new years eve

happy almost new year!!!!

had a great night with great friends, great food and cute pooches!

graham discovered the drums too!  he seems to be a natural too.  

what are we in for?!

christmas is finally here!

wink is such a trickster!!!
the dude LOVED this one!




after breaking through wink's trap, the dude ventured downstairs to see all the goodies santa had left for him.  surprise surprise...guess what he went to first!!

as if the presents weren't a dead giveaway, it looks like santa also filled up our stockings and had a little midnight snack with rudolph!

santa must have known what i used to get as a kid....a toothbrush!  and then some other fun things!

this year opening presents was much more entertaining.  although instead of ripping the paper wildly, the dude took little tears and then threw the paper on the floor.  it was like a paper shredder exploded on our carpet!  he definitely enjoyed himself though.

later in the afternoon grammie, bruce, sam, justina and david come over to have some christmas ribs with us!  everyone showed off their new toys and did a little relaxing too. we also started a new tradition this year....the peppermint pig!

such a nice christmas.  it definitely seemed too short, but don't they always!  

i can't believe the holidays are over.  no snow this christmas, but we were definitely showered with love!

christmas eve

i remember being a kid on christmas eve and following the detailed instructions santa told me to follow to get my special treat.  i vividly remember sitting on his lap in his sleigh at merrifield gardens with my brother and telling him all the things we wanted for christmas.  being absolutely amazed christmas morning when, to my surprise, i had a treat in my sock i left out (or whatever i was instructed to do).  and then running down the stairs christmas morning to find the mountain of presents santa had left for us.

this is the year we started our sanner traditions.

 - we welcomed wink into our house

 - we left cookies and milk for santa

 - we left a carrot for the reindeers

 - we left a secret key on the door to let santa into the house

- and of course, we had pasta for christmas eve dinner! (a hertel family tradition)

hmmmmm, and it looks like wink played one more trick before he left with santa to go back to the north pole!!!  guess he really didn't want the dude catching a glimpse of the dude in the red coat!!

second families

tonight we spent our christmas eve eve with our second families!!

everyone brought something to eat.  and there were plenty of drinks to go around.

the kids played together.  and then opened some gifts together!

bethany got to spend time with her FIRST boyfriend.  ;)  

and graham played his first game of foosball with mr. cormac!  btw...i think the dude sees cormac as his idol.  it's too darn cute!

merry christmas murray's and mauer's!!!!

love all of you!

getting ready

it won't be too much longer that santa will be visiting our house!  guess wink is getting ready for his arrival!

brusha brusha brusha

with all the sweets this holiday...don't forget to brush your teeth!

down on the farm

yee-haw!

happy birthday daddy!!!

happy birthday to you!
happy birthday to you!

happy birthday dear daddy......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!

we love you!!

dancing machine

this makes me happy in so many ways!

peekaboo

telegram

can't put a price on that expression!

snowball fight

buzz meet wink.  wink meet buzz.

may the snowball fight commence!

watching

how does he do it?!

yeahhhhhhhhh boy!

twinkle twinkle

this year i had some help with the tree!!!

and it turned out beautiful!

thanks little man.

trickery

wink is already starting his tricks!

new dude in town

may we proudly introduce......

.....wink!

tree time

today we headed out on our annual christmas tree hunt!

perfect!

tickle tickle tickle

i loved watching these two cousins play tickle monster the ENTIRE time we were at grana and grampa's!  I was able to catch a couple of the tickle attacks on camera!!

these two are definitely good buds!

our house is far too quiet now that we're back!! 

leaving on a jet plane

....but we'll be back soon!!!

making friends at the airport.

and luckily i brought back my old blanket and kept it with me.  came in handy when the dude was so tired he fell asleep sitting up on the plane!

day 7

i don't know how it's been a week already!!!  we had so much fun and we're already looking forward to coming back in april.  hopefully the weather will be just as beautiful as it was this week!  

our flight didn't leave until later in the afternoon, so we took advantage of our time and went back to the riverwalk to have lunch at casa rio.  founded in 1946, the restaurant was the first mexican restaurant to open it's doors on the riverwalk.  and oh man.....was it GOOD!  

before grana and grampa took us to the airport we also made a trip to the alamo.  definitely a lot smaller than i thought it was going to be, but still pretty cool.  the grounds were beautiful as well.  i think we might have to think about taking a nice family photo there in april! 

new braunfels

LOVE THIS PLACE!!!

it is so cute and everywhere you turn there's a perfect backdrop for pictures.  i could have come here everyday we were here!  i know where we'll be going when we come back in april.  

and we also ate at a great restaurant...the gristmill.  even the waiting area was fun!!!  can you guess what oliva and graham ended up doing??!!!

oh man, the food was SOOOOOOO good!  and apparently we got the best seat in the house.  right in front of the fireplace.  it was nice and toasty and the perfect family dinner spot for our last night here in tey-has.  

wish it didn't have to end!!!

high flier!

