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)