Acts of Love

We have been talking about Lent with the kids, what it means and what we can do as a family. We talked about making sacrifices big and small and doing little acts of love throughout the day. Before lent started the kids all agreed that I should give up coffee, I am guessing they know how much I love my morning coffee. Isaac said he was going to give up cleaning the play room. I told him he already did that and it wasn't a sacrifice. Maya told her teacher that she was going to play nice with her friends and share. At school Maya's teacher sent small paper hearts that we are to write any acts of kindness that Maya does and send it back to school. They are going to gather all of the hearts and put them on a cross. Maya is so excited about this and Isaac has caught on and wants to participate in his own way. Well, last night at dinner we were all talking and I told Josh how proud I was of the kids because they made up their bed all by themselves without me telling them to. Maya then chimed in and said " and we got dressed all by ourselves without mommy screaming at us" . Josh and I shared a chuckle with each other. I wish she would have used a better euphemism like yell or raised her voice, but I guess this tells me a lot of what my children hear. Maybe I should start working on my own acts of love and curb the screaming.

Daddy Daughter Dance

We had another wonderful weekend here in the Morris house. We spent Saturday morning geocaching again, this time we had to cut it a little short because I started to feel sick. Needless to say it was just enough outside time for me! Saturday night Josh and Maya went on a date. They attending the Daddy Daughter dance here in Round Rock. Josh asked Maya on her date on Thursday and she was super excited. He said she could pick any place to go and eat. She said she wanted to go somewhere fancy since she was going to be wearing a pretty dress. She chose Red Lobster. We have never been there and never really talk about the place but we found out it was because she saw a commercial about it. O those commercials really do work! So, off to Red Lobster they went. They had an early dinner because the dance started at 5:30. They arrived at the dance and Josh said it was packed. The danced and ate some cookies and Maya begged to have her picture taken. So, of course her date obliged. After the dance they went to have some snow cones. Maya said she had a wonderful time and like dancing to the YMCA. Josh too said he had a wonderful time. I am sure this will be something special that the both of them will remember for a very long time.

Treasure Hunting

What a beautiful weekend it was!! The weather has been beautiful and we had to spend it outside. After a birthday party on Saturday we took the kids geocaching. Geocaching is something Josh has been trying to get me to do for a while but honestly it sounded kind of lame to me. Plus he needed a GPS do it, but didn't have one. Well, he finally got one and I had no excuses left. Basically you go to some website were people post coordinates where they have hidden a "treasure" and you go and try and find it. They are usually in a park or on some trail. The treasure is really just a box with some random things in it that people who have found it before have left behind. We went to a park/trail in Austin were Josh had about 4 locations mapped out. It was a perfect trail for the kids. Not too difficult that Sam couldn't walk it, but challenging enough for Isaac and Maya to climb and search for the treasure. The kids loved it and I have to admit that I really had a good time. Sam was such a little trooper and he didn't let his size get in the way of him trying to keep up with the bigger kids. Maya did a great job and found the most difficult and smallest treasure. Isaac made friends with everyone we encountered along the way. He would tell them that we found the treasure but he wasn't going to tell them where it was. I definitely look forward to going geocaching again.

Sunday we celebrated Ava's 2nd birthday. We went to my sister Veronica's house. The kids had a blast playing outside and riding on the golf cart. Yesterday was also the Super Bowl so it was a birthday/Super Bowl party. It was a great game and I didn't really care who won but I guess I was cheering for the Cardinals since they were the underdog. It came down to the last minute but the Steelers pulled it out in the end. Maybe some day soon the Cowboys will make it back to the super bowl.

I will make sure to take some pictures next time we go geocaching to post to the blog.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

What better way to start the New Year! Tony and Josh sharing a cigar


Me and my sisters! Maya loves spaklers!


One of her birthday gifts, she loves to help Nita, Allie, Kaylee and Maya at the aquarium



Josh and the kids with the penguins




O
On
Well we survived another Christmas and New Year and managed to squeeze in a few birthdays too! Christmas this year was absolutely wonderful! The 2 older kids are at that age were they really get the whole Santa thing and it is so much fun to share in their excitement. We got to see Santa at my dad's house the weekend before Christmas. The kids loved seeing and talking with him. They had the chance to ask him any question they had. Some questions included where is your sleigh (Santa came in a van) and what do you eat. We all had a chance to sit on Santa's lap, yes Josh and me included, poor Santa. Isaac asked for storm trooper helmet and gun and Maya asked for a princess Leia gun and a bike. The princess Leia gun was news to us, so off to Target I went on Christmas eve, she had to settle for a light saber. We celebrated Christmas with my dad the weekend before Christmas. Then on the 23rd we celebrated with my mom and sisters. It was also my mom's birthday so that was some added joy. We opened up gifts on Christmas morning at our house and quickly, or as quickly as we could go, packed up our bags and gifts and headed to Dallas where we spent the day with Josh's mom and siblings. The next day we spent the day with Don an Sheree. Needless to say we were very busy but loved every minute of it.

