2013 Year in Review - Three Mize Wrap up

2013 Year in Review

January:

·         I took a photography class and decided I was the new Annie Leibovitz.  I’ve managed to capture a lot of Erin’s life on film.

·         Max goes missing overnight and the family pulls together for search and rescue.  Tommy found him the next day at the Animal Shelter

·         Erin’s vocabulary explodes and she has full on conversations with us.  She says the funniest things and it’s hard to stay in parent mode and not laugh.

February:

·         Erin has some kind of spell that lands us in the ER.  They never figured out what it was, but she stopped doing it.  Very scary.

·         Erin moved up a class in school because she was getting bored in the old class.  She loves the new teachers, Ms. Doe and Ms. Amanda.

·         It was “Bring a Friend” Day at the Little Gym so Erin took her best friend Avery.

·         Erin develops a “crush” on Ethan at school.  It’s her first crush!

·         It was Go Texan week and Erin dressed up in her best cowgirl/boots outfit – Mommy and Daddy saw George Strait in his farewell performance at Reliant.  It was incredible.

·         Roxie lost her battle with a heart complication.  It was terrible.  RIP Roxie Anne Mize.  You are missed every day.

March:

·         We bought a new puppy and Erin named her Mae.  She is very, very energetic!  Erin picked out her name.

April:

·         We had Easter at the Ranch with Aunt Lolo and the Ammerman crew.  We took bluebonnet pictures and the kids had a blast hunting Easter eggs.

·         It was the St. Jude Trike-a-Thon at Erin’s school.  She raised $450 dollars

·         Erin took school pictures and the turned out great.  I bought all 3 poses!

·         We celebrated Easter in the County with Granny and Pepaw.  Granny bought the kids the cutest ever swings and they all picked one and made it their own.  (No fights either!)  Every time we go back they get on their “assigned” swings.  No fuss, no muss!

May:

·         Tommy and I went to see Jimmie Buffet in Dallas.  It was freezing!  But like any good Parrotheads, we bundled up and sang along.

·         Mae had her girlie surgery.  She had to wear the E-collar for 2 weeks!

·         I took another photography class and learned way more than I did in the first one.  Now I am truly a professional! LOL

·         We bought Erin a “big girl bed” and moved her out of her toddler bed.  I went crazy with the Minnie decorations and did her bedroom and bathroom together.  Turned out super cute.  I put it on Pinterest and it’s exploded with the number of strangers repining my pin! 

June:

·         We attempted potty training again and this time it stuck.  She did super!

·         Tommy and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary and took a cruise while Erin stayed with Gram and Pawpaw.

·         Erin started swim lessons, she caught on very quickly and loves the water

July:

·         We celebrated the 4^th of July with a family party at our house and Erin and William are caught on tape singing “Happy Birthday Dear America”.

·         Erin turned 3 and had 2 parties.  One was just family on her actual birthday and the next week she had her big party with all her friends and family at the Little Gym.  She loved it!

·         Erin gets a trampoline for her birthday.  Fun for the whole family

August:

·         Erin has her first ever dentist appointment and does super great.  We got a super report too.

·         Bailey spent the week with us while Mark and Steph were in FL.  Mae had blast, but Bailey went home very, very tired.  Puppies are hard work!

·         We took a family vacation to Florida again this year.  Erin did great on the drive.  She watched movies and didn’t complain at all about being in her seat for so long.  She loves the water and had a great time at the beach and in the pool at the house we rented.  Mae stayed with Bailey and wore her out again.

·         Like any good stage mom, I started Erin in ballet.  I am more excited then she is.

September:

·         We started “Treasure Box” to get Erin to poop on the potty.  She’s had the tinkling down for a while but had trouble getting the poop mastered.

·         We took a mini-vacation to Sea World with Gram, Pawpaw, William, Aunt Mimi and Uncle Matt.  The kids a terrific time and we plan on making it an annual trip.

·         I went to my first ever Texans game.  The won in the last minutes of the game.  It was exciting.

·         Erin started a new class at school and they have a color system of Red, Orange and Green for bad, okay and good.  Erin has a streak on red. 

October:

·         I decided to go high tech and I developed a family website and bought the domain name www.threemizes.com.  Very impressive. 

