Deep in the Heart of Texas

Friday, January 8, 2016

Alivia's 10-year stats

We saw Dr. Dawson today. . . here are my girl's stats:
height: 56 inches
weight: 83.5 pounds

She is tracking along at 75th percentile which means she will be about 5' 6 1/2" when she is an adult. I was a little surprised by that since I am about 5'8" - I always just assumed she would be taller than me! I guess only time will tell. . .

Alamo Bowl 2016

I have to admit that I went to San Antonio simply to see my friends, but the Alamo Bowl game turned out to be SO FUN! As we entered the second half, TCU was BEHIND 31-0. Yep. You read that night. We had scored no points in the first half. It was miserable. We were all planning to leave sometime in the 3rd quarter if things did not turn around. Well turn around they did. . . we went into THREE overtimes to end up winning 47-41. It was the biggest bowl comeback in history. The stadium was going crazy and we were all standing up the last quarter until the end of the game because we were all so excited. It was a blast to be there in person and see it first hand.

After the game we all headed to Alison Brawner's parent's house (Glen and Ginny Glass). Their house is so pretty and really large. Matt and I stayed in a huge room with a king size bed and slept until 8:30 am! It was wonderful.

And of course seeing Mandy, Red and Alison was a blast. Anna and Sam could not come since they were in Cabo celebrating their wedding anniversary. Shane stayed back in Austin with the kiddos. I balked at having to pay $100 for my ticket, but it turned out to be worth it. Such a fun time.

Beforehand, we at lunch (with great margaritas!) at La Tierra. The weather was crummy but we still managed to walk to the game and back without too much trouble.

GO FROGS!

The Crager Girls

Alivia loves Lainie and Josie Crager. They are two sisters that have blessed us at Austin Classical School. Lainie is a year older than Alivia and Josie is a year younger but they all have a blast together. Josie is all tomboy and Lainie is all girly-girl. I think Alivia likes spending time with girls that are sisters and are so different. I am so glad we have gotten to know them through ACS these past two years.

Friday, January 1, 2016

New Year's Day in Bertram

Friday, December 25, 2015

Christmas 2015

I think this Christmas is going to go down as one of my favorite. For some reason I did not seem as stressed or overwhelmed this year. I really did my best to complete the Advent devotional book that Austin Stone gave out which was really good. And Matt and I did our best to do the Jesse Tree devotional with the kids every night which was hit or miss with them, but really meaningful for me. It is awesome to see how every story (even the Old Testament) points us back to Jesus and His coming.

I also got all my shopping done really early - in fact, most on Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving) with Matt's help. We bought a ton online which is amazing and helps out so much. Plus we got each child an iPad as their main gift through a great Black Friday deal so that made buying anything else much simpler. We just kept the remaining gifts really small. And I felt like I did pretty well sticking to a budget.

Also, John (and Matthew) still believe in Elf on the Shelf and Santa Claus. Which is SO FUN. Having Elf on the Shelf move every night was a favorite activity during the holidays and every kid got into it. It was the first thing John would do every morning and he would usually run into our bedroom to report where "Elfie" had moved.

Another element that made it special is that we all gathered at Mom's house and Emily and Peyton were in town this year which my kids love because it means they have their cousins there, too. I also had everyone over for brunch on Christmas day which helped relieve some of Mimi's stress which is ALWAYS a good thing.

Lots of people kept telling me I was so lucky to have kids still excited about Christmas because once they get older it's just not as fun. I can see why that would be true. . . but I always hope that we can have some meaningful memories along the way and always remember the amazing gift of the baby Jesus. It changes everything!