It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I mentioned in my last post how much I've enjoyed decorating this house for Christmas! New house, new places to put old (and a few new) Christmas decorations. The most challenging part, by far, was putting lights on the house. We knew a two story house would obviously be a bit more difficult than a one story. Tom was a real trooper. He had to get up on the house and honestly, it was a bit dangerous. We love the final product, but we'll also more than likely be looking for a light-hanging service next year!

Here's a sneak peek into the Benich house this Christmas Season!

I love that you can actually see both our trees from the outside. The small tree upstairs in the family room, and the big tree downstairs in the living room. :-)

A little sparkle!

The upstairs tree...in a pretty poorly lit picture. (Brock's geotrax train tracks go around the tree.)

The big Christmas tree in the living room.

Our fireplace!!! Love the fireplace!

The Reason for the Season. Centered in our living room to always remember why and what we celebrate.

Belated Thankfulness

I didn't exactly get a Thankful Thanksgiving post in this year, but I continue to realize just how incredibly blessed I am. For that, and all the good things God has provided, I'm very thankful. Here are a few that top my list at the moment.

* My Family, Of Course! There is probably at least twice a week I would like to give away my precious baby girl...but she makes me laugh, she's getting smarter every day, and she is just adorable too! Brock continues to amaze me. I'm sure lots of kids are smart...but he truly seems to blow me away sometimes. He talks more like a grown up every day. I couldn't do any of this without Tom. He couldn't be a better dad, helps with everything in the house, loves me and supports me always.

* My mom's house SOLD! This is a big step for her and one we are thankful for. It's time for new adventures!

* My job. Although VERY busy, very demanding, a bit stressful, and lots of long hours these days, it's going VERY well.

* Dial-A-Nurse! Thanksgiving morning, this wonderful woman talked me through Aubree's 103.8 degree fever, rapid breathing and congestion. Mommy got no sleep, and with the Thanksgiving day was up nearly 24 hours, but I'm thankful there are people to call to talk to at 4:00 in the morning with kindness and patience as if it were noon!

* Our new house! Ok, so we've lived here since April. But it still feels like new, and it still feels like HOME! We absolutely love it and love making new memories here! We have recently decorated for Christmas and it was quite fun finding places in the new home for all our decorations.

* My chiropractor! And I'm hoping by next Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for a new mattress!

* MY HELPER! Although a new find, I'm so thankful I found out I have the option to hire help for just $5/hour!

* A GOOD AGGIE FOOTBALL SEASON!!! It's been a LONG time coming!

I have so much to be thankful for, that I could go on a while...but if I post now, you've got a better chance of me actually posting at all. ;-) Happy Belated Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Buying Time

Today I may have had the most exciting moment EVER! I BOUGHT TIME! Seriously!! I bought an extra hour in the day!! You're not believing me, are you? But it's TRUE! For just $5, I bought an additional hour in my day. My company has this incredibly cool service called "My Helper". For $5/hour, you can have this service do just about any errand, task, research, planning, etc you might think of! I needed to get the oil changed in my car, but like most things these days, I did not have the time. I hired My Helper who arranged for the appointment, came to my desk and picked up my keys, took the car to the service station, called me on the way back, parked their filler truck in my spot (so I wouldn't lose it), returned my car to it's original location, left the receipt on the passenger seat, a "Thank You" card on the door (they were thanking ME?????), and returned my keys to me at my desk! HOLY GUACAMOLE! This service has been available for at least a year, and WHY haven't I used them yet?

With that extra hour, I'll claim I'm using it to finally update this blog again! I've missed my blog very, very much. My hopes is to update it more frequently, even if that means I won't have a picture for each post. Please bear with me. As I finish all the to-do's of the holiday season, I'm hoping I have more time to snap pictures, upload them, and tell you a little story about our lives in the meantime. :-)

I hope everyone is doing well, and I'll see if I can get another post (with pictures) in this week!

