmed their hands by the fire.

The kids got to sit around and play video games with their cousins too.  :o)

What a great day!

Sunday:

Joshua did really well in school the last few weeks, so his "break" from games was ended when we went into town.

:o)

Let's go Cowboys!

Cute pic of the small one.

And another cute pic of cousins doing what cousins do best - play video games together, of course! ;o)

Alright, and that was our week leading into Thanksgiving.  Crazy, but lots of good stuff.  I don't think I'll be able to get the Thanksgiving post up until next week because I really should try to finish unpacking, haha.  But at least now I'm only 1 week behind instead of 3, right?  :o)  Hope everyone's doing well!

Laters!

Speed Racin' Through 11.11

Hello!  Alright, this post covers November 5th through the 11th.  I am about 3 posts/weeks behind, so I really hope to get caught up soon.  We'll see!

Monday:

The day after our trip to the mall, Evie got to wear her new earrings to school.

They're pink sugar wafers with eyes!

Quick pic before school. :o)

And a quick pic after school.

When we got home, Daddy and Matthew wanted to show us just how fast they made his little car go.

Yes, that would be 2 batteries strapped down under that hood.

And goodness - was he fast!  Scared me a bit... okay a lot.  Haha, boys. *rolls eyes*

Daddy took Joshua to football practice while we took Evie to her gymnastics class.

:o)

And wow - check out that back bend!

She's so much more confident doing those now.  :o)

Tuesday:

Started to get a little chilly outside, so jackets were a must!

That face, haha!

Matthew has a computer enrichment class this quarter and he made this family web.

Aren't we cute?  He even included the neighbor and made Emily bald, lol!

Evelyn's class has been reading "Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key" which is really cool because J read it last year, so she's been working really hard.

They have to answer lots of discussion questions and do different vocabulary word activities.

On one of them, they have to use their vocab word in a sentence.  So Evie wrote this sentence for the word "stern."

"My cousin gets very stern and strict when her kid gets bad grades and grounds her children."

....... Hahaha!

Do you think she's talking about her cousin?  Yeah, me neither.  Lol! Oh, my sweet sneaky girl.  I love you too Evie!  ;o)

Wednesday:

Yeah, this was the day she caught me working on her birthday present.

I had walked away for a few minutes and came back to find her petting the fabric going, "Kitty-cat." Lol!  Yeah, I lured her away with a cookie and worked really hard to keep her distracted the rest of the time I was working on it.

Check out that girl working on her splits!

:o)

Evie had gymnastics and J had practice, and it was really cold outside!

The boys were just looking cute when Joshua got home from practice.

And Emily was so excited to see Daddy.

Then his jacket swallowed her.  Hehe.  :o)

Thursday:

Spider-man and the kids were all bundled up for the cold!

But yeah, they were still wearing shorts.  :oP

And actually, I think this was the last day they got to wear them.

Emily found the big Dora that sits on Evelyn's bed and brought it to my room, hugging her the whole time.

And then she turned Dora over and raided her backpack.

Haha!  :o)

Well, it was time for Joshua's next play-off game!

Quick pic in the car as we rode the ferry across to the Eastbank.

They had to do their homework out in the cold, but were still so happy and ready for Joshua's game.

There's the smile!

And ohmygosh - it was 49 degrees out there!  I knew it would be chilly, but I really didn't expect to be using all the blankets I threw in the car.

So we huddled for warmth.  :o)

Joshua and his team were so excited!

After they finished their school work, Evelyn and Matthew ran around to stay warm, and Emily chased after Chris for most of the game.

Seriously, trying not to freeze to death!

And man, Joshua's team played sooo hard!  And they got beat so bad.  :o/

They kept trying and never gave up.  Joshua played both offense and defense and did a really great job.

But his team never got a chance to score.  :o/  Oh well, our J didn't let that get him down.

And he got a medal!

They ended up with 3rd place for the season.  Woohoo!

Joshua's comment, "Well, at least I don't have to go to any more practices."  Haha.  We're so proud of our football boy!!  :o)

Friday:

Booger came into town for a visit and to keep an eye on the midgets so Chris and I could attend his Chiefs' Dinner.  But first - we had some shoe shopping to do.

Emily really liked trying on all the different boots. :o)

Some were too loose, some too tight, and some of them had heels!  Like real wedge heels!  She couldn't walk in those at all.  (Who puts heels on toddler shoes??)

But these fit just right.  :o)

Then Chris and I got all cleaned up for our night out!  Woohoo!

:o)

And Liz filled the kids up with lots of sugar.

Very happy ice-cream-eating midgets.

And then they had a slumber party.

:o)

Saturday:

We spent a nice and easy day at the house. 

And after Daddy made a few more modifications, Matthew took his speed machine for another joyride.

Oh my, he is sooo fast, and spins out and does donuts too!  

It's hard to watch.  :oP

Booger got to hang out and witness the speed demon too.

"Hey Booger, my boots are awesome, right??"

And after removing some of the power..

It was Emily's turn...

And she liked it sooo much!

"Come on Daddy, keep up!"

Quick cute pic of Evie.

:o)

And of course, Daddy had to have a turn too.

Lol!  It was soooo funny.

Hahaha.  Our biggest boy makes me laugh!  ;o)  Very cool!

The kids played outside most of the day.

And Emily got to wear Booger's jacket.

So glad she got to come visit!  :o)

Sunday:

We went to the early Mass.

Then we spent the rest of the day playing outside.

And look very closely at the pink spot in that tree - do you see her?

It's Evie!  In a tree!  With boys!!!

Lol, yeah, they were all out there climbing trees.  And when I shouted, "Hey Evie, what are you doing?"  She looked over at me, held out her hand, and said, "Whaaat?"  Haha.  :o)

Later, Matthew handed out tickets for a "Helicopter Show", so we all headed upstairs to watch.

It was a good show, but he kept crashing in to stuff, hehe.  See how the kids are all huddled in the blankets on the bottom bunk for protection?  Hahaha!

I asked him, "Matthew, did you practice for this show?"

He said, "No, but maybe I should before the next one."  :oP

After a while, he let Daddy have a turn.

And he was doing pretty good, but even Matthew had to grab a blanket!

But then Emily decided to chase the helicopter, and Daddy lost control and crashed into her!

Lol, she was fine, and ran over for a hug when Daddy said he was sorry.

Awww.  :o)

Watch out Emily!

Hehe, she stayed near me for the rest of the show, safely sitting outside the room.

What a fun idea Matthew!  Thanks for the show!  :o)

And that was the beginning of November, haha.  The next week was very full of pre-Thanksgiving preparations and studying and stuff, but I have the pictures ready and hope to get the next post up soon.  :o)  Laters!