Christmas morning was so much fun. Isaac came down the stairs and he was almost in disbelief to see the gifts. He came into our room and said that Santa had left him a nerf gun. I think he almost didn't get the fact that there were more gifts. We told him to go and wake up Maya so he ran up stairs and we could hear Maya squealing and she ran down the stairs. She definitely was excited to see all the gifts. Then we she got her bike, she was on cloud nine. She wanted to ride it right away.

We ended up staying for a few days in Dallas. We spent time with Josh's family which is always so much fun. We also got to see Caleb and Katie's new house all finished. It is so beautiful. They have done such a wonderful job. They were babysitting 2 dogs when we went by and they also have their dog too. The kids loved playing them. Maya wanted so badly to bring one home. So sad to tell her that we won't be getting any new pets any time soon. We also went by Josh's friend Jason's new house. It is super cute too! That night Nita and Gear said they would watch the kids so we could go over to Josh's friend Jonathan and Jennifer's house. We had lots of fun seeing them and some other old friends of Josh. Of course Josh loves talking about old times and somehow a crazy video of Josh made its way on the TV. Let's just say I hope our kids don't see that video till they are like 30 and know better than to follow in their fathers footsteps.

Monday we went to the Dallas World Aquarium with Nita, Allison and Kaylee. It was such a cool place. They kids loved seeing all of the animals. Isaac's favorite was some crazy fish that looked like seaweed. And Maya liked seeing the penguins and alligator.

We headed back to Austin in time to clean up the house. Actually, my wonderfully super awesome mom surprised us when we got home from Dallas. When we left Christmas morning the house was a complete mess. My mom had come by to pick up the fish to fishsit. I guess she either felt so sorry for us or wanted to do one last act of super kindness before the end of the year and cleaned our house. It was such a wonderful feeling to walk into my house and have it clean, like a dream come true!! Anyway, my mom is so great and I love her tons and tons!! So, back to New Years eve. Maya's birthday is on New years eve, so there is always a party! We invited some family (my sisters and their families and my mom) and friends the Roch's over to help us bring in the New Year. We spent the evening talking, eating, doing fireworks(sparklers) and playing board games. I did make some brownies per Maya's request. We sang her happy birthday and she opened up a some gifts. The kids had a great time doing the sparklers. Maya couldn't get enough of them and I thought Sam would try and catch one.

So begins a new year and I know there is so much this year will bring. I look forward to seeing my kids grow and learn. Isaac will be starting Kindergarten and we will be adding a new beautiful child to our family in August. Yes, another one!! What a wonderful Christmas gift God has given us. I pray that this baby grows to be healthy and strong. The kids are very excited and Maya has already informed us it is a girl and her name is Fuzzy. So, we look forward to meeting Fuzzy and know she or he will be bring such joy to our life.

More pictures from the kids party

Quick update

I realize I have become very bad at updating my blog, tisk tisk. I will try and capture what has been going on these past couple of months.

Let's start of with the move. Yes, we finally moved into our new house and we are settling in quite nicely. The house is beautiful and we are filling it with lots of love and memories. The kids are really enjoying their big backyard and playroom upstairs. We had our first artwork displayed on the wall upstairs in the playroom when Sam found a purple crayon and decided to share his artistic talent. We quickly found out just how hard the tile floor is when 3 Christmas ornaments broke within the first 30 minutes of putting up the tree. Again, thanks to Sam. I have found a little watchdog for the tree. It is this Reveille dog that plays the Aggie War hymn when you squeeze it's paw. Sam is terrified of this little dog, so he now stays away from the tree. Is this mean?? We have already had many family and friend gatherings in the new house. Thanksgiving was at our house this year. The Gonzales and Turman family were there. Along with my mom and 3 of my LeBlanc nephews, Adam, Anthony and JJ. It was so great having them there, at least part of the LeBlanc clan was there. We sure did miss Lollie, Joe and the other kids. I was so proud of Anthony LeBlanc. He actually made and brought a side dish, guess the boys are growing up!

