Lincoln's First Beach Trip

After all of the craziness of Christmas, we loaded up the Durango and headed out to the beach one blistery winter day.  The sun was shining, but the wind was also blowing.  So while, it was a beautiful day, we weren't going anywhere near the water!

Our trip was spurred on by the fact that Andrew said he had never been to the Gulf of Mexico.  Since it is all of 45 minutes from our house, we knew that a trip was a must.

Look at my beautiful baby all bundled up in a hodge-podge mix of clothes.  We call this style "put on as many layers as possible so you don't freeze."



The boys wanted to stroll down the beach and look for shells and driftwood.  Kari and I set up shop near the pier, and made a camp for the babies and ourselves.  Can you tell we were cold?  Look at poor Lincoln's cheeks!



He wasn't scared of the grand expanse of water.  All he wanted to do was crawl around the blanket and play with the toys we brought.  The only problem was that I just wanted him to stay under the blankets where it was warm.



Emmy convinced Kari to walk around with her so she could look for shells.



They came back pretty quickly so they could burrow back under the covers.



We did enjoy listening to the waves roll in and taking in all the beauty that comes with being at the beach.



Emmy decided that a dance and gymnastic performance was on our agenda.  We buy so much stuff to make them happy, but I don't think anything we bought made her as happy as having our undivided attention while she performed and played.  Food for thought next year when I am trying to decide what to buy for Christmas.



After a while, we decided to go and explore on the jetties.  Kari found a walking stick and proceeded to start climbing and jumping way farther than she had any right to.  She made some comment about needing to put her yoga pants to work...or something to that effect.



Before we knew it, we were chilled to the bone, and Dad called and said he was making chili at his house.  That was all of the incentive we needed to pack our stuff up and head back to EC.



Lincoln's first beach trip was a success.  Maybe next time he will actually get to go in the water.  ;)

Spring Break '15 Recap

Spring Break was a busy week for us.  We started off on Friday by heading out to Cedar Park to visit the grandparents!




While we were there, we ate dinner at a restaurant on Lake Travis called The Oasis. Super cool, but really busy on a Saturday.



There were lots of photo-ops while were were waiting.









The food was really good too!







On Sunday, Emmy got to make Smores!



Later that week when we got back to EC, we spent an afternoon playing at Friendship Park.







Another afternoon we got a treat--a snowcone!





Playing at Nana's house was also a must for a our Spring Break "to-do" list.





Magical Mickey Mouse pancakes make us smile too!


The final day of my  break was spent with these chicks at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  We got to see Luke Bryan in concert and he didn't let us down.









Other people spent the day having fun at home.



That was our spring break in a nano-second!

New Year's Eve 2014

We had a wild and rowdy bunch for New Year's Eve this year.  We met at Mom's house and had taco soup and a plethora of snacks.  After eating and playing Cards Against Humanity, we headed out of the city limits to pop fireworks and get into general mischief.  It was a real good time.

Here is a picture of most of our group.  Don't let our fancy clothes fool you, we were there to have a good time.



Wendy bought the girls Frozen hats.  Emmy kept saying, "I'm Elsa; you're Anna."  And this time she was right!



Britt had fun playing with the sparklers.





Once again, I had the pleasure of ringing in the New Year with this stud.  For whatever reason, he keeps me around, and I will always consider myself lucky.



Happy 2015!  I know our greatest adventures yet await us, and I can't think of a better group of family and friends to start it off with!

Rives Family Christmas Swap

On the fourth day of Christmas my family brought to me, four boxes full of Christmas Goodies!!  Well they weren't just for me, but I had a few of them.

On Saturday, we visited with my Dad's family, and we had our Christmas celebration with them.  Since this was not anyone's first or only Christmas celebration, and we were all a little tired, we chose to go out to eat. My grandparents love to eat at Casa Hernandez when they are in town, but we found out when we got there that they were closed all weekend.  Not to be deterred, we drove to Wharton to La Casona and enjoyed a wonderful feast fit for our spicy crowd.

When we got back to Mom's house, we started the gift swaps.  All of the little kids started us off by opening their presents.  Once they were done, the real fun could begin.  We do two white elephant gift rings.  One is a $25 gift only for the adults, and the other one is a $10 gift/gag gift that everyone participates in.  Both of these are great entertainment and not to be missed.






Emmy sure does love Papa Bo.  She sat and opened presents with him almost the whole time.









She was pretty excited about her new Cabbage Patch baby.





We had so much fun laughing and hanging out.  We stayed up WAY too late just sitting around talking.  Brittany and I sat with Papa and went on a fact finding mission to learn more about his family.  It was a great night, and it makes me grateful to know I have such an amazing support system.  Although I don't get to see my family as much as I would like to, when it counts, they are there.  In the end, I guess that is what really matters.  That and the Special K treats...those count a lot too. :)

Christmas Eve

We spend Christmas Eve at my Aunt Kathy's house.  My Mom's family shows up in force, and we snack away on the best finger foods you can imagine.  We do a white elephant gift exchange and a gag-gift exchange.  We are getting more bold in our choices, and people are starting to become more devious in their strategies and steals.

It is always a beautiful evening of family, fun, and laughter.  This year was no exception. 

Here are some of the foods that we had this year.  Some are traditions (Aunt Kathy's 7-layer dip) and some are new.



And of course we had desserts!



The boy and I in our Christmas Eve duds. 


Christmas is about family, and I think we illustrate that perfectly.



Christmas is also about presents...or at least that's what the littles think.











Every year, I take some photos of all the little cousins.  Our group is growing, and next year there will be at least one more added to the group. (cough cough...Are you having a baby too April?)

Hunter was a year old this Christmas!



Oliver was three years old this Christmas and full of spunk!



Emmarie was three this Christmas too, but I think she might be full of sass.



Halle is our big girl at four years old.  She is a pro at this by now.



Dylan was our newest arrival, and he did a great job of staying still for all the photos.  3 month-olds are good at that.





Getting a group shot of everyone proved a little difficult, so I applied the technique of "snapping, snapping, just keep snapping."  There are at least a few of every child looking even if they are the only one. ;)









When we all get together like this, I try to take a family photo of everyone.  This is something that my mom has done since we were all little.











We try to sneak a few cousin pics and general goofiness as well.





It was an amazing evening and these are the memories that I treasure through-out the year.  We left late, but I didn't mind the drive home because I had lots of blessings to think and meditate on during the drive.