New Year's Eve and last week of Winter Break.

Ragnar surprised us a couple days after Christmas and told us that he needed a break and was taking off the first week of January. We were very excited! The kids don't go back until January 8, 2019 so it was nice to have him around since he was gone so much of December and had to work on Christmas day and New year's eve. 

New Year's Eve, we went to my brother Chris' house to celebrate his son Crew's birthday. He was turning 4 and Deacon and the kids were excited to come celebrate with him. 

He looks so much like my brother, I can't help but smile every time I look at him. 

After his party, we went with my parents and Natalie to the Rockets game. They have played every New Year's eve since I can remember Ragnar working there and we finally decided we would join him. We were in a suite and had a nice time together. After the game we went to my parents house to stay the night and put the younger two to bed and stayed to watch the ball drop in New York City and then went to bed just shy of midnight. What can I say, we are not party animals. We went for a walk with my parents on New Years day and then to Red Robin for dinner. We played games and watched football and had a nice relaxing day. 

We played a lot of Uno Attack, Go fish, and Cover your Assets card games since the kids got those for Christmas and they loved them. We probably played well over 20 rounds of Go fish! Deacon loved to play while watching sports.
We went to the movies and saw Ralph Breaks the Internet and it was cute enough, probably not my favorite though. It was a nice outing though and we had almost the entire theater to ourselves. 

We made it to the Downtown Aquarium to use some of the passes that the kids got from the Kids club at the Rockets. We enjoy exploring there. 

The Ferris wheel was fun, but it was a little chilly at the top when they would stop to let us overlook Houston. 

Ella loved to feed the Sting Rays and Channing was excited to be brave and touch them as well. 

The train to the aquarium tunnel was cool as we got to see sharks and a swordfish. 

The family was brave and we all went together on this ride. It wasn't as scary this time as I remember it. 

Deacon was tall enough to go this time and he wasn't scared at all, he was pretty excited. Ragnar was also thrilled that he could fit on the ride this time and could go with us! 

We saw the white tiger which was cool as well. 

Finally we rode the carousel many times and that was fun for the kids.

After lunch at the Aquarium, Ragnar and I were able to catch a temple session. 

We tend to go separately a lot, so it was nice to go together. 

Finally the last couple days of the break we had Chris' family over for pizza, games, and an outdoor movie. We watched Ferdinand. It was a nice winter break and the kids were ready to go back to school and I was ready for the routine again.