·         Mae bites a man while we were on our walk today.  In her defense he did come up behind us and scare us both and it was 4:30 in the morning and very dark.

·         We had our Christmas lights hung because if we did it before 11/1 it was 20% cheaper.  Ho Ho Ho

·         Mae continues to destroy every toy she has and anything that is left laying around.

·         Erin is a Glitter Witch for Halloween 

November:

·         We washed up in ballet.  She got to where she didn’t want to go so we didn’t want to force her into it.  We let her quit.

·         I taught myself to knit and now I have a new hobby.  It’s amazing what you can teach yourself with a step by step book and Youtube.

·         We went to Santa’s Wonderland in College Station with the Ammerman crew and Gram and Pawpaw.  It was so much fun!

·         We had Thanksgiving at our house and had a huge crew over here.  It was perfect. 

·         Erin refuses to wear anything but her pink star glitter boots.

·         The Christmas tree goes up

December:

·         Sparkle is back this year and continues to delight Erin with her daily escapades.

·         Gram, Aunt Steph, Jake, and Luke go with us to the Polar Express train in East Texas.  It was so much fun to see the kids have such a great time.  Thanks Granny!

·         The 3 of us decorated giant Gingerbread Men and Erin get the decorating bug and we end up decorating Christmas cookies about 6 more times!

·         We have 4 separate Christmases.  (Christmas in the Country, W.A.M. Christmas, Christmas at home with just us, and the Mize/Wiseman Christmas)  Erin is still asking when she can open more presents. 

Looking back on this year, I know that I am truly blessed.  It was another year with family and friends and especially Erin in our lives to keep us smiling.  I have a want/wish list as long as my leg most of the time, but when I stop and think, I know that I have everything I need.  I have my health, my house, plenty of food to eat (too much), great friends, and of course my family.  They are the most important thing to me!  I also have a relationship with God and I thank him every day for how much he has blessed this little girl from Vidor, Texas.

May each and every one of you have a great New Year! 

Hello 2014!

Christmas is Officially Over...

Well, the tree is down and all the inside decorations have been put away.  I was relieved and sad at the same time to have it all done.  We left the outside lights up until 1/1/2014.  We pay the guys to put them up and then they come and take them down.  They probably won't get to us until the middle of January, so we left the outside lights we put up going too.  It's still very festive on our road.  Most everyone still has them out.  Of course we won't light them up after the 31st!

We had the last of our Christmas parties on Saturday.  It was the Mize/Wiseman party at Tommy's cousin's house.  They live right outside Madisonville on some land and have plenty of room for the kids to run around.  Of course, Erin followed Jake and Luke everywhere they went.  One of Tommy's 2nd cousins acted like a little babysitter for us.  Morgan loves kids and Erin and Luke really took to her.  Jake is old enough to run around without constant supervision, but I felt like Erin needed to be watched.  There was a lot to get into there!!!

Pepaw brought his guitar and him and Tommy's cousin Jay sat out there and strummed.  The kids were fascinated.  Especially Luke.  He and Erin took turns strumming on the guitar while Pepaw supervised.  I'm sure that poor guitar will never be the same.  Luke took after the amp and twisted every knob and button on it too.  Pepaw told me later that Luke found buttons he didn't know he had!! 

We did the annual White Elephant gift exchange.  You never know what you'll end up with.  I got what I wanted.  Steph brought a bracelet that matched the necklace I got for Christmas.  I stole it from Tom's cousin Lori and no one stole it back from me!  When the guys played, Tommy brought a little grill package that has been showing up for about 3 or 4 years now.  It gets wrapped and passed around each Mize Christmas and comes back with the box in tact for the next year.  I think Pepaw was the original bringer and we're not sure how he feels about having the gift that keeps on giving!  It's sort of like a barbeque version of a fruitcake!

I forgot to get my camera out because I was too busy talking the whole time.  We had a great day visiting with everyone.  It's a shame we only get to see them once a year.  We're all so busy that we don't seem to find the time during the year to get together, but I'm very glad we make the time at Christmas.  (This year it ended up being the weekend after Christmas because of every one's schedules!)  Tommy and I are going to try to have something in the Spring while it's still cool.  It's too hot to have a summer shindig.

