Christmas with the Memphis Clan

Kim, Drew, Brandon, and Tiffany came up after Christmas to visit and we had a lot of fun even though Kim, mom, and dad were sick. We still had lots of time to catch up, hang out, and just relax. Michael came over to have dinner with us all and also to pick up the big kids and take them home with him.

Debbie and Nico came in also to visit so we had the whole family together for a few special hours. Nico went to Austin to visit his daddy and Tyler was beside himself for the 4 days he was not there. They got to have 2 sleepovers to maximize their time together and they had a lot of fun.

Someone must have said something funny to make Tyler laugh - I am sure it was Aunt Debbie - she is full of the best one liners.

Time passes too quickly when you are with out of town family, but we still had so much fun.

Christmas Morning with Grandma and Grandpa

Tyler actually enjoyed Christmas this year - I don't think he liked opening all the gifts last year (if only that would have lasted a little longer)

The majority of Tyler's gifts were dinosaur related - I know I was only fueling the fire, but I couldn't resist because he was so infatuated with them.

Tyler was excited about this movie (can't tell what it was). After we opened up our gifts, we had a nice quiet brunch in anticipation of the chaos to be expected later in the day over at Nana and Papa's. Tyler and daddy watched WallE on the new Blu-ray player while mommy cleaned up and got ready for the second half of the day.

Cookies with Santa at Autumn's House

Well, this was one cool Santa that visited a Mean Girls' House this year - he can even do a herky just like Daddy can! (hehe) What a fun day we had at Autumn's house with lots of yummy cookies to be had. Tyler had 5 different cookies - he insisted on trying all of them that were nut free and he did. Mommy got to sit in Santa's lap this year, but Tyler wasn't interested because he sat on Santa's lap last week, but this Santa played along and told Tyler he remembered seeing him last week and didn't Tyler ask for Dinosaurs. Tyler was so excited to see that Santa remembered his request. (Little does he know that Daddy remembers hearing the story of cookies at Landon's house.) What a fun tradition Autumn has started.

It's the Annual pajama picture with the Morton boys

The Morton boys and Tyler receive pajamas every year that match, and this year Alison found some too, so they actually got two pair of jammies each.






The boys were being silly during the picture taking, but what do you expect with 4/6 year olds.







This was a good one! They are getting so big!

Being Creative even we feel a little sick

Tyler is busy making his Christmas garland out of foam candy pieces. He enjoyed stringing them for about 3 minutes and then mommy worked on the rest.






We have tried to make a lot of decorations this holiday season, one to be crafty, and two to help pass the time while we are not feeling our best. Today Tyler had an upset stomach (and thank the Lord - nothing ever came of it).

Cookies with Santa at Landon Bounds house

Tyler was invited to have Cookies and Cocoa at his friend from school's house - Landon Bounds. He had so much fun because the 5 boys from his class were all there, so they were excited to have no girls there from their class.





Here is Jacob and Tyler being silly waiting for the special guest to appear.







The boys were all lined up while Mrs. Bounds led them in Christmas carols waiting for Santa to appear.







Santa was really happy to see so many kids coming together to celebrate the season.





Tyler got to have a little lap time with Santa in which he declared his desire for more dinosaurs for Christmas - surprise surprise.

Early Release again...

Tyler had early release the first Friday in December and we decided to head to Chuck E Cheese. This is one of Tyler's favorite places to play games, eat pizza, and pick prizes. We are very sad that the Peter Piper Pizza chain has closed - at least that was not a 25 minute drive. We still had fun and Tyler ate 6 of the 8 pieces of pizza after he gave me the two smallest pieces.



Tyler realized he could be on TV singing along with the Christmas songs Chuck E was singing after he watched a few other kids do the same. We had a lot of fun and he played for about 2 hours - seeing as I was feeling under the weather - I was very grateful for all the games.

It feels like Christmas

Well, we finally had some weather worthy of a fire. It has snowed here, we have freezing temperatures, the Christmas Decorations are up and it feels like winter outside.

Tyler loves the Christmas decorations and has a countdown until we get to celebrate Jesus' birthday. He is excited about having a birthday cake for him - we will see what flavor he picks for us to make.

We wish everyone a very happy healthy holiday season.

Fort Worth Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa

We headed to the Fort Worth Zoo on Thanksgiving eve because the weather was absolutely gorgeous and it was half price day - bonus! We saw what all can fit in the stomach of an alligator and the importance of not throwing trash into any body to water. Tyler did not believe me when I told him he could fit into that alligator.







