Temple Lights

Chris' family has a tradition to go to the Mesa, AZ Temple Lights on Christmas Eve and look at all the millions of lights and enjoy the manger scene and wise men. Matthew always loves being with his cousins. I would have loved to take more pictures where the lights could actually pop in my pictures but I need a tripod for that. Maybe some day.

Hudson, Matthew, Allison, Emily, Tori, and Max

Matthew and Chris with Temple in the background

One of the very few pictures that the lights were able to "pop" in the picture. Thanks for taking this Deb!

Lunch

One of the days after we first got here, I got to meet up with an old roommate, Corinne. It was so fun to see her and her boys. It is fun that she has a blog that I get to read so I didn't feel like it has been as long as it has been since I have seen her. We took some fun pictures while there.
Thanks for meeting us Corinne, I had a GREAT time!!!

Alex, Matthew, Jameson, Allison

Corinne with her boys: Alex and Jameson and Allison, Matthew, & I

Roommates together again.
We had such great times together!!
Thanks for everything you have done for me Corinne!

Grandma & Grandpa's House

While at Brenda's house she made me flowers for Allison. It was so fun to put this one on her since it matched her outfit perfectly.
The kids have been enjoying being at grandma and grandpa's house. Grandma had given them different toys and books and they are just loving it. Allison loves her little dolly that grandma gave her and it is so cute watching her carry it around.

Thomas Cousins

The day after we got here, we went over to Deb and J's house to visit them and the cousins. Matthew just absolutely loves playing with his cousins and I loved that Allison would actually go to Emily and just played with her. Emily was just her little babysitter and it gave me such a break so I could just talk to Deb and catch up.

AZ Trip - Destination reached

After we left Brenda's house at 10am (which we should have left earlier but oh well, we just didn't want to leave:) We drove a total of 9 hours including rest areas and getting gas. Almost every rest area that we saw, I would stop, have Matthew use the restroom and then we would play race. I tried to help them run around in 10 minutes as much as possible. The kids did really well. There was only one time that day that Matthew fell asleep and I wanted Allison to fall asleep but she wouldn't, instead she just wined. I just put my earphones in and turned up the music. Eventually she just went to eating more snacks which they had all day long and she stopped wining. We finally got into El Paso at 7pm, though El Paso is on a different time zone so it was 6pm, their time. I found a McDonald's with a playground so that is where we ate dinner and just let the kids run around. They definitely needed it. After that we drove to our hotel and Matthew was such a good babysitter while I went back and forth from the car to get all that we needed for the night out. I was so proud of him. We had a good night's sleep and then got up and off we went again.
We left by 8:30am and the kids did especially well. They both took naps and it was wonderful. I had so much food in my car that I did not attempt to fall asleep ever. I had so much food for the trip that we will be using it for our trip back and probably for a month after we get home. TX is a lot more driver friendly then NM and AZ. TX has many rest areas, picnic, and parking areas along the way but the other two states didn't or the two we did see in AZ were closed. We finally had to just get off I-10 and go find a place to let the kids run. We made it about 4:30pm Sunday night to Grandma and Grandpa's house. It felt like such an accomplishment to have driven that whole way and still absolutely adore and love my children. We had a great time together and I am so glad that nothing bad happened and that it was very uneventful. I had to go get Matthew a special toy for being such a good boy and a great helper on our trip.
All in all, with the stopping and whatnot, it took us 20 hours to get here, but it is well worth it.

AZ Trip - 1st Stop - San Antonio

We decided to go to AZ for Christmas this year. The problem was that Chris had to teach the winter minimester (4 hours for 12 days) It started on the 18th of December and then it went until the 22nd and then starts up again Jan. 4, 2010. I wanted to get there earlier then that and visit friends and family along the way so I decided to drive by myself with both kids. Though many thought I was crazy, I was actually really excited to just have the experience with me and the kids. I was excited to drive 3 hours the first day to San Antonio where my best friend growing up lives. Brenda and Andrew and their three kids welcomed us as always and Matthew loved playing with their kids. I love visiting them. We left Bryan after Matthew's preschool party on Thursday, Decemeber 17th. We got to stay with Brenda until Saturday morning. Brenda hired a babysitter Thursday night after we put all the kids in bed so we all could go play competitive volleyball. The bummer was, when we got to the gym, it was set up for a ward Christmas party and there was not volleyball that night:( We are all looking forward to it so much. So Brenda and I just went and got our traditional ice cream. Whenever we get together we have to go get ice cream, something we did a lot when we were growing up. I will have to go back up there sometime to go play volleyball.
Brenda and Andrew, thanks for letting me stay with you!!!

This is their youngest (Becky) that loves to smile. It was so fun to hold a baby. She was 6 months old and seemed so small to me since my baby is growing up.





I left my camera in the car and it got pretty cold at night. The morning we were leaving, I pulled it out and the lenses were foggy. Probably not the best thing for my camera. I had to take pictures of the kids together anyways. Here are the 5 kids.

Matthew (3), Breven (3), Kyla (5), Becky (6 Months), Allison (16 Months)

Brenda and I, together again!!!

