We Love Annie and All Things Theater

I've decided that both of my kids appreciate the theater and musicals.  Before Christmas I took the kids to see Annie at the movies.  I was afraid that Connor would not like it since it was about a girl and that it wouldn't hold Allie's attention, boy was I wrong!  They both loved it and can't stop singing the songs.  Allie has now watched the original Annie several times of Netflix.

Allie is also obsessed with The Nutcracker.  I recorded the San Fransisco Ballet's production of The Nutcracker before Christmas.  She has sat down on several occasions to watch it and not moved. She also "sings" the music of The Nutcracker.  Needless to say we will be attending the Houston Ballet's production of The Nutcracker next year.

Connor has now seen two Broadway shows, Elf and The Little Mermaid.  We are going to attend our babysitter Caroline's school production of Cinderella this month.  We also saw her last year in Little Shop of Horrors.

At this point I'm beginning to think Allie may be on Broadway in a few years.

Christmas 2014

Our Christmas was wonderful this year.  We had a house full of family for a full week and made some wonderful memories.  Here is the pretty condensed summary of the holiday.  Christmas Eve; the kids and I decorated Gingerbread cookies and made cookies for Santa.  Nana and G.G. arrived, we attended Christmas Eve service at our church, came home and ate my favorite Seafood Stew, the kids opened their Christmas Pajamas we read The Night Before Christmas and called it a night.

Christmas morning we woke to cookies eaten by Santa, presents left and stockings filled and donuts for breakfast; a surprise treat from Santa.  My parents (Grammy & Grumpa), Uncle Wade and my Papaw who is 95 all came to spend Christmas day with us.  We had a perfect day; watching the kids open their gifts which included lots of Frozen items for Allie, a Nintendo DS for Connor and a birthday trip to Disney World for Connor's 6th birthday.  We had a fantastic lunch of Prime Rib and ham which is now a tradition in our home.  After lunch we spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying our family.

December 26th we welcomed our next guests for the Milam/Phillips/Tidwell Christmas.  We had company Friday - Sunday with at one point 16 people in our house and 7 of those spending the night with us.  We had fun watching the kids open all their gifts from Nana and G.G. and aunts, uncles and cousins.  We ate, drank, had an adult white elephant as seen on TV gift exchange and overall just a great and fun time.  I should also mention Michael and I even snuck in a kid free lunch at Jasper's with our friends Heather and Brian Butscher from Corpus Christi who were in Houston visiting family!

Enjoy these pictures of our Christmas Holiday, although I didn't get any past December 25th, oops.

Decorating Gingerbread cookies.

 Christmas Eve church service.

 Opening their Christmas PJ's.

 Ready to dive into gifts.

Surprise, Santa left milk and donuts for Connor and Allie.

Every gift for Allie seemed to be Frozen.

Not the best picture but I love it because Michael is showing off his gift from Connor.  $5 which Connor received from the tooth fairy, an art project which we have no idea what it is and a Ziploc bag or old toys that Connor no longer wanted.

 My favorite gift; a trip to Disney in January to celebrate Connor's sixth birthday.  I think they were both a bit confused when they saw mouse ears.  As the day went on Allie started to understand she was going to Disney World and now can't stop talking about it!  And Connor is so excited to turn 6 at Disney with fireworks!

Santa Visits

We saw Santa a few times this year; Market Street (our usual official picture visit), Breakfast with Santa at Connor's school and at an Evening with Elves here in The Woodlands at Rob Flemming Park near our house.

This isn't the official picture but here are the kids and Santa in their holiday best.

 Breakfast with Santa, Connor and one of his best buddies Owen.

 And at an Evening with Elves (our third year at this event).  We attended with our friends the Watson's, Keefe's and Strait's.  Oh what fun!