Tyler looks so big walking on ahead of us all by himself.








This orangutan waved at Tyler but I missed the photo - I took one anyway just to remember him. This guy was hilarious just watching all the people up above him wave and try to get his attention by hooting and whistling. His friend came by a little later to help pick his nose and clean his teeth.




Tyler and Grandpa enjoying a little play time with sand and building a sand castle. Grandpa showed Tyler how to stuff and flip over and dump. Tyler did not pack in the sand that well, but he got the idea.









We also saw the penguin exhibit - which was neat because they were getting fed by their caretaker and were all busy eating and then swimming around. They were very talkative too.









Tyler couldn't wait to see the flamingos - he even asked if we could have our picnic right by them. He didn't remember how stinky they were until we were right by them. What a wonderful way to spend the day before Thanksgiving.

Playdate at Frisco Commons

We met some friends from school today at Frisco Commons and had so much fun, we stayed there for over 3 hours. We packed a picnic lunch and played all morning with Andrew, Gabe, Ollie, and Jacob. Mommies had a break and got to catch up with Holiday planning talk. It was a beautiful day with sunny skies and the temperature was 70'. Could not ask for more beautiful weather!

Playtime with Ashley

Ashley Yarbrough and her mommy and daddy came over to play last night and I couldn't resist this picture! The kids were playing with puzzles while dinner was being made and looked adorable.

Colonial Day Feast

Tyler had his Colonial Day Celebration today at school in which the class learned the importance of celebrating Thanksgiving each year. The kids had quite a feast: turkey, cheese, apples, carrots, grapes, peppers, crackers and cupcakes dressed as turkeys. They rotated rooms within the preschool and made necklaces with twine and beads, played with games that were handmade typical of what children would have played with at the first Thanksgiving celebration, they put stickers above their favorite fruits or vegetables on a food graph, and heard a couple of stories about the First Thanksgiving and the Plymouth Rock.

This Cat is about to drive me crazy...

So, he's back and Tyler is in love. I am going to start taking donations for tuna fish. I told Tyler that when the doctor says he is no longer allergic then Blackie can come to stay. This cat is all over Tyler and Tyler loves it!

The Shoe War is On!

Okay, for those of you who don't know, Alison Morton and I have known each other for about 25 years now. We have played together, written each other for 7 years while living in different states, lived together, worked together, and now our children are growing up together. What more could you ask for in best friend. Now, to let you in on a little secret game of our - we will go shopping together and almost inevitably end up in Ross, TJMaxx, or Marshalls. We try to find the ugliest shoes possible, put them on and surprise the other person. The only problem is we usually end up almost wetting our pants from laughing so hard. We have been doing this for it seems 10 years or so, and now she has taken it to a new level by emailing me a picture of a pair. She thinks she won, but I say NO because the picture is of the shoes on the rack, and not on her feet! HA! You lose Al! Better luck next time. Although this pair is hideous!

Soccer Party for the Sharks

Tonight Tyler had his end of the year Soccer party for the Sharks Soccer team. The party was at Main Event and included bowling, pizza, cake, a trophy, and games. Tyler had a lot of fun with his friends. Coach Doug said he hopes all the boys return next season to play together again. Tyler said that's awesome!

Logan's Birthday Party at Strikz

Today we had a birthday party to attend at Strikz Bowling Center. The kids bowled most of a game, enjoyed pizza, cake, and a little dancing. Not to mention some game playing in the arcade. Happy 5th Birthday Logan!

Chuck E Cheese after Early Release

Today Tyler and mommy went to Chuck E Cheese because it was early release for Legacy. This is one of his favorite restaurants and we had a lot of fun. He played the Dino Dash game first (and used quite a few tokens on it), ate 3 slices of pizza and picked out some cool toys with all of his tickets. He won 115 tickets on one game and mommy won 50 on one game so he had a lot of tickets to turn in. Chuck E was even wandering around the restaurant and we had a photo op and took advantage of it!

Stars Game in Style

Kevin and I were able to go to the Stars game tonight and we had great seats - we were behind the glass. A friend of ours, Marc Yarbrough, came to have a couple extra seats that were awesome and invited us to go with Lauren and himself. We had a blast and saw a lot of action being that close to the goal.