Our Gratitude Tree

To invite the spirit of Thanksgiving, we have been keeping a Gratitude Tree. Each day we would all write something we were grateful for and attach it to the tree. The kids loved doing it and never missed a day, usually writing several things each day. This is definitely a tradition we will keep going.

On Thanksgiving Day we asked all of our guests to write a few things to add to ours, and before dinner we read all the blessings that had been written down. It was a wonderful reminder of the purpose of Thanksgiving, and an easy way to share some thoughts before dinner.

This year the tags said (some had many repeats): and I don't know why this will not stay in the columns I put them in.

Events Jesus

Life School

Shaye Sam and Nat and their example to the kids

the troops Thanksgiving

Mom and Dad Family

Earth Book of Mormon

Me God

Ancestors Fruit Punch

Friends House

Dad Books

Jaxson Holidays

Art Wife and Kids

Turkey A nice bed

Education Time with Family

Flowers Emmy and Poppa

Health Cool Weather

M&M's (Jax) Healthy Grandkids

Forgiveness Wonderful relatives

Food Freedom

Body Christ

Paige GG and Grandpa

Prayer for all

Turkey Dash

The Katy YMCA hosted a huge race on Thanksgiving Day, the Turkey Dash. I heard there were 3,000 people who participated between the 5k and 1 mile run. This is before the race with my early morning running partners - Michelle Stansel and Brooke Brooks. I finished in 26:10, my personal best. I'm happy with that, but being 11 seconds from being in the 25s made me wish I would have made up those seconds somewhere, maybe next time...

Drapes

I love houses with lots of windows. That has been a big sell on the last couple of houses we have bought. The only problem is then we have to decorate them! In our family room we have 12 foot walls and these windows are almost that tall as well. The model homes have long gorgeous drapes and I knew when we moved in I wanted some like that. So I enlisted the help of my mom, and we took on the project (well, she took on the project and I kept her company - thanks mom!) Of course they're brown, one day I will get away from the neutrals, but for now I just need to get some colorful accents. We love them, they made a huge difference!

The Moments

Even with all the fussing Sydnee has been doing going through her terrible twos, she sure is sweet. For the last few months she has been taking showers. She sings and "cleans" the shower and talks to herself. Its all so cute! She will stay in forever enjoying the water and entertaining herself.

The other day at breakfast I was asking the kids what they were going to put on their Christmas list. Jaxson said, "I want a big tub of ice cream!" To which I responded, "if Santa leaves ice cream it might melt while you are sleeping." But he had a solution, "He can just put it in the freezer and leave a note out for me to find it!" He is clearly a Robinson!

Two of Each?

There's no doubt Shaye and Sydnee look like Springers. Even though as Shaye gets older more people tell me she resembles me, she is definately more of her dad and his mom. But Jaxson and Paige seem to be more Robinson. Jaxson has the longer oval face like mine, and the thicker eyebrows. He reminds me a lot of my brother, Brooks. Paige does too! She has the rounder face like my dad and grandma, the thick eyebrows, and my chin. She reminds me of Brooks a lot too. Mainly in the eyes....

Dewberry Farm

Jaxson's kindergarten class took their field trip to Dewberry Farms this week. It is a really cool place. Much more than any other pumpkin patch I have been to. Thank goodness for the cloud cover because it was another 80 degree day.

Jaxson, his friend Jonah from Bartlesville, and two other friends from school.

Jaxson and his teacher, Ms.Bojko. He loves her! She is lots of fun and had nothing but great things to say about Jaxson during parent/teacher conference.

A friend watched Sydnee for me, but of course little Paige came along!

Not just petting goats, but performing goats..... :-)

There were lots of fun play toys. This is the zip line. They also had go carts, huge trampoline-like things, and much more.

Let Freedom Ring

On Tuesday Shaye had her first performance for third grade. They have been working several months on Patriotic Songs for their Veterans Day Concert. It was fun practicing the 50 states with her.... I still remember the alphabetical states song up to Connecticut! :-)

Shaye invited Sam's grandpa and dad to come as veterans. Pappy has not been feeling well, but she was excited to have her Papa there. The veterans were called up to stand behind the kids on the last song.

Being here in Houston is definitely different. It was an adjustment that half of the the people in the audience did not know the Pledge of Allegiance, or the National Anthem when we were asked to join in. It's quite a melting pot here!

Wildlife Park

For playgroup a couple of Fridays ago a few of us went to Bayou Wildlife Park in Alvin. Somehow, though I lived 40 minutes from Alvin growing up, I did not know this place was here. It was said to be a place where you see the animals and ride on a tram to drive around and feed them. Sounded fun, Sydnee was looking forward to it. Boy was it an adventure!

When we first got there, Sydnee was scared of this deer. So here I am holding both babies while trying to keep the deer from walking off with my leg. This was in the beginning...

Above, is Sydnee with her cute friend Peyton Brooks. She has been to play at his house a couple of times, and just loves hanging out with him. She laughs at everything he says (yes, I might be in trouble!)

Below, the kids are waiting to go in the petting zoo area of the park.

I didn't catch the name of these big half deer half elk-looking things, but they were huge! They were one of the first animals we came to and they were a little scary.

Wow! I didn't realize how close they were going to come to us. And even more shocking, was how brave Sydnee was. When I saw all these animals heading our way, I thought she would be terrified for sure.

There was a buffalo, which Brooke happen to reach out to touch just as it flung it's head back, and there was a beefalo. That's right... half cow, half buffalo. I didn't get a picture of it, but it looks about the same.

Again, this animal was huge! This is not a good ol' Texas longhorn because those horns are actually alive. I heard the lady say they have blood in them, and the animal could bleed to death if a horn got injured.

But I didn't hear much else because I was laughing so hard. These camels were overly friendly. They were so big it was scary how close they came.

And when this one reached in to eat the food off Sydnee's lap, she finally gave the reaction I expected in the beginning...

My poor Sydnee. She still says today "I don't like camels!" It was so funny though! They were all over everyone.

So by the time we got back to the lodge this little deer was the easy stuff. And Sydnee couldn't get the thing to leave her alone after giving it some food.

It was just a small backwoods kind of place, but it was so fun! I think us moms enjoyed it more than the kids. We laughed the whole time and let out a few screams. I am definitely looking forward to taking the whole family sometime!