This year Sheree lined up a professional photographer to take group pictures.  He was very patient because it was like herding cats.  We were lucky that he was there so we got a family picture of just the 3 of us, but we also got one of all 9 of us together.  It's the first really "family" picture we've taken since I've been in the family!  I'm hoping we got at least one good one.  Erin was NOT being cooperative!

It was a tiring weekend with Aunt Mimi's party on Friday night and then the Mize Christmas on Saturday!  But it was a very fun weekend. 

Momma and Erin...

Since I'm always the one taking the pictures, we have very few of me with Erin.  Daddy made sure on Christmas morning that we go some of Momma and Erin playing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video of Christmas Morning...

Here's a short video of Erin Christmas morning.  It was a kid's wonderland in the living room.  Santa is a super guy!

Christmas at Home...

On Christmas Eve we had our own little Mize Christmas.  All of our traveling was over and we were home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Gram and Pawpaw were home too so they came over for the evening and then came over again at 5:45 on Christmas Day to be here when we got Santa presents.

Following Wistner tradition, we opened our presents to each other on Christmas Eve.  Erin got an ipad as her big present and she loves it.  I had downloaded a bunch of Disney apps and she played for a long time on the one where you color Mickey and the Clubhouse.  I got my boots and a necklace that I wanted.  Tommy got a mini-fridge for the garage or patio.  He hasn't decided exactly where he's going to set it up.  While he's off this week, he's going to find the perfect spot for it.

Christmas morning was Santa.  Erin got a princess tent and several other things.  It certainly pays to be an only child!!  We totally over did it, but it's so fun to watch her get so excited.  She went from toy to toy and checked them all out.  So far, the Fisher Price Princess castle is her fav.  We've played it a 1,000 times.  She likes the tent set up in the living room so she can watch TV and lay in it at the same time.  She also got a Minnie Mouse blanket and she's wrapped up in it as I write this.

Here are some of the pics from Christmas morning and the video we shot of her coming down the stairs is the next post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

W.A.M. Christmas...

Wistner, Ammerman, Mize Christmas was a super success.

Instead of cooking, we ordered lasagna and fettuccini.  It was super easy and turned out to be a good thing.  Of course, we tried to get the kids to eat before presents but that wasn't too successful.  They snacked but were too anxious to open presents.  I think Erin was the ring leader on that but William was happy to follow.

William got a tractor riding toy from Gram and Pawpaw, so Erin got in her car and joined him for a spin in the driveway.  She ended up having her first crash with a vehicle in the cul-de-sac.  Luckily it was Pawpaw's truck.  She sometimes forgets to listen and ALWAYS drives in high speed.  She was going full blast and ran into the back of the truck at the trailer hitch.  The tailgate was down and she came inches from hitting her head.  It scared us all to death, but she just laughed and kept on trucking. 

We moved on to the inside presents and the kids had a blast opening all of them. 

Here are a few pics from the day!  I think the big box could have been the best present for Billy the Kid!

 

 

 

 

Shame on Sparkle...

She went to bed last night without moving.  Shame on Sparks. 

Out of desperation, she found a spot in the art niche amongst the decorations.

Mize Country Christmas - 2013

We celebrated Christmas with the Mizes in the Country yesterday.  We did this so we can be home on Christmas Day so the kiddos can play with their Santa presents.

We had a great time and again, I have to brag on the kids.  They were terrific.  It was raining so they didn't get to play outside much but they were happy as can be playing inside and Erin made Pepaw and the boys watch Tinkerbell - Secret of the Wings.  (You can see it on the TV in the background in the picture of the 3 kids.)

The kids went first unwrapping presents.  We did it in age order per Jake's request...hmmmm.  They were very patient waiting for the kid in front of them to open presents.  Luke did some supervising of the others, but they were apparently performing up to snuff.  Erin did get ticked at him one time for his "help".  It was too funny.

When it was the adult time to open presents we had a good time watching the kids again.  They had so much fun unwrapping their own stuff that they "helped" us unwrap our stuff.  It was chaos, but the best kind of chaos.  I manned the trash bag to try and keep us from losing parts of toys and presents.  I think we were successful and made it home with everything in tack.