Eric's 3rd Birthday

Our cousin Eric and Beck were born the same day, 3 hours apart at Seton hospital. We celebrated at Chuck E. Cheese where the boys posed under the table and Bristol hung out with Jeff and Cody playing the race car game. Didn't I mention it was a kid's party? The cool thing was Eric's shirt which you can't see - it says What will it be a boy or a girl? A very fun way for Kim and Danny to announce their pregnancy, stay tuned for an October addition to the family!

Bristol the Runningback

Well, not a running back since he's not actually walking yet, is there such a thing as a crawlingback? Regardless, Bristol had a lot of fun with a foam football Jeff had gotten with a Christmas present. Now it is full of teethmarks - and note the neat tape on his as we attempted to keep the cotton balls in his ears after the tube surgery.

Girl's Night Make-Overs

While the boys went to the Monster Truck
rally, the girls came over to house for margaritas and waxing. Thankfully Brandy is a licensed aesthetician, so while she was making us prettier the little girls got prettier with new makeup they got for Christmas. They have Ella in training early!

Madalyn's Missing Front Teeth

Madalyn lost her two front teeth over the holidays. Now there is another on the bottom that's gone. The tooth fairy brought her $10 a tooth for the front ones, she may be broke soon.

Bristol - 11 months

Bristol is getting so big and he loved Beck's birthday cake! He makes some of the funniest faces and is so close to walking.

Day Two Ice Storm 2007

As most of you are in Texas - you know that it froze for three days last week. It was good times, let me tell you. The kids got out a little bit and skated across the yard. I took the picture of the icicle laden Tonka truck from the warmth of the kitchen window.

Beck's 3rd Birthday

Beck's 3rd birthday was the first day of Ice Storm 2007. It was a great day, he got presents throughout the day to keep him entertained. We played Chutes and Ladders and he got new clothes. The best part was the new outfit he put on after his bath- it lasted less than two hours before he somehow had gotten two rips in the back of it. Urgh! We just had dinner at the house with Mom, Dad, Cody, and Julie. His real birthday highlight was last Saturday - all of the boys had gone out to see the Monster Trucks at the Alamodome. Beck absolutely loved it.
The pics are of his favorite truck Grave Digger from the show, and Beck all the way in the present bag trying to find the last of everything MiMi and PaPa gave him. You can barely see his feet!

Bristol's ear tube surgery

No pictures for this one, but just wanted to update that Bristol's surgery to insert tubes in his ears today went very smoothly. We were in and out of the Children's hospital in about 3 and a half hours and he did a great job. He's been great this evening, the discharge is kinda gross, but wrestling him down for ear drops in each ear will be a lot of fun the next 5 days. Not that we're counting.

Bristol's ear tube surgery

No pictures for this one, but just wanted to update that Bristol's surgery to insert tubes in his ears today went very smoothly. We were in and out of the Children's hospital in about 3 and a half hours and he did a great job. He's been great this evening, the discharge is kinda gross, but wrestling him down for ear drops in each ear will be a lot of fun the next 5 days. Not that we're counting.

The Cheetah Girls in Austin!!!

Thankfully, many of you don't even know who the Cheetah Girls are, but to Jeff's credit he took our beautiful daughter out on a date for her 7th birthday to see them at the Erwin Center. (Note the cheetah fur wrap, and her birthday is actually the 12th for those of you that were there!) They are a Disney creation that Madalyn really likes, almost as much as High School Musical. They really enjoyed themselves, especially buying front row tickets from a scalper and getting a bootleg t-shirt after the show. A night out with Jeff is never dull!

