Friends

I received a special gift the day after Christmas. My friend Lauren (we have been friends since 1985) came to visit. She has lived in Atlanta for the past 10 years and the last time I saw her was for about 5 minutes at my wedding. It was SO good to see her. We were only able to visit for a couple of hours but it was great to catch up. We have made a pact not to wait another 8 years to see each other! On Sunday we met our good friends Cindy and Abby at the park for some much needed exercise. The boys (especially Mason) had so much fun playing with Abby and I really enjoyed visiting with Cindy. We haven't seen them since Sept when they came to Brenham for a visit. Mason and Abby played so well together and then gave each other a huge hug when it was time to go. It was so sweet. We really miss them but when we do get together it makes our time even more valuable and meaningful.

Monday night we went to Heather and Casey's to hang out with Casey's friend Lando and his family