WOAH!

in the words of graham "be careful uncle tim!!!  be careful!!!!"

(he's definitely hasn't picked up that phrase from me at all...hehe!)

get the wiggles out

have you noticed a theme in my recent posts.....getting the kids outside!  

another theme....no jackets!!!  i'm loving this warmer weather for thanksgiving!  

today we headed out to the park before naptime and met up with grampa when he got off of work.  

we LOVE swinging...it was quite the scene getting the dude off of it to go to other parts of the playground.  once he was up an running though we had pretty good success.

love

we love our family...

...and we love being cousins!!!!

turkey day!!

happy thanksgiving!!!

we started the day with a nice walk around the neighborhood.  stretched our legs and made some room for turkey!

next we played some thanksgiving bingo.  olivia was a great bingo caller, while graham didn't quite understand why you would leave perfectly good goldfish on a piece of paper and not eat them!

of course we had to taste test the bird!!!  

and then there was MORE dancing after dinner to settle everything into place!

a good day indeed!

bo-bots

introducing....the block heads!!!

look mason....we can be bo-bots!

these two rummies are too funny!  

and again, how no one was hurt during all of this, i have NO idea!

seeing as graham puts everything on his head at home, no surprise he decided to put grana's basket on his head.  luckily there were two...otherwise we probably would have had a different scene on our hands.

pig pile

and grampa was the pig!!!

i wish i had taken video of this.  it was hilarious!  

and how no one got hurt or cried....i have NO idea!!

uncle tim said he wanted to see all of them wrestling....wish granted!!

cuddles

we all love that precious cuddle time we get with our dudes and dudettes!  

it's moments like this that i wish could last forever.  all smiles and lovey!

twirlin'

we definitely have two little dancers in the family!

they've got the beat and the moves to go with it!

uncle tim

i think someone is a fan of uncle tim!!!

makin' ice cream!

grampa is definitely spoiling these kiddos!

homemade chocolate ice cream!!!  

and man was it tasty!  

zoo take two

san antonio zoo part deux!

this time it was a family affair.

to no surprise, graham passed out in the car AGAIN!  luckily he woke up about 20 minutes later.

grana and grampa had fun finding animals for the kiddos at the gift shop, and it was quite adorable watching all three of them carry their animals around.  

it's a real shame they all don't get along!  ;)

riverwalk

wow! not what i was thinking downtown san antonio would look like!  riverwalk is very cool and so pretty.  we took some family photos and then jumped aboard the riverboat tour.  

argh, graham was being quite unruly pretty much the entire time we were on the tour, so i didn't get to take any pictures while we were on the tour.  thanks to aunt andrea though who took some pretty cute ones!

and apparently, we must be good luck.  the 'no show' band that plays on the riverwalk was actually playing when we went by on our boat!

operation tucker out

the morning started with a walk down the street to look at all the christmas decorations some of the neighbors had outside already.

then we moved onto some raking.  

and then some fun at the playground!

operation tucker out....check!

downtown san antonio here we come (later tonight!)

da da dadadadada da da afro circus!

hmmmm....can you guess what movie we're watching for the first time!

i'll give you a hint....there's a lion, zebra, hippo, giraffe and some funny penguins and lemur!  oh...and a circus!

zoo time

of course about 5 minutes into the car ride to the zoo, the dude falls asleep in the car.  and not just a light nap, full out snoring!  guess the recent time change and the hour difference has been hard on him.  

after a good 20 minutes or so, the dude decided to join us and boy was he glad he did!  the kiddos got up close and personal with a hippo, two HUGE snakes, kangaroos, tigers, rhinos and elephants!  san antonio zoo is officially a success!  and huge plus from parents, it's not too huge (like the national zoo) and you can actually see all the animals in the exhibits.  we could have stayed all day!

before we left, mason made sure we took a ride on the train.  pretty cool little train ride too!  got to see more sights and was still able to relax.  with the dude's new found love of trains, he had a great time as well.

first night

so for the dude who is obsessed with animals, looks like he's pretty interested in trains too!  and honestly, who needs to wear pants when playing with trains!!

the bottom two pictures don't do it justice, but who would have known candles at dinner time could be so much fun!  make the flame wave a little and the laughter ensues!  

and then, of course, it was time for a bath and pajamas!  i think the dude is LOVING having all this company.  and something tells me, grana and grampa love it too!!!

smile!

 

so glad to be here and see these smiling faces!!!

i missed them!