Craig's Birthday

Check out the latest 4 posts, I was way behind as normal!

On December 5, Craig turned the old age of 29!  Now we are both just one year away from 30, or I guess we could always just turn 29 from now on, haha.  On November 30th, my nephew turned 16, which as you know is a huge birthday!  We had a little party for both of them at my house with Ice Cream cake and goodies!  Here are the birthday boys!

Kennedy wanted a cupcake so bad that we had to start the party as soon as she saw them, haha.  She is a sugar queen just like me!

She also likes to share her sweets!

Lincoln wanted to help blow out the candles.

Mmm, that is so good!

Craig and I also went to Eddie V's to celebrate his birthday.  That place was really wonderful.  I am not a big fish fan, but they had the best of the best.  We both split a crab cake and I even had scallops which I normally don't like, but they were amazing.  It was a fun birthday for Craig. 

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

As far as Christmas traditions, we don't have many yet as The Gabbard Family.  I guess I follow the ones from my parents, like making fudge, opening stockings and eating dinner at my Mom's house on Christmas Eve.  Our traditions so far consist of watching Elf while decorating the house, having a book exchange with The Brawley Family, making tons of desserts including cookies with Paula on Christmas Eve, opening the rest of the gifts of Christmas morning and making Christmas lunch for everyone.  One we started about two years ago, when Lincoln was old enough, was letting the kids each hang their own ornament.  Lincoln really enjoyed this in the past years and will often move his around before Christmas.  This year, Kennedy was old enough, so she got to hang one too.  Here she is about to hang her ornament.

Trying to find the best spot!

She almost got it on...

She still needed a bit of help!

There we go, she got it on.  Then she wanted to take it off and move it, haha!

Lincoln has a little red train that he gets to put on every year.

Good job buddy!

Now the Christmas tree is complete!

I love my little Christmas Helpers.

I hope we can make more traditions as the kids get older, I would love for them to have something to pass on to their families one day.

Winter Zoo Trip

The day after Thanksgiving, black Friday, we decided to skip all the crazy shopping and head to the Zoo.  It was a great decision because there was no one there and it gave me a way to walk off some of the food I ate from the day before.  Our mission this time was to see the big cats.  We always miss that part of the Zoo somehow.  It was also a very nice day weather wise.  Here is Lincoln on his favorite thing at the zoo, the train!

Kennedy liked the train ride too!

We stopped off at our favorite place to eat at the Zoo, the Texas Wild Food Court.  Kennedy had just started to point to things and say "this" when she wanted to try something.

After we ate, Lincoln really wanted to ride the carousel.  Kennedy wanted to ride too.

Next, we headed up to find the lions and tigers.

We finally found the tigers, and as many times as I have been there, I had no idea they had white tigers.  They were beautiful!

There were three of each of them, so pretty

I guess it was a day of trying something new because then we headed over to the birds so that we could let Lincoln feed them.  I love this exhibit, you can buy feed sticks and go in this huge bird cage and they just flock to you. It is amazing how close you can get to them.  That is Craig feeding a bird.

Kenny wanted to touch him

Pretty blue one

Lincoln was a bit timid at first, but he finally wanted to feed the birds.  Here he is with a white and blue bird on his feed stick.  Sorry, I have no idea what kind of birds they are, haha.

After the birds, we headed over to the duck pond so Kennedy could stretch her legs.

Lincoln was showing her the ropes of the duck pond.

Craig taking a little break.

Do you see the ducks, Kk?

Looking cute!

They had a great time.  We topped it off with some ice cream and then they both crashed out for a nap, it was awesome!  I can't tell you how much we love our Zoo.  It was so much better than shopping!

Thanksgiving

We had a great thanksgiving! This year, my mom hosted a traditional thanksgiving feast. She got a special Cajun turkey (that was too hot for me, I'm a wimp) that everyone loved, especially Craig! We had a great turn out and it was fun hanging out with my family and Paula and her boyfriend.  Here is Ryan and Bob with Kennedy, happy Turkey Day!

Lincoln was having a blast jumping up and down while I took his picture. 

Kennedy and Daddy!

Gotta love the gobble butt and sparkle boots.  These were from last year but they still fit!

Family picture!

Learning her sports early

Mom and all her babies!

Our little family minus Lincoln, he was too busy.

Paula and her boyfriend, Chris were able to make it this year too.

On of the many people that I am thankful for in my life!  Love you Kennedy!

We had a great Thanksgiving and soon it will be Christmas at my house, woo hoo!

First Adult Getaway

Another reason I decided not to pick nursing back up with Kennedy after the 72 hours is that we had a trip coming up that weekend that would be our first no kids trip since we had kids. 

We got invited to Ryan and Stefanie's wedding on November 13th in Austin, TX.  We had originally planned to all go down (Craig, me, the kids, and Craig's parents) to San Marcos on Friday and stay with Craig's brother and hit up the outlets!  Then Craig's parents decided they didn't want to go down and that they would just keep the kids in Benbrook while we went down.  I was so nervous but also excited since this was our first kid less trip. 

We headed down on Saturday morning and went to the outlets first before driving back up to Lakeway (a suburb of Austin, I think) to go to their rehearsal dinner.  They had it at this fun Italian restaurant called Rocco's. We had a great time hanging out with a few people from high school. Here we are at Rocco's, sorry, it was from my iPhone.

The wedding was on Sunday afternoon, so we decided to run with the groom that morning and then head back to the outlet malls in San Marcos, I wanted to get some good shopping in!  This was also kinda my birthday weekend, so I wanted to get some goodies! They had the wedding at the Vintage Villas on Lake Travis.  It was a beautiful setting and I was so mad at myself because I left my memory card at home, ugh!  Here we are with Ed and his wife, Janey at the reception.

I have known Ryan since I moved to Texas when I was in third grade.  He lived behind me my whole life and now they live around the corner from Craig and I in the same neighborhood.  Ryan and Stefanie started dating about 6 years ago, and I knew they were right for each other from the start.  I am so happy they made this next step and it was a wonderful wedding. Here is the beautiful couple on their first dance.

While we were away, the kids were having a blast hanging out with Craig's parents.  They went to the park, went on walks, watched movies and played all day!  They sent us a few pictures to see how much fun they were having!  Here is Kennedy at Spring Creek having her a rib!  Mmm, doesn't that look good!

Their neighborhood is nice because they have a little park right up the street from them.  Kennedy visits it daily with Yong.  They had fun sliding down the slide.  I will say that these pictures did make me miss them so much. 

We ended our trip on Monday morning and headed back to get our babies.  It was a wonderful first Adult trip.  We got to talk to each other without interruption.  It was nice to be in the car and not hear screaming after 15 minutes.  It was nice to be able to just have fun with my husband and goof off like we did when we first met. But all the things that made the trip nice to have without kids, also made me miss them that much more.  I could not wait to get back to their hugs and sweet kisses.  It was just what we needed!