Sea World New Years Eve

Andrew and I took Andra to Sea World for New Years Eve. They were going to have fireworks at 9pm. Andra had not see fireworks life due to the fact that Texas has been in a drought and fireworks have been banned.

We started off in the "candy cane" area Then off to the penguins and snowman
then to Shamu

popcorn to help keep her happy as we were over 2hrs past her bedtime

then the fireworks started

She liked it, then not so much, then she loved it, then not so much, then she loved it and was sad that it was over

Christmas day

Christmas morning Andra was up and ready to go but she had to wait for Amanda and family to come. She did so good waiting, we let her watch some cartoons. When all the guests were here, it was present time.

a New Fancy Nancy book, that we had to stop and read.
She loved her Peapod doll.

and her camera

Then we all got dress and ready for the day.

I did put the camera away for most of the day and just had fun

I did snap a few

here she and Tata (my dad) were have a deep conversation

and then one of my 99 year old grandmother who will be 100 in March

a great Christmas filled with family and fun

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas time skype!

We skyped with Andrew's brother and his wife in Lawton, OK on Christmas Eve and then Andrew's Dad and step-Mom in Scotland on Christmas Day. Andrew has a computer and web-cam connected to the TV for just this reason. This picture is from Dec. 24, Andra was having fun with the web-cam. lots of different settings and always with the crown

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve we went to mass and then over to my aunt Alma's house. After dinner we celebrated the December birthdays (minus my two cousins that are in Italy). Here is Grandma with the birthday kids. Then we did our family's white elephant gift. It was so much fun I did not get pictures; but i did get rid of the pig and got a great longhorn pillow (that I stole from Alba, who stole it from Liz).
Andra not into the White Elephant but giving her great-grandmother a hug.

Then Andra and her cuz played Santa!

River lights

Each year we go downtown for dinner and to look at the Christmas lights. We went on the riverboat ride per Andra's request

(aka Andra nagging from the time she saw the river)

Andra's Tata and Wela waiting for the boat ride to start The new LED lights

While nice, I liked the way the old ones looked better

The tree was nice

It was great fun! Andra had a blast as always.

Melanie's Christmas recital

We went up Pflugerville to see The Bluebonnet Dance recital. Here is most of us that were there to see Melanie dance. Andra was so excited to see her cousins! Melanie, on the left (the tall one), was an ice skater and
a purple bead

She did great!

It was so much fun to watch her and her love of dance grow.

After the performance we are went out to dinner. We sat at 2 tables, kids at one and adults at the other. I was not too sure about that but the big cousins did a great job taking care of the little ones. One example is when the fortune cookies came. Harrison took time to make sure Andra got noddles and broccoli in the family style meal. Then, Andrew (Andra's cousin) got a cookie for Chase who handed that one to Andra, then Andrew got another one for Chase. All this while the kids were free for all on the cookies. It was so cute.

Happy 40th Birthday Amanda!!

We went up to Austin to see my niece perform in her first ballet recital and to take my sister her special gift. This summer there was a blog story floating around about a 5ft rooster. It is hilarious!! Amanda and I were talking and laughing about it and she said she wanted one. Well.....

Happy 40th Amanda; a little early She was so excited and surprised to get it.
It is in the story that it had to be at the front door. So we put it there and rang the bell. Amanda's is 5ft 4in; Andrew had to measure it to see if it would fit in the car to get it to Pflugerville.
When I talked to my parents about what to get Amanda for her birthday they thought I was kidding. I actually could not find one I liked so i ordered it. Yes, you can order a metal rooster to your specifications. When Amanda's came in they had two 8ft roosters, and they said they had an order for a 12ft one. Just cracks me up.
If you have not read about Beyonce you should.
again Happy Birthday Amanda; you are a great sister, mom, person and friend!

Texas Snow !

When you do not get snow, you make do with what you do have :)

Andrew was cleaning up the leaves from the front yard and Andra decided to help.

Yep, She had a great time!

Winter Social

Andra's school had their winter performances tonight.

Andra had to warm up at home.Then we were off to school. Andra with some of her class.Andra with one of her best friends from school, Misha. Andra was shy as always :)

Yep, that is her class behind her, all in a row except for Andra who wanted the microphone. video to come

Andra over here!

Trying to get Andra to take a picture is just plain HARD sometimes!Andra over here.....
Andra!

ANDRA!

Yep, kind of like Alvin

Sea World

With Sea World not opening till noon helped us on Sunday. Andra woke up and asked if we could go because it was not raining. We explained that it was not open until after church and lunch. It worked! It sprinkled on our way out there and when we got there so we went to the 4D Polar Express show. Andra did good. She is not one to sit still while she watches anything and we have never taken her to the movies so we were not sure how she would do. Other then no liking the ice breaking she did good. From there we went to play on her rides. While it was cold it had stopped raining!!
She loves the climbing nets and tubes. Andra LOVES this ride. Andrew not so much, So it is a Mom and Andra ride.

Then of course the carousel

We were lucky to see all the daytime shows and animals .

It was great fun!

Gingerbread house?

On Saturday we were planning to go to Sea World. Knowing it did not open till noon, I started to look for a back up plan as it looked like rain for most of the day. Andra was so excited about Sea World so I knew I needed a good back up plan. We started by explaining that there was a change we could not make it to Sea World because of the rain but that we were going for a make up swimming lesson and lunch. We had to run to the car after lunch due to rain so she knew there would be no Sea World. She then asked what we were going to do instead.

So off to Pearl Brewery to build gingerbread houses at the Architecture Foundation.

Andra had fun and we let her do it by herself. Please excuse the post swimming hair.

then she wanted to sing
ya, she was a little distracted to take pictures

This is the finished product. She was very proud of her house. Then she wanted to eat her house. I tried to explain that too many people had touched the parts of the house and that there was no way she was going to eat it :)

She did not really understand so Andrew came up with the idea to get a cupcake. I am sure it had nothing to do with the coffee shop that is near the cupcake store. If you live in SA or are visiting you need to make it over to One Cute Cupcake Boutique. It is in the Boxcars at the Yard shopping center on McCullough. Andrew likes The Perk coffee house in the same shopping center.