Thanksgiving

I always love Thanksgiving. We had my parents come up from Lubbock along with my sister Jenny and Mema. We had a fun week going to Six Flags, making delicious Thanksgiving dinner, watching movies, hanging out, and going to a football game!

Ashley and Zack opened their "Heritage spa", complete with a menu of services ranging from 15 cents to 60 cents. Everyone really enjoyed this special treat. The kids were super excited with their aunt Jenny's tip of $1.00. Part of Natalie's specialty is walking on your back and then jumping off of it as hard as she can. Gives an extra "oomph" to her massage.

As always, Natalie goes through a "Grumpy" time when she's tired, usually around 5-6 pm. I wish she still napped, but she definitely doesn't.

Aunt Jenny tried to help and convinced her she should be happy and have a happy picture.

Another highlight of the week was going to the Texas Tech game at the Cowboys stadium. It was our first time inside and we were very impressed. The stadium is really large, and the screens are amazing. What a fun game...

Six Flags, Holiday in the Park, was a blast for the kids. They loved riding rides with their grandparents and Jenny.
Natalie was so tired at the end of our day, she cuddled up to Josh's arm and promptly fell asleep in the car. She's quite the daddy's girl.

Zack's 5th Bday

We are so glad Zack is in our family! He turned 5 in November and is growing so quickly.

What a cutie he is here at only 22 months.

Birthday favorites this year was all about transformers,

Hot Wheels, (he loves trick tracks because they link together and set each other off)

Cool presents from Alaska (he loves this shirt)

and a fun cake! (Made by me...I was really worried for a while that it wouldn't turn out)

Natalie of course wanted to open presents too, but she finally consented to just be super excited about every present Zack opened! Ashley was our picture taker as I was video taping. She did a pretty good job.


We had a fun birthday party for him with a Hot Wheels theme (hence the cake).  We played a variety of games like obstacle courses, stick the car on the race track, race the cars, etc.  We also set up loads of tracks for the kids to play during the down times...they were a great hit!  As a party favor, I took each child's picture and we sent them their own special driver's license with a thank you card.  We're so glad we had so many friends who could come celebrate with us. 

Family outdoor fun

A favorite activity of ours has been to bike ride as a family. Ashley happily rides without her training wheels, Zack tries to follow after her as fast as he can wishing he didn't have training wheels, Josh pulls Natalie in the trailer and I ride alongside whoever is in the rear. We have a lot of fun and the kids are getting so much better riding.

We also love to go exploring around Fort Worth. A favorite place of the kids is the Fort Worth water gardens...one word of advice though...stay out of the planting beds!!! We were climbing up around the gardens and Zack stepped on a HUGE pile of fire ants. Needless to say he was screaming his head off at his leg rapidly being covered with ants. I swooped him up to move him and proceed to rapidly brush him off. Luckily, I think he only got 1 bite. It could have been much worse.

We also enjoy hiking (in the few areas there are around here). Here the kids are near Eagle Moutain Lake.