Christmas with Mamaw and Papaw

We had our first official Christmas with Mamaw and Papaw.  They came in for a short visit to celebrate the holidays with us and bring a lot of goodies for the kids.  We had a Christmas dinner at our favorite Hibachi restaurant where Connor ate and entire adult steak and chicken meal plus shrimp.  We also had an early Christmas morning of gift opening, made a gingerbread house and had a pizza lunch at Grimaldi's.  

Mamaw is so beloved by these two, they always have her sit in between them.  She is also queen of playtime.

He got a Red Rider BB gun (yikes)!

 Opening presents!

 Gingerbread House Decorating.

 When I asked the kids to "pose" for a final picture of our gingerbread house this is what Allie gave me!

Jingle Mingle 2014

Friday we hosted the 2nd Annual Jingle Mingle this year with my friends Stephanie, Keely, Amy, Ashley and Meryl.  Last year Jingle Mingle was a progressive dinner that ended with desserts at our house but this year it was appetizers and sweets exclusively at our house.  We ended up with a pretty big crowd even though we lost several guests to the flu including two of the hostesses Keely and Ashley.  

Jingle Mingle was a ton of fun!  We ended up partying until 2 am!  We had spiked cider and cranberry sangria along with a full bar stocked!  At some point around 11:30 I decided that if we turned off the lights in our kitchen that our house could be transformed into a dance club since I had a light up Joy sign hanging on my wall for Christmas.  You would have thought we were in college with the way we were dancing, again so much fun!

I can't wait for jingle Mingle 2015 and to celebrate the holidays with so many wonderful friends.

I think this was somewhere between 1/3 - 1/4 of the guests we had at our house.

 A few of the Jingle Mingle girls including hostesses Meryl, Stephanie and Amy.

 And the inspiration for our dance club!  Definitely my best purchase of the holiday season.

More Holiday Fun

We celebrated the holiday season with more festive fun this weekend.  We had planned on taking the kids with our friends the Cherry, Smith and Snyder families to Santa Land in College Station.  However we scratched that plan when we realized that Santa Land doesn't open early on Friday's and we couldn't beat the crowd.  So we instead opted to put the kids in parents night out at our gym which we all go to and have a nice, kid free dinner at Jasper's.  Highlight of the night by far was watching our friend Nick who is not a wine drinker down an entire bottle of wine.

Saturday morning we had Breakfast with Santa at Connor''s school which I planned with my friend Heidi.  PTO seems to have become a full time job for me.  Breakfast with Santa was a huge success and the kids had a ton of fun.  Then Saturday night we went to our friend/neighbor's the McGraw's house for a cookie decorating party for the kids and a Cajun Christmas party with gumbo for the adults!  We all had so much fun!  It's unbelievable how many friends we have made in our neighborhood.  

Decorating cookies with about 12 other kids, heaven on earth for Connor and Allie.

 Showing off her work of art.

 And these are the cookies I made for the party.

Spectacular Christmas Weekend

We had a very festive weekend that kept us rather busy.  Not only did we fit in three birthday parties, one on Friday, Saturday and Sunday but we also managed to have a Christmas outing everyone of those days.

Friday night the kids and I drove to Huntsville to experience the Journey through Bethlehem experience at the fairground.  The kids really enjoyed it and I know it helped to give them a better understanding of the birth of Jesus.

Saturday evening Allie, Grammy and I went to see The Nutcracker performed by Allie's dance studio, Boni's.  I wasn't quite sure if it would hold Allie's attention but boy did it.  She was mesmerized the entire time.  She also danced along and mimicked the dancers during the show which was the cutest thing I've ever seen.  After the show Allie insisted on going to the stage to do a little dancing and to see the dancers up close.

