Jan 2017

January is birthday month for us. We started out with celebrating Bryce's birthday with a family dinner at Mema and Papa's house. 

And then we took him out to Chuy's for his actual birthday to celebrate which was fun!

The kids got some awards at school for a job well done in the first half of the school year.

Caitlin even got perfect attendance!!

 Evan got his award too - but I didn't get a picture with the certificate. He did great with all A's for the fall semester. 

January is also always Pinewood Derby month for Boy Scouts. This year, all 3 kids wanted a car. Here was the design that Evan picked out.

And here were Caitlin and Ryan's. Bryce made Caitlin's but Papa was the one who created this awesome Ghostbuster car for Ryan. Amazing!!

Evan with a bunch of his Den before the racing began.

And the results: Evan was the fastest Bear car! He won first place for his Den and Alex won Best Design. 

Evan and Daddy worked together as a team on this one.

Then it was time for the open race (Ryan and Caitlin's race). Amazing, but Ryan took home first place! He had the fastest car of all the open entries. And his good friend Jacob took second place!

Way to go Papa and Ryan on a great car!

Christmas Break Fun 2016

We had a great and LONG christmas break. We seemed to fit most of the things on my list in.

This included going to the movies to see Star Wars!

Ryan learned how to ride a bike!

We finally made it to Mozarts to see the light show! 

We spun under the Zilker tree until we were so dizzy we fell down.

Ryan is obsessed with Ghostbusters. I mean, super obsessed. Mema made him this Stay Puft Marshmallow man which made his Christmas.

And we celebrated NYE with some neighbors - yes, this is NYE in Texas - shorts!

Onto 2017!

Trip to Dallas-Fort Worth

After Christmas, we took a short trip up to Dallas-Fort Worth area. The Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth was having a special Monet exhibit that my mom and I wanted to see. We are big Monet fans and this was his early works which aren't seen very much.

After the Museum, we headed to the Stockyards. It's one of those things I've always wanted to do being a "Texan". It was nicely decorated for Christmas.

We arrived around lunch and right away were greeted with animals!

Probably our most favorite activity was the Cattle Pen Maze.

We had a blast running all through it and trying to find hidden letters. I'd definitely recommend it for kids and there is a viewing platform for adults if you'd rather not go but want to keep an eye on them!

After lunch, we explored a little and then went to the Wild West Show.  It was interesting except that Ryan and Caitlin both hated the guns. I have to say, they were pretty loud! And both of them already hate fireworks so let's just say that anytime the guns came out, they were screaming bloody murder and wanting to leave. Maybe not a must-do if you come.

We did love getting to meet the people in the show and pet the horses though!

And finally, what everyone comes to the Stockyards for, the Cattle Drive! 

It was a pretty slow and short cattle drive I have to say. I think at this point, it's pretty safe to say that the cattle are trained.  But, it was neat to see them all go by!

We stayed in downtown Fort Worth that night and enjoyed a lovely hotel and dinner at Taverna. The Fort Worth square was decorated and beautiful! They had music playing and a cool fountain and we enjoyed spending some time there after dinner.

The next morning, we headed to Dallas to go to the Perot Museum of Science! First we learned all about the Birds of Paradise. Below, Ryan and Caitlin learned to dance like them.

They have this awesome escalator you can see from way outside the building that we took. 

I liked coding the robots!

Another favorite was the sports area where the kids got to pick someone or something to race! And another favorite was the oil/energy sector where we took a ride on a fracking drill. We also got to feel what it's like to be in an earthquake!

Overall, we had a lot of fun and could have definitely spent more time there. A fun little trip for our Christmas break.

Christmas 2016

Christmas Eve was full of traditions for us which I love. We always start off by making/decorating cookies for Santa. I know, more cookie making.

Then it was off to church. This year, Caitlin was an Angel in the Nativity play that they do as part of the service!

I love how the Church is decorated for Christmas. It's so beautiful.

My Angel in front of the Church! We had to get there early to get in costume and lined up.

Here she is processing in. 

Stacer Family picture

Our own family picture

After Church, we headed to my mom's house for Christmas Eve dinner and to hang out.  Then it was time to hop into Pajamas and go to sleep so Santa could come!

The next morning, everyone woke up to a bunch of presents under the tree. We waited for grandparents to come over to begin the opening. 

Some of Ryan's favorite presents were all things Ghostbusters! He has been obsessed with the movies since Halloween when we let them watch. I mean completely obsessed. He sings the song, watches cartoons, pretends play he is Peter Venkman. Needless to say, it was easy to figure out what to buy him.

Caitlin got a lot of good stuff (new American Girl doll, clothes) but she loved her gymnastics tumbling mat!

And Evan got the only thing he really wanted - an Xbox! I have a love/hate relationship with it. He was very excited and happy though (since pretty much that was all he got besides clothes and of course some games). 

Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas! We are so blessed to be able to celebrate with family and friends and give presents to our kids. I always am extremely grateful for everything and everyone in our lives. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well and know that we were thinking of all of you far away and wishing you the best.

Merry Christmas from the Stacers! (even though it's Feb 2017) :)

December continued

Wow, I can't believe how much happened in December! I think this will be another 2 posts before we are done with the month... but at least then I'll be caught up to the new year. 

First up, Caitlin! She has been taking gymnastics for awhile now and had been wanting to get into this invitation only class called Hot Shots. We had done some private lessons with one of the coaches (Coach Jenn) to help her get the skills she needed. She found out in December that she made it into the class! Thanks Coach Jenn!

Ryan had his annual Christmas program at preschool that we enjoyed watching.

We had a big crowd to support him which made him happy and excited.

Caitlin found out that she won an Award of Excellence for her Reflections contest entry. She choreographed her own dance (and performed it) for the competition. Way to go!  She's already talking about all the entries she wants to do next year.

I got to go to school and help with Caitlin and Evan's class parties. 

We had our annual cookie baking day at Oma's.

We made a gingerbread house. 

Somehow, we rarely end up eating it though...

Over break, Caitlin did a couple gymnastics camp days so I took the boys out for lunch and some shopping at the Domain!

We played for awhile on all the different structures.

We even saw Santa! It was a gorgeous day to just spend time with my boys.

And of course, we had Santa visits! First one was early in the month at the Round Rock tree lighting.

Then we saw him again at the Neighborhood Event (actually at my sister's neighborhood event since we couldn't make our own!).

So as you can see, pretty busy and we aren't even to the Holidays! We also have been having great weather. A couple cold days every now and then, but overall pretty pleasant. This is my kind of winter. All you northern folk should come visit when you get tired of the cold!