Christmas Program at School

Carley and Campbell's Christmas program at school was today! Carley had a break-out role as "Angel #1"! She was so cute. Campbell's class only sang one song, but they did it so well! Merry Christmas everyone!

Cookie Time with Daddy

Monday night was FREEZING outside, so Chris and the kids made snowman sugar cookies! They had a blast until they put them on the kitchen table after decorating them, walked away for bit, then heard Stanley pull them all off the table and gobble them up! Then, it was not so jolly times for Stanley.....

An Afternoon with Friends

Our close friends, Melissa, Taylor and Taryn, spent the afternoon at our house Monday. Melissa brought them both over to play with Carley and Campbell while I went to get my hair cut and colored (I'm a brunette now!). Then when I got home, Melissa went to run some errands. Since they had played so well all afternoon, we put on Polar Express and tucked them all under a blanket on the couch for "movie time." Campbell fell asleep about three minutes into it, but the girls loved it! Christmas time is so much fun!! :)

Good Luck, Ronna!

Tomorrow, Ronna running a half-marathon at White Rock Lake. She has worked and trained so hard for this race and I just wanted to wish her the best of luck!! Good Luck Ronna!! You'll Do Great!!!!

The Smell of Virginia Pine

Chris and I have had an artificial Christmas tree ever since we got married 7 1/2 years ago. I have to admit, they are easier and more economical, but the magic of a live Christmas tree just isn't the same. Chris always had a "fake" tree growing up, so it didn't really bother him that much - But, my family always had a real tree (until I was in college). We would order them through our church every year and I used to love going to pick one up with my dad. A few times, I went out the farm with my dad and the other men of the church to help cut them all down, but since there were so many, I remember it taking forever and usually just having to wait at home until they got back. SO... I told Chris that when the kids got big enough, I wanted to go out to a Christmas Tree Farm and cut one down ourselves. And so today that is exactly what we did!! It was soooo much fun!! We rode on a hayride out from the barn to the trees, looked around for the perfect one (which is not as easy as we thought), cut it down, carried it back to the barn on another hayride, watched the workers shake it out and feed it through the "string machine" (because I don't know what else to call it) and then tie it on top of the minivan!! It was Griswald all over the place!!!!!!!!!!! Even Steve got to go with us - he had a blast and everyone loved him, of course!! When we got home, it took Chris all of two minutes to get it lined up straight in the tree stand (what would have taken me an hour or so to unwind all the branches and leaves of our fake one) and the decorating began!! It is the PERFECT tree! We love it!!! The absolute best thing is that our whole house smells like Virginia Pine!! It is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad we do not have alergies!!

Here are pictures at the Winterland Christmas Tree Farm in Van Alstyne. My battery ran out while downloading, so I do not have the one of the tree on top of the van. I just thought that was hilarious for some reason. If you haven't already put up a tree this year, I highly recommend going to the tree farm and making it a wonderful family experience. :)

(sorry they are small, it was taking forever to upload them tonight for some reason so I had to make them small in size to get them to work. )

Hunting, Turkey, Shopping, Fishing and Pink Eye!!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year - a long week, but a great time with family and friends. We left home Monday night and headed to Whitehouse so Chris could hunt on my family's land in Concord and Gilmer. Then, on Wednesday morning we headed to Sealy to Grandma's house!! We went with Grandma to the extended family Thanksgiving in El Campo on Thursday. This is usually our Thanksgiving every year, however this year my mom and dad met us in Sealy Thanksgiving night so they could go down to Rockport, TX ( on the coast by Corpus Cristi) so my dad, Chris and his uncle could spend the weekend flounder fishing.

