Merry Christmas!!!!

Sugar... sugar.... sugar

aka, Gingerbread Houses....

My favorite Christmas decoration....

 

I love Christmas decorations....  I love themed trees, homeade ornament trees, wreaths with big bows, weaths with evergreen and pine cones, burlap incorporated into mantles, huge poinsettias, Santa collections and beautiful manger scenes.  This year, this is my favorite decoration in the house.... a classic wreath made by the hands, from the hands of my amazing kiddos. 

Letters to Santa

Dear Santa,

We've been pretty good this year.  For Christmas I would like...

Austin - an iPod, a skate board, a basketball, books and a 4-wheeler

Avery - books, an iPod, shoes, clothes, and a Wii game.

Caleb - a remote control helicopter, new tennis shoes, an iPod

Love,
The Maurers

Heavy heart

My heart is heavy and hurting.  I can't stop reading the headlines about the Newton, CT tragedy as more details of the incident unfold and we learn more about the innocent victims.

12.14.12 is a day we will always remember.  I will remember the very moment that I read  that many of the victims were Kindergarten students.  I have two amazing Kindergarten students.  This tragedy hits home and I fight back tears everytime my mind wanders into a scenario of what I would do if I was the mom of one of the victims.  It's just too much and those precious souls were taken from this earth much too soon.

I've been praying a lot since Friday.... I pray for comfort and healing for the parents who have lost their children.  I pray for those policemen who will forever have visions of children lying on the classroom floor.  I pray for teachers and their safety and their devotion to our children. I pray for the town of Newton, CT.  I pray that education and children's safety will become more important than standardized test scores. I pray our country can come together and stand up against evil.  I pray that mental health will be taken more seriously. I pray that my children will one day be able to start their school day with a prayer right before the Pledge of Alligiance. 

God is good and he will get us through this.  We need to remember to keep him in our everyday life and not just seek him out in the extraordinary tragedies. 

BCS 13.1

Back in September, I was looking for a little motivation, a little something to work towards, a little confidence booster, some goal that incorporated me burning a few extra calories and fitting into "skinny" jeans.  I use that term loosely because there will never be anything skinny about my jeans, or thighs.  Anyway, I frequently get emails about runs/races since I've done a few over the years and saw that there was half marathon in early December in College Station.  At the time it seemed perfect - cooler temps in December, 3 months to train, running through Thanksgiving to run off extra turkey calories, early Sunday start time, close by, race t-shirts, great way to kick off the Christmas Season....

As time got closer, I realized there were other obstacles I didn't consider.  First, temps refused to dip below 75 until well into October, maybe November which made it tough for longer runs.  Second, early Saturday mornings are usually best for me to take time to do long runs but in the fall I have a husband that hunts and isn't always in town to watch kiddos while I run.  Third, I'm busy... between work commitments, kids activities and life I didn't have big windows of time to lace up my shoes and hit the road and truth is I didn't make it a top priority.  

Fast forward to this past weekend, the big run.  I didn't feel ready.  The weather wasn't in any runners favor as temps started off in the 70's and you could cut the air with a knife thanks to the humidity.  None the less, I lined up with 3,000 other runners, most running a half marathon others running a full 26.2.  When the gun went off, it was just one foot in front of the other.  I had a new playlist downloaded with some oldies but goodies that helped pass the time.  FloRida really helped me along Mile 9.  I ran the whole thing minus 2 water stops.  At mile 12 I was right behind my goal time and almost stopped to walk, but I could see the downhill finish and pushed along.  Final time 2:01:11, just above my goal time, but I'll take it.  I've got a great medal and finisher t-shirt to prove it.

On a side note, if anyone reading has ever considered running a half marathon, I highly recommend this race!  It was so organized.  The race director did a great job of communicating all aspects of the race and they went above and beyond when they saw temps were going to be warm and humid.  Best part, the course was FLAT.  My training is done here on the backroads of Washington County and every step is at an incline, either uphill or down.   I just might have to try it again....

Peace Be Still

Nothing like sitting back and letting your kids remind you about the true meaning of Christmas.  St. Paul's CDS always does a great job making sure we are reminded that Jesus is the Reason for the Season.

2012 Lighted Christmas Parade



"Christmas Around the World".... the 2012 Lighted Christmas Parade in Downtown Brenham took place last weekend.  The sidewalks were packed and the streets were all a glow as floats for differnt community organizations/businesses and schools paraded down the streets of downtown Brenham.

 Frenchman Caleb Maurer

 St. Paul's CDS Ocean Treasures showed how the county of France celebrates Christmas.

 Salem Lutheran Church trailers.... 3 Maurer kiddos rode along

City of Brenham flaot.  A&A rode along on this one...

Successful Night with Santa

Nothing but smiles for Santa this year!!  As we all know, the "real" Santa comes to Brenham very early in the Christmas season to get all the kids' wishes.  A&A&C were super excited to share the "top 3" with the man in the red suit and white beard tonight.  Not sure if Santa can fulfill all the wishes, but I'm sure he's going to try.

