Thanksgiving 2011

I'm really, really bad at taking pictures with my family, but I don't want to forget this holiday. I honestly get so caught up at just being with them, that I don't take the time to hunt down my camera and take pictures--something that I regret Every. Single. Time!!!

We traveled to Memphis with most of my family to celebrate Thanksgiving. We stayed at my aunt's house, ate our Turkey dinner at my little sister's house and Aunt Mendy and I as well as Jarrod and I shopped starting on Thanksgiving night from 10pm-5am. Crazy I know, but much better to stay up all night (when you have enough family to watch your kiddos for you while you sleep the next day) than to get up uber early and fight mammoth crowds!!!

We got to see my brother, Chris who is working in Sweden these days, my sister Emily (aka Different Mimi to my kids), my cousins, my cousin Justin's sweet baby Miles, my parents and my aunt. We missed my sister Becky (aka: Bec Bec) and her sweet family because they all got sick the week of Thanksgiving, so we had to settle on phone time with them.

Maybe my mom has a picture or two that she can send me??? Mom???

Logan turns 6

I have rules. And one of those is that you can't get your own gun until you are 6. Why did I make that rule? Should have been 60! No, really, can you tell how proud these boys both are? What a rite of passage. Logan has been hunting with Jarrod for the past two seasons and this year he got to take his own gun along and learn to start using it. Of course, there are other safety rules involved now, but I won't bore you with those details!

We had Logan's birthday party at the Ballpark in Arlington this year. We had heard over the summer that they did parties and I was already angling to NOT have this years party at our house. Jarrod grew up going to Rangers games and has been a fan his whole life. He started taking Logan to games the same year that we moved here to hopefully instill a great love for not only baseball, but particularly the same team that he's grown up loving! Boy has he. They go to about 6-8 games per season and I love to get to hear the stories. His favorite players are Michael Young, Elvis Andrews, Josh Hamilton and Ian Kensler. So...we decided to surprise Logan with a party at the ballpark. Lucky for us they were in the World Series just before his party so we got some great, great pictures too! So proud of our Rangers!!! (as a side note, Elly didn't join us--we didn't have family come, so it made it a little difficult to have all of the kids this year and Logan wanted a Daddy/son party. I got to go and invite my BFF to help me, because I'm the mom and I planned the party!)

We interrupt these forever ago updates to bring you...

SNOW FUN!!!!

Trick or Treating 2010

BFFs

Our crew minus the several who went back early

Bry, Brant, Logan, and Lawson

Stephanie was the little girls' hero!

And Jon too of course---if there's spoiling children involved, he's on it!

Our "one more piece" back at the Bray's--notice Logan chose a full sized "piece"...smart boy!!!

This is what unsupervised wagon riding looks like with the lights on!!!!

and this is what trick-or-treating looks like for a six month old! Thank goodness for Papa Bear to sleep on!!!

Fall Festival 2010

5 Aggie Babies--Preston Tubbs (3 mos.), Landon Dyer (6 mos.), Coulter Suehs (6 mos.), Emma Snow (13 mos.)

Special Friends--Brylie, Logan and Brant

Best Buds

Our annual after trunk-or-treat candy eating picture

Our annual Brylie, Elly, Darla picture...we've had one every year, but this year almost didn't happen because Darth Vader showed up and Elly was scared out of her wits (she wouldn't take her eyes off of him, as you can see in the pic)

Darth Vader (Jr--the BIG Darth Vader aka: Lawson & Bry's Papa Dale showed up later), Obi Wan, and Anikan (or Derian, Logan, and Brant)

Our sweet Strawberry princess and her hero Obi Wan

From the mouth of....Elly

She keeps us hoppin' thats for sure! I love this girl. Here are a few conversations lately:

Driving by a field I was trying to keep her awake:

Me: "Elly look at those cows and the donkey. Thank you God for the animals that we get to see"

Elly: "I don't see them anywhere."

Me: "You don't see who?"

Elly: "God. I didn't see him back there!" (in a tone that very clearly meant I was an idiot for not knowing who she was talking about.)

Holding her Bible:

"My Bible says "God is ALIVE. It says so right HERE!"

Today holding her Bible: "Lets see what it says. Lets talk about me. God is SOOOOO beautiful, he lives in a far away......." (the end)

Everyday at some point: "Mom, I'm sorry I called you Dad."

Yesterday driving to school to get Logan: "The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout. Down came the rain and chewed up all the eyeballs..." (she was playing with a set of googly eyes from her snowman project at school.

Today: "here's my list. It says 9040 to get some yogurt really fast. Okay, lets get it really fast. I have to buy something."

Today eating lunch she rolled up two pieces of ham. I told her to eat it and she says, "this is my littttttle baby Jesus (holding one) and this is his manger (under the other piece of ham)"

Last night, I was starting to get a sinus infection and wasn't feeling well at all. She lays out a baby blanket beside me and says, "You lay down here right now and you will feel ALLLL better."

Yesterday after we picked Logan up from school. "Log (pronounced Lowg), did you have a good day at school?" "Did you have fun playing with all of your friends?"

Ohhhhhhhhh....we love, love love this girl and the fun that she brings to our family!!!

The Princess and the Pea

This story sums up the personalities of my two oldest children so very well:

Yesterday, Elly was taking way too long to eat lunch, so we all left her at the table to finish up by herself (a true punishment for her). Well, it got to be naptime, so Jarrod grabbed her up and took her to her room. She started saying, "I have a pea in my nose" on the way back and Jarrod proceeded to tell her "No you don't. We didn't have peas for lunch." Well, he went to put her in her bed and she looked up at him with those sweet blue eyes, calm as she can be and says, "Daddy, will you please get the pea out of my nose?" I was reading a chapter book to Logan, so we stopped, I grabbed a flashlight and sure enough there was a green mass in her nose. Jarrod went to get the tweezers and sure enough, I grabbed a large green pea from her nose. This was actually done with no drama, no crying, not being the least upset...hopefully this is a glimpse into how she'll handle pressure in the future. She just said "Thank you" and went to bed.

When I went to get the flashlight, Logan ran back to his room, put a pillow over his head and waited for the whole ordeal to end--little did he know there really wasn't much of an ordeal. When he realized Elly was getting back in her bed, he came to the livingroom, looked at me and said, " I didn't hear a thing. I think we should give her away--she does things that I DON'T like!"

(as a side note, the pea had rolled under her booster chair the previous night at dinner and she had found it...if santa hadn't already shopped, she'd be getting a foam booster seat for Christmas!!!)