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.

Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory...

We hit the ground running when we got back from vacation, it seems as Tess gets older we get busier. This winter we took Tess’s training wheels off her bike. We spent quite a few afternoons and evenings outside trying to master the art of riding a bike on two wheels. She had one big spill and was a little cautious for some time after but she finally got the hang of it. The deal was if she could ride between the two light poles on our street without falling then she could pick out a new bike. Once we gave her a goal she was determined.

When she got the hang of it she was so proud and would look back to make sure we all knew that she had accomplished something.

She would switch off who she wanted to start her off, depending on how she felt that day. She has gotten pretty good and she even was able to pick out a new bike.

I will say that this winter was pretty cold, Tess even missed a day because of ICE. She enjoyed the extra time off and Clayton of course had to work. This year we always knew if the weather guys were predicting bad weather and Clayton had to work that it was going to be real. Rosy enjoyed the Snow/Ice, Lexi enjoyed the warm house. Tess is going to be disappointed when she doesn’t see snow again till she is an adult since she saw it twice this year.

This winter we also went to see the Monster Trucks, Tess liked them but she has let us know she wants to do something else next year. A local radio station does a promotion so it’s a cheap night out for the three of us. We had fun, but I guess I will have to look into other options for this upcoming winter.

I took some time off this year to come celebrate Valentine’s Day with Tess. The Kindergarten Classes put on a program where they sing songs they have learned and then we go back into the classroom and have a small party. After about 10 minutes the teacher starts letting the parents know that you can sign the paper on the table and take your kids home if you want. So we took Tess home and did some shopping. She was excited that I took off from work to see her program.

Easter was a lot of fun this year. The HOA board organized an egg hunt for the neighborhood and it was an awesome day for it. The weather was nice and not a cloud in the sky. There was a hunt in the morning and then activities throughout the day so it was a good day overall. Tess had fun playing with her friends and hunting for eggs.

We celebrated Easter with my family this year, we headed to church in the morning and then went to my parents. The Easter bunny visited Tess and gave her a scooter as well as a bunch of other stuff. She had to try her scooter out before church. Of course we had to take an Easter picture with the snapchat filter. It wouldn’t be a holiday without it!

We also bought confetti eggs at the store, and brought them over to my parents’ house.  I think everyone had a lot of fun in the front yard.

The Guns ‘N Hoses games was a little earlier than normal this year which was nice because it was cooler than normal. It wasn’t the best day because it rained during the Dynamo game so we had to seek refuge in some seats that we in the covered section. In the end the cops won but it was a good game. I think that the game will not be played at the stadium in the future since the Dynamo haven’t been treating the teams as equal partners.

I am going to wrap up this post with a small collage of School Pictures. Tess had an awesome first year of school. Both Clayton and I loved her Teacher. Tess absolutely adored her, she enjoyed going to school every day and I can say that she has grown so much in just one year. My little one can pick up a book and read it. She constantly amazes Clayton and me with how smart she is and how much she is learning. We can’t wait for what next year is going to bring but we will have some summer fun first!    

Happiest Place on Earth

This Christmas The Braun/Harris Family took a adventure down to Disney World. Tess knew we were going on vacation but she had no idea where we were going. She opened her first Christmas presents at the airport and it was a set of ears and a couple of books based on several rides in the park. She was so excited when she saw the ears that she was ready to get on the plane and get the party started. Once she put the ears on she barely took them off.

We started our vacation in the Magic Kingdom but we only had time to ride Pirates of the Caribbean and Big thunder Mountain before we had to head to Dinner and a show. We knew by our experience in LegoLand that she would love Rollercoasters but I guess I didn’t know how much. She wanted to do every ride multiple times and because it was Christmas time in the Park and everyone was off school the park was ridiculously crowded we could only do the rides once. She was fine because we really didn’t have to wait in that many lines and there was so much to do that she had a blast.

We headed over to Hollywood Studios for dinner, my mom had booked a character dinner. Clayton and I weren’t sure how Tess would react to the characters because she hasn’t been real keen on them in the past. She surprised everyone when she saw goofy through the window and wanted a picture. We got in line immediately and took a picture. She broke the ice and all she wanted to do after that was take pictures with all the characters that she saw. We waited in some of the lines but if they were outrageous we moved on.

As we ate dinner more characters would move around the restaurant and she had to take a picture with every one of them. I think this was a good way to start our Disney vacation because she was able to see a bunch of the characters and decide on her own terms if she wanted to take pictures or not without waiting in a line and then get up there and her deciding that she wasn’t ready for a picture.

After dinner we had reserved seating at the Fantasmic show, which was the only night time light show that we saw the entire time we were there. She enjoyed it even though there were a couple scary parts. She knew magic Mickey from some of her shows and she was happy to see all the princesses. After the show we went back to the hotel to unpack and sleep so that we could get up bright and early and do it again the next morning.

Epcot

Tess was so excited to get to the park that she headed out down the hall on her own. Each time we left the room we had to make sure that we had everything because it was a long walk and no one wanted to do it again unless absolutely necessary.

We had several fast passes that my mom had pre-scheduled along with a couple extra that my dad had scored the night before so we were set to go on all the rides that we wanted. Tess was really excited to go on as many rollercoasters as possible. We spaced them out throughout the day with a couple small things in between. I think her favorite was space mountain, I was a little worried about her siting along and it being in the dark but she loved it and would have gone again if time allowed.

We also spent some time meeting the characters in Epcot. There was a location that had a bunch of characters in one place and the line was not too long so we ventured in and she was thrilled.