So, my mom, dad and I decided to shop Sealy's Wal-Mart Friday morning for a few Christmas presents and because I needed a new camera. WHAT WERE WE THINKING!!!!!! Oh my gosh, I will never wake up at 4 a.m. to go shopping again! It was a mad house and we couldn't get to any of the good stuff (electronics and toys) for all the people! After grabbing a few things and finally giving up, we left and messed around at a Sears appliance store and Palais Royal (like a Bealls). I actually had a great time in Palais Royal spending my birthday money!! It was finally light outside when we were done there, so I took my parents back to their hotel room, ran by Walgreens to pick up Chris' prescriptions, then decided to run back by Wal-Mart to see if the crowd had subsided any. After all, it was 8:15 a.m. already!!!!!! I JUST WANTED TO LOOK AT A CAMERA FOR GOODNESS SAKE! Low and behold, I parked, walked right up to the camera counter, bought my camera, and left -- all in about 3 minutes! I couldn't believe it!! All that trouble and I should have done in the first place was let the crazies have their time to raid everything, then go in and calmly do some Christmas shopping!!

After that fiasco, it was time to head down to Rockport. We had a great time at Aunt Diane and Uncle Frankie's house. They are such good hosts.. cooked great food and really took care of us. We went to the beach, road on a ferry and played with lots of cousins. My dad had a blast flounder fishing, too!! Only bad thing was that I woke up Sunday morning with Pink Eye!! It hurt so bad... and still does. Nobody else had it, so I guess I picked it up at Wal-Mart in Sealy - don't remember that in their ad!! So the nine hour drive home was quite long, but the kids did great and we had a lot of fun playing "I SPY" and "Paper/Rock/Scissors."

Here are some pics... I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well!!

(field of geese and ducks... they are everywhere down in the Sealy/Ganado area!)

(feeding SeaGulls)

(family pic time!! I have never been to beach at Thanksgiving before!)


(Awe.. how cute!)

(I love this pic of Papa and Campbell)

(Sexy Man!!)

(Cheese!)

(beach babe!)

(Ferry Ride)

(Having fun together!)

(Flounder fishing)

Playoffs!!!

Holy Guacamole... Chris's team made the playoffs for the first time EVER! We will come in fourth in district and four teams go to the playoffs. So, we barely made it... but we make it. How exciting!!

Yesterday was my 31 birthday. I can't believe I am in my 30's now and not just 30! Being 30 was bad enough!! My parents and two of my nieces came into town to celebrate with us. We didn't do much celebrating, though, because I didn't feel well Saturday afternoon and night at all. Must be my old age.....

Have a great week everybody! :)

Oh Boy!

SHould I be worried?????!!!!!!!!!!! ;)

Bowling

Saturday night we took the kids bowling for the first time! It was fun, but man, I forgot how expensive bowling can be! Being her competitive self, it took a while for Carley to understand that she wouldn't always (and hardly ever) knock down all the pins at the same time. But, she got it - and the ramp helped TONS! Campbell liked it too.. he loved the ramp, but his little ball took FOREVER to make it down the lane. :)

Titans fall to the Bear Cats

Sorry for not adding last week's update - The Titans beat the Wolverines and moved to 4-1. However, this past Friday we lost to Sherman, making us now 4-2. Still having a great year, though!! :)

Titans 48, Bulldogs 44!

District opener was last night and what a game!! We lead pretty much the whole time, but not by much. Then the bulldogs tied up in the 4th quarter followed by another field goal to lead. The Titans drove down the field and reached field goal range, when the quarterback through a long pass to a receiver in the end zone! It was awesome! Carley and were jumping up and down and then she said to me, "Mom, you're scaring me!" Campbell didn't really care about anything except when he could go down and play football with Daddy, which he asked seemingly every two minutes of the second half!!!!! Good job, Titans!!!!! Good job, Chris!!!!! Titans are now 3-1 for the season, 1-0 in district play.

Centennial Titans Move to 2-1!

The Centennial Titans moved to 2-1 on the season as they pummeled the Pirates of Mesquite Poteet 26-14! Yea Titans!!!!!! That's the only commentary I've got this week because the kids and I stayed home. Chris did say the Titans were down 14-15 at the half, then came back big in the second half. Sounds exciting, huh!!!! :)

We didn't go the game partly because Carley had her first t-ball game of the Fall season (and the other part because Mesquite is a good ways away!)! She had a great time and of course, did fabulous! Her team is the Cubs and they have three girls this season, instead of two like last season. So, there is a little more Girl Power in the dugout.

