Projects

I had a realization a while ago that, wow, I own my own house.  Yep, I've lived here a year and just finally came to that conclusion.  We are so used to renting or living in someones else's home that I forget so easily that this is our house and we can do what we want. (Well, except to the yard because of the no life people who run the HOA.)  But I'm obviously not bitter...Anyhow, I am so sick of having white walls!  The actuality of having to paint ALL the walls however is exhausting in the the very thought. It doesn't help that the kids love moving (since we've done it so frequently) and keep finding our 'next' house as they say.   I've been pretty stressed recently though and decided painting is good therapy.  So I am finally getting to work. 

Payton LOVES football so we decided to go with this. 

It was actually really easy to do.  So I wasn't paying attention, so one team has more players than the other. So, so, so ,so.. :) I'll get back to it-sometime.  Andy hates the play too but like I said, so. :)

Payton loves it and in his eyes I'm genius. ha ha

I actually love it so much it's inspired me to get going on the rest of the house.  Color makes me so much happier and hopefully soon it will be comfy and really feel like "our home". 

We HATE our backyard and even thought it's moving slow, it's still moving forward. Love that my hubby is handy, and he is SO lucky to have married an amazing gal like me who can boss him so well and make a great deck like this.  Dad came and helped too and the kids even carried and lay boards.  Our first project as a family.  Few things more to finish on it but so happy to see it getting there. 

Yeah, we are planting a, I was gonna say garden but basically we are planting a few pots.  Again, lovely HOA people.  Still not used to growing anything in this climate so starting small to make sure I don't just kill everything.  We planted tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and some herbs.  So far though they are growing fabulously.  We'll see if anything comes from them. 

Then there is Boo................

Gotta say, I love, LOVE my dog-she is the best dog, but dang she just makes everything messy.  She doesn't come in the house, but because she lays on the back porch, every time we open the door dirt or hair get dragged in and I just HATE not being able to keep the back deck and my inside floors clean.  It's so dang hot she digs and then covers the porch in muddy prints, etc.  I can't even keep a mat outside clean because she dirtys it.  She is my next project.  How to help her, help me. 

January Birthdays

 Sup? Yeah I'm cool....I love these random pics of P.  Cracks me up.  He's so not the 'thug' he semi looks like here.  ha ha.  Yep, even in the south we have to wear jackets occasionally.

 Again..my kids and pictures..always posing.  For Halles birthday we spent a fun family day just out and about.  We went to the zoo, out to eat at a not so great yummy-but really cool decor restaurant, and then out for dessert.  Just gotta say how happy we were to find a Dylan's here.  One of our fav's we miss in NYC. 

 Being the amazing parents we are we let our kids each pick a bag of sugar filled, melt in your mouth, bounce off the wall, cavity doomed teeth rockin candy. So delicious.

 A few days later Halle had a bunch of her little friends over for a Strawberry Shortcake party.  12 little girls was a little crazy but they all got along perfectly and Halle was on cloud 9.  Strawberry cream filled cupcakes and punch.  I had stressed about planning all sorts of activities and we didn't do any of them really.  It was such a beautiful day that they all wanted to giggle and play outside.  So easy! 
                                  
                              What girl party doesn't include bubbles?  :)

Halle picked out the colors and helped decorate her cake.  Still can't believe my baby is 4! 

 What do you give daddy on his birthday? Tickle torture of course.  Hey, he generally starts it-I just help the kids finish it. 

 Andy isn't really a cake person so his traditional birthday treat is a yummy PB Ice Cream Pie.  MMmmm!

 Daddy of course had to work on his birthday so the kids stayed up a little late this night and we surprised him with his pie.  AND tiny party hats AND balloons AND the kids picked up all their toys!!

 All these pictures are just one of the reasons I LOVE my family.  We are truly nutso but really, we are cool.
What is Payton doing? 

 Well, there it is.  They get it from dad.  We have this strange thing in our family.  We are always taking pictures of ourselves.  True, call it vanity if you must but we prefer to call it Art.  We call this Scared.

                                                               Dead

Nutty

You talkin to me?

                                          Surprise! 

 I really don't understand why more people don't come over.......

