The Merriest Christmas

This Christmas was a really great one!! Well, they all seem really great at the time, but then they just seem to get better and better!!

We did most of our celebrating on the 26th because that's when Ryan and the girls arrived. No one seemed to mind waiting an extra day ... it almost made it funner!!

Of course, Santa still made an appearance on Christmas Day. Here are the highlights ...

(Excuse the red eyes ... it seems to be a problem throughout the pics!)

The littles with the cookies and milk for Santa .... Santa loves Chocolate Milk!!!

Some of us had a slow start ....

#1 Baylor fan . . .


Awwww look .... the little ray of sunshine perked up when Santa brought him a phone!! No more flip phone for Alex = much happiness!!

And the Baylor boy got a new phone too!!

Legos and Hot Wheels ..... always good presents!!
Presents, Church, Family, and a trip to Granbury made for an awesome Christmas!!

Finally ......the Tooth Fairy!!

Landry is 6 years and 8 months old and finally, has lost his first tooth!! Most of his little friends have big giant teeth in their cute little mouths, but Landry's teeth have stubbornly held on tightly.

Until now .....

Happy times!!

Somebody's gonna have a Merry Christmas!!

Landry came home with this little activity last week and he happily sat down to complete it. When he was all done and brought it to me, I couldn't help but smile!!

(In case you don't read 1st grade writing often, this says Legos, M&M's, and Lollipop!)

This Christmas list is totally doable and I know one little boy who is going to be pleased on Christmas morning!! I have a feeling Santa is even gonna spring for the M&M's in the candy cane this year!!

If it would only stay this simple!!!

FIFTEEN????

How can it be that this little, tiny 9 pound baby . . . . .

1 month

3 months

6 months

1 year

3ish years

. . . . has grown into this FIFTEEN year old young man??? Happy Birthday Alex!! It's been 15 of the fastest and best years of my life!! I can't wait to see what the next 15 bring!! Love you!!

Run Parker, Run!!

Parker finished an awesome football season last night with another great game!! He returned a kick-off and had a great run! During the season, he had 2 touchdown catches and several other great catches and tackles! The best part? He had a great time doing it!!

Emily managed to get this video of his run last night. This is going to be so cool to have when he's playing in the NFL!! Ha!!!

Congrats on a great season, buddy!! You were awesome!!!

Pumpkin Fun

This year, the pumpkin carving was put off until almost the last minute!! Thankfully, we managed to get it in and enjoyed some beautiful weather while doing so.

The only before shot . . . Luke won the prize for the hardest pumpkin to get a knife through!! Look at the excitement on that face!!!


Here's the worst part . . . the guts!!!





Then the funner part . . . the carving . . .

Such concentration!!

Finally . . . the finished products . . .

The boys really look forward to doing this little Halloween treat. And as much as I enjoy it, I'm really glad it only comes around once a year!!

Say What??!

Driving in the car the other day, Luke says . . . .

Mom, when you wear dresses, do you wear petticoats??

Ummm ... I'm gonna go with NO!!

Just another day at the golf course

Alex had his first golf tournament yesterday, playing on the Varsity Golf team of the amazing Brewer Bears!!! Nerves definitely made an appearance at the ol' golf course . . . both his and mine!!


An unwelcome surprise showed up early in the morning . . . FOG . . . and lots of it!! The drive to the course (Trophy Club Country Club) was a beating as you could only see 2-3 cars ahead. The golf course was no exception and when I arrived, there were golfers everywhere, waiting for the fog to lift. Finally, after about an hour delay, the tourney started.

There were over 2oo golfers participating and Alex headed with his team to hole #8. Here he is waiting for his turn to tee off.


In his group was a really good player from Boswell (a Senior), a good player from Kennedale (a Senior), an ok player from Decatur (a Junior), and Alex (the lowly Freshman!!). Alex started ok with a bogey and a par on the first two holes, then he began to struggle a bit. He definitely had some interesting shots but he stuck with it and began making some good shots.

Here are all the guys . . . by the end of the day, I felt like I'd spent a week with them!! :)



Here's Alex contemplating the meaning of life while he waits . . . .



This picture shows the foggy, messy day it started out to be. Everything was so wet and gross!! But finally, as the morning went on, the fog lifted and the sun began to shine. Alex settled in a bit and ended up the round with a 102. While there is definitely room for improvement, he did a lot of things well and should be very proud of his first outing on the golf team! Good job, Alex!!

A little trip to Aggieland

On a warm Saturday in October, we loaded up early and headed south to College Station, Texas for a little college football. We got to go along with our favorite friends, even though there was a little division amongst our friends. Baylor was playing A&M and hopes were high, as was the temperature!! (It got a little hot for a mid-October game!!)

Having never been to an Aggie game in College Station, I was anxious to take it all in. The first thing that became very obvious was that there were a gazillion people at this place!! This is the student side . . . like I said, a gazillion people!!!