Then Sunday Allie and I joined seven of her dance friends and their moms to see The Rockettes in their Christmas Spectacular, which was spectacular!  Before the show we took the girls to Brennan's for brunch.  Now not only is Brennan's one of the fanciest and most famous restaurant's in Houston but it is also iconic in pop culture.  One of my all time favorite movies, Terms of Endearment filmed a scene at Brennan's and they have a Terms of Endearment room which is where we sat!  This was a huge event for me because I've literally dreamed about taking Allie to eat there since she was born.  I can promise you this, if my sweet girl gets married in Houston I will through her a bridal shower there.  In a few years Allie and I will begin the tradition of attending the Houston Ballet's Nutcracker and I think I'm adding eating at Brennan's to that tradition.

After Brennan's we took a party bus (woo hoo) to the theater to finally see The Rockettes.  No surprise every single one of the girls loved it and so did the moms!  It was so fun and so entertaining and the most perfect experience for all of us to share with our daughters.  Allie loves when they high kick and yelled "high kick" every time they did them and then did them herself!  I had the best day ever with Allie!  Now onto dreaming of taking her and Connor to New York City for Christmas in a few years and seeing The Rockette's at Radio City Music Hall.

Three generations enjoying Allie's first experience at The Nutcracker.

 The girls had a special visitor at brunch, Rudolph!

 Mom's and daughter's brunching at Brennan's and again the best part, we were in the Terms of Endearment room!

 Me and my mini me waiting for the Rockettes.

 Allie and best friend, Cambelle.

 Posing with my future Rockette.

 Missing two of the girls, they all decided to lay like this for their picture.

I'm counting down the days until Christmas festivities for 2015.

Ryan Adams Live!

Wednesday I got to see my favorite singer/songwriter, the Ryan Adams!  I have been a huge fan for almost 15 years.  He has a beautiful voice and such a range in his musical style, he really is all over the place and he puts out a new album almost every year and they are all critically acclaimed. 

 Most people haven't heard of him but trust me you've heard his music, he has had a lot of songs featured in movies including Old School, Elizabethtown and he even had a performance and reference in This is 40.  

The best part about his concerts besides the fact that you can understand everything he says and he sounds like perfection live is that everyone sits the entire time!  Ryan, please, please come back to Houston soon; I need at least a yearly dose of you live.

Peter Pan Pizza Party

The kids had a special night tonight, a Peter Pan Pizza Party.  We watched the entire three hour production, Connor was totally into it as expected and Allie did pretty good as well.  We ate pizza in front of the TV and made cookies to make the night extra special.  The kids were so excited about this fun and special late night and so was I.  We made a great memory.

A Deer Lease Thanksgiving

We spent the long Thanksgiving weekend at our deer lease and Connor couldn't have been happier about that.  We are very lucky that our deer lease is literally right across the street from my dad's right outside or Kerrville and Fredriscksburg.  Of course Michael's mom and stepdad now live in Kerrville which really makes the deer lease the perfect location.

We spent Thanksgiving with Nana and G.G. (Michael's mom and stepdad) having quite the feast for four adults and two kids, not that I'm complaining.  We also had dinner Friday night with them and my parents went to their place Saturday afternoon for lunch with us.  The rest of the time was spent at the deer lease.  Oh, Allie, my mom and I did manage to sneak into Fredricksburg for shopping on Friday.

I have to admit the deer lease is pretty nice; for a deer lease that is.  It has a good size kitchen, two full baths and most importantly TV, satellite and WiFi.  When we were out at the deer lease we were either in our cabin relaxing and watching movies on Netflix or at my dad's deer lease around the campfire at night.

Connor is all about hunting now.  He accompanied Michael on two hunts (with his iPad and headphones on tow).  He can't stop talking about shooting guns, bucks being out in the great outdoors.  I am seeing a lot of Thanksgiving's in the future out at our deer lease which is exactly how I spent most of my Thanksgivings as a kid.

My two boys having "bro time" as Connor calls it.

 Apparently Michael killed the largest deer size wise (not rack wise) that anyone has ever seen in that area.  It was so heavy that he had to have help to put it on his Ranger.  He's pretty certain he's going to win the biggest Buck contest.