Happy Birthday, Steve!!!!!!

Today is our first-born's birthday - Steve is 11 years old (77 in dog years). :) To celebrate, we took him to Pet Smart to cruise the aisles and pick out some treats! And how else do you celebrate a birthday party than with birthday hats! So Carley, Steve and myself wore the hats around the store, Campbell put his hat on his Buzz Lightyear and Chris just flat out refused to wear one!! PARTY POOPER!! I haven't seen him that embarrassed in a long time, actually! HA!!! Oh, well. The things we do for our children!! :) You can't tell me Steve wasn't smiling in these pictures!! He loved every minute of celebrating his special day with his his embarrassing family.

Christmas Pics

Here are some Christmas pics to go along with the rambling on and on and on and on and on post below...... can you tell I was a tired little puppy when I posted that one?!?!?!?

Our big 7 year old

Carley turned 7 yesterday, December 30. I know I say this every year and about both kiddos, but I CAN'T BELIEVE she is already 7 years old. Time flies by so fast on one hand, but on the other it seems like your children have been with you your entire life! We celebrated with breakfast in bed and then opened gifts. We have wanted to get a trampoline for quite a while now, but didn't think our back yard was level enough. We decided to bite the bullet and get her one anyway and so far, it has been a blast! Her birthday party was small this year, but a lot of fun! We took five of her little friends to the movie to see Tangled (loved it!) and then for pizza. Since she is so used to having big parties, I was afraid she may be disappointed but she actually had a great time with her besties!! :) I hope you had a wonderful birthday sweet Carleybear!!!!

I know, I know....

So, I haven't posted anything since Halloween, big deal! HA! I was doing so good, too, at keeping current, but time just got busier and faster and I honestly forgot about it most of the time. But at any rate, I'M BACK!

We had a great Christmas! We celebrated with Chris' family the 18-20th and then came back home to our house until going to Nana and Papa's (my side) Christmas Eve-Dec 27. As usual, no matter how many pictures and/or video I take, it just can't capture the fun memories we have each year at Christmas.

Like...
1. We stop to eat at the same McDonald's in Corsicana every time we go to Sealy. It's just so funny at Christmas because we are so packed in between all four of us, presents, luggage and the dogs that we look like we are moving to a new state or something. And of course we have to sit close to a window so Chris can see the van (or truck this time) to make sure no one takes anything (because our big black dog is just not scary enough!) :)

2. On Chris' side the extended family all participate in a White Elephant style gift exchange and the kids all draw names. So, when we all get together and put all our gifts under the tree, they pour way out into Great Grandma's living room. The kids "ooh and ahh" and constantly ask when it is time to open them. The adults then go on to our gift exchange where everyone usually fights over a battery charger of some kind, bungee cables for the back of a pick up truck, Academy gift cards or as was the case this year, a cooler full of beer! (why is Jeff Foxworthy in my head right now?) We brought a coffee pot and ended up picking it as our gift. ( I needed a new coffee pot really bad, and frankly, no one else seemed interested!) ha! It really is a lot of fun!

3. We pack back up the next day and head back to McKinney, except my "snack bag" is really low because we (I mean Chris) eat all the snacks on the trip down!

4. We have tried to make ice skating at the Galleria a tradition, but missed it last year for some reason. So we have really only been one other year. However, I am an Aggie so that counts as "tradition" for me. :) We went ice skating this year and had the best pizza ever afterwards right by the rink. Carley gets really good at it after she gets her bearings, and Campbell did well too hugging the rail all the way around.

5. Christmas Eve we head to Whitehouse leaving behind our beautiful decoration inside and out! When we get back after Christmas they just aren't as pretty as they are when we leave!

6. At Nana and Papa's, Carley loves to run in and see Papa's Christmas Village set up and this year Campbell ran straight for the tree because there were presents everywhere!!!!!!! There is also Nana's traditional saying, "Enjoy it because we're not doing this much next year!" She says that every year and we just laugh and say, "whatever!"

7. We celebrate Papa's birthday on Christmas Eve right after dinner. I have a great picture of he and the grandkids! They love their Papa!!!!!!!!

8. I think the kids all slept better Christmas Eve than I did. I could NOT go to sleep and heard every noise imaginable, I think. Maybe I was just so excited about Santa that I just couldn't sleep!!!

9. Christmas morning is just mass chaos. Between our kiddos and my nieces there are toys, wrapping paper and gifts galore!! SO MUCH FUN, though!

10. Chris hunts out at my dad's land in Troup, but never sees or shoots anything (other than a big hog the year Campbell was born, 2006, but I am sooooo over that story!!!!)

11. Then the Clampitts, I mean Pawlak's, pack everything back up in some magical way that fits everything in and we head home. I never figure out how Chris gets it all in... must be a little Santa magic.


We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas filled with lovely traditions, lasting memories and tons of LOVE!!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween!! Campbell was a fireman, Carley was Taylor Swift, I was Carley (in her soccer uniform) and Chris was Campbell (in his tball uniform). The capri sun is what really completes the look! HA!!

Lots of fun stuff!

Lots has happened in the Pawlak household since our last post. Where do I start? We are wrapping up all the sports seasons this week. T-ball ended a couple of weeks ago and Campbell LOVES his trophy! Carley's softball season ended last week and her end-of-season party is tonight at On The Border! YUM!! Sorry, Nana!! (She had to take Campbell to his party while we were in Connecticut and it was at Chuck E. Cheese! hehehe! ) Carley's last soccer game is this Saturday! It has been a fun few months, but we have to say we (Chris and I) are ready for a break! Give us a week of nothing, though, and I am sure we will be ready to sign them up for something else. :)

My birthday was October 25. The big 33!!!!!! Ugh! But it was a great birthday weekend with a trip up to Connecticut to see our friends, Dan and Carrie, who were transferred up there back in the spring. As you can the imagine the fall foliage was outstanding!!!!!!!! So pretty! That is exactly why we wanted to go in the fall! Next time, we will go either in the winter or summer and bring the kids with us. If we go in the winter, they can sled down the hill in their backyard to the whole time and play in some "real" snow all weekend. OR, we could go in the summer time and take a day trip into NY City (only an hour and a half away) or drive 4 hours to see more of New England. Either way, they would love up there as much as Chris and I did. I wish I could post all our pictures, but that would take to long. They are all on facebook already so you can see there. Here are a couple of my favorite!

First Hunting Trip

Chris took Campbell on his first dove hunting trip last weekend. Carley was going to go, but had a make up soccer game. Chris asked which she wanted to do and she said play soccer. That's my girl! :) The dog in the background belongs to the guy they went hunting with. Seeing the dog in the truck makes me feel like they were cheating on "Steve" since he is too old to hunt now. :(
Campbell loved it! He didn't like blood on his hands, but who does really??? :)