End of Year Wrap-Up

We've had a very busy last month in our house... hence the lack of blogging. So I am going to try and make up for it here!

For Thanksgiving this year, we headed down to Fulshear, TX to celebrate with the whole Beck clan. It was a great weekend full of Turkey Trotting, midnight Black Friday shopping ("Back of the line! Back of the line!"), outdoor movies in the hot tub, lots of games, and plenty of laughter.

Meme and Gabriella enjoyed the "art cart" together and created many Thanksgiving masterpieces much to Gabby's delight. Thanks Meme for being such a good grandmother for this creative girl!

Oliver cuddled right up to his sweet cousin McKinley - he loves babies. And she definitely loved him back!

We ran a Turkey Trot through my parent's neighborhood on Thanksgiving morning to burn a few calories before the afternoon feast. The kids joined in on the new power wheel that lives at the grandparent's house!

My sisters worked to have shirts made up that said Beck Family Turkey Trot 2011 and were very cute!

Even the non-participants got a shirt :)

My mom set a beautiful table and we all worked together to prepare a delicious feast!

The babies had to endure many photo shoots that weekend - of course including a bathtime shoot!

At the beginning of December, we got to celebrate a big birthday for Oliver - 6 years old! We definitely have a big boy on our hands and it is so fun to get to live life alongside of him watching him discover the world and helping him to understand more and more every day. We are so proud of who he is and see him growing and maturing everyday. What a joy it is to parent him!

I got to bring cupcakes up to Mrs. Robershaw's Kindergarten class on his actual birthday and we all enjoyed celebrating him there. He loves having us in the classroom and we love being there as much as we can. We are very thankful to have a school that is so welcoming to family visiting and appreciates parent involvement!

Oliver with Mrs. Robershaw... happily posing for pictures as usual :)

We hosted a wild and crazy Batman-themed party at our house to celebrate his birthday. We had many friends and family there and had a great extravaganza!

Oliver with both of his grandfathers.

All of the kids got to dress up as superheroes complete with capes and masks. We played games to ward off the "bad guys" (aka the daddies) with silly string and enjoyed ice cream sundaes - the birthday boy's favorite dessert.

Even the girls got dressed up. Little sisters love to follow in their big brother's footsteps.

Oliver also started his first ever sports team and had his first game the day after his birthday. He is on the Knicks basketball team and enjoys running around with other Kindergarten-aged boys trying to learn the rules to the game but mostly just enjoying the mass chaos that is sports with young kids. It is darling to watch and has been a great experience so far for our family.





Gabriella FINALLY got to perform in her first-ever Preschool Christmas Program. She has been waiting on this for two years and has dutifully acted out her big brother's program every year in anticipation of the day when she too would get to be up on the big stage. She performed every song and the actions required and made a darling addition to the Graham Cracker Express Christmas Program! She is so proud to be in the Oreos class and get to go to Spanish class, Library and do center time!

She loves playing with her friend Alyssa at school. Here is our little Christmas Tree and her friend Alyssa performing!

And I must mention our now eighteen month-old darling Melia (aka Scoot Row, Rosie, Mels Bells, Leet Squeet, or Squeeters). She is saying more and more words every day and even putting two words together into sentences of late. She is fiercely independent, enjoys emptying dresser drawers and begs for "bite, bites" all day long. We love her spunkyness and she is an adored member of our family. Here she is a bloomer hat and an underwear necklace!