Have you ever noticed?

Have you ever noticed that once you get married or live with someone for a long time you start doing things or eating things that you never did before...Or maybe you stop eating or doing things that you were used to doing.

Well, today one of those things happened and I started thinking of the many changes that I have made over my many years of marriage. Some good, some questionable;-)

So here is a list of things that I can think of right now...I am SURE their are many more.

1. Put frosting on banana bread (Yummy. This one got me thinking about it today. That is strawberry frosting by the way)
2. Eat mayonnaise, jalapenos, fish, pickles on grilled cheese sandwiches (also very good), chips on a regular basis.
3. Stopped paying bills(Don't even know how to do it if Tobie was not here)
4. Stopped balancing a checkbook
5. Watch basketball, football, tennis...
6. Drink non-skim milk

Bryan Invitational and Cherokee Trace Drive-thru Safari

February 26th we headed up to Bryan for the Brian Invitational. Instead of driving up Friday night and spending money on a hotel room that we would barely use, we decided to go up early Saturday morning then travel a little farther to have a mini-vacation. We stayed Friday night at Nana and Papa Fred's, to give us a jump on the drive. Turned out only to be about and hour and a half drive from Conroe. The drive-thru safari was included in our bed and breakfast price and we were allowed to go through as many times as we wanted. Sunday morning, we were the first people that the animals saw. We even got to see a red fox before he got scared away by the public. Unfortunately we did not get a picture...he surprised us and I am sure we surprised him.

There were two mini cabins on the property. This is Tobie looking in from the front porch. The kids were holding me down and tickling.

Ivy and a Bison.

Izaac and a camel. The camel was extremely friendly. He spent most of his time with his face in the jeep. Ivy was gifted with a huge camel kiss on her forehead which included camel spit. No picture...we were unprepared for the show of affection.

We video taped this meet, so this was the only picture we had. The boys did very well, 2nd for the team level. Izaac, came away with two medals.

After we were done we went to the Dixie Chicken for lunch. We were told it was a must do...typical college bar food. We were also told to order the "Stuff". We did, don't have to do it again.

New Years 2011

This year we made it to the beach for New Year's day. Think I have blogged this before, but it is something that my Grandmother enjoyed doing and a few years ago, my Mom decided to start the tradition up with our family. This year we all made it. Rare full family photo.

The three Swanson's got to join us again this year. Hopefully they will get to continue to join us year after year...Maybe Eric will be here next year.

BFF!

This is how Izaac spends a large amount of his time.

Don't know the last time we got a family picture.

There were many washed up jellyfish, and Ivy found great joy in popping them. Gotta love the boots. Thanks, Shelly!

Ivy's Gymnastics

As soon as Ivy was old enough (In our minds) we let her join gymnastics. With brother going three days a week it was very hard for her to understand why she only went once a week. In the beginning we would have tears whenever she asked where brother was and the answer was "gymnastics". At the end of each semester the classes do a "show". Family gets to join the students in the gym to take pictures and see what they have been learning. Unfortunately the lighting is pretty bad, or maybe its the camera, but the pictures did not turn out too well.

Happy girl!

Not quite sure what this face is. But she was very happy to stand on the block and get her award. She seems to enjoy it, so I hope she wants to stick with it.

First Gymnastics Meet

So this past Friday was Izaac's first gymnastics meet since joining the team this summer. Going into this meet, we had no idea what to expect and I have to admit I was very taken aback with the enormity of this event. This meet was a learning experience for all of us. We now know what to pack in Izaac's bag, that we need to bring something to write his scores down on and to be prepared to be there for a verrrrry loooong time.



We had to be there at 3:30pm on a Friday afternoon...so there were a few problems with that as you can imagine, for example work and school. But we have been reassured by fellow parents that this is not normal (we can always hope). This picture is of team warm-up and stretch. After this the teams got to rotate though all of the apparatuses for timed warm-up.

Here the teams are lined up waiting to be introduced. It looked like, but I did not pay too much attention, that there were at least 10 teams competing. There were about 85 competing in Izaac's level and about half of those were 7 year olds.

You can see from this picture how big the building is. I count 8 teams here and I know there are more to the right that are not shown in this picture, so there could have been more than 10 teams. We were amazed that at least two of the teams came from Louisiana.

There was a lot of waiting. Izaac with Coach David

Izaac on the high bar.

This was the first time that we got to see all of his routines. We have seen bits and pieces of each one, but you never really get to see them in their entirety. Turns out that if you go to YouTube and search "level 4 gymnastics routines" you will see the exact same thing that Izaac did. Nation wide, all level 4's do the same thing...who knew...we didn't. Did I say we were learning;-) Tobie played soccer, I swam, we are not gymnastics people. Now we need to figure out how they score...

Floor routine.

Waiting for his turn on the floor.

My hope is that on Monday, Izaac will go to practice and find out from his coaches what he needs to work on for his next meet...Which is next Sunday at 2pm. So starts the gymnastics season:-) And as long as Izaac is having fun and is enjoying it, we will let him continue.

Santa

Warning!Santa spoiler alert!!!

This year my kids are VERY excited about Santa!

Izaac has been dreaming up Santa traps...we even had a bubble wrap floor for awhile.

He has been analyzing all of the Christmas specials and you can see his brain working. At one point he turned and looked at us and said "Is that how it happens?" Tobie and I only managed that parent head bob we all know to well. The only saving grace is that he believes in magic, and truly believes that Santa is magic. I don't have a problem letting him believe that because the memory and true spirit of Santa is truly magical. When the time comes, and he asks "THE" question, I will tell him. Tobie and I had this discussion the other night and we decided that the correct answer is "In the spirit, memory and love of Santa, your Dad and I put the gifts under the tree". I will cry that day...

Ivy was all worked up before we saw Santa, because she really did not know what to ask him for. She was in tears, not because she was frightened, but because she did not know an answer to the questions "What do you want for Christmas?" Of course we provided her with answers;-) We also told her is was OK to tell Santa to bring her what ever he thought she might want...see how we did that...


Just seeing this picture makes me get teary eyed. I hope it is not the last one where Izaac "believes". Luckily Ivy had calmed down by this time.

Both my kids understand that this is Jesus' day. Izaac came back from the children's mass last Sunday and whispered in my ear that he wants to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus on Christmas. And Ivy is fascinated with babies's, so baby Jesus is very interesting to her.

A healthy mix of God and Santa is what I am shooting for.

Gingerbread House

Every year the cousins get together at Gran and Papa's house to make a gingerbread house. This year Kyle missed because he was sick. So this time it was just the three younger cousins. We never partake in the eating of said gingerbread house...there are always waaaaay too many germs floating around on the thing. The kids have been known to put on a piece of candy, lick fingers and continue...there is a bit of an ick factor to the whole thing.

This year the base structure of the house was a chocloate cookie insead to the typical gingerbread...but I still will refrain.

Needless to say, they always turn out to be master pieces, and they are so proud of their creation.

Yummy!