Orange you glad it's fall?

This year Tess had a really fun fall, she played soccer for the first time. Her first season was not the best as we had one of the wettest falls on record. She was a trooper and even though she did not have a lot of practices she went out on game day and played her heart out. She is number 11, the best number in the world and she had fun all season. She was excited to get a medal at the end and even sometimes wears it around the house.

This year Tess had the privilege of announcing Play Ball at the Astros Game. She was nervous but also really excited. Clayton and I were excited because we got to be pretty close to the players and go behind the scenes. She did great and wants to do it again. Some of my coworkers were at the game and didn’t know ahead of time so that was pretty cool that they got to see her as well.

The weekend before Halloween we decided to take Tess to the Renaissance Festival with some friends. Tess and Clayton and never been and it had been years since I had gone. Tess had a blast and we spent pretty much all day walking around. We enjoyed most of the shows and Tess liked looking at all the costumes. Since we visited the weekend before Halloween each store had Candy so the girls were able to trick or treat while we were there as well. I don’t know if we will go every year but this will be something that we can add to our list of places to revisit.

As I mentioned this fall was pretty wet, and Halloween was no different. For a second straight year it rained on Halloween. The rain was off and on until about 9PM and then it was supposed to be a torrential downpour. We ventured out and visited a couple of streets and then proceeded to head home before the real rain started. Tess was bat girl this year and my mom made her outfit. She did an amazing job. Clayton is his normal scary demon self. I don’t dress up. Tess had a blast and that’s all that matters.

School this year has been a blast. Tess loves her teacher and she has been enjoying all the activities. She dressed up as a Pink Lady for the Sock Hop. Both Oma and Nana were parent readers. And Tess just enjoys learning something new every day. We have gotten really lucky with our teachers at Keith.

This year we were able to take two trips to the ranch, one opening weekend and one Thanksgiving weekend. Tess loves spending time at the ranch so any additional time we get to spend there we jump at the chance. We spent the time teaching Tess how to use her BB Gun, explore, visit the baby cow, and play. Everyone had a blast and can’t want to go back.

Late this fall Clayton and I put our house on the market. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving a showing was scheduled so we decided to take Tess somewhere special. We took her rock climbing, there is a place that had just opened up and its adult and kid friendly. Clayton and I were done and Tess was still climbing up and down the walls. I don’t think she ever go tired. She loved it so much she can’t wait to go back

This Christmas was pretty busy, Clayton went to Tess’ school Christmas party and they made a gingerbread house. Tess and I went with my parents to an Astros’ Christmas event. We also went to an event in their neighborhood. Tess also had milk and cookies with Santa.

 She was able to sit down and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. Anadarko had a small Christmas party and I brought Tess home some Party favors and she had to wear them all at once. Matt and Kate got married and we had an open house to celebrate their relationship and introduce Kate Houston friends and family. We also went to the lights at Constellation Field in Sugar Land. Tess opened her presents from Clayton and I early since Clayton had to work on Christmas. December flew by and its not over yet, after Christmas we woke up early and took a flight to New York. All the details on that trip… next post!

Summer Sun brings family fun…

This summer flew by, we had tons of fun and before we knew it school was starting back up. We spent a lot of time at the pool this summer. So much that at one point Tess asked when Clayton had become a pool guy. Clayton is on the HOA board and the pool pumps had a lot of issues this summer and it seemed like Clayton was always the one going up fixing the issue.

We also spent some time indoors bouncing and climbing to get away from the summer heat. We like heading over to the trampoline park because there is a lot for Tess to do and she expends a lot of energy so she is a little tired when we leave.

We headed up to Bedford and then over to Glen Rose for a special Mother’s Day weekend Wedding. Friday night we took Granny out to dinner and spent some time talking with her. Tess enjoys her time with Granny. We don’t get up there that often since school has started so we make the most of the time we have with her. On Saturday we got up and got ready and headed over to Glen Rose for the big event. Alicia and Cody got married in a wonderful ceremony. The service and dinner after was for immediate family and was really nice. Cody and Alicia make a great couple and will have many great years to look forward too.

One of Tess’s favorite days of the summer is bring your kid to work. What she doesn’t realize is that the fun activities that she gets to do at my work is not an actual depiction of what work is in the real world. Tess woke up early, we ate breakfast at work. She did a little bit of work in my office, visited all the marketers and then we made our way over to the Kids at Work activities. There she learned about Energenie and played in the sandbox to learn about elevations. 

Tess loved the sandbox and this was one of the most popular attractions. Tess also learned about LNG, building an offshore platform and how the platform would withstand a hurricane and drilling through a cupcake. She had a blast and Clayton me us for lunch and then they spent the afternoon hanging out. 

Tess had an awesome June because the weekend after bring your kid to work day was her birthday party. We agreed to have the party at our house again. We rented a huge water slide and bought a bunch of water balloons. The weather was perfect, sunny and hot. 

The kids all had such a fun time and when it was time to sing happy birthday they all were excited that we had frozen yogurt instead of cake. It was a nice change from the normal desserts that are served at parties. I can’t believe that our baby girl is already 6 years old. She is growing up to be the cutest mixture of the best qualities of both Clayton and I.

Our July didn’t slow down, Tess and I were on our own for July 4^th. It was a rainy 4^th so we stayed in for most of the day until we ventured out to get some ice cream. We watched a couple of movies and played upstairs and board games. Sometimes I wish that when a holiday falls on a rainy day I would rather work and get a day off when its nice outside. Being off work and not being able to go out and enjoy it is not really fun.

Summer is always Astros season, Tess’s interest with the Astros comes and goes but this year the Astros put in a Virtual Reality baseball experience. Tess really enjoys the VR experience and asks every time we go to the game when she will be able to go to the experience. Overall we have had a lot of fun at the Astros games and we can’t wait for the season to start again, hopefully we will make it all the way this year!

This year the fire fighter Olympics was in Mansfield, we went up the weekend before to spend some time with the Harris family and it seems like we were busy all day every day. There is a small water park that doesn’t cost a lot for Bedford residence. We took Tess and her cousin that is almost a year younger one Sunday morning. The girls had a blast and ran all over the place. They barely got out of the water all morning but we made them take a couple of breaks and they really had a good time together.

Cousin Time

Clayton had a blast playing in the Olympics this year. They brought two teams and several people dropped out at the last minute so one of Clayton's buddies that he played with when he lived in Bedford was able to play with them. In the end they placed third but the guys played really well. It was ridiculously hot the entire time we were there, I was constantly trying to keep Tess cool and hydrated.

While we were in Bedford for the weekend Tess also lost her first tooth. She had been wiggling this tooth for a while and I told her the more she wiggled it the faster it would come out. The next thing I knew she was running outside with a tooth in her hand. The tooth fairy was really nice to her for her first tooth. She has only lost one more since then.

At the end of summer we decided to take a quick trip up the Dallas and spend a couple of days at Great Wolf Lodge. Tess was one of the last kids starting school and she went camping with her Nana and PawPaw and we met them back up in the Bedford area. We weren’t able to take a summer trip so this was our mini vacation. It was nice to get away and relax. Tess had a blast and I will say this was a nice place to visit, there is more to do then just the water park. We will probably go back but will want to go with friends.

I can’t believe it but we are already in first grade. Clayton has to work on Tess’s first day of school so I sent him more pictures then he probably wanted. There will never be another first day of first grade.