Shorter Posts/Highlights from the Holidays

This year I have noticed that it is getting harder and harder to keep the blog up to date. There are a number of things that I try to do to document all of my girl's lives. I have typed up journals for each of the girls, I Facebook occasionally, and I print up pictures to put in their personal photo albums. We also have a Flicker account. So, that along with all the things that I try to do keeping up with other responsibilities has been too much. Having two girls in school now and one in elementary school has kept us really busy, too. I want so much for the girls to be able to know what their life was like growing up. So, I will continue to do other forms of scrapbooking and posts every now and then. I just am not going to put pressure on myself to post so much and every month. So, it will be snippets of our life instead of monthly write-ups. In the world now of facebook there are very few blogs among my friends. Many other Moms have similar feelings to me regarding keeping up the blog. I feel too sad to completely let it go. It has been such a special way of connecting with family and friends and letting people know what is going on in our lives. Plus, for some of you this is the main way that you keep up with my family, so I hate to take it away completely.  Thank you so much to all of you that truly care about this blog and keep up with our family. So, here is a snippet of November and December.

The weekend before Thanksgiving my parents wanted the whole family to stay at Great Wolf Lodge for one night. Kamara and I are the only ones out of the five girls that have not stayed there before with our families. Obviously, it is very convenient since most of the Tate family lives in Grapevine. We pass the Great Wolf Lodge every time we drive to Grapevine, so our girls have been very intrigued and have been asking to stay there. It was very exciting to get to stay there even one night. My parents actually just hung out with us at the hotel and then went to sleep at their own house. It was a gift to us. It was really fun because we all stayed next to each other, so when the kids were asleep the adults got to visit outside of our rooms for a little bit. If you stay at Great Wolf Lodge you get the following day to use their swimming facilities as well. So, we went to my parent's house to let the kids rest and then went back to the hotel to let the kid's swim. So, we ended up getting a day and a half to swim. Kate was actually tall enough to ride the bigger slides. It was such a fun experience because a couple of the bigger slides are for two riders. This is the only way Kate would do any of the slides! She also wanted to be the rider in the front and put her arms back to hold Zack or my legs. She would close her eyes a lot of the time and squeal. It is neat that now she is old enough that we can experience that with her. However, if there was a water slide where Kate had to be a single rider she did not want to do it. She was too afraid, which those slides were generally not as big or scary.  Carly was too short to ride the big slide, but she on the other hand would ride the smaller slides by herself. Zack and I also got to ride a water slide together that was quite scary and fun at the same time. We all had a great time!

We were in Grapevine for Thanksgiving.  Here is our family picture.

Aubrey and Kate in their fox shirts on Thanksgiving. Love this picture!

The kid table for Thanksgiving lunch. This is where all the kids sit when we all eat together. Growing up us kids called it the "sewing room" because it was where my Mom would sew. We also had all of our little people toys in there along with a few other things. There is still a sewing machine along with little people in there, but now there is also a big table for all of the kids to sit at. There is also a small TV in there that they like to watch DVDs on while they eat. The kids all love it! I took a picture of both sides of the table. I also had the kids go around and say what they are thankful for. It was sweet.

Claire eating the traditional turkey cookies that my Mom always has at Thanksgiving.

Zack, Dad and Brett visiting after lunch.

Mom and Dad in the kitchen.

Kamara and I spent the night at my parent's house since the boys went hunting at the Ranch. Isabelle decided to join us, too. Here they are after their baths.

And here is what Zack was doing. Bringing home meat for the family. Shot a nice buck at the Ranch.

Zack's school, Rasor Elementary, had the wonderful and awesome Jason Witten at their school on December 4. Rasor Elementary was the recipient of the NFL Play60 Grant. Only one school in the DFW area is chosen and Rasor was chosen! They even made the news! I am so proud of Zack and so proud of his school. Way to go Rasor Rockets!

I love this picture of Zack and Jason Witten with their shirts.

