Farris family blog: January 2015

This month is the birth month for our little two. They actually had the same due date, just two years apart:). So this past week, we celebrated Rylie turning ONE on the 19th and today we celebrated Tucker turning THREE. This past year just has flown by. I can't believe we now have a one and three year old, and are about to have a five year old.

We love to do stuff with our kiddos as a family on their birthday. For sweet Rylie, we just kept it simple and filled the room with balloons when she woke up, gave her a sweet gift from the lady who watches her at church, and then later that afternoon did some more fun stuff. We went to the park and just played, then went to a cupcake shop and got her a cupcake and some cookies:) Later that evening after dinner, gave her the cupcake and watcher her destroy it! Just a great day as a family. Last year when she was born in San Angelo it was the most gorgeous day. On Monday again it was a beautiful and perfect day just like our sweet little girl. So thankful for her. The boys all day kept saying "Three cheers for the birthday girl", but then it just had to be one cheer for the birthday girl because she was only one and three was for Tucker(obviously all from our oldest:)). She is so sweet right now pointing to everything and going "this". We love it and make her say it all the time. She is also cutting two molars and one of her front bottom teeth and is such a trooper. She loves to carry around her teething tablets, even though I am not even sure that they do anything. She LOVES to read all her little baby einstein books right now, especially the animal one. She will just point at her books and go "uh, uh" which apparently means read them over and over and over. Loves to roar back and forth with you right now and shake back and forth. She is miss little independent wanting to feed herself and use her own silverware all.the.time. love it. We finally got her to wear some cute reebok shoes, even though she isn't really crazy about them, but she sure does look cute in them. She still isn't walking, but definitely standing up more and more by herself and will take steps here and there. We will see if she will be our earliest walker. She still has a month and a half to beat C!

Today for Tucker. Oh man. I don't think this day could of been anymore perfect. It was filled to the brim with stuff, but it was such a special day for him and we all loved celebrating our sweet boy. The boys woke up this morning and we filled our kitchen with balloons and his present in the middle of it all. He walked in and gave this sweet little smirk and then opened his gift. We got him a bike helmet, which he was so excited about and in true Tucker form(like his daddy) wanted to put it on right away. After that, Bret and him went to go get some birthday donuts. We cleaned up the house this morning and then headed up to Chick-fil-A for lunch to meet some friends we hadn't seen in awhile. Tucker, about an hour into being there came and curled up in my lap and fell asleep. I just love that on his third birthday he still does that. It helps me to hold onto my sweet cuddly baby just a little longer. When he is tired, he will just fall asleep on anyone. It is the best. Oh, this was also after he went around eating everyone else's lunch who didn't finish theirs. He also has not changed in that he can eat so.much. After lunch we came home and did his BATMAN birthday cake. All he has been asking for on his birthday is a Batman birthday cake. So you better believe we got him one. He was pretty much hugging the cake with excitement and kept saying "so cool". His sweet brother next to him kept saying "happy birthday Tuck". Carter all day has been so excited about Tucker turning three. Tucker, when anyone says Happy birthday to him, he says happy birthday back to them. I love that. He just thought that was normal like when someone says "hi" or "bye" you say it back to them. Kids are the best. So after the cake that all our kids destroyed, the boys went on a bike ride with daddy to try out the new helmet, then we loaded up the car to head to Austin. The boys wanted to play "soccer and basketball games" so we thought it would be so fun to head to Dave and Busters. And it was a hit. They played and played. When we pulled up to dave and busters, Tuck yelled, "Yes, we are at my game house." They ran all over the place and had so much fun playing all the games. At the end when we cashed their tickets in, Carter picked out some sticky hands for them and made sure he got the same one for Tucker. After that, we went to mighty fine(a burger place in Austin) and then when a very tired car full of kids we headed home for some more cake and then bed. Today was so fun. We will all sleep so well tonight. I loved just seeing how happy a kid we had today. I cannot believe he is three. He is so fun and full of life and makes us laugh so much. Bret does this "pete the cat" inside joke with them right now and T has the best fake laugh I have ever heard. It can only make you smile. That pretty much sums him up, because even when he is being an absolute mess, he always makes us smile.

These past few weeks have been filled with Bret going to Virginia to visit his brother, friends coming in to visit for a few days, and lots and LOTS of doctors appointments. This year I guess I was trying to knock out every dentist, eye doctor, and any other appointment you can find all in these first few weeks. So we have been on the go. I have to have some cysts removed next week, so my mom is coming to stay with the boys. Hoping I won't be down and out for long. We have a fun filled February with going to seminar, the boys birthday party, and lots of visitors from Atlanta coming to the store. Here are some pictures from this past month.