We also found a photo booth at the end of one of the rides and she decided that she wanted to take some pictures. We decided to crash her pictures and make it a family occasion. These photo booth pictures are included in the photo package that my mom bought so the pictures come directly to the Disney app which was pretty cool.

We spent most of the day at Epcot riding the rides and walking around the countries. Tess was not too thrilled with the countries and if we go back with just her we will probably not go back to the country section of Epcot until she gets older. On our way out we of course had to get the obligatory Epcot family pictures.

Magic Kingdom

I don’t have that many pictures from our day in the Magic Kingdom mainly because I was enjoying the day with my family. We started our day off with the obligatory Castle family picture. We all had our Disney shirts on for our Christmas eve picture!

We saw the main street fire truck as we were walking in so Tess and Clayton had to stop and take a quick photo. Disney used to have a cool place where you could look at all the firefighter patches in a case on the wall and you could purchase a Magic Kingdom patch, but it was been converted to a meeting place for a magic game they now provide where you pay and receive clues. We were a little disappointed when we walked in.

Tess and I rode the carousel, the line moved pretty fast and the ride wasn’t that long. Everyone else was waiting for something else so we snuck in and wait in the line. Everywhere we go no matter if there are a million other things to do she sees a carousel, she wants to ride it.

Most of the family also rode it’s a small world, this isn’t my favorite ride but it’s a staple of Disney. One of the books that we bought Tess was based on this ride and it’s nice to do it once. Now when we go back we won’t have to do it again. The sad thing is this is a pretty simple ride, not much to it and they really haven’t kept it up. The dolls need some maintenance and some of the effects weren’t working.

I love how Disney decorates for every time of year, but Christmas is my favorite. I love the Castle at night.

Animal Kingdom

Most mornings we had to wait for a bus to get to each park, sometimes we would get to the bus stop right when a bus was leaving or had just been there. This morning we knew it wouldn’t be too long since we were staying practically in the Animal Kingdom Park. Tess also knew it wasn’t going to take that long to get to the park.

We took a lot of family pictures today at the Animal Kingdom, probably because it was Christmas. I think that being at the Animal Kingdom on Christmas was the best because there isn’t that much to do at the park and we needed to be in Disney Springs for Dinner later that afternoon.

We started off with the Safari and I still love seeing all the animals. I love that Tess loves animals as much as I do. We could probably do this safari every day that we were there. The animals were all out and about moving around so it was a great time of day. We even had to stop the tour a couple of times because the animals got in the way and wouldn’t move.

After the Safari Tess had her first ice cream of the whole trip. I don’t know what it is but ice cream just tastes different at Disney, I think it’s the shape.

We found some characters while we were walking around the Animal Kingdom. Tess had been talking about Pluto for a couple of days so we knew that we had to find him before we left. She was so excited when it was her turn to take a picture that she just couldn’t contain her smiles.

Our last stop before heading out was the new Pandora ride, we had some time to kill so both Tess and I decided to pose for the camera. Like mother like daughter we know how to turn it on for the camera.

We had a short and sweet day at the Animal Kingdom but it was action packed.

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios is probably my second favorite park behind The Magic Kingdom. I wish they wouldn’t have gotten rid of the sorcerer’s hat but what can you do? We took several family pictures in front of the only iconic buildings left, tower of terror and the Chinese theater. Tess was done with picture taking she was ready for some rides.

The kids minus Tess rode the rockin roller coaster, I can’t wait for Tess to be tall enough to ride this ride. I think she will love it. She hasn’t gone upside down yet but I think she will enjoy it as much as she has enjoyed all the other rides. All the kids went on Tower of Terror. As you can see I am watching Tess to make sure she doesn’t freak out because we are free falling and she looks a little scared but when we got off she said she loved it. She was like that wasn’t the tower of terror that was the tower of greatness. 

We saw a couple of shows and did a couple of other rides throughout the day. Tess enjoyed herself. She had to pose next to the car that was in Cars and she had to take a picture with the Star Wars guys. Overall we had a great day at Hollywood Studios.

Magic Kingdom

Our last full day at Disney was for catching up on things we hadn’t been able to ride and do anything a second time that you wanted. We split up and some of us stayed in the Magic Kingdom all day and some went back to Hollywood Studios. Tess rode Dumbo and some of the rides for littler kids which were fun and a little break from the bigger rides we had been riding. We rode the Toy Story ride again and caught up on some shows that we had missed that we thought Tess would enjoy.

The first time that we saw Stitch the Pictures did not turn out, the photographer did not have her settings correct. So we went back and were able to take some pictures and these turned out better than the originals. The whole Harris Family likes Stitch but Tess and Clayton love him.

One of Tess’s Christmas Presents was an appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. The family had a Princess Dinner that night so Tess had an appointment to be transformed into a princess for our dinner. She loved the experience and loved getting her hair and make-up done.

We headed on over to the Princess Dinner from Magic Kingdom to Epcot, in the Monorail. This was the first and only time that Tess was able to ride the Monorail, we had been riding buses the whole time. She had to first take a picture with Belle and then the other princesses would make their way to the table. At one point during the dinner there was a princess parade, she and the other princess walked around the restaurant strutting their stuff. She was so happy to see the 
different princesses.

After the Princess Dinner we made a quick change into our normal clothes because she was tired of being a princess, its hard work.

We headed out the next morning, back to the real world. We had the best time and Tess asks just about once a week when we can go back.