Twining

Levi used his Christmas money from Paul and Carolyn to buy himself his first pair of Converse and he wanted some just like Elle's.  We took him to buy them on the way to church one night and he and Elle PLANNED to match....as in Elle was okay with matching her 6 year old brother.  I LOVED that they wanted to do this and especially loved that he wanted to buy Converse and not another a car!

Number 3 in Year 2

Ava started her second year of basketball this past Saturday.  We have all been excited for her to start again.  We have a lot of fun watching her and I get SO INTO the game when she's playing!  She is better this year already!  She scored 3 baskets in the first game and her team won 16 to 12!  I truly sit there in amazement at her tenacity and courage on the court!  I love watching her be so much more confident than I was!  This year she's #3.  

New Year's Eve

We started NYE at the church building.  We spent time with our church family singing and praying together.  It was very uplifting.  After that, we played games and tried to keep each other up until at least 10 pm.  We played a game called Telestrations.  If you haven't played it, you should.  It's funny!

We came home about 10:30 and Shawn did a fireworks display for us at the end of the driveway.

Elle and Levi were brave enough to try sparklers and I'm happy to say, we didn't have any burns this year.

After that we went through our Good News jar from 2016.  This is our second year to do it and we loved it once again!  To talk about so many good memories that we've forgotten about is such a happy way to send off one year and prepare for a new one!

Last picture of 2016!  Somehow Shawn and I accidentally made it to midnight without meaning to.  I had totally planned on going to bed way before midnight, but with all the fireworks and good news jar, it took us longer than expected.  Sunday.Was.Brutal.  But it was also the first day of a new year and this always brings new hope!

Retreating with the Youth Group

We took the youth group to Camp Of The Hills on December 30-31st and had such a great time bonding with them and laughing with...and at them!  

We loved our sleeping situation.  It was a fun room and plenty of space for us!

Blanket volleyball made us all laugh!

I finally conquered the leap of faith!!!

Shawn wore his toboggan with style.

Superman!

Youth Of The Hills!

Singing songs together

Eating our meals together too

Though our group is so so small, it's such a sweet group.  It is so very hard to work with youth in today's world, but we truly love doing this and only pray that we will continue to grow both in numbers and spiritually.

Christmas in Tyler

All three sets of grandparents and all but 2 cousins were in Tyler this year for Christmas!  My kids love gifts....but they REALLY love time with their cousins and grandparents!  We started at Gramme's house.  There were hours of laughing and pretending going on!

Elle and Riley found a little space to get away from all the other kids....the back of Gramme's car.

Next we headed to my parents house.  I think my mom's stockings are officially world famous.  I love them!

We haven't taken a picture together in years!  

All the cousins together!!!  I love how this picture turned out!

Levi making a face while Grayson took a picture with his new camera.

The kids are MESMERIZED with any form of technology!

We also got to spend time with Paul and Carolyn who had JUST gotten back from Hawaii! 

The kids did HILARIOUS things to Paul and Carolyn.  It was .....amazing.

 It started innocently with Ava wanting to play beauty shop with Paul.

Then she and the other kids got into Carolyn's make and gave almost everyone a makeover.  Paul and Carolyn were VERY good sports to let them do all kinds of stuff to them.

Then things just got plain weird.

We took Riley with us after we left and did a little after Christmas shopping.  I love watching these two girls together.

We had a wonderful time in Tyler and only wish we could have stayed longer!

Christmas Eve and Morning!

Christmas Eve was pretty low key this year and it actually worked well for us.  We put out chocolate covered cherries for Santa this year, because that's what I did growing up...and it didn't require any baking!

Sunday morning arrived early!  The kids moved the moose one last time!

I always love this picture.  It's there first look at what Santa left for them!

Shawn and I always do something DIY for the kids as our gift to them.  This year we made them marshmallow shooters.  If you come over and see lots of mini marshmallows in every nook and cranny, there's the reason.

Shawn got a new toy too!

Everyone loves time for stockings!

As soon as we finished looking at everything, we ate breakfast and headed to church!  After that we went to DQ for lunch.  This was a mistake.  It was gross but I was thankful for DQ being open so I didn't have to figure out lunch.  Then we headed to Tyler!!!

Mozarts

If you know much about Austin, Mozart's is the place to be near Christmas!  The last time we went was sometime before Levi was born and things were WAY more subdued.  This year, when we drove up to that little unassuming coffee shop on the lake, we thought a Hollywood celebrity was having a concert!  We saw hundreds upon hundreds of people!  We decided to forge ahead and go for the mayhem.  It did not disappoint!  The lights were amazing and the drinks were too!

Every hour, on the hour, they do a 15 minute light show that's pretty awesome to watch.  The weather was awesome and hopefully our kids had a great time!