Backyard Fun in Magnolia

Sam has some of the best friends EVER!  Here he is sitting with Don Roberts watching the kids have a blast riding a zipline, swinging and eating cotton candy all in his backyard!  He and Don have known eachother for 20+ years now!  Don's wife Judy, has decorated their backyard with a bunch of shops that look like they are straight out of an old western movie!  She has also decorated their entire house with different themes for each room!  My favorite room is the large movie theater set in Egyptian style.  There is also a trophy racecar room, jungle room, game room (pool, shuffle board, jukebox, etc.), casino room, knife room (we didn't let the kids stay there long) and more.  There house and backyard was seriously like walking through a carnival with fun, fun, fun everywhere!

 

Emily swinging away!
They had this giant swing set up where you climbed to the top of a ladder and launched yourself off!

 

Katie swinging

 Bex on the zipline

 Emily cruising down the zipline

 

 It was a little tricky for Matthew to climb onto the seat up on the platform, but once he got the hang of it, he was off!

 Matthew loved the giant swing

 Here he is taking off from the top of the ladder!  Go Matthew! Go!

Judy brought out their cotton candy machine and the kids were in heaven!  Each got their own big puff of cotton candy and the play continued!  Sugar!!!

 Just cute

 The kids loved to play with the 2 dogs there

 

 Emily cruising on the swing

 

My favorite pictures of Bex

 

She discovered this waterfall from the rooftop of one of the buildings and was timid at first.

 Then she became a little more brave...

 And even shook her tush at the water.

 Next came her head and by the end of the day, she was soaked!  I thought she was such a funny girl playing in the water!

 Matthew zipping down the line again!  He did this about a thousand times today!

Katie loved the zipline and especially the landing where her shoe fell off each time! 

We had such a wonderful afternoon meeting and catching up with our friends.  Their backyard fun was amazing and the kids keep asking when we will be going back!

Pig Pile Before School

 It started as an innocent 2-person pig pile before school this morning.  Poor Sam was the victim as he laid down on the bed to rest before the rush to get everyone out the door - including himself to work. 

 It began with Emily and then quickly grew with Matthew and Rebecca climbing on

 And then there was all 4

 

 After everyone toppled over, Katie was first to pile back on!

I love those silly moments, as simple as pig piling, where the laughter can be heard throughout the entire house!  Here Sam is pushing up and we can see Rebecca is first to topple over.  These moments are here to remind us what is important and what we are so thankful for.  I loved the smiles captured on each child's face in all the pictures above!

The Bulls

Coach Steven, Brent, Matthew and Konner in back row.

Rylie, Ryland and Marshall in the front.

 Matthew's basketball team started out slow and timid, losing their first 2 games of the season, but then they broke out and have not lost since! 

 We love Coach Steven and his calm nature!  The coaches that are out there screaming and hollering at little 6-year olds drive me crazy!

Matthew has developed many great basketball skills this season and loves to score lots of points!  They practice every Monday night and what cracks me up is the way all the boys get so excited to run lines at the end.  The coach did it for fun on the first day of practice and the boys have held him to it each night since!  Matthew is very proud that he and Brent are the 2 fastest boys on the team!  I am thankful he is so tired out by the end of practice and ready for bed shortly after!

Galveston Ferry Ride

At 3:00 Saturday afternoon, Sam and I looked at eachother and said at the same time, "We should go do something fun!" Total jinx! So we packed the kids into the van and drove to Galveston.

 We went onto the ferry for a ride.  Here the kids are just getting out of the van. 

 Matthew and mom posing for a quick picture!

 Katie, Matthew and Emily watching from the front of the deck.

 Sam and Rebecca up on the 2nd level.  Rebecca sure looks cold!  She definitely cuddled with daddy a lot.

 Everyone posing from the top deck.  I love Emily and Sam pretending to fall overboard!  Very dramatic!

 Matthew and Katie cruising around the sides of the ferry

 At the back of the ferry, we brought our bread out to feed the seagulls.

 Katie sharing bread with Bex.  It was so windy on the water!

 This is a funny part because this is the pre-Sam's-hat-flying-away photo...

 And now the hat is gone!  Bex has her hands up in the air saying "Where did it go?"  We all had a good laugh at that! 

 The crew posing in the wind at the back of the ferry! 

 Mom got to cuddle with Bex too!

 Bex throwing her bread for the gulls

 Matthew loved how the ferry felt underfoot while running up and down the driveways!

 Katie watching the waves

 Katie, Emily and Matthew walking down to the bottom floor

 My photo from the 2nd floor looking out the back towards the family feeding the birds. 

Sam took this photo looking up at us on the 2nd deck from the back side of the ferry.  Katie is on the right and her hair says it all!  We were blown away! 

We had a great time riding the ferry both directions out and back to Galveston!  I love those spur of the moment adventures that we come up with to brighten our lives and bring us closer together as a family!  Maybe next time we will go in the daylight hours so we can see further out and get better pictures!

Monkey Bizness Fun

 Of course during our Christmas break, we had to make an appearance at Monkey Bizness!

 Matthew and Bex down the slide together

 Rebecca LOVED the slide!

 Bex quickly discovered how to climb the ladder to the top all by herself so that she did not have to wait for anybody to come help her.

 Girls on the obstacle course

 Emily cruising down

 Katie and Bex

 Matthew and Bex on the obstacle course

 Katie and Emiy climbing up and over the wall

 Matthew had a great time shooting hoops!

 The kids talked mom into going down the giant slide with them - and we had a blast!!!

 Round number 2 cruising down the slide with Emily, Matthew, and Bex

 We stayed so long that I snuck up on Katie while she was taking a nap :)

Emily was so hot and needed a breather too!

Monkey Bizness was a total success once again!  We love to play hard and sleep well!