Fourth Quarter in Review

This past year was definitely our busiest year yet, as evidenced by the large gaps in between my posts.  Our house is up for sale right now so that we can move closer to the Nutrition Nazi's job and spend more time together, but it also requires our house to be much cleaner than normal.  Cleaning is not my forte!  Anyway here is a look at how we spent the last 3 months of 2015.

The Little Popes love to go to the park, and especially play train going down the slide.

This one is getting crazier by the day!  With each passing day he morphs just a little more into being a full-fledge mini Nutrition Nazi.  Just what I need...two of them!

Selfie lessons are critical.  If you ask Camo if he handsome he will say yes.  He also refers to himself in the third person as Cam Cam.

One day we convinced the Nutrition Nazi to go to the zoo with us.  We had so much fun!

A fun perk of having a mom who bakes a lot.  They love the idea of dessert more than the actual dessert!

Naps with the Team Leader, or sissy, as they refer to her.  I am not too certain that she likes him in her personal space.  I know how she feels sometimes.

Apparently this is the only shot I got at Halloween of Little Pope in his Optimus Prime costume.  Came refused to dress up at all, but loved trick-or-treating, though he did not like the candy!  They might be a little spoiled with the desserts that are normally served in our house!

More trips to the zoo and a very up close experience with the gorillas.

Somewhere my parents have a picture of my brother and I standing at this same fountain at the zoo.  It's amazing it is still around!

Then there was our attempt at a family pic for the Christmas card.  I was feeling good about the process so the Team Leader made the card this year.

This year we spent a lot of time doing some of the iconic Houston Christmas events with the kids, like going to the Galleria.  There might have been some shopping thrown in as well.

This Super Sac, as Camo calls it, might have been one of my purchases.  It is awesome and huge!

I reiterate...most patient dog ever.

We got to spend a little time together at the Nutrition Nazi's company christmas party at Hotel Zaza.

Even the Team Leader loves the super sac!

The Nordstrom Holiday party was a first for the Little Popes this year.  They had a blast and showed off their dancing skills.  Love these two!  And for the record it is a cup of pretzels that Little Pope is holding, not a cup of bubbly!

We spent a lot of time feeding the turtles on our way to the park, and looking for alligators!  

We decorated a gingerbread house, and the boys had a blast.

I got a gold star on this day for setting my Type A personality aside and actually let them do most of the decorating.

Little Pope and I even managed to see a movie together, though he refused to even try my Icee!

Cut from the same exact cocky, arrogant, dancing fool mold.  One has more hair!

Our Team Leader is slowing down a little bit and I find her snuggled up a lot more.  It's hard to believe that she turned 7 last September.

I love this pic taken with my phone a few nights before Christmas when all was calm one night, which is rare!

I love my tradition of dressing them up and taking their pic in front of the tree every year.  I get some of the cutest pics of these two monkeys.

A little grainy, but still a good shot my sweet crazy one.

This one is sweet, but such an old soul.  With each passing day he is wanting to help me with things around the house.

Finally Christmas morning arrived!  The Little Popes were so excited!

Look mom Superman!

Then there was the second Christmas of the day, chaos and all!  The man formerly known as Soon-to-be Grandpa Pat even got in on the action.

Camo loved his toys, all 50 of them!

Look mom more crap for you to have to pick up.  Yay!

Christmas number 4 the following day.  I am so coming back as one of my kids just to get all of their presents!

Gotta love the shorts and t-shirts at Christmas time!

The Little Popes also got a new ride that we all pitched in to buy.  Little Pope drives it like a champ!  It even has a functioning radio that he turns up when he drives off.

On the flip side of Christmas, New Year's Eve was so windy and cold that our sparklers were burning way too fast!

We hope that all of you had a sparkling good time during the holiday season, and that your 2016 is the best year yet!

Loving the Craziness

It's been a very busy summer and time has flown by.  Since Camo is a little more durable this year we have been able to get out a little more.

One of our outings was to the zoo.  The boys loved the monkeys!  Monkey see, monkey do!

Growing up way too fast! 

We went back to the monkeys at the end they loved them so much!

In my rodeo post several months back Little Pope was not thrilled about the carousel.  At the zoo he was willing to ride, but only if we sat on the stationary bench!

Camo had a hard time making up his mind about adding to his stuffed animal collection while perusing the selection in the zoo gift shop.

I haven't been to the zoo in forever, but you can get really close to the animals now.

Some animals you can even pet, per se.

The boys test drove future Christmas present ideas!  Poor Camo kept getting thrown into the headrest while riding with a 'new driver.'

Camo fell asleep with both of his babies, Arnold and Danny, where he landed one day!

One early morning (3 AM) were lucky enough to get to meet some of our local firemen!  The boys were so excited to see the fire truck show up.  The end result was a smoke detector unit going bad, but we felt better safe than sorry when it comes to fire and carbon monoxide.

This is what you get when you ask for no sirens or lights so that your neighbors can remain asleep!  I think our river house in Lake Jackson was illuminated from these wonderful lights.

Little Pope got to sit in the new fire truck that we are now paying $20 more a month for on our water bill.  He did not want to get out!  The firemen were so nice considering that they were woken up to come check out our smoke detector issue.

We also became the proud owners of this small water park to entertain the Little Popes!  even the Team Leader got in on the fun!

Our next outing was a long windy weekend at the beach.

Little Pope was excited to the point of impatient to go play in the sand.

Because every toddler needs a big stick/small tree limb to play with.  If there is trouble within a five mile radius Camo will find it!

He tried walking over to the Nutrition Nazi and acting like he wasn't causing trouble a few seconds ago!

Someone felt like their old crazy self!

She retrieved her toy for hours which took the sting out of price of her recent surgeries.  She slept well for a few days afterwards.

Speaking of growing up too fast.  He is so sweet, but very reserved!

He is still a Pope under it all so he lets his guard down fairly quick for the chance to say 'cheese money'!

Camo is super crazy (and Pope through and through) and loves to say 'cheese' without any reservations.  If I pickup my phone or camera he thinks I am taking his pic!

In July we went to Jellystone with our good friends and their kids for a couple of days.

Though I had a few reservations about 4 adults and 4 kids in an RV, everything went really smoothly.  My sweet friend Ellen has even thing down perfectly!

The little ones had a blast with all the activities Jellystone has to offer.

Camo had so much fun that he fell asleep on the way home!

We also went to our very first Skeeters game!  The boys had a blast playing on all the different rides and playground equipment.

Little Pope is really into Mascots and loved Swatson, the Skeeters mascot.

There's the occasional selfie snuggle on random lazy days!

We had the occasional date night, thanks to our parents.

And of course celebrating the Nutrition Nazi's birthday!  The boys were so excited to help me make the cake for NN, but refused to take one bite.