We started a new tradition in the Pruett household this year. We had a special "Elf on the Shelf" come to our house. The weekend after Thanksgiving the girls watched the show called "Elf on the Shelf" and just like the show we had an Elf come and visit us for the Christmas season. We were to pick a name for our elf. The girls decided on Beau Foe. I tried to get them to stick with Beau, but they really wanted it to be Beau Foe. So, Beau Foe it is. Beau Foe would fly to see Santa every night to tell him how the girls were behaving. Then, the following morning he would be in a new place. Kids are not to touch their elves because it can make his magic disappear. So, they only could enjoy looking at his surprise location every day. Then, on Christmas Eve night he flies back with Santa until the following Christmas season begins. So, we will see Beau Foe again next year. We had a lot of fun with him this year!

The girl's really enjoyed helping wrap presents this year. They also took little toys around the house and wrapped them up, and then gave them to each other as gifts. It was very sweet. Here Kate is giving Claire a present that she wrapped for her. 

The Thursday following the week of Thanksgiving we had a huge arctic front that came through the Metroplex. So much so that they canceled the school that Friday before the sleet had even started coming down. Not just in Plano, but in all the surrounding districts. The ice was so thick the next couple of days that many places were closed because cars could not travel. We went to the store that Saturday and a lot of things were cleared out because they could not get new shipments in to stock the shelves. We also ended up having no school the following Monday, which made for a four day weekend. During this time we used our laundry baskets to sled down hills. The girls also discovered a love for hot chocolate. The temperatures were in the teens and twenties, very cold! The temperatures stayed cold most of the week and so you could continue to see ice patches the whole week. It was pretty remarkable! They said on the news that we probably won't see that kind of Arctic front again for 10 years!

Even Claire enjoyed sledding down hills in the laundry basket. 

Kate loved walked around the neighborhood with Zack and looking at all the ice. She loved to step and crunch on the ice! Zack went out with Kate a number of times to see everything. 

This was in the morning time so Carly still had on her pajamas. We soon learned that Carly is really not a fan of very cold weather. She only liked to be out on the ice for short snippets of time. 

Zack and Kate

This was our first year to have all of our new stockings up! The girls got their stockings last year as Christmas presents, so this year we got to enjoy them for the whole season. I loved seeing them up. We had put up our Christmas decorations the week of Thanksgiving. It was an extra special treat to see all of our Christmas stuff up when it was also icy and cold outside.

Here is a picture of our Santa picture this year. I knew that Claire would cry because she always cries when we hand her off to somebody. Carly wasn't too sure about Santa, either. So, when we went up to take our picture Carly requested to sit on the box in front of Santa instead of in his lap. This picture really made us laugh!

Fast forward to Christmas time. We were in Abilene for Christmas Day, so this is a couple of days beforehand in Grapevine. 

The Jacksons gave the girls a Doc McStuffins dress up doctor's coat.

Love this picture of the two of us!

Here we are in Abilene now. We got there on Christmas Eve. One of the first things we did was go to Abilene Christian Schools to see Lindsey's tree. The school planted a tree for Lindsey by the school playground and named it after it. It was a beautiful gift. What a perfect place to plant her tree. This was a place that meant a lot to Lindsey and a place where she too grew up. It will now forever hold a special meaning. All of the kids enjoyed playing on the playground after looking at the tree. I love this picture of Claire's smile.

Lindsey, this is for you. You are loved. Sorry, the sun was so bright in this picture!

For Christmas this year one of the only things the girls asked for was this Barbie, Mariposa.  We let them pick out a couple of things and this was one of them. So, Santa brought them these Barbies. However, they were a little tricky getting to the wings to first open. I  love this picture of Zack. It shows what a wonderful Daddy he is working so hard on a Barbie.

Here they are with the wings open. They are beautiful and the girls have happy faces!

Here is one of the toys that Santa brought Claire. So cute!

Dad Dad and Emie

Carly was in her happy place. Anytime anybody was cooking Carly wanted to be right there with them. Carly's love language is quality time so she treasures that quality time with family. Here she is with Mom Mom working on the Christmas meal.

Sweet siblings! Bree, Cole and Emie. 

Father and Daughter

Uncle Jason was so great with Claire and Claire loved her time with him, too. Thanks Jason! You are a wonderful Dad and Uncle. Notice Bree reading in the background. She loves to read!

We also got to spend some time with cousins Georgia and Olivia. They were enjoying playing with Zack. Zack is always so much fun!

This explains it all! We were all exhausted. Carly crashed on the way home. We had a wonderful Christmas!