And this is one of the endzone sections. This was very impressive to me because all of the other college football stadiums I've been to (with the exception of OU) have very few endzone seats. This was a monster section, looking like it reached up into the sky!!


Among all those people, we found our seats and settled in. Here I am attempting the self-picture yet again and making remarkable progress, since the Seattle adventure!!


And here's Payton showing me how it's really done!! Bragger!!!

Here are Parker and I enjoying the game . . . .


Here are all the girls . . . .

And here are all the boys . . . .

Halftime was incredible . . . . a very impressive show! Here's the youtube link to the show the day we were there!

After the game, of course the boys wanted to go play a little ball down on the field. A few other kids had that same idea!! Alex, Parker, and Reagan are the ones in maroon!!


Awwww . . . . Alex and Parker with their Mommy!!



And the crew . . . minus Emily!! (Why didn't we get someone to take a pic with all of us?? Did we and I just didn't get it?? Hopefully!)

This picture makes me laugh!!! :)

Sooo . . . the Aggies came out on top this time, but Emily was a great sport and didn't let it spoil a fun day!! All said and done, it was a really great day!! It's such a neat experience for the boys to be able to put their feet on college campuses and dream for their futures!! Thanks to great friends who make fun days like this happen!!

The Golfer

Alex made the Varsity Golf team this year and is spending a lot of time on the course after school. I snapped this pic with my phone last week after he headed off to play "the worst 9 holes in a long time!" :)

Golf is a game in which you yell "fore," shoot six, and write down five.

~ Lee Trevino

First Grade

Landry is really enjoying First Grade!! This is one of his favorite activities . . . . .

But it's soooo exhausting!!

A Night with the Baylor Bears

Yesterday, the boys and I had the fun opportunity to head south with our favorite Baylor Bear for a little football. After an uneventful trip, we arrived at the stadium and the boys were thrilled to let me snap a quick pic!! (Posing for pictures is so overrated!!)


We watched the Bears hammer the Rice Owls for a while, then headed out to play a few little games and such. One of the highlights of the night was when we played a little 3-on-3 football in Touchdown Alley. Here's the fierce team of Alex, Landry, and Emily. A couple of them really took it seriously!!

And here's the dominating, beastly team of Luke, me, and Parker! We can smile and play football at the same time!!


We really needed the entire Touchdown Alley to ourselves and that just didn't happen. There were multiple games happening all over the place, often intersecting into each other. I was mostly quarterback because my boys really wanted to make the touchdowns and because I have a mean spiral!! But once, Luke was QB and when I got open, he threw a beautiful pass right into my hands. I immediately took off, running in the lightning fast way that I do, knowing the fierce team was right on my tail! As I dodged players of other pick-up games, left-right-right-left, imagine my surprise as one young boy said, "Man, she's awesome!!" Heck yeah, I was!! When I made it to the endzone, the only people who were following me were my own teammates!! The fierce team hadn't even tried to catch me!!

That's my story and I'm sticking with it!!! :)

Finally, Landry had had enough . . .

We went back to the game and because Baylor fans apparently don't stay until the end of the game, we scored some super close seats.


It was kind of difficult to actually see what was happening from this angle, but it was really cool to see the players, TV crew, and everything else that was happening so up-close. (Notice Jim Knox in the white shirt/khaki's in above pic.)



After the big win, the boys like to go onto the field and play a little football. As we were heading that way, a couple of college girls asked Alex to take their picture!! Uh-oh!!!

And finally, Jim Knox from ESPN, was there. He borrowed the boys' football for a bit and the boys played catch with him and his son (we presume).

And a good time was had by all!! Thanks Emily!!

The Hot Dog and the Taco

This is probably one of those stories that was way funnier when it happened . . . but I'm still going to document because it will be funny to me!! :)

Alex, Luke, Landry, and I were in the car tonight taking Alex to the high school for a little basketball. Alex was acting the part of a normal teenager, quietly grumpy, not smiling or enjoying the ride nearly as much as the little boys and I were.

Landry and Luke began discussing how they can make their tongues into "hot dogs." I knew immediately what they meant . . . the ol' rolling the tongue trick.

For demonstration purposes, here is the hot dog . . .

So, I kind of pause when I hear Luke say, "But . . . can you do the taco??" I'm like . . . . whaaat?? When I turned around and saw this . . . .

. . . I busted out laughing!! Alex turned around and tried really hard not to laugh, twisting his face in all kinds of ways, but finally gave in and started laughing!! He said . . . that doesn't even make sense!!! To which I replied . . . And THAT is why it's so funny!!

#5

There's a new football player in the house!! Parker has officially begun his football career playing on the 7th grade team of the Fightin' Brewer Bears!!!




Parker's passion on the field is obvious . . . and a little surprising to this momma!! He played hard and would have won the award for most enthusiasm had there been one!!

He is loving every minute of this and I'm so happy for him!!