Spring Break 2017 - San Antonio

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated a great Spring Break!  This was our family's first year with EVERYBODY in school.  Lex is in kindergarten, London-Mila and Zoe are in day care, and Momma Lyssa is working at Draper Intermediate School.  So Spring Break was a little more special for us having everybody home together for a week.

We took the girls to San Antonio for a couple of days during the break, and we spent our time at the San Antonio Zoo and at Sea World.  We drove up on Thursday and went straight to the zoo.  Below is a video of our time at the zoo:

That night, we ate on the Riverwalk.  Our hotel was within walking distance from Downtown San Antonio, so we walked by the Alamo, walked around, and took some pictures before heading to eat.  On the way back from dinner, London-Mila said how much she loved walking around downtime in the dark (night time).  It was a really good, chill and calm family night.

The next day, Alyssa was able to set up a behind the scenes tour of Seaworld!  It was a lot of fun and a cool experience getting some individual attention from the animal trainers and animals.  We were able to see behind the shark tanks, watch the trainers feed the dolphins and watch the dolphins do tricks, and we were able to feed the sea lions.  We then saw the Shamu show and rode some rides.  Below is a video of our time at Sea World:

 

We finished up our trip by staying the night in Austin at my uncle Larry's house.  He and his wife have a really nice house on a lake out there.  We were exhausted, but we had a great time!!!

Teaching Alexa How To Shoot A Basketball

So Alexa just finished her first season playing basketball yesterday!  She had a lot of fun, did very well, and grew a lot in the process.

One thing we will work on his her shooting the correct way.  Right now, she shoots with both hands.  Not a big deal, but as a basketball coach, I am always looking for ways to help her change this.  Today, we were shooting around on our goal, and I wanted to work with her a little on changing her shot so that she is shooting with 1 hand and have her wrist flexed and back.

The teaching points that I made were:

1 – Wrist back

2 – Shoot with one hand

3 – Shoot from your elbow, through your arm, through your wrist.

Of course, legs are important too, but I wanted to break this down instead of giving her everything.

See the video below:

Daddy Daughter Dance (2/18/17)

Last Friday I had the honor of escorting Lex on her 1st date to her school's daddy daughter dance. As you can see from the video and pictures below, we had a GREAT time!

 When people ask me how the dance went; below is the BEST way that I could describe it:

"It was the BEST time.  When we first got there, she was kind of ‘feeling her way out,’ but as soon as she had got loose, we had a GREAT time!  They would play about two ‘fast’ songs for each ‘slow’ song.  When she got comfortable with her friends, she would take off with her friends for the fast songs, but she would always come find me, hold my hand, and escort me out for the slow songs.  I was sooo perfect."

Lex is a PERFECT mix of introvert/extrovert, and that dichotomy was on full display that night.  When we first got there, she found two balloons.  She uses soccer and basketballs as her defense mechanisms when she is shy or in a new situation and meeting new people, and she used balloons tonight in their place. 

As she got more and more comfortable, you could see her true personality come out.  The coolest thing was seeing her interact with her friends.  I PRAY that she has the right friends and teachers in her circle throughout her upbringing, and we are blessed that she was hanging out with a great set of twin sisters that night.

One story that I have to share is that a couple weeks before the dance, when she realized that I was going to escort her, she came to me and said:

“Daddy, we have to practice our dances for our Daddy/Daughter Dance so that we know what we are going to do.”  I was able to appease her by practicing some of the same slow dances that we have been doing for as long as I remember, but it was funny that she wanted to make sure that were ‘prepared.’

To recap, this was as much fun as you would think it was.  She still wanted Daddy around, but I was able to see some of her friends and make sure that she is hanging around the right people ….. In Kindergarten lol.

Christmas 2016

Christmas time for us is always a big deal.  Because both my parents and Alyssa’s parents are separated, the girls get 4 Christmas!  Its always funny to me to see how excited they are with the first couple of Christmases that they enjoy, and its always funny to see how by the 3^rd and 4^th Christmas celebration they get tired of opening all of the presents.

Some would say our girls are spoiled, and while I won’t disagree with that, I like to say that our girls, and our family as a whole, is truly blessed.  We are blessed with health, love, and extended family that come together for fellowship whenever possible. 

Our Christmas started with an impromptu photo shoot at Harry Myers Park in Rockwall, TX.  3 kids on teachers' salary, with 2 kids in day-care will really limit your finances, so we have made it a tradition to give out pictures of the girls for Christmas presents.  The video below is a slideshow of the photo shoot:

We also have a tradition, starting with the first Christmas that Alyssa and I spent together, of making a Gingerbread house.  The video below is us putting together our Gingerbread house:

We also have a tradition of spending the night at my dad's house Christmas Eve and opening presents there.  The girls know that Santa can find us there, and we even set out cookies and reindeer food the night before.  The video below is us waking up Christmas morning and opening up our gifts:

And finally, Aunt Sissy brought the game 'Pie in the Face' to our Christmas Eve Party.  Below is the video of us playing!

Zoe Love's 2nd Birthday

Today, February 2, 2017, we celebrate Zoe's 2nd birthday!  With our first born Lex, I couldn't wait for her to be old enough to run around and talk and play.  I couldn't wait for her to be old enough to introduce her to sports and share some of the things that I love with her.  With our second, London-Mila, I just cherished each moment as they came.  I cherished the newborn phase, in each one there after so much more than I did with Lex.  

With Zoe Love, I found myself not wanting her to grow up!  We knew that Zoe was going to be our last child, and I wanted to freeze every moment in her life.  Not only didn't I cherish each milestone (and continue to do so), I wanted her to stay in that moment forever.

Now, Zoe is a true two year old, temper-tantrums and all.  She is definitely the toughest of the three - constantly bullying and harrassing her bigger sisters.  Just this week, she got in trouble at school for beating up a boy who took her toy.  She learned early on that she is the baby of the house and takes full advantage.  She shows how spoiled she is by all by crying until she gets her way, and we have to work to teach her how to share effectively with her sisters and others.

But Zoe also has the heart and sweetness that comes with being the baby.  Her smile will melt you immediately and she has this way of looking at you that wraps you around her fingers.  

This year, being our 3rd 2nd birthday, we decided to do something small for her.  We just invited family over, opened gifts, and blew out a cupcake on her candle.  Though small and intimate, it was very special and fun.  It was a beautiful day so we spent a lot of time outside and Lex and London were able to show off their new bike skills.  Our neighbors were babysitting their god-kids so it gave our girls others to play with.  Other than that, it was a great day in which we were able to honor, celebrate, and shower with love our baby girls Zoe!

Happy birthday baby Zoe.  Enjoy your day!

Here are a couple of videos from the day Zoe was born:

Here is a video from Zoe's 1st birthday: