Helms Family Christmas 2016

The Helms family had a terrific Christmas this year.  We stayed at home this year - which was nice.  Below are some pictures taken during this Christmas season.

The kids in their Christmas jammies on the couch.

Lights on the house.

The Christmas candle light service at Lake Pointe Church.

The family took a couple of quick pictures after the service at Lake Pointe.

This is a picture of Noelle at the Heath Christmas tree lighting event.

This is the Heath Christmas tree.  Not bad for a small town.

The kids and I attended a kid's targeted Christmas service at Pier 419 at Lake Pointe Church.

These are all of our stockings - plus a stocking for Jack Turner.  :)

Skylin made another gingerbread house this year.

My mother found some mistletoe in a tree in our back yard.  We brought it in and hung it up in the doorway.  

The hottest Christmas gift this year was Hatchimals.  We looked very hard for one for Skylin.  This is a picture of an empty shelf where the Hatchimals were supposed to be at Target.  I even got up crazy early one morning and went to Target before they opened.  But no luck.

Each year the kids draw names to purchase Christmas gifts for the other kids.  This year Skylin, through some sneaky tactics, was able to create a master map of who had who.

The family on Christmas morning.

Even Daisy had a Christmas outfit.

Skylin got a Fitbit and was so excited.

Noelle opening her Apple watch.

Skylin got a Dream Duffel to hold all her dance outfits at competitions. 

Triniti with her giant bear.

I got Anki Overdrive - a racetrack with AI based cars that you control with your iPhone.

Skylin playing ice cream shop with Dawson.

Daisy loved her Christmas toy.  It did not last long before she had totally destroyed it.

Brittany got a dentist Barbie.

Triniti using her new Beats.

Jerry and Drew going to the Stars game.

The back yard the day after Christmas

 

Mesquite Rodeo

 On Saturday night we went to the Mesquite Rodeo.   We have lived in Texas for 12 years and this is the first time we went to a rodeo. We were celebrating my father's 65th birthday. It was a good time. 

 

This is a picture of the crew. 

 

This was one of the bull rides. 

This was the kids run where the kids were trying to pull a ribbon off the cows tail. It was madness. 

 

Josh is somewhere in that mass of kids. 

Helms Family Sand Volleyball Court

When we were looking for a new house one of our top priorities was to have a backyard that was big enough that we could put in a sand volleyball court.  If you are not aware, these courts are really big (90 ft. x 50 ft.).  Almost as big as a full size basketball court.  Therefore, we were really happy to find a place that we loved that had a yard that could accommodate a full sand volleyball court.  

After much research and many calls, we decided to hire a guy by the name of Colby Howerton of Howerton Construction in Fort Worth to build the court.  Colby is an experienced court builder who was recommended by Texas Sports Sands.  Texas Sports Sands was the supplier of the most important aspects of this court - the high quality sand.  They are the undisputed leader of quality sand products in the DFW area.  Paul at Texas Sports Sands was simply outstanding.  

After several weeks of work in some challenging conditions, we finally completed the project last month.  Because of the stone retaining wall, this project was more challenging than most sand courts.  But Colby and his team did a terrific job and the result is a beautiful court that we expect to enjoy for years to come.

This is a video showing the construction process.

Before they started digging.

When they first started digging.

Getting ready to put in the frame.

Starting on the stone retaining wall.

Putting in the sand.

Sand is in place.

Completed court.

The kids enjoying the court at Shawn's graduation party.

The view of the court from our pool area.