Zat U Santa: Studio B Holiday Show

Over the past four months, Hayden has been spending her Monday evenings honing her dance skills in her pre-competition jazz & ballet class at StudioB. Lol. I giggle a little when I see pre-competition. It makes it sound so serious. I am not a dance mom. Especially not with a FIVE-year-old. Ha! So if you are reading this and judging me, you can stop now. It's all fun and games for us...and I'm pretty sure for all the other little girlies too!

Anyhow, I do love recitals! All the sparkles, bright cheeks, and red lips - it just adds to the energy in the air. The itty bitty girls are so adorable and the older dancers are just impressive to watch. And Hayden. Well, of course, she is my favorite! She actually loves recitals too. Although I am not sure she is able to portray that through her dancing. All semester we battle with getting to dance - she always says she doesn't want to go, but then she goes and she comes home so excited and shows us what she learned. And then it repeats each week.

Bella

Meet Bella Lucky Buttons Rainbow Dash McDonough - Bella for short ;)

We adopted this sweet little girl a couple weeks ago and we have fallen in love! She is such a sweetheart and the kids love having a dog that they can play with and actually pet :) 

We adopted her from Cane Rosso Rescue so we don't know too much about her. Obviously, she is some sort of lab mix. She has a beautiful chocolate coat and little white markings on her chest. The vet estimates that her current age is about 10 weeks. She was only around five weeks when she was dumped with her 4 brothers & sisters at an animal shelter.  Poor sweet puppies!!!

She took over Bob's bed....and fell asleep

Everyone keeps asking how Bob is doing with her - and I would say he feels the same about her as he does about anyone else. He tolerates her but when she gets to close he growls and barks. 

This is Hayden's pirate smile. She coined it herself. 

And a little more about Bella:

She sleeps in a crate upstairs in our room, which has worked out fine except we can't get up in the middle of the night or she wants to be let out. 

When I get her out in the morning it is a struggle to get her downstairs and outside because she is so darn excited! She squeals and wiggles and licks like crazy. I have even had her accidentally pee on me a few times...she is just so excited. 

She is very good about going outside for the restroom. There have definitely been accidents, but 99% of the time as long as we take her outside she will go. 

Walks are starting to be one of her favorite things. We still have a little difficulty with the leash wrapping under her but she isn't as concerned with the harness as much anymore. She loves to run and chase the kids when we walk. 

She loves to chew - bones and toys definitely excite her.

She is an ankle biter. Or in Hayden's case - a ruffle biter. Hayden's pants are Bella's favorite. We have been trying to nip that in the bud but if anyone has any success stories we are all ears. 

We aren't giving her table food or letting her up on furniture. At some point, she isn't going to be pleased when she realizes that Bob has both of those privileges. 

She's smart! We have already taught her how to sit! The kids are super excited about teaching her all sorts of tricks. 

Puppies are so much fun - we are loving this sweet little girl!

Christmas 2018

Our first family Christmas in San Antonio! We had so much fun and definitely helped break in the new house. Nothing like a fire in the microwave, the kids "testing" out all the new furniture,  Dad and my brothers slinging pizza flour all over the kitchen floor, and of course, Bob and his leaky bladder.  All in all, everything held up and we made great memories of our first Christmas in their new house. We were so fortunate to have my grandparents from Florida with us for the holidays. It was a full house of family, fun and a lot of cheese. 

Seriously. 

Happy hour with an epic cheese board every night.

 I'd say that makes a Merry Christmas. 

I'm kinda in love with this view. Hill country living was pretty relaxing.

We arrived just in time to see their pool getting filled. So, of course, the kids had to test it out. 

It was coooooold.

This is how they got their faces wet. lol. 

Just life-guarding over here.

Did someone say happy hour?

Christmas Eve - one of my favorite family traditions!

Prepping the dough. Steve took footage of the evening...wondering if that video will ever surface?

Hayden decided she was obsessed with this booster seat. 

Mainly because Cora was using it. oye.

And these were the cutest boxes that Claire made for all of the kiddos! Each box had Christmas jammies, cozy socks, silly glasses, reindeer food, a themed mug with hot cocoa & fixings. They were ADORABLE and my kids were so excited! 

This little guy loves a theme! He was so excited to bust into his new jammies!

Cora wasn't into the picture taking.

AND then Claire whipped out sugar cookies for the kids to decorate! It was kinda late at this point - the kids actually were asking to go to bed...so we ended up decorating them and leaving a plate out for Santa. Oops!

 Santa came!

Christmas morning was filled with lots of excitement - love watching the kids open their gifts. We spend the morning playing & eating. Perfection. 

My sweet three. 

Pro Papu & Pro Yiayia with three of their grandkids!

Merry Christmas to All!

BYOP - At the Parks (Year 8)

Given the current state of our backyard, we were in no condition to host. 

Luckily, Lindsey & Colin offered up their amazing house for the festivities! So the pumpkin carving party tradition continued.

We had a crazy Sunday with each kid needing to be in a completely different area of Dallas at the exact same time. 

Grayson and Hayden both had soccer games and Ryan had a birthday party. 

Grayson scored 1.5 goals and he was so proud. A friend texted me and said how cute he was when he scored - he looked for his dad and grandparents and gave them the biggest smile! Love how proud he was! 

And across town, I was with Hayden at her soccer game. It was a scorcher. I love how she runs around on the field and participates...but she isn't really into kicking the ball. Maybe next season...

After Hayden's soccer game we ran home and grabbed our stuff for the pumpkin party! I attempted to make The Baker Mama's Halloween Snack Board.

but mine kinda turned out like it's weird cousin or something...

Oh well. 

To save us a little work, Kevin and the kiddos prepped their pumpkins the night before by scooping all the insides out. We also saved the pumpkin seeds and toasted them in the oven! 

The kids were super excited about carving their pumpkins. 

Well, Grayson and Ryan were - Hayden just sent her request in. 

Ryan wanted something scary

Grayson wanted a wolf

Hayden wanted a unicorn kitty cat.

I quickly got to work on Hayden's - she was SO thrilled with the results.  Pretty sure she didn't even sure if she stopped what she was doing to see the end result. Lol! Four-year-olds.

Grayson helped Kevin by holding his iPhone with a picture of a wolf template on it.  And I am sure encouraging words. 

And then we both helped Ryan (maybe Kevin a tad more) to carve his scary skeleton face. 

And for some reason, I still haven't taken a picture of the pumpkins. Coming soon!

And then we ate chili and hot dogs...and the kids ran around and all played. 

It was a magical fall night. 

Even though it was like 80 degrees. details.

The kiddos had so much fun together!

And so did the mamas!