My Pumpkins

Fall might possibly be my favorite time of year. After a long, hot Texas summer, the cool days are very welcome! I've also found some of my favorite pictures, every year, seem to be those in the pumpkin patch. For someone who is VERY anti-orange, it's amazing that I love these pictures so much, but even I must admit that Maroon pumpkins would look pretty odd. ;-)

Busy and Blessed

I'm not sure if we'll ever feel rested again. Or at least for the next 15 years, perhaps? Life has been non-stop. I can't figure out how we stay so busy, but we do. This weekend was especially rough. I'm utterly exhausted but feel so blessed. Though the weekend was absolutely crazy, it was filled with so many precious moments and priceless people.

First T-ball practice. Aubree kept herself occupied with gatorade.

Date night at Dave & Busters! We had all the fun, and then used the tickets to get the kids prizes.
Met up with two of the cutest pirates ever!

And even found some buried treasure in the sand!

Wrestled a crocodile and used him to float around the lagoon.

Tested the waters...literally. Confirmed the fact Aubree has NO FEAR.

(and mommy learned to always bring a swimsuit when Aubree is near water!)

First t-ball game!

Sporting his Yankees uniform.Benich, ready and waiting.

Second t-ball game, but first game IN THE RAIN! (And Brock was first to score!)

My little #16!

And not pictured, but equally as fun and enjoyable...Ladies Pokeno night, my baby sister hanging out and accompanying us to church, and a trip to Marble Falls with Aubree to see my wonderful friend Kelley and her new baby girl Braelyn (Aubree & Addison had fun playing together too).

Like I said....BUSY WEEKEND!!! But I'm blessed! And tired...no now I'm off to bed.

Tu-Tu Cute at age Two!

As I've said before...

She can be TOO much,

and quite often a TOOT,

but our little ballerina

is TU-TU cute!

Being August in South Texas, our ballerina party was Hot, Hot, Hot! So our birthday girl sported a tutu swimsuit for the festivities.

She had lots of fun and we were so happy to share her big day with our friends and family!

Kids, both big and small had a blast on the inflatable water slide we were lucky to borrow from our friends.

There was lots of splishing and splashing,

There was lots of getting Daddy!

Our birthday girl would strike a pose,

And give Daddy kisses on the nose.

The pinata took longer to make, than to break

And what is a party without some CUPCAKES?

Aubree's cupcake wore a tutu

And the rice krispie wands were fun to chew.

Lots of presents and lots of pink,

Made this very special birthday complete!

Brock goes to Kindergarten!

Well, I didn't intend on taking a summer vacation, but apparently I did...from blogging! I'm trying to get back. I love the blogs and the memories I can read later. We have lots to catch you up on, but the BIG NEWS for the day is Brock completed his first day of KINDERGARTEN!!






Brock doesn't necessarily handle change well, so I worried a little how he would transition from daycare to Kindergarten. I think the one who doesn't handle the change is actually ME. He did great. Last Thursday we went to meet his teacher. She's a quite adorable thing. Definitely fits my sterotype of a Kindergarten teacher. (All in a good way!) I was also quite pleased to know she won the ExCEL award last year. (Video) (Article) That's VERY COOL!

I began fighting the tears Thursday. Meet the teacher night was not so bad, but when we had to write Love Notes to our kids from Mommy & Daddy, the tears started welping up in my eyes! I made it through and then had to face today. The first day I send my first born off to Kindergarten! I don't quite understand why it was so hard. I've been taking Brock to "school" since he was 8-weeks old. It's not like we've been together day in and day out. However, since he will be going to school in Tom's district, it's actually quite a ways away from my office. I think that is part of the anxiety. I feel like I'm lightyears away! Today was probably the exception, but we left the house at 6:35. Got to Arlon Seay Elementary around 7. Left Brock at 7:20. I then headed towards work with Aubree. (Daycare is right across the street from my office.) I arrived at daycare at 9:05!!!! The first day of school traffic, plus I finding out there was a pretty bad accident I never saw, ended up in quite a long trip! I left work at 2 in order to pick up Aubree, then head back out to get Brock. Without traffic (and the quick stop at daycare), it's about an hour from my office.

Brock was all smiles when I picked him up. He had a great day! I had to pry a lot of information out of him; he wasn't that concerned over the milestone he had accomplished. I, on the other hand, am SO PROUD of my big kindergartener, but SO SAD that the time flies so fast. I truly can't believe it.