Ward Christmas Party

After we went to Christmas in the Park we went to our Ward Christmas Party. Not a whole lot to note, except that Santa made a visit.

Allison just running around.

She got hold of Matthew's sugar cookie and gobbled it right up. Maybe a little too big for her mouth but she still attempted to smile for the camera or at least smile that she was eating the whole big cookie and we weren't stopping her.

Matthew was excited to go sit on Santa's lap until it was his turn. I forced him on Santa's lap but he doesn't seem too distraught about it. He told Santa what he wanted, a big boy bike, a train, 2 cars, and Star Wars Legos. I don't think Santa isn't going to be able to bring all those things for him but maybe one, Santa has to save room in his bag for the rest of the good boys and girls.

Matthew and Santa with his owie.



Allison on the other hand.....

was a little more distraught. Not a big fan of Santa this year. Didn't surprise us though, she really isn't fond of too many people other then mommy and daddy. Maybe next year.

Christmas in the Park

I am still trying to figure out how to use my camera so unfortunately these aren't great pictures of the lights at night but they will have to do. At central park in College Station they always do a display of lots of different lights and on the weekend they have different performances and such.

Matthew and Allison under/in/by the "Christmas tree"

Allison and I next to Rudolph's head

Matthew, Allison and I next to Rudolph's head


It was kind of cold out that night we we told Matthew to put his hands in his pockets to keep them warm since we don't have gloves for him. He did it and then as we were walking on the sidewalk, he either walked in front of or behind (or something) and tripped over Chris' foot and fell down. We heard his head hit the sidewalk since his hands were in his pocket. He got a nice little goose egg but he has had worse. We weren't too concerned about it. Though he did get to ride on Daddy's shoulder's after that.

Matthew, Allison and Chris, after Matthew fell down and went boom.


On the weekends they have free hot chocolate and cookies for EVERYONE and it is so nice.

Thankfully his owie doesn't look all that bad in the pictures we took this night. I think the cookies and hot chocolate made it feel better though:) He is such a trooper.

My sweet baby girl

My baby and I

I just love this little dude.


A guy volunteered to take our family picture. YEA!!!!!! That was so nice of him. I love family pictures, in case you didn't know that yet:)!!

Christmas in the Park Family Picture - 2009

Matthew in front of Frosty the snowman

Last A&M Volleyball Game

Matthew and I went to the last game of the season for the Volleyball girls. We just love going together, and I had my new camera so it was fun to take pictures...imagine that:)

I just absolutely love this little boy and can't get enough of him.

I love photos and a camera that takes them!!!

So for an early Christmas present/Black Friday deal, I got a camera. I love it, but I think my family hates it already and my in-laws are hating it already - except Deb - I have been taking so many photos so I just have to do some collages. I love close-up pictures so unfortunately I am in my family's face a lot. A lot of times though, my kids are pretty good sports. Hopefully you will just be able to click on the collage to make it bigger.

Just random pictures of my kids that turned out too cute not to share.


I had been hearing all week that it was going to snow on Friday night. I actually believed them. Saturday morning I briefly looked out the window and saw white on the ground so I assumed it was snow...like they said. I was excited to go outside with the kids and get some cute pictures, though we are not prepared for snow here, I dressed them up as best I could with what we had. We went outside to find out that the white stuff was just frost on the grass. Kind of frustrated, I still had to take pictures.

I just adore my children!

Once we got the camera and the GPS system for the early Black Friday deals, we decided that we just needed to stay inside and not go out to the stores in order to keep our bank account somewhat in check, since there are just such great sales on Black Friday. Anyways, after I slept from being up all night to get our great deals, we put up our tree and of course that required pictures being taken. We unfortunately waited just a little bit until Allison went down for her nap before we actually put the tree up and decorated it. We then put the Christmas train up around it that Matthew has been asking about all year. When Allison woke up from her nap and saw that train she was just mezmorized. She would run from one side of the tree to the other watching the train and in anticipation of the train. She was so cute being so enthralled in the train.

Christmas tree excitement.

Thanksgiving

We had a really low-key but fabulous Thanksgiving this year. We didn't have any friends or family over this year since our plans were so unstable. On Thanksgiving day, I had to be at the Texas A&M vs. University of Texas game 3 hours ahead of time which meant I had to leave by 3:3opm. Instead of worrying about when everything would get done in time before I left, I decided that we would have our dinner on Wednesday. Chris tried to go into Blinn to do work but they were closed so he just came home and I just cooked everything and we had a Thanksgiving lunch. I was so excited to make a big meal. I started cooking the pies on Monday and then salads and such on Tuesday and then the hot stuff on Wednesday. I absolutely loved making everything and making such a big meal for my family (husband). I really do feel good when I can make a nice meal for him. Normally he helps out with Thanksgiving dinner but this year I was so excited to cook it for him I wouldn't let him help much. We got Thanksgiving dinner twice that day. It was great!

Matthew was so excited to wear his feather hat and necklace that he made at preschool when they talked about Thanksgiving.

Most of our little family and Thanksgiving feast.

More Random Pictures