We had Maya and Isaac's birthday party here a couple of weekends ago. We decided to do a joint party this year. They had a blast! We rented a moon bounce for outside. The weather was wonderful and the kids played and played outside. Many of the kids from their school made it to the party so the kids loved having their friends there. Grammy, Grandaddy, Emily and her kids and Allison and Kaylee also made it in from Dallas. The Gonzales, Turmans, Grandma and Andrea were also there to help celebrate the kids birthday. We had so much fun and we are so thankful for all the wonderful family and friends that shared the special day with us.

We finished up another season of soccer. Isaac and Maya were on the same team for the last time. Josh was able to be their coach as well. We had a great season and the kids had a blast. Maya made great efforts to keep up with the other kids and was not afraid to go after the ball. Isaac really blossomed this year and was the star of the team. He is really grasping the game and is more confident in his abilities. Go Tigers!

The kids finished up with their school (Mothers Day Out) and had so much fun this semester. They kids performed a Christmas program and they were super cute. Maya's class all wore red, green or white shirts and had cute Christmas hats on. Isaac's class all dressed up as part of the Christmas story. Isaac was a shepherd and was awesome! They sang songs and followed it up with a party in each of their classrooms. This Friday the kids have their Christmas party at Catechises class. They are loving this time of the year. We are planning on going to see the lights at Zilker this year, I am sure they will love that. I remember going when I was a kid.

This past weekend the Ayalas came up from Corpus to celebrate a friends Christmas. We love seeing them and spending time with them. Isaac, Maya and Raul had so much fun playing together. We made a special dinner that night and Tammy and Thomas joined us. We followed dinner with a fun game of Mad Gab. The rest of the weekend we just lounged around talking and playing games. Josh was in heaven with all of the game playing.

I think that pretty much sums up these past months. Life is wonderful and we are especially grateful for all that the Lord has blessed us with!

We've made it!!

It has been over a week now living in our new house and it has been such a whirlwind. Things are slowing getting put away and our walls are even slower getting adorned with pictures and such. Closing day was crazy with going from title company to title company, trying to figure out just how much we made from the last house and how much we owe for the new house. In the end Josh and I were very happy with end results and really felt God's hand in it all. We felt so truly blessed in this whole process. From an amazing realtor/friend (Kelli), a lovely family buying our house, finding the beautiful house we will make a new home to all of our family and friends who came out to help us move. Thank you all for everything and most importantly thanks be to God!!

The kids are adjusting quite well to the new house. Maya had a bit of difficult first few days. She would tell me she didn't like the new house and she was sure we left some of her things behind. I took her back to the old house and let her have a look around to make sure nothing was left behind. I think this put her mind at ease. The kids love all the room upstairs for all of their toys. Isaac loves his new bed that he is sleeping in. It really isn't a new bed, it is just that it was the top bunk bed in the old house and he was too scared to sleep in it. Now that the bedrooms are bigger we are able to have both beds on the floor. They are however eager to switch rooms and get new roomates. Isaac keep reminding me that when the new baby gets here that Isaac an Sam are going to share a room and Maya is going to share a room with the new baby. No, I am not pregnant, but they have this set in their mind. Maybe they know something I don't! The kids also love their new backyard. The weather is so wonderful right now and they spend most of their days outside. I do have to watch out because they have discovered the joy of making mud holes. Josh isn't too happy about this in his new yard. We have already had our first guests as Nita, Caleb and Katie came up this past weekend to pick up Josh for an Aggie game. We really enjoyed having them come for a visit and are eager to entertain more people visiting!

The kids are doing great in school and are learning so much. They love their teachers and friends. We also recently had fun trick or treating for Halloweeen. We went to Kelli's house for Halloween. They hooked up a trailer filled with hay and drove to a nearby neighborhood. They drove from house to house and the kids filled up on candy. Isaac was able to hang with the bigger kids and Maya really wasn't in too much of a rush. Sam just loved getting out and looking at all the decorations. A few times he got scared by people dressed up in scary outfits. The kids had a blast and now we have way too much candy in our house. Veronica has all the picutures so when I get them from her I will post pictures of the kids. They looked adorable. Isaac and Maya were pirates, Josh made their costumes. Sam was a lion, too cute!

This past Halloween also marked the 20 year anniversary of my grandma's passing. We had a mass in her honor and gathered together at my Aunt Sylvia's house afterwards. Aunt Sylvia had pictures of her and a beautiful table my grandfather made with tiles of Our Lady of Guadalupe on it. My mind that day was filled with so many wonderful memories of my grandma, I miss you grandma!