After the game she was supposed to go over to her friend Taylor's house for her first sleep over. To make a long story short, she was back at our house not even 15 minutes after I left her at the pizza place with Taylor's family. It was quite funny, actually. When Taylor's mom and dad dropped her off, their whole car was crying... Carley was crying because she wanted to come home, Taylor was crying because Carley wasn't spending the night and Taryn (Taylor's younger sister) was crying because Taylor wanted to then spend the night at our house. Taylor then tells her parents on the way home, "This is the worst night ever!" :) DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA!

Back To School

Both kiddos started school today! Carley just loves school. The school is in our church, so my office is just right down the hall. Ms. Mary, Carley's teacher, popped her head in to tell me she and the other teacher decided there was nothing they can teach Carley because she knows everything already. She is so smart... it's the ONLY thing she got from me. :)
Campbell had a great day, too. He goes Tuesdays and Thursdays and cried a little, but Ms. Linda took him over to play with the dinosaurs and he was fine. Ms. Kathy told me how sweet and cute he is and that she just loves him. Umm, Yeah!! Tell me something I don't know! ;)

So handsome!

Here is Campbell's two year old picture (via Portrait Innovations in Plano), even though we took it 2 1/2 months after his second birthday! ;) Such the little stud-muffin!

Ouch, that hurt!

Chris' Centennial Titans lost a close one last night to the McKinney Boyd Broncos. Since the kids and I had t-ball practice and parent orientation at Carley and Campbell's school first, we didn't get to the game until right at half-time. At that time, the score was 28-7 Broncos!! Not a good sign, but Carley and I knew us three must be the Titan's good luck charm because they scored as we were walking up the parking lot. :)

In the third quarter the Titans came back with another touchdown and in the fourth, another one! Score is now tied 28-28. The defensive battle began and after two or three "3 down and outs" later and with 3 minutes now (I think) left in the game, a Bronco broke through with a great run to score a touchdown, making it 35-28 Broncos. Titans were on their way back, but with 1:06 left in the game, threw an interception and it was all done (other than three little piddly running plays by the Broncos to run the clock out)!

Such a heart-breaker! But, what a great game! Good job, Titans! Next week.... MESQUITE!!!

(How's that for broadcasting skills! I could go up against Erin Anderson ANY day of the week, right honey?!!!!)

Go Titans!!!

Chris' first football game of the season was Friday night. The Titans won 71-20!!! It was awesome and so nice to be on the winning side for a change. (Sorry, Honey!) Hopefully, this is is a sign of a good year to come. The kids had a blast, of course!

O.K. let me explain - Carley got a new cheerleader outfit from another coach's daughter who outgrew hers. Campbell was NOT happy about Carley getting something new and not him. The only way to calm him down was to get her old outfit out for him. Then, all was well with the world again! He kept that outfit on for hours, too!! A little unnerving, but you have to admit, pretty darn cute! :)

At the game on Friday!

Where do I start?

Hello all!! Oh my goodness, where do I start.. it has been SOOOOOO long since our last post, that there is absolutely no chance of catching you all up on everything that has gone on since then! So, I put together a quick glimpse at what we did over the summer all in one post. Then, we will just have to start anew! I promise to do better this time... :)

Carley, Campbell and Chris went fishing pretty much all spring and summer long. They love it!!

This past Spring, Carley won MVP of her t-ball team! We are playing again this fall and will soccer a try in the spring!

Chris and the kids decided to pitch a tent in the backyard and camp out one night. After 2 hours of trying to put a tent up only to find out it didn't have all the pieces - then borrowing our neighbors - the fun was on! 50 minutes later the camp out was over and both kids were knocking on the back door. It was funny at the time, but we will NOT be going to all the trouble again any time soon! :)

Campbell is such a big, little boy - he turned 2 on June 27! Time sure does fly...

Campbell moved up to a big boy bed! It is actually sad to see the empty crib in the corner. But as Carley says, "We'll just save it for the grand kids."

4. We had a FANTASTIC family trip down to San Antonio. It was so much fun having pillow fights in the hotel room and Sea World was amazing!