Goodbye 2013

When I look back through the blog for this past year, I am overwhelmed by blessings.  We are truly blessed with family, friends, essentials of life, and a God who provides EVERYTHING we need.  Some of the things make me sad from 2013 and I know not every moment was happy, but I also now see the blessings from every moment provided to us.  Thank you Lord for all the blessings and we look forward to a NEW year that we know will bring NEW blessings and cheer.

Enjoying our last few days of break!

These last few days were crazy busy with packing in family fun before Daddy leaves tomorrow for Arizona to watch the Baylor Bears play in the Fiesta Bowl.  So, we attempted growing sea monkeys (we will see if they hatch), playing at KHS stadium, chick-fil-a, movies galore, fireworks and fun trips for ice cream treats!  It has been busy and fun and we will miss Daddy while he is gone!

A very MERRY Christmas!

Christmas is such a special time of year.  Although there was the usual hustle, parties, Jingle Elf, visiting Santa, ornaments, food, cards, presents, etc....I am blessed knowing both of my children know the real meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!  My favorite thing this year was Cade waking up so excited on Christmas day, and screaming at me, "Happy Birthday Jesus, WOOT WOOT!"  I think I choked laughing so hard, and might have replied, "yep, Jesus is AWESOME!"  Hahaha.  This year, we spent Christmas in Round Rock with the Parks side.  It is hard to describe EXACTLY what went down.  It was at times every emotion you can dream of with 4 kids under the age of 6.  I saw Papa turn his hearing aides off many times, and I know for a fact every kid had at least 5 meltdowns in the course of 4 days.  My sister and I would laugh when it wasn't our kids and then sigh when it was ours.  There was food, SO MUCH food.  There was laughing and joy (although I must let you know the loudness meter readings were off the chart).  We had fun doing things such as: baking cookies, making food for the reindeer and sprinkling it on the lawn, watching movies, making hand print ornaments, decorating the tree, playing in the backyard, taking silly photos with cousins, singing "Happy Birthday Jesus", Mommy reading the story of Jesus' birth (like Grumps used to do), opening presents galore, Daddy reading "Twas the Night before Christmas" (like Mumps used to do), waiting for Santa to come, playing games, and so much more.  Needless to say, we sure packed a WHOLE LOT into the time we had.  Even the adults watched movies each night after the kids went to bed!  We MAY have overwhelmed Nana/Papa at times, but hey, that is what little kids are for, right?!  I am pretty sure when we left this afternoon they went right to take a nap!

I have to also mention 2 things Cade said during our trip.  The first was Christmas morning.  He of course was so excited he woke up before everyone else.  I knew it happened, so I asked him to tell me more.  This is what he said.  "I ran into the living room, saw that Santa had come and brought me the Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots.  Then I ran back into the playroom, crawled over Jax and looked out the window to see if it was snowing.  It wasn't snowing Mommy (said with a sad face), but then I woke up Jax (smile returning to his face) and told him Santa came and MIGHT have brought him a train table!"  Secondly, when we were leaving Nana/Papa's today, both kids were crying.  I was trying to assure them we would see Nana & Papa soon.  Cade replied, "Nana and Papa love me SO MUCH, but not Mackenzie."  I asked why, and he replied, "because Mackenzie said she didn't like my black smiley face or my red colored 2 that I drew on her board (Santa brought Mackenzie an easel!).  She also fired me and told me I had to pay her $2."  Charles and I laughed so hard in the car.  Oh cousins and the joys of growing up together!  I love how they are JUST like brother and sister.

All in all, if I had to sum up the last 4 days, I would say it was a beautiful, PERFECT chaos.  Thank you Nana/Papa for loving on us all, and Jesus for every ounce of perfection you give our families.