Birthday girl

I think she likes it:)

Yum!

Birthday bath

getting ready to celebrate big brother

Birthday boy

A helmet!!!

going to get birthday donuts

Batman cake!

Make a wish

So excited

Rylie liked the cake too!

almost five year olds still use a high chair right?

Helmet all ready to go!

What is crazy about Christmas being here is that next month my two youngest get another year older. Somehow, our little girl will be one and our two year old will have made it to three. Wow.wow.wow.

The first weekend in December we went to the lights of Tejas in Giddings. We will most definitely be going back to this every year from here on out. We all had so.much fun.They had bounce houses, fun games like balloon darts, football toss and knock the pins down, and to add to all of that a snowball fight where all the boys got to shoot guns. (That was the fave for sure). They also served you dinner, had hayrides, and a light show. The best part of the night was by far watching the BOTH boys do the big zip line. Tucker was so small he couldn't even reach the ground when he was hooked into the back. They both went off though and loved it. That was so fun to watch. Friends from church were there as well, so our kids had a lot of fun playing with them too.

The next week Bret went out of town for a few days to the San Angelo grand opening. We sure did miss him, but survived the few days without him by going to see Amy and her kids in Brenham, and hanging out with some friends around town. Last Saturday we were in the town Christmas parade. Just another reason why I love small towns. It was so fun to get to have a CFA float in the Christmas parade. The kids all rode in the truck with Bret and I passed out flyers walking alongside of our float. Bret's parents came in just for the night to watch the parade and we had dinner with them and Aunt Pat after the parade. It was a short time with them, but always so great to see them for no matter how long of a time. The kids played trains with them for hours upon hours and always have so much fun with those three.Sunday afternoon we had our staff Christmas party. It has been so great to see how the Lord has provided so many wonderful people for us to work with and to have help us in our store. We got the main dish(BBQ) and had everyone bring sides and desserts for the party. We had a great turnout and played some fun games and gave away some prizes for our staff. So thankful we are able to love on our team in that way and celebrate with them. That evening we went to a town Christmas party on a big farm/ranch out in town. The kids got to see animals, play with all sorts of toys and go for a hayride. It was a long weekend, but a very fun filled weekend!

This past week was Carter's last week at school for the year. He had Santa come to school(and asked if his beard was real)ha! and a big Christmas party on Thursday. Bret and Carter got some great one on one time this week while the littles and I were in Houston for a few days. Bret kept Carter since he had school.They did lots of fun things such as going to the movies and out to dinner in Austin. By out to dinner, Carter told Bret he wanted to eat at the CFA in Austin. I could not believe out of all the places in Austin they chose CFA. Bret is a much better parent than I am because I would of never gone for that. They had so much fun sleeping in our room for a few days and going to our community group Christmas party. I was so glad they had such a special time together this week. My mom kept my little ones this week while I went with Amy to Oklahoma for a funeral. Definitely not a fun deal, but I was so glad my mom kept my little ones so I could be there with Amy, and they had a blast playing with Itsy, Aunt Ana and Titus. We came back home Thursday for a few days for Santa cow coming to our store Thursday night :), and then we headed back to Houston Saturday to do Christmas with Jack and then my mom's family on Sunday.

We had a great time and dinner with Jack at his house. It was so great to see them, and the kids always have so.much fun playing with Brooke. She is so so great with our kids. Jack gave the boys legos and some monster trucks and just really hit a homerun with those gifts for them. They loved them. The next morning we did Christmas at my mom's house. We had such a fun day with family. My Papaw was there and Uncle Trae and his family. We had an awesome brunch that my mom made, then just opened gifts and hung out all day. The boys got some new big wheel toys from Itsy's, more legos, hot wheel cars and some books and games from their aunt and uncles. Needless to say, they were playing all day long so happily with all the new stuff they had. While we were in Houston, my Papaw had gotten our boys a playset for the backyard. So while we were gone, they were assembling it here. So Tuesday morning we surprised them with that and they said things like"We hit the jackpot" and "that is the best newest toy ever"! They love it so much and we have needed something like that for them to play on. That was so incredibly sweet of my Papaw to do that for them.We really REALLY cannot thank him enough!!