From 4 wheels to 2

One of the best things about living in the country is the acres of green grass and lack of concrete everywhere.  One of the worst things for a kid that loves to ride their bike is acres of green grass and the lack of concrete everywhere.  Avery & Austin have had bikes for a year and a half and the majority of their riding time has been spent riding in circles in the garage and small slab where we park.  As much as I'd love to have a concrete drive way for them ride on, I'd prefer to spend that $10,000 else where.  (I despise spending money on things like concrete and rock!)

So... on Thanksgiving when we knew we'd be spending the day at Aunt Bonnie's, we knew it would be agreat time to bring the bikes and scooters along.  It was a great day to try taking off the training wheels and see if we could go from 4 wheels to 2.

Coordination, agility and balance come easy to this girl.  Didn't take her long to catch on to riding without training wheels.

Austin needed a little more help, just a little more reassurance.

And he's off.....

He took a bit of spill and hurt his backside.  As you can see, he was not happy that I was capturing it on camera.

Had to include this picture.... Uncle Jason spent Thurs - Sun with us.  What a treat!!!!  

Welcome back, Little Red!

He's back!!!  Friday afternoon we got back from a little shopping and Little Red was sitting there with a note to the kids letting them know Santa had asked him to keep an extra good eye on them this year.  This little guy is magical and a great way to get the kids up in the morning ;)  Can't wait to see what mischievous pranks he'll pull this year.  Sunday morning we found him fishing for goldfish.... crazy elf!

We are thankful...

We had a GREAT Thanksgiving Weekend.  We started with a nontraditional Mexican Feast at Toppe's on Wednesday night.  Thursday we feasted on turkey and all the trimmings at Aunt Bonnie's and then Saturday we spent the evening at Aunt Jerri's for Maurer Thanksgiving with chicken and stuffing.  In between all that feasting, we were able to get  all the Christmas decorations up, enjoy the awesome weather, and spend lots of time with family.  It was perfect!  

SO thankful...

2012 THANKFUL LIST

I am thankful for... mild Texas winters, Avery's back handsprings, Chick-fil-a waffle fries, positive parent/ teacher conferences, seat belts, Friday night lights, Austin's love to hunt with his daddy, ice cold diet coke, my mother-in-law's sewing ability, random "I love you's", new wood floors (no more carpet!), Easter egg hunts, Ms. Deramus, wii Just Dance, pretzels with dip (hummus), pedicures, Wes's love for the outdoors, trampolines, kids sleeping past 7am on Saturday morning, vodka with sprite and lime, Brenham, TX, my new work office location, memories of all my grandparents, the Ten Commandments, running, my mom's voice on the other end of the phone, Twizzlers,  Jack Elliot, Jason & Bruce's hospitality, good hair days, full days at the beach, Christmas lights, night time prayers, Caleb's smiles, Forest Grove Church, American soldiers, seat warmers, St. Paul's Christian Day School, 4-hour spans at the pool, fresh garden veggies, marriages that truly stand by "for better or for worse", Adam's Angels, God's love for all.....

So much to be thankful for!  We are truly blessed to live in a country where we are able to express our opinions and worship our Lord and Savior.  We are blessed to be surrounded by family and friends who truly stand by us through the good and the bad...and we are lucky that there is very little bad.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Soccer, it's a wrap

We finished up soccer tonight.  The last 10 weeks have kept us on the go, sometimes with one game a week and some weeks up to 3.  It's been nice having Austin & Caleb on the same team.  Next year we'll have 3 separate schedules to plan around.  Austin & Avery scored pretty much every game, sometimes 1 goal and other nights up to 6.  Caleb preferred to enjoy the defensive side of the game and protect the goal, at least when we weren't yelling at him "get in there, go get the ball!"  

Team EXTREME

Shelby, Avery, Heidi, Kolbie, Adylynn, Lilly

HOTSHOTS

Mason, Caleb, Brady, Austin, Jase & Weston

Maurer Power

Our biggest fans!!!  

Must work for meat...

The deer doesn't just get cut up and put in the freezer by itself around here.  We are do it youselfers so getting the deer cut up to be made into steaks, sausage, and jerky is a team effort.

I know, I know, big knives and small children don't go together.  We kept a close eye on them and I'm happy to report everyone still has 10 attached fingers.

The big kill...

It was a BIG weekend for Austin as he not only shot his first deer on his own, he shot two!  Two does.  Wes would be better at telling the exact stories of each deer kill so I'll just show the pics.  I apologize for a few of these, the open deer mouth is a bit frightening if you ask me.

 Deer #1

Not  only was there an excited hunter... there was one  proud daddy!

First deer. 11-9-12.

Being official and filling out his tag.  Caleb was there for moral support :)

This was doe #2 with a much better shot!

Hunting buddies.   

Kade and Austin showing off their does.

Doe #2 w/ dad.

So now we have plenty of deer meat and the boys have stories to tell.   A pretty cool father/son experience!