The Oldroyd Family

Its been over a month since I've blogged & someone finally noticed (thanks Annalee)!  I'm feeling the love (sarcastic).  You can make it up to me by reading all 13 items & leaving a comment when you're done.  Thank you. 1.  I have been so over blogging lately.  Its sad-- I didn't blog about our fun trip to Utah before Christmas or our holidays here in Texas!  I need to go back & find pictures to post.  Especially for Christmas.  In case that never happens... 2.  We went to Utah from December 13th - 24th.  We had lots of fun celebrating the season with the Partridge & Gines families.  As always, we wish we could have seen more friends & families!  3.  We came home Christmas Eve & had a great Christmas with the Oldroyds!  We were lucky enough to have Sam's youngest sister and her family (the Bakers) here with us so all 10 Oldroyd cousins could be together!  We had a lot of fun adven...

Nathan & Alexa had their little Joy School Christmas Party today.  They had so much fun!  We did a little Nativity where Nathan was a Wiseman (but tried to take over the Joseph roll) and Alexa was Mary.  We did a craft, ate snacks, & decorated sugar cookies.  We love out little Joy School group!

I wanted to share a couple of Christmas treats I made this year (thank you Pinterest!).  I'll start with the easy one...  The Christmas Tree Fruit Platter. I put this together for the kids' Joy School party today.  Fun & simple.  The only cutting you have to do is the apples & my friend Rachel cut the star out of cheese.   Next we have Rudolf Cake Pops.  WHEW were they a chore!  But they turned out SO well that I can't complain.  I typed up the instructions for a couple of people so I thought I'd post them here just in case anyone wanted to do them!  They really were a hit! Here's what you'll need: Red Velvet cake mix (or any other kind you want to use) 16 oz. can of cream cheese frosting  1 package of chocolate almond bark (or use chocolate candy melts, found at a craft store) wax paper lollipop sticks lollipop bags brown or tan pipe cleaners/fuzzy sticks red m&m's white confetti sprinkles or pearl s...

Last Friday we headed to Bass Pro Shop to visit Santa. Max was kind of indifferent, Nathan was SO EXCITED to tell Santa that he wanted a "cool red car" & Alexa was TERRIFIED. I finally convinced her that if she didn't talk to Santa, he wouldn't know that she wants an Ariel Barbie for Christmas. She did it but, as you can see, she wasn't too terribly thrilled!

Last week I was lucky enough to go on a last-minute girls cruise with my friend, Bridget.  Sam took a couple of days off work & his mom filled in the rest!  It was SUCH a great break & as much as I fretted about the lack of contact I'd be able to have with Sam & the kids while I was on the cruise, I didn't worry one bit once I was there. Galveston cruises were all booked up so we took a little road trip to New Orleans.  We went on the Carnival Elation.  I was pleasantly surprised with my first Carnival Cruise!  We had a great time, despite the "rough crowd" and some creepy guys.  After sitting by the creepy guys the first night at dinner, we asked for a table change.  We, ironically, got placed with 6 Air Force Cadets.  They ended up being super fun & nice.  We had a great time at our new table! Tuesday was formal night.  Always fun to get a little dressed up! Wednesday we ported in Progreso, Mexi...

We had such a fun zoo trip yesterday!  We had Savannah & Isaac with us!  You can imagine the looks I got with 5 little kids running around.  I was asked several times if they were all mine.  Haha! It was a little bit crazy... especially getting out the door.  I had to have 5 sippy cups, 5 snacks, 5 packed lunches, 5 pairs of socks & shoes on, 5 jackets on... plus my own.  I actually almost made if off our street before I realized I hadn't put my own socks & shoes on!  So glad I realized that close to home! The kids did great at the zoo though.  They loved seeing all of the animals & we even happened to be by the lions when they fed them!  That was a special treat! I hope we can do it again soon!