ICE! {2014}.

It's become tradition that every year we go to the ICE! exhibit at the Gaylord Texan.  My kids love it, I love it, it's a perfect family fun thing to do at Christmas time.  This years theme was "Frosty the Snowman".

You can't do ICE! and not go down the ice slides! 

Waiting in line, going up the stairs so we can slide down on sheer ice!

This year they had a couple of new things.  First, they had a new "ice bar" that was an area strictly for the 21 and older crowd to get a little drinky-poo out of ice shot glasses.  Sucks when you don't drink you miss out on certain experiences;)  Second, they had an ice carver that was carving on site for you to see how they do these large scale ice exhibits.  If you look closely, you can see the guy whittling away at an ice block. 

And because this is the Bible Belt, the ICE! exhibit ALWAYS has the nativity done out of ice. 

It is pretty:)

So, funny {story}.

I was on my way home one day after running a couple of errands, radio was on in the background..... I don't know what came over me, but the radio guy announced a contest and you had to be the specific caller.  I NEVER call in, EVER.  But, I pulled into my driveway, decided to dial the number and THE GUY ANSWERED!!  I WON!! I WON!! I WON THE RADIO CONTEST!!!

What I won was a family 4 pack of tickets to Disney On Ice!  Obviously we are a family of 5 so I had to buy one more ticket but that was OK:)

I have to say, I loved every second of the show, it was awesome! 

Every time Tinkerbell would come skating out it was magical.  This show wasn't really up G's ally but there were bits and pieces he liked and I noticed he'd keep looking down at his sisters to see their reactions when certain characters they love would come out (Belle, Ariel and of course Anna and Elsa).

It was a great family outing and the fact that I won the tickets off the radio made it so much more awesome!  And for the record, even if I hadn't won the tickets it's a show I would have paid for regardless:)

My {Life}.

Sometimes a song or a passage in a book or poem or famous speech will become a very poignant voice about your life.  This song is my anthem right now and speaks volumes.  The passion behind his voice and the words in the song really resonate with me.  I've been listening to this song for awhile now and it never gets old.  I could put this on replay and run and run and run for miles.

What is your anthem for your life?

Simply {gorgeous}.

I have a friend who takes my kids photos every year for a whopping $80.  If you were lucky and we had your current address you may have seen a couple of these beauties appear on our family Christmas card this year;) 

I love this picture because it shows the height of G compared to his sisters but you can see how close in height the two girls are too. 

He is so good looking! 

My beautiful brunette! 

My pretty blondy!  

Dang I love my kids!

5th grade {camp}.

Look at my boy, front and center on the first day of 5th grade camp!  

The fact that he is doing so well and could participate in this is such an amazing blessing! 

All the 5th graders!! 

Mr. D volunteered as a chaperon so he could assist G and his experience would be just as good as the NT kiddos. 

You know, when I went to 5th grade camp, we had cabins but not this nice!  These kiddos had showers, they were climate controlled, private bathrooms, the works! 

Having a little physics lesson. 

Definitely some down time and the ga-ga pit is where the boys all played. 

Cafeteria dining at it's finest.  Again, my camp wasn't this nice, these kids are spoiled! 

All the boys of G's cabin:) 

Night time skits, gotta love these:)  These boys counted to 60 and then said, "And we just wasted 60 seconds of your life".  The end, LOL!

Friends.  One of my most cherished photos I think I could ever own.  Love. 

Collecting samples. 

And what is camp without canoeing?? 

And fishing???  G had an amazing time with his buddies from school and especially the comfort of having dad their to help him along:)  

This took some planning on my part (ok, not 'some', A LOT) but thankfully the camp and the school were both willing to work with me as well as the school nurse to make sure G wouldn't skip a beat and he would have an amazing time.  I am beyond grateful G decided to go and Mr. D was willing to take off work to go be with him and the other boys whose parents weren't there.  Mr. D laughs though because guess who has to go do 5th grade camp not once, but twice?  Yes.  Me.  I got a couple years still to work up my intolerance of the great outdoors;)

Kinder Thanksgiving {Program}.

Baby R is having a great start to her Kindergarten year!   She did her first program and had the amazing role of being a "popcorn".

She was so proud to be a "popcorn" she knew every song perfectly and sang them daily in the car for me:)  PS: That is her amazing, bubbly, patient teacher in the background:)

At the programs the art teacher always displays the students artwork they had worked on.  I love abstract art, don't you?

Baby R does her role of being a "popcorn" perfectly!

Try to pick out my child;)

It's a 3rd grade {thing}.

I did it, I finally did it.... I volunteered to be a chaperon on a school field trip!!  In years past it's been hard w/still having a little one at home because the school does not allow you to bring your other children with you.  Little R has been wanting me to come on field trips with her since her very first one back in Kindergarten and I've had to gently turn her down because I didn't have anyone that could watch Baby R for 7 hours:(  So, as soon as Baby R hit Kindergarten this year Little R made sure I knew about the field trip and I quickly filled out the chaperon form:)

3rd grade chose to go to the Texas State Fair!!  The teachers gave us a book that was a scavenger hunt that we had to find items within it, take a photo with the group and then submit the photo to the teacher so she knew we weren't just goofing off playing all the midway games;) 

We just had 3 girls in our group so it was nice.  The girls had a blast together finding all the fun things in our scavenger hunt book. 

And if you don't know who Big Tex is, here he is in all his glory.  This guy has been a staple of the Texas State Fair since it's inception in 1952!!  Tragedy did strike last year when Big Tex malfunctioned and went up in flames at the State Fair in front of many visitors that sad day.  Luckily, they were able to repair him and bring him back just in time for this years fair.  He waves and has a bellowing deep Texan accent and welcomes visitors to the fair.  He's massive, kinda creepy but at least I can now say I've seen him in real life;)

The field trip was fun, it was my first time to the Texas State Fair and to share that with Little R was awesome!