Little fall fun

 After I loaded these I realized that these pictures are actually from November... ha ha.  Oh well.  I still want to add them even if they are out of order. Kiddo's had a very exciting milestone this November.  Tada! They mastered the Handle Bars!! You don't have to send a card with money, well, unless you want to (Mom), but they were overjoyed to finally accomplish this task.  Payton had slowly worked up his courage to even try doing it without my help.  He would for a long time and when he wanted to reach he'd just drop down and try again with a smile on his face.  Halle my dang little fearless girl would just follow him.  We would cheer and chant his name over and over.  He finally got over his fear of letting go and went one bar.  He was so shocked that he did it and jumped up and down in excitement.  He realized he wasn't going to evaporate if he let go and the next time he got up and went across all 10 bars! :) 

 I still can't get over how funny it was to see him hang there over and over and then just go across them all.  He was so happy and proud. 

 Halle still scares me to death cause she can barely reach and has to swing down just to hang on the bar.  She can go across 4 bars all by herself! :)  She will tell you she is sooo strong.

 I love these pictures because every kid should get to jump in a pile of leaves at least some point in their life.  I convinced the kids to help me rake and then rewarded then with a big ol pile to jump in. ha ha.  I don't think Grandpa was too overjoyed but he didn't get too mad either. :)  They spent over an hour jumping and rebuilding their pile.  So fun.

Yep, the New Year Came

Christmas time was just holly jolly around here.  We were so happy to have mom come visit.  The kids get so excited they can hardly contain their little bodies from complete hyper sugar combustion.  Mom got to stay the week but for us it's never long enough.  I finally managed to convince her that we do have stores out here and that she could buy presents, yes, even a few days before Christmas and not have to mail a ton of stuff.  Besides, the kids had been naughty and I loved having no presents under the tree yet.  Made the coal threats, ahem, jokes more fun.  We had fun staying up late and shopping around like frantic elves ya know. 

Christmas Eve we all headed up to Andy's parents.  Kiddos love getting together with their cousins.  Complete fun-ditty chaos.  They all have great imaginations and I need to start writing down all the crazy games and sayings they come up with.  Halle told me that she had learned to do the 'dirty diaper'.  FYI-that means she can hang upside down on the swinging handle bars by her legs.  ??? WTH :) 

Awe, don't they look so sweet and innocent? 

                                     
 This pic reminds me of when I was a kid.  Ya know-parents are all inside chatting away and we could do all sorts of unlawful things such as breaking the 'one person recommend at a time' rule on the trampoline.  I can't mention to my kids the things that we did (like jump off the house onto the tramp) or I would lose all mean mommy authority ya know.  Still don't believe in those net things though-I know MY kids would for sure get hurt with one of those. :) I love it though-how fun to be a kid and just play, play, play. 

 Gold Family tradition is to have a yummy fancy turkey dinner with all the fixings.  The kids think it's fun getting to drink from Fancy Nancy type glasses and eat on Grandma's china.  We then read the Nativity from the Bible and the kids go Hollywood and act it out.  Payton of course is a very Wiseman.  Can't remember what Halle was but she generally will cry if she can't be the Angel so that would be my guess.  :)

 We then have our talent showcase where it has been known to take hours-hey, we are a very talented family!  Bell choirs, stories, poems, songs, piano solos and dancing.  It's so much fun and I love the traditions we are starting for the kids.  Our kids sang C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S this year and Andy, the boys, and I did a piano and song arrangement. 
Every other year we stay with all the cousins at Grandmas but we headed home this time to spend our first Christmas in our new house.  We quickly learned we have to work on our own little family traditions.  Halle sneeked down early and started opening every ones stalkings and then woke up Payton to tell him what he got.  All while daddy was getting the camera to go wake up the kids.  Luckily we were all awake to open the presents under the tree and it was so fun seeing the kids faces when they opened their gifts.

 Payton got a BB gun to go hunting with dad, a guitar and a microphone stand.  Figure if he's gonna be a rock star he better start practicing his moves now.  :)

 Halle got Rapunzel and Flynn barbies and a dolly stroller.  And of course-Fancy Nancy books. 

 As always when mom comes to visit-it either rains or someone gets sick.  Seriously, no kidding!  Payton was the one to get sick this time.  I was so glad he was able to have a nice Christmas day because that night he got sick with a high fever and literally spent the next 5 days in bed.  I felt bad he didn't get to do much during his school break except lay around.  The rest of us enjoyed doing puzzles and playing the kinect-yes I am the world record holder in the long jump, that's right! Shocking I know.  Actually I hold ALL the records but confidence can get slightly elevated when you play against a 4 year old and your mom. :) Bring it down Kris....

 My sweet beautiful girl.  I just love her!!

 Love, love, love this handsome boy.  He makes me so happy. :)

                                                       Cutie Pies!

 New Years Eve we headed back up to the lake with the fam.  I do miss the snow during the holidays but I love that the kids were able to run around crazy with glow sticks, roast hot dogs and marshmallows and do fireworks all in a long sleeve shirt. 

