We made it...

Christmas was great! The girls had so much fun and it was awesome to see them in the moment.

This is Christmas Cookie...

an adorable 1 lb 3 oz kitten with grey and black stripes and white feet. He is super sweet and instantly fit right in with 2 kids and 2 dogs (not an easy task). Maddy and Kate love him and constantly pick him up to give hugs and kisses. So sweet!

Good news...bad news

The good news is that we are home! The girls had so much fun with Nana and Pops. And we had so much fun in Vegas. We saw the Zumanity show at New York New York and let me say "WOW". It is definitely worth every penny. I will always remember the Toby Keith bar for the bartender Charlie. I even have a photo to prove it.

The bad news is that Christmas is almost here and I am not quite ready. I could use another 3 or 4 days to finish shopping. We had to hurry before we left and I just feel like there is so much more to do. CRAZY! It will be fun to watch the girls open gifts. We had Christmas with my parents on Sunday night and Katelyn was so cute. Every time she would peel off some wrapping paper, she would say "YEAH" and clap. It took FOREVER! but it was so fun to watch. I think Maddy even got tired of waiting since she finished unwrapping all of Kate's presents for her. Too bad my mom has all of those pictures.

Merry Christmas!

Home of Lost Wages

we are headed to Las Vegas...in our case....lost wages! I have mixed feelings since we will be leaving the girls with my parents for several nights. We have never been on a trip without them! They are so spoiled. I know they will do fine without us but I just worry about them being away from home for so long. Maddy is a big home body. When we run errands, she always says "I just want to go home". Hopefully I will report great success...for us and them!

On another note: I turn 3-0 on Sunday and I am so excited. I feel very blessed to have done so much in only 30 years and look forward to many more memories in the next 30!

peace out

What...no Santa?

Sitting around the table, the day before today, we were talking about what Madison would like to put on her letter to Santa: a piano with a seat and a 3 story Barbie Dream House. That simple!

Except there is no piano with a seat and we are definitely not spending $100 on a Barbie Dream House! So there goes that.

I casually mentioned what was on my list to Santa. The subject changed and that was that. Later that night, Eric said "Nice input about YOUR letter to Santa, but Babe you do realize that we are Santa NOW?" What...no Santa? You mean I am supposed to shop.....URGH! I hate to shop! Wouldn't it be nice though.

So I want to know, what is on YOUR letter to Santa?

Chuck..here we come!

Madison's party was at Chuck E Cheese yesterday. We had a great turnout of family and friends (old friends from the neighborhood and squadron and new friends from Maddy's preschool class). It was great to see all of the kids play and interact together outside of school.

Here are some pictures from the party.

Maddy's school birthday

Today the preschool class celebrated Madison's 4 th Birthday. She got to wear the birthday hat, a pin with her name on it, the children ate cookie cake and juice for snack (picked out by Maddy) and sang her "Happy Birthday".

We are celebrating her actual birthday on Sunday at Chuck E. Cheese---just the chaos we need around here. Until then.....here is a little picture to tide you over.

Last football game

I found my brick at the Rec center. COOL BEANS!

Madison was scratching off lottery tickets---hmmmm maybe not the best thing to teach a 3 year old

The Chefs--we had brisket and sausage on Saturday. I was so yummy!

Canada anyone?

we are thinking about moving to Canada. Eric has always wanted to see the sights and I hear they have great preschools there! Anyone want to tag along?

SIKE--I am just bummed about the election results.

On a different note, how do you like the turkey background? I choose it for Madison since her birthday is so close to Thanksgiving.

Halloween fun

Madison choose to be Jasmin this year and Katelyn was forced to be a celestial witch. She refused to wear the hat and we had a difficult time (at first) putting on the costume. She finally adjusted to it and seemed to have a great time. Although, she would not go to anyone's door for trick or treating. She would cry and pull my hand so that I would keep walking. However, she did finally go to one door and say "dada" and they gave her a pencil!

Eric was a "race car driver". I don't understand his crazy sense of humor but Katelyn wasn't sure about him either.

Eric and Jerry

from Big Brother---he was at the game today and Eric got a photo with him....cool???

Parade of Costumes

Today was the Costume Parade at Madison's Preschool. All of the children were so darling. The teachers were dressed as crayons and they led the children around the courtyard in front of all of the parents who were busy snapping pictures and video recording.

Kate had to dress for the parade too-how cute is that outfit??

The highlight of the day for Maddy was when she got to talk into a microphone in front of all the other children and said her name and what her costume was. I can only imagine!

Spooky

We are ready for Halloween. The girls have their costumes. The spiders have spun their webs on the lights and mantel. The pumpkins are carved. The candy is in the cauldron. The meat is ready to make into sloppy joes (A Gutierrez family tradition).

Weekend update: We were in Pearland over the weekend and stayed at the Benoit's. Madison had so much fun playing with Lexi. The girls have been friends since before birth and it is really neat to watch them grow up together (180 miles apart).

Kim's street had a li ttle festival for the kids on Saturday afternoon. They had pumpkin toss, pumpkin bobbing (with a net), face painting, bag walk, and much more. Maddy had so much fun that as soon as she took off her Jasmin costume, she fell fast asleep!

It is always great to visit friends back home to reconnect our friendships. I will never forget playing UNO (double cards Alex?) scatagories (ALEX) and cranium (smack-kiss-Kim). I can honestly say that I didn't know any cheating was going on!!! I am a retard!

On a different note:
My dear friend Becky decided on her wedding dress at Weddings by Debbie in Houston. I am so glad that I got to be a part of her special day. She also got her beautiful ring that day (she was waiting on it to be custom made from her mother's diamond). She will be the talk of Baytown in the dress she choose. It is stunning and I am so happy for her and her fiancee. I can't wait to meet him! HINT HINT BECKY.

Aggieland

Camaryn and Madison went to Midnight Yell together. They were so cute in their matching overalls. They even wore Eric's old bonfire pots during yell! So cute.


We took the kids to their FIRST AGGIE FOOTBALL GAME this weekend with Rob, Gwen, Camaryn and Landon. It was so much fun. The kids did so great. We had lots of snacks, toys, and drinks. Our seats were great (way high on the 3rd deck) with a great view. The people behind us ( the last row of Kyle Field) really understood having kids at the games because they had those seats since the 80's and raised grandkids on the back row (back when kids under 13 were free). I wish that was still the case because we would definitely make it to more games.

We tailgated after the game with our families, the Sawyer's, and the Daugherty's. We closed down Reed tailgating and we would have stayed longer if we had lights (note to self---get lights). Eric and I picked up Freebirds on the way back to the hotel and it was YUMMY!

Today we met up with Rob and Gwen and took photos on campus. So fun for us to walk around, unfortunately, not so fun for the kids. They wanted to play in the grass and mud and we wanted pictures. O well --we did get some great ones afterall.

We also took the girls to The Chicken (for the 1st time) for lunch. So fun.