I'll be home for Christmas

It was Christmas before we knew it this year. It is the blessing and the curse of the holidays, you are so busy with fun that things come and go before you can stop and sometimes enjoy them. This year we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day both at home. We found ourselves on Christmas Eve morning without a plan so we decided to try out the new SkyZone and had the whole place to ourselves. We had fun jumping and burning energy for a few hours before we met my parents and Tara back at our house for a Christmas Eve buffet and party. We ate all of our traditional foods (shrimp, nachos, chocolate, etc.) and Isabelle taught us how to make some pretty cool paper snowflakes. We made gingerbread houses and acted out the nativity with puppets and after leaving a treat for Santa, went to bed full and happy.




Christmas morning was filled with all of the joy and happiness that one would expect as we opened gifts, ate treats and played with new toys. My parents and Tara came back over in their PJs to see all that Santa had left and then raced home just a few minutes before we arrived to prepare a delicious Christmas brunch. The day was quiet and lazy and quite lovely. Merry Christmas from the Cosbys.

The Holidays at Kids of the Kingdom

I am trying to savor every moment of Olivia's PreK year. I can feel Kindergarten sneaking up on us and it quite honestly gives me anxiety. I love the fun preschool that she attends and I am always the first mom there when we are invited to attend. This December the PreK class put on a nativity play and Olivia was the angel. (Fitting) She was the first on stage and the first to speak. "I see Mary will have a baby." We love our little Livi.

**You can see in these pictures that both her two besties are short...and Olivia is tall!

Woodlands Civic Ballet presents....The Nutcracker

I cannot think of anything my girls like to do more than dance. Period. They dance all day, everyday, everywhere we go. Both girls love ballet class each week and both girls count down until their annual production of The Nutcracker.

This year Isabelle danced once again the part of a Bon Bon and Olivia moved up to the role of Little Party Girl. Both girls practiced and practiced and Isabelle was given a special part as a jump leader and mischievous Bon Bon. She was thrilled with her performance and felt so lovely, graceful and special up on the big stage. Olivia loved wearing the special cape over her costume to begin and was so proud to be one of the very first characters on stage. She remembered to smile and her changements were as good as anyones.


The girls love their ballet friends, Sophie, Audrey, Maddy, Annie and Elle and they all have the best time together. They are all such sweet friends and I can't help but to love their time they spend together myself. They are learning discipline and manners each week as well as a little bit of French.



Brava Brava my little ballerinas. You are as lovely as can be.

Go little Livi!

Olivia has been hot and cold with sports thus far. She tried a season of soccer but wasn't thrilled with it and since has said many times that she wants to play again, only to quickly change her mind. The same has been true of basketball. She watches her big sister play everything and she thinks she wants to try it too, but then when the time comes she gets cold feet and her nerves set in. This December we found a perfect program for Olivia to get her feet wet, but not totally dripping.

She attended a 4 week camp where she learned the basics of basketball both in a large group and varied age setting, as well as with just other 4 year olds like herself. On on our way to her first clinic she said in the car that she "really hoped there would be NO boys on her team!" I assured her that I had signed her up as a girl so I assumed she would be with the girls, only to find out that she was the ONLY girl on her team. Thankfully she had a sweet coach named Jon who scooped little Livi right up and she showed those boys just who was boss. i9 turned out to be a great experience for our littlest girl and she loved getting a medal at the end of the month. Although she didn't prefer butt-kicks and said she was ok to not sign up right away again, she said basketball was awesome and loves to dribble around outside. Go Olivia!

November with Nature

We spent most of November with nature. The weather was finally lovely and none of us could get enough of playing outside. The girls played with their friends at the park for hours every week specifically making grass huts and nature forts. They ran all of their extra energy into the ground and then came home hungry and tired and dirty on many occasions. Both girls also started basketball with new leagues and new shoes and continue to love to be busy. We went to birthday parties and school milkshake parties, celebrated the 50th day of school, had bubblebaths, snuck in moments to see baby June and tried to remember to be grateful all month. November was a good month for the Cosby girls and all four of us would have been ok with extending it a few more weeks.

Turkey Day 2014

We spent Thanksgiving day this year with my family (minus Chris) in Cypress. First things first, we all ran in the Coles Crossing Turkey Trot like years passed and this year Isabelle cruised thru the 2 mile race without a glance backwards. I spent my time running with Olivia and was so proud that she kept going despite her fear she couldn't make it. She had walking breaks in between but she and I pushed it and were some of the first to finish the one mile route. After the kids got their medals, I obviously put my camera away for the day because that is where my pictures end!? My mom made a lovely meal of course and just like magic was able to have it on the table by lunchtime. Thanksgiving dinner is always one of those moments when you pray that your mom will always stay young, because how could you make all of that comfort food and have it ready at the same time and taste just like mom's always did? (Overwhelming thought.)

After dinner we spent the rest of the day relaxing and shopping. Black Friday has turned into post dinner Thursday shopping but that is ok with us. We flipped through the ads and made plans and had a fun and successful shopping spree late into the night. Isabelle always looks forward to Black Friday and it is so funny to see her push her way past people to get the goods. She is a good little shopper and has been trained well.

The rest of the weekend we played outside, made crafts, took care of each kid who took a turn getting sick and took my mom to the Urgent Care for bruised ribs and shoulders after a weird fall. It was a memorable weekend but sorta odd too. Either way, spending time with family is what the holidays are all about and we were surrounded by those we love.

Ben said it best this year when we said "Why are people mad about shopping on Thanksgiving? Can't people just be grateful other days of the year too?" We are very blessed as a family and are so grateful for our families and means and all of the opportunities we are blessed with. Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!