                                    Awe....

 The fun thing about holidays at the lake is that though you cannot do fireworks on the property-you CAN do them on the lake..I think some of the neighbors have a silent firework rivalry but we don't mind cause we get to sit out and enjoy the show.  I seriously can't believe how much some people would spend on a backyard fireworks but either way, we love it.  Kids had a blast and we love having a good time with family.  Bring on 2011.

Squirrel Crazy

If you know my honey, you know how much he loves to get out huntin' and fishin'.  During duck season the kids and I went a few times.  For the record....I actually really enjoy doing the hobbies my husband loves, I just hate, I mean, don't love that most of them include getting up before the crack of dawn.  That being said, we usually have a great time and the kids get so excited to go.  This time we took Payton and our awesome friend Ken.  Payton jumped right out out bed while I...moved a little slower.
We sat patiently, covered in camo, waiting for the ducks to fly in.  Instead we heard coughing and some dude tripping over branches.  Long story short the "dude" shot the first duck and therefore scared the rest away, leaving us sitting all prettied up with nothing to do.  Well, we had to shoot something so we went after a few pesky squirrels.  Don't feel bad-they are a pain in the butt and far too plenty here. 

I'm not going to honestly admit how many shots I fired before finally getting my squirrel.  Andy and Ken shot once each...hmm. Anyhow, Payton thought it was awesome and it was so fun to see him be serious about being quiet and still.  He's definitely much better at it than I am. 

Hey, what can I say.  Don't Mess With Texas. :)

Merry Christmas???

Since I am such and amazing blogger recently, I decided to catch up the family journal.  Yep, Merry Christmas!  (Hey-according to the last date it was Dec. 5th)  :) 
Thank goodness for a few pictures to remind me that we really had a nice Christmas.  The middle of December we had our first annual Gold Christmas gathering with some friends from our ward.  I just have to add quickly that I LOVE our ward.  I wish I had a house big enough to fit everyone in it.  Andy and I decided that we are going to have to have some sort of party rotation so we can somehow get everyone over here because we seriously want to be friends with everyone in the ward.  Anyhow-that said, we had a little gathering for FHE and it turned out great.  I grew up having homemade donuts for Christmas Eve.  (My Aunt Mary makes the BEST donuts!!)  Well, since I've moved away and can't always be home for Christmas I decided I would start that as one of our family traditions because it just doesn't seem like Christmas without them-or homemade chili for that matter...
We read from Luke and the kids dressed up and told the Nativity Story.  We sand a few carols and then had homemade donuts and hot chocolate.  YUMMY!!

We were so lucky to have so many Angels.  Halle insisted that she be a Snow White Princess Angel....Hence the scowl on her face prior.  :)  I love how E. is giving her a "chill out" look.

We had the 3 Wise Men from "a fire" (Texas slang Afar)

Everyone loves the baby Jesus in the pink flower blanket. :)

I wish I'd taken more pictures but oh well.  Thanks to those who made it a fun night.

Later in the month we invited some of our neighbors to join us for the Stake Nativity Exhibit.  This is really a beautiful event.  They have hundreds of nativities from all over displayed among about 30 fresh cut Christmas trees.  There is wonderful musical numbers and a nativity dress up area that the kids always love.  Here are this years pictures.

If only I could always remember this picture when they are arguing...

 

We also ran into some dear friends who were visiting.  I love how every kid is looking in a different direction. ha!

Cutie Pies!

We then kicked into football mode as we headed to the State Championships.  Andy's school made it, which is apparently a big deal since Texas really takes their football seriously.  I can't remember if this was their first time or 2nd time in forever but either way, it was very exciting.  Especially since they held the tournament at Dallas Cowboy Stadium.  I still can't get over that-probably cause I come from a little bitty town that didn't even have a stoplight.  Anyhow, the kids and I joined Andy's parents and had a great time.  So sad that Andy had to work cause he would have loved the enormous televisions inside.  I was so glad they had them too cause some idiot was standing in front of us the entire game!

Kids and Grandma-50 yard line!

It was really cold outside-yes, even for Texas.  I was so happy to be in a nice warm stadium with soft comfy chairs.  This place really is amazing.  There are at 'least' 8 giant TVs to watch the game and then 3 circular ones that go around the entire stadium with adds and other such stuff.  And the $9 ticket was a much better price than the several hundred for the Super Bowl later on..Of course unlike the Super Bowl, our team lost, but it was still a blast. 

I just have to say how funny it was that for the first part of the game-my kids kept cheering for BYU!! ha ha