Christmas 2016

I can't move forward with my blog until I post about Christmas...better late than never right?  We had a wonderful Christmas.  I will let the pictures do the talking!  I have to get this post accomplished so I can print my blog book for 2016!!  We love going through these books each year, it's like a scrapbook without all that work! ;)

2nd grade class Christmas party!

I love this boy so much and love being his room mom!

Christmas morning at the top of the stairs waiting to go down to see what Santa brought!!

New "make-up"!  

Stockings by the fire!

Roller skates...oh Santa, what were you thinking??

It's a tradition that our awesome neighbor across the street does something wild for the kids.  Last year he had goats in his backyard that they chased around.  This year it was pony rides in a little carriage!  Oh what fun!!

Dec. 26th we were off to Dallas to celebrate with my family!

And oh what fun we had!

Lots of shopping, eating, family time, bowling, the list goes on!  Dallas never disappoints when your whole family lives there and the town you are visiting from is a bit smaller! ;)

It was perfectly warm for days outside!!

My kiddos got to meet their second cousins while we were there.  Those cutie pie twins were adorable!

Hanging out at the bowling alley!  Anytime we are in Dallas, Parker wants to bowl.  It's his favorite, go figure...it involves a ball and this kid is just about as competitive as they come.  When you play with P you have to bring your A game!

Being silly with Uncle Ryan!

About to ice skate with this one...I was nervous for the both of us.

Success, it was so much fun!

Our whole group in front of that awesome tree at the Galleria!

We came home to a big snow!  The kids were still out of school so it was a bonus snow day!

That's a wrap 2016, cheers to 2017!

We are already half way through January, whoo hoo!!  Almost one month closer to summer y'all!!

All things Christmas

We are in full on Christmas mode over here and it's so much fun!  Christmas is so magical with little ones in the house and I am soaking it in as much as I can.  We are also instilling in them the reason that we celebrate this season in the first place and that is the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord!

Our little elf arrived complete with a North Pole breakfast.  My kids just stared at him while they ate! Ha!  

Our wonderful neighbors send the kids this amazing gingerbread house from Williams Sonoma every year.  It's amazing!!

Such a fun surprise to open each year!

Happy December 1st!!

Our neighbors were out of town this past weekend and the lights on their tree had been going up for days.  We got a message from them asking if Parker would do the honors and light their tree up!

Ta da!!

A selfie with the tree!

The night we lit the tree it was freezing cold, foggy and drizzling...perfect December weather to light up a tree and then go back inside for hot chocolate!!

Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving has come and gone and it's hard to believe!  Celebrating with both families out at the ranch was what we did this year!  First, my family came up from Dallas a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving to celebrate and then we were out there with the Austin crew over the holiday.  The weather was perfect!

I had been waiting to get my  hands on this baby for a couple of months!  I finally got to meet my new nephew, Rhett Easton!  Love him!

Sweet cousins at the lake.

You know you have an awesome uncle when he folds himself up into your Razor for a ride! ;)

These kiddos love a four wheeler ride!

Grandad with his girls.

Uncle Ryan with the boys (minus Rhett)!

Swinging on the "swurfer".

Sistas!

It's just fun to pull out the John Deer tractor...they actually had to use it to pull a truck that was high centered.  Someone may or may not have been off-roading!  Ha!

A few weeks later we headed back out and this girl got to drive the dirt road in Daddy's lap.

Thanksgiving morning we ran a turkey trot literally over the hill and through the woods!  Running 3.2 miles before the big feast felt good!

When you find a big cow bone in the woods, you have to carry it around! ;)

Scarlett and Sydney, sweet second cousins.

Auntie Liesl taking the big and little kids on a mule ride.

My boy and his feast!

Sydney loves horses but has never asked to ride one.  Sloan saddled some on Saturday and she asked to get on one.  Nana was a big horse rider back in the day so she was just the one to teach Sydney how to do it right.  

She loved it!

Halloween 2016

Halloween this year was pretty eventful.  First of all, it was warm!  Like wear shorts out trick or treating warm.  Like Parker had sweat running out of his head warm because his costume was hot.  I'm all for warm weather but on Halloween night, maybe a bit of a chill in the air is good?

About an hour before we put the costumes on the kids, Sydney fell off of a toy in the driveway and got major road rash on her face.  Bad.  Took the hide off of her forehead, nose and lip bad.  Nothing like messing your face up before you put on a gorgeous princess dress! :) She looked beautiful regardless, it's a memory for sure!

Batman and Belle ready to take the hood by storm!

They thought these banjo playing skeletons were funny!

Trick or treating lasted about an hour but what they really couldn't wait for was going back home and sitting on our front porch to hand out candy.  Our neighborhood gets completely swamped on Halloween.  We finally ran out of candy at 9:00 and the lights went off, whew!

Halloween was still going strong the next day when they discovered colored vampire teeth in their buckets from the night before.

I mean you better hide!

This little dumpling had preschool picture day a couple of weeks ago and the proofs came back.   This mama was SO happy to see how great she did on picture day!

Do it people.  I won't go off on some political tangent, but go vote!

This quote came today in an article from Dr. Denison (our former pastor at Park Cities Baptist in Dallas, TX) and I thought it was profound...

"Our future does not lie with tomorrow's election or the one after that.  It does not lie with either party or with any branch of the federal government.  It does not lie with state or local leaders, or with multinational corporations, or with any other human enterprise.

The greatest king Israel ever knew (Jesus) said to the true king of the world (God), You rule over all".

1 Chronicles 29:12

"But we trust in the name of the Lord our God". Psalm 20:7

A hedonistic and despotic culture is no match for divine providence, Amen! 

So I ran into Hobby Lobby the other day while both kids were in school and I was met with an overwhelming Christmas wonderland.  I know they put it all out in July, but the decor has taken over the store.  I found this guy and was not leaving without him.  He is about 3 feet tall and is perfect for the hearth of my living room fireplace.  I collect nutcrackers so he's the perfect addition!!

It's kind of become an unspoken tradition that on Fridays Sydney and I bake.  Here she was making homemade pizza dough for family movie and pizza night!

Once Parker got home Friday afternoon we headed out to our little private airport to watch Daddy fly in from Dallas.

The kids love being little helpers with the airplane.

Here they were doing "bug detail".  Just like a car, airplanes have to be cleaned off too!

Sunday afternoon was the coziest ever.  The boys were watching the Cowboy game in James's home office and she was watching it rain out the window.

We ended the weekend with a mother/son date Sunday night!  Parker chose the restaurant and then I took him to see the traveling Broadway musical "Elf" that came through our town for two nights.  It was so cute and very festive (a bit early).  

I hope he always will want to go on a date with his mama! ;)