A Texas Christmas

We drove to Texas for Christmas. We're crazy. Also, I realized that a van is in our very near future. I NEED more space. It would have been nice to have on the drive to and from Texas, but this isn't a perfect world, so we didn't have one. Oh well. We took 3 days to drive to Texas. On the way we added Drew's grandparents to the mix and they caravanned out with us. Here's the only travel pic I have:

They were very bored.

The day after we got in was Matt (Drew's bro) birthday, so we went out to Chili's that night to celebrate (Kev & Martha left a little early from dinner):

The cousins got lots of baths together. Because of this, my children now know Miley Cyrus' song "Wrecking Ball." It's Matt and Kevin's fault. It's because Kev cleans his daughter Penelope with a method called Baby Bowling Ball. If you have questions (or concerns) about it, contact Kevin.

Christmas Eve was filled with family! It was also the day we were planning our little gender reveal activity, so I was super excited about that. We had a delicious dinner and then who came and surprised us all but SANTA! He walked right through the front door! He also looked suspiciously like Brett Thorpe...

Funny story: Drew asked Luke what he had asked Santa for and Luke said that the Santa that came that night wasn't the same one that he had seen in North Carolina. Oops! He's becoming too observant!

We also read the nativity story from the Bible and Luke and Grace dressed the parts:

And after that we had our gender reveal! So I had given a friend a picture of the sonogram that told if it was a boy or a girl. I also gave her 4 piggy banks: 2 pink and 2 blue. I provided her with boxes to put the piggy banks in, obviously she'd put the pinks in if it were a girl or the blue ones if it were a boy. Then we'd have a present for the kids to open to find out what we're having! I really wanted to involve the kids and a present was the best thing I could think of. Anyway, I tried to upload the movie but I don't know how to do that. Sorry.

Holding up their piggy banks:

It's a BOY!! (Or mancub, as Drew put it)

CHRISTMAS!!

The kids came out and Luke was shocked to find that Santa had drank SO much milk! (Not so much the cookies.) He was also very excited about the new presents that showed up overnight. 

 The kids got bikes from Drew's grandparents:

Penelope watched her cousins ride outside for a while:

 Funny story: Luke had been opening presents and all the sudden he says: "I'm tired of opening presents!" Poor boy, he has a rough life.

We did LOTS more fun things while in Texas:

Crazy family photos

Putt Putt Golf

Several park trips

Mani/Pedis (compliments of Grandma Olson!)

Just Dance (obviously Matt is doing something wrong here)

Celebrated 7 years of marriage (7 years!!)

Saw Saving Mr. Banks

Spoiled by Grandma

Annnd...another park trip.

Sonic, friends, mall, library, dress up, slumber parties, temple trip. Not to mention all the food we consumed! We went to Chili's, Texas Roadhouse, Chick-fil-a, Taco Bueno, In'n'Out, Chicken Express, Braum's, McDonald's, and had lots of delicious homemade food!

Next up...our Hawaiian adventure!