After our at-home Christmas, we packed up and headed to Lubbock to see our sweet family and friends that we miss dearly!
Bryan's brother and his family also made the trip from Houston and my kids could not have been more excited to see their cousins.
We did lots of things during our week there, most of which included opening lots of presents, eating lots (and lots) of good food, watching football, wrangling all those crazy kids of ours, playing games (mostly done by the original Roberts and Luke), and playing with alllll the new toys. I also got to sleep more than usual (praise) and work on my Etsy shop quite a bit which I feel is worth a mention.
Parker and Hensley played Santa when we opened gifts. It's so weird to watch Hensley read. (And Parker begin to read!) I promise you they were JUST babies.
Lily has for sure figured out the fun of presents. "Open dis!" came out of her mouth probably 100 times throughout the week.
The grown-ups got spoiled, too. ;)
Grammy (as usual) did her part so well--making us all feel so warm and cozy and entertained and of course, stuffed with food. She spent lots of time playing with her grandchildren--and it's a good thing she likes kids, because she was definitely the hot commodity among them all!
We added another 2,000 LEGO pieces to our collection.
Beau and Hayes (usually) loved playing together. Hayes was so excited to see his cousin!
We went to Cook's Garage one night and enjoyed some greasy food and let the kids run wild on the old toys outside. I had to snap a photo of Lily driving the Smokey the Bear truck! My Dad worked for the U.S. Forest Service when I was growing up and wore the Smokey the Bear costume more than once to my school assemblies. I think this is hilarious now and as a kid I loved it so much! I thought it was so cool. And remember: Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires.
Somehow Judy caught me off guard and before I knew it I was helping with a scavenger hunt around the house for the cousins (I'm horrible at the Pinterest Mom stuff!) but it was so much fun and the kids absolutely loved it. And again--so weird to watch Hensley read and Parker reason out the riddles (and use words like "certainly" and "unusual" like a tiny detective).
Grammy with all her grands (mostly smiling!) after the scavenger hunt finale!
Five peas in a pod.
Our cousin Beau happens to have a December 31st birthday so we were lucky enough to get to celebrate him and his FIFTH birthday in person this year! Sweet Alisha earned Best "Oldest" Aunt of The Year because she let Parker draw all of the Mario characters to use as decorations for Beau's party. You would have thought Parker won the lottery, he was so excited and it was SO sweet. He got to stay up late with the grownups and felt so special and important and I'm quite sure I'll never plan another party solo while he lives in my house!
On Beau's birthday he opened his presents (or so I hear, as I slept through that part after our late-night party-planning festivities!), and then we played and headed to the movie theater to see "Ralph Breaks The Internet" which was SO darn cute....
....almost as cute as these cuties! (Note Hayes in background---always my smiler!)
Beau had a cute little birthday celebration at home with pizza, cake, and cousin craziness.
I put my newly-found piñata-making skills to use and made a pull-string piñata for the kids (which Alisha filled with 30 pounds of treats and I'm still shocked it didn't prematurely break apart from the weight!)
After celebrating the birthday boy, we headed out to our dear friends' house to celebrate the New Year!
I love these people SO much!!!!
We had a blast and loved talking and watching our babies play with their future spouses (HA!)
I miss them! Wah.
On New Year's Day the girls escaped to my favorite Dillard's sale (!) and the boys took the kids to the Science Spectrum (aka one of my kids' favorite places on earth). I would say the girls got the better part of that deal, muahaha.
We also had enchiladas for dinner, made by the Roberts siblings and their sweet Mama!
I stopped taking pictures after this point (oops), but everything settled down after the New Year as the cousins left to head back to Houston. We spent our last few days chilling out/recovering and I was able to sneak off to a dinner date with my college friends (SUCH sweet fun!) AND on a mini-date with Bryan were we had a long, good, eye-opening talk about our plans for this year. I am feeling hopeful for 2019!
Our trip ended too soon and now we are back to normal life. It is always so hard to leave these people that we love so much. We have such a good life and have so many who love and care for us and always want the best for our little family. Life couldn't be fuller and we are blessed!
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