Orchestra Concert and Christmas Caroling

I get so excited when I hear Ethan play his cello. I was happy to be able to go to his first orchestra concert! They didn't really play Christmas songs. Just the songs they had been learing...when they've only been playing since August so they were pretty good for being brand new! 

There's my baby in the corner!

This was the best pic I could get. He was being weird and getting irritated that I was trying to take his picture. Remember my boys and their hatred of photos...

Taking a bow when it was over.

Thanks to Momo (Mondo's mom) for getting me a decent pic!

Ethan and Momo.

Uncle Able (Mondo's youngest brother).

A few nights later we went to the annual Christmas caroling at Barnes and Noble. Caleb was super excited to put on a show.

It's a lot of kids packed into one little area! They sing by grade level.

My little caroler. He was so animated and really coming out of his shell! :-)

Thanksgiving

It seems I take less and less pics these days. I think it's hard because they boys are old enough now to dodge me when they see the camera come out. Anywho, here are a few pics from Thanksgiving!

All dressed up to go to Aunt Nita's. (I can't believe my begonias were still alive!)

Family photo time.

Boy cousins all lined up in age order.

My parents. :-)

Eating at the kid's table...

The kids getting wild and crazy.

Ethan being silly eating a piece of cheesecake.

Then it was back home to start our Christmas decorating!

Squeaker said "yes, I remember this tree..."

One of my favorite ornaments...from our honeymoon. :-)

Family Pics

Pretty self explanatory. My ex-coworker does pics as a side business so I hit her up from time to time for some new pics. I was happy we got any pics this day because it was super windy and I was afraid my hair would be crazy. They turned out pretty good. Mondo and the boys were troopers. All three of them hate when it's picture time and I think you can never have enough pics! ;-)

Birthday Celebration at the Ranch!

Our friend Levi has a ranch that his parents live on in Cisco. Every few years we try to make it out there for a little adult relaxation. This year we went with several other couples in November to celebrate mine and Levi's birthdays. We stayed overnight and the boys stayed with my parents. As usual time flew by but we had a great time catching up with old friends!

The entrance to the ranch. They named it the "Briar Patch".

The first two times we went we all huddled into the original house on the property. It was super old with some basic updates but worked just perfect for us.  Since then Levi's parents have built a new house next to the old one. Their design idea were so inventive and perfect for the ranch style! His dad designed this shower out of an old wagon wheel and a metal bucket! 

This is kind of the man cave.

Part of the living room.

One of their giant ponds.

It was freezing outside!

We spent a lot of time around the fire pit at night to keep warm.

The next morning we enjoyed some coffee outside. It was so peaceful!

We love country living!

Who Loves the Fair? We do!

The Hernandez clan loves to go to the State Fair of Texas! I went almost every year as a child then Mondo started going with me in high school. We have now made it a tradition with our kids to go. This year we had some beautiful weather. We took the kids out of school a little early and stayed almost until it closed.

The boys were super excited about the American Ninja Warrior setup they had this year. There was a small kids area where they could do a little competition. They did it over and over... That's Ethan in this pic.

There's Caleb taking his turn...

Their favorite thing to do is still climbing in the cars and "driving" at the car show.

Big Tex!

First snack...nachos for Caleb.

Tornado tators! Our favorite!!

Caleb pretended to ride inside a combine (?) corn tractor thing. He got to steer and press the buttons while watching a video of what he was doing.

Ethan thought this car was amazing.

Caleb needed his pic by the car too. :-)

Caleb is my "plain milk" lover.

So amazing that all of that was carved out of butter!!

Next on Caleb's agenda...cheese pizza!

This was right above us where Caleb was eating his pizza. A bunch of umbrellas strung together. I thought it was cool.

Caleb on a giant rocking horse.

This was definitely the highlight of our day. They boys were able to participate in a junior cooking event. They made little taco salads and omlettes and strawberry smoothies. They were selling a book called "Kids Can Cook".

It was so cute to watch Ethan help his brother.

That woman was the author of the book "Kids Can Cook".

Here's the finished product. A little taco salad and omlette. And you know what? They were delicious!!

We went back over to the American Ninja Warrior setup and watch some people actually compete! They boys were super into it and wanted to do the course too. But it was for adults only.

We had to enjoy a little fried goodness before we left...fried Snickers! Yummo!