New Year's at Brandy's

As keeping with tradition, we all gathered at Brandy and Bryon's garage/bar for New Year's festivities. Note how beautiful all of us ladies are looking, except that drunken Jeff cut poor Julie out of the picture. Almost- we can still see that pretty smile!
The best part was Jeff proclaiming what a great picture it was after he took it. I should have audited it! ;)
L to R - Kim, me, Brandy, Jessie and Julie

Christmas continued in Burleson

We headed up to Burleson on Friday the 29th to continue the festivities of the Christmas season. The drive up in the pouring rain was fun, but it was all good once we arrived. We did a Christmas with MawMaw at the nursing home, then went back to Aunt Pat's for the serious present throw down. Madalyn really enjoyed her Easy Bake Oven, and I enjoyed the throw back to my own childhood baking with lightbulb. The kids also helped Maria make fresh salsa that morning, to compliment the homemade tamales - YUM! Beck's Spiderman outfit made it's second appearance so he could show it to PawPaw, but he also had to shake his booty with the Itsy Bitsy Spiderman he got. The last one is a little blurry, but it's of all the burly Bunch kids - Erin, Trace, Madalyn, Beck, Jake, Lea, Bristol and Zach.
The highlight of my trip was definitely going for a ride with the nephews, who are both 15 and needed someone older than 21 in the car to drive with their permits. I seriously don't know how my parents did it. ;)

Christmas Night

We mustered 16 people at our house for Christmas night. There was lots of good food and good company. I was just glad there was enough seating! A great pic of Julie and Madalyn, my cousin Lacie and her boyfriend Stephen, Beck as Spiderman, and Bristol checking out the dragon.
The best moments since then have been Beck running his remote control Hummer over the Army men, Jeff and the boys on the Playstation 3 (also known as my replacement), and Madalyn wanting to play Hullabaloo 24/7. We're actually looking forward to our second Christmas this weekend in Burleson~whoo hoo!

Bristol Continues to Eat Christmas

Just to continue the trend anything in Bristol's reach goes into his mouth. There was any number of times we were just taking things out of his mouth and out of his hands. It's always fun to have company over that's not quite used to his Hoover hands, and just so many shiny objects that aren't usually around. Apparently the taste of Christmas is still sweet.

Christmas Morning

We had a great Christmas this year. Our family is complete and we have so much to be thankful for. Here's some random pictures of the kids tearing into their presents and Beck showing his Scooby Doo sticker. It was good fun chaos, but we actually did get to sleep until 8 a.m.

The Green - Lahn Wedding

Seriously, it really was the Green Lahn (pronounced 'Lawn') wedding. On December 23rd, Julie's brother, Jacob, married his high school sweetheart, Phila, in Lockhart. My picture isn't that great, but they make a great couple and the wedding was beautiful. Note the Marine uniform, Jacob has served in Afganistan and will be going to Iraq in the spring.
Until then, they will be going back to his current assignment in Hawaii. A built in honeymoon - awesome! The best part of the wedding was introducing myself as the groom's sister's boyfriend's sister. Or Jeff as the groom's sister's boyfriend's siser's husband. Ha ha, could we be any more obscur as guests?

MLR Golf Outing

The Thursday before Christmas a group of us went to the Bastrop State Park to play in a golf scramble. It was a good time hosted by one of our partners, AJ.
I also really enjoyed the EY representation of the ladies on the team, with myself, Heather B., and Diana. I never thought I would enjoying playing golf in the rain, but it's actually quite fun. And what they say is right- a day on the golf course is better than a day in the office. Even in the rain. =)

Madalyn's Posada

On December 20th, the Dual Language Kinder through 3rd graders performed a Posada of traditional Mexican Christmas songs. There was the fan favorite Feliz Navidad though, so it was all good. I love the picture of Madalyn singing, then also with her friends: Raven, Ana, Jacqueline, Madalyn, Willow and Savannah. Also note the total change in names or the kids her age- interesting for me always.

Maddy and Brenah Who

At the graduation afterparty Brandy was creative enough to turn Madalyn and Brenah into Who's like in the Grinch stole Christmas. Maybe we can work it into a Halloween costume next year....

JEFF GRADUATED!!!

Can anyone actually believe it?? On Saturday, December 16th Jeff graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a Master's Degree with an emphasis in Marketing Management. The ceremony was great and like any other graduation until the mariachi band came out at the end. Definitely the highlight.
There were 27 of us that went to dinner in New Braunfels at Clear Springs and then back to our house for margaritas and the Dallas Cowboys game. Greatness!
Thanks to everyone for their support- we made it!!!
Pics are of Bristol ready to succeed, Zach and Jake- Jeff's nephew's, the Burly Bunch, and Jeff decked out.