This morning we did Christmas with our kiddos here at the house, since we are leaving for Denton later today. It is funny because our kids still don't really know that it is Christmas. We were just playing up in the game room this morning around 8 when I said "hey don't you guys want to come downstairs". Ha. I know the day is coming when they will be up at 5 am, but it is just funny to me they just don't really get it yet. We did stockings first and they were excited about candy and Tucker did his "yes!" after every single thing he pulled out or opened.. It was so sweet. They just had some candy and a DVD for the car ride today in their stockings, and then they each had three gifts under the tree. Carter got new hot wheel books, and Tuck got a new paw patrol book along with a few others about counting and words. Their big gift this year was two rescue bots each. After Tucker opened each one he would throw his arm in the air and say "Yes, TO THE RESCUE." He always makes you feel like you got the best gift ever. Rylie we just got a little soccer ball because she is obsessed with any kind of ball. On cue as soon as she pulled it out of her stocking she said,"ball" with a big smile. :) When we were done opening gifts Carter asked a bunch of questions about why he can't see Santa and all and how he knew what he wanted!:) We read their books for awhile and took some pics by the tree and when we were about done Carter came and buried himself into Bret and I and said "Thank you so much" and gave us a big kiss on the cheek. That made my whole Christmas- is just watching them after we have done three Christmases already with family and now this morning and watching how grateful they are to everyone. They give everyone such great hugs and tell them thank you(with us telling them mostly), but then this morning just seeing Carter do it on his own and seeing just how grateful his sweet little heart was. We have had such a fun month with them doing these kindness elves and the advent stories. We have given lots of toys away cleaning out stuff, written letters and cards to friends and family, made cookies for neighbors and classmates, and called family members far away. I am so proud of them. I love watching our kids grow and at the same time want them to stay this small forever. I will update more on this post when we get back from Denton, but I just didn't want to forget some things about this fun filled month.

It is now after the New Year and January already seems to be flying by. We had a GREAT time in Denton for Christmas. We loved being up there with Bret's family and our kids had a blast playing with all of Bret's cousins kids. It was a wonderful family time. We also got to see Bret's parents new property they are hoping to build on soon! It is so awesome and we are so excited for them. The kids are just going to love it out there so much. We also got to celebrate Bret's dad's 60th birthday with him. We all went out to dinner that evening in Frisco with Aunt Pat and it was such a fun time with all of them before we headed home later that evening. It is always so nice to be back in your own bed after traveling so much over the holidays.

Some fun things about the kiddos lately is how they say to each other, "Is it time to freak out?" Followed by all three of them screaming, including R who has now learned to scream along as well as grunt with them. That girl sure does love to get into everything these days. From tuppeware cabinets (or really any cabinet), to opening and closing everything, or STILL putting everything in her mouth, she is just all.over everything.We finally got a gate at the top of the stairs because she just flirts with danger dangling over the top of the stairs so often. The kids favorite thing to do right now is play in Rylie's crib forever. They will just laugh and giggle for so long up there together. Rylie loves it and it is so sweet. Rylie loves her pink leap frog toy you can stand up on and loves to wave, clap, giving kisses, high fives, and even now we are teaching her to blow kisses:) She can stand up for a few seconds on her own, but no steps yet just like the boys. Although she will walk along with you if you hold her fingers.

The boys are so into ninja, power ranger, lego, shooting things and just ALL.BOY. They got all new ironman, green lantern, ninja turtle pajamas for Christmas and are OVER the moon excited about them. They actually put their "swords" in their zip up pajamas the other night and I had to unzip them to pull them out because they were jabbing into each of their sides and legs, but it sure didn't seem to bother them one bit. Tuck says YESSSS, when he gets anything or is just excited about anything in general right now. There have been lots of bowl games on right now and whenever he sees a bowl game on, he will sit down and say "Yes. Go aggies. Whooop." I love that he thinks every team is the aggies. He always says things such a "bawanas" and "punkins" and he will still do random stuff like dance on the potty because anytime he hears music right now it is go into automatic dance mode, which I cannot get enough of.

C got to go back to school today. He was SO excited for that. I can't wait to hear how his first day back was. He was so fun over the holidays to just have at home all day everyday. He loved all the things we did with the advent book and still everyday asks us when we are gonna read that book. We started the financial peace junior chore stuff with C a month or so ago. He loves it and I am so glad he is at the age where he is so excited about chores. Hopefully that will pay off later. One of the first times we paid him he told us he wanted to save some of his money for Tucker so that when he buys a toy that Tucker would be able to have a toy too. *melts* He sure does love his brother a lot. His heart is just so big and sweet. A few weeks back we met Amy and her kiddos in Brenham and he had been begging me for a toy at McDonald's. So, we let them get toys. Amy didn't get one for her youngest, and when Carter saw she wanted one he let her play with his. When we got in the car I told him how sweet that was and he responded with, "Mom, that is what big boys do. We share." It is just fun to watch that boy grow and be a big brother and just see the kindness in his heart. I am so proud to be all these kiddos mama. Some pics from the month.....