TX Doolittle Christmas Season 2012

Merry Christmas season in February everyone! (Dang I'm even later than last year!) We attempted to have a delightfully long Christmas season that spanned the entire month of December. I found all sorts of great activities around San Antonio and scheduled them on our calendar. Unfortunately each day a new activity came up someone was terribly sick. It only lasted through the middle of December however and once Harry and Dianne came to visit for Tim's graduation everyone was healthy and stayed that way. We were able to hit a drive through nativity which was very cool! And Grant our youngest and 3rd kiddo to attend our favorite pre-school had his turn in the annual Christmas pageant. Here he is singing "We Three Kings":

Lillie and Samuel before Polar Express PJ day at school.

Here is our family using our Six Flags passes for the last time. We had a blast there this summer! The park also put on a pretty neat Christmas Extravaganza so we went a few times before and after Christmas. I had to include these pics because I believe they are the only ones we got of ourselves at the park this year.

Six flags had a lot of Christmas shows to choose from but the one we made sure to hit was "The Miracle of Christmas" which was a musical rendition of the Nativity Story. They had live sheep and camels but the kids favorite part were the flying angels. 

While my sisters were all home from school my parents took us all to Sea World for the day. We hadn't been here since before Grant was born so it was new for all of the kids. While there we took in the shamu and beluga/dolphin shows, rode a few rides, and fed the dolphins. It was so hard not to take pics at the dolphin encounter of the kids feeding them sardines, but the whole experience went so quickly that we opted to enjoy the moment instead of trying to capture it. 

Christmas Day!

 Ok, well this is technically the night before. Here are the kids in their new Christmas pj's. L and S were pretty stoked that I found footies for them.

The stockings all stuffed...

The presents all delivered...

Three super excited kiddos!

S with his RC car that he has been begging to get for 2 years now. The wait paid off. Were 2 weeks into February and him and G still play with these things. 

L with her light up skechers. These things blink ridiculously brightly. When we're in the car at night and they go off we always think a cop is pulling us over. 

Here's G with his RC car

Tim and his new blu-ray player

Gracie was not to be left out. The kids all bought her something at the 

dollar store and Santa even left her a little something. 

Chillin' at Grammy and Grandad's

L with her new camera

 Things started to get a little crazy

This baseball set shoots the balls at you. It's pretty awesome!

S got a new scooter! He rides it around the house all the time. For the first few weeks there was a lot of contention because everyone wanted to ride it.

Auntie Laura teaching L to play the piano

THE DAY AFTER...

(insert dramatic music for effect)

So my sister Allison thought it would be awesome to buy some washable art stuff for the S and G for Christmas. It was one of the last things that they opened and it was at the very end of the day. We didn't give much thought to them. That was unfortunate since both Tim and I decided to sleep in on the 26th. The kids let us sleep until about 10am I believe. We never heard so much as a peep. Why would we? They had all those new presents, not to mention stocking candy, to keep them occupied. Well, let me tell you, we paid a dear, dear price. For this is what we found upon waking:

...and there was oh so much more. Everywhere. Bathroom walls. Living room walls. Bedroom walls. It turned out to be washable just as advertised. But it was a mess to clean up. Thanks Allison. Please expect glitter and glue for your young children's Christmas and Birthdays. 

I can promise you that is what they will be getting!

Some random after-Christmas fun:

G in Tim's running undies :)

For Christmas Auntie Allison gave L some cake decorating tools and lessons. Here is what L did:

I was impressed! And what was even better, we got to keep the cake and eat it. It was probably in my top 3 of most delicious baked goods ever consumed. I'm grateful for your talent Allison!

Merry Christmas Everyone and a very Happy 2013! 

Grant and the Saw

I am so grateful for the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I am also grateful that our little family is continually watched over.
So just now I am unpacking from the cruise that Tim and I just got back from. Grant was dancing in the living room and I had a very small thought to go and check on him. I ignored it at first but almost immediately changed my mind to go and give him a quick look. I glanced in very quickly sure that all was fine. I saw he was dancing around swinging something and thought, there, he's just fine. I turned away but then did a double take almost in the same moment. We had left a hand saw out along with some other tools as we are re-doing our bathroom floors right now. There was Grant dancing and swinging the hand saw around like crazy. My heart dropped. I walked up to him as calmly as I could and took it from him.
Needless to say the saw along with anything else dangerous is back in the garage. I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost and that I chose to follow that very small prompting!

Tim's MBA Graduation

After 2 good, long, and hard years, Timothy graduated with distinguished honors from St. Mary's University with his MBA. He worked so hard for this and it was a dream of his for a long time. I am so proud of him for fulfilling his dream so well and while holding down a full time job and having a wife and three kids. I was probably the neediest and hardest to keep up with I'm sure ; )

Harry and Dianne came in from Utah to attend the graduation and to celebrate. We are so glad they came and the kids had a ton of fun with Grandma and Grandpa!

I don't even know what to say about this.

But he oh how he can make me laugh!

Tim was the recipient of some very thoughtful graduation gifts. My parents gave him some new minimalist running shoes that he had been wanting and Harry and Dianne gave him some dinero which he used to to buy a really sweet jacket from REI. 

Here is Grandma hanging out with the kiddos and reading them the new Christmas story that she brought for them: Thomas S. Monson's The Christmas Train. 

We also had an early Christmas celebration with G-ma and G-pa but I couldn't find my camera for that. I'm relying on Harry to post those pics.

What a fun time we had a what a great reason to celebrate. I am so proud of you Timothy!

Fun in TX and Grant at T-ball

Well, we haven't been up to too much this last few months down in TX but we have been having fun! Here are some of the highlights:

Lillie is as she puts it: "Taylor Swift's biggest fan" and she decided to let her know that. So she wrote her a really nice letter. Then we put a picture in it and asked her to sign it and send it back. It should take 4 to 6 months to get a response. Lillie doesn't care. She was so excited to do this and is waiting very patiently for march-may 2013 to come around. 

Lillie was also part of a pep rally at school. She put on an awesome dance and cheer performance and rocked the house with her ganham style dance! Here she is with her two besties, Sophia and Abby:

Samuel looks so rockin' I just had to record this pic. He had scored some new converse shoes and a hotwheels sweatshirt from a garage sale that morning for $2.25. Then he was due for a new bike helmet and this thing is super sweet. I can't help but smile every time I see him in this thing. I figure the rubber-y spikes probably add some extra bounce when he falls too ; )

We have had these caterpillars all over the place lately! They are so cute and the kids (and me) all love to play with them.

Backyard camping. I discovered that it's not bad at all when the weather is nice outside! I slept very well despite knowing that I was sleeping 5 feet away from my actual bed. We had a blast with the kids though. We've been saying forever that we would do it and I'm glad that we finally did. We got some takeout and ate in the tent while we watched Madagascar 3. Then we came out to roast make smore's over the grill before calling it a night. I have the best family!

Grant in T-Ball

Grant did T-Ball at the Y this fall and he was awesome! He was part of a spectacular team. The parents were really involved for the most part and we came away with some great friends. We had a lot of fun at night practices. L and S would bring their bikes and ride around the Y grounds with friends for an hour while we watched Grant and his team practice. He turned out to be very very good and he loved it the entire time! He's already asking when spring t-ball begins :)

At bat:

 On first:

At the after party pancake breakfast after the last game:
He's setting at the table with his friends going clockwise from the bottom left: Alex, Kelton, Grant, and Patrick.

Lillie and Samuel with their good friends Asher and Sage:

Grant receiving his medal from Coach Tim. Grant really liked his coach a lot and would draw him pictures and stuff. He would always ask about him during the week too. So cute!

Grant and his team. the White Sox:

G with his medal and trophy:

This guy was Grant's helper for the entire season. Grant wouldn't participate if we came onto the field to help him but he loved Alex's Dad. He was super great with Grant. He would always help him and give him tons of encouragement. Thank you!

Grant and Coach Tim:

ING Kids Rock Race 2012

We are so proud of Lillie and Samuel. They ran the Kids Rock Marathon again this year. They have been going to school early and running a mile each day. Then today they ran the last mile at a downtown park with about 1,800 other elementary school kids for a total of 26.2 miles. What an awesome tradition! We did this last year with some kids and teachers from school and we always have a blast. You guys worked hard and we are so proud of you!

Halloween 2012

 Grant planted a pumpkin at pre-school. We were all super excited when it grew! It got about an inch taller by the end of the day that I took this pic so we planted it in our garden. We talked about how awesome it would be when we had a pumpkin ready in March ; ) Then we went out the next day to check on it... it had been eaten up. And that was my kids scary Halloween story for the season. Poor Grant. Although, I believe I was more broken up than he was. 

G, S, and L at the pre-school pumpkin patch. 

Yeah, we don't get all dressed up and cute for this thing like we used to.

But they had fun anyway. They probably had more fun since I didn't try to make them cute. 

So Lillie likes to try to sew. I think it's awesome! Here she made Gracie a Halloween costume out of left over material from her witch's cape. Gracie totally loved it and hasn't taken it off since (said sarcastically)

Tim and Lillie all dressed up for the Activity Days Halloween Extravaganza!

Ready for Trunk-or-Treat

Carving pumpkins for FHE

The finished products:

And finally, rounding out the season with the actual trick-or-treating night on the 31st. Samuel found a 25 cent costume at a garage sale and decided at the last minute to use it and be a ninja. I told them that next year it's all about the garage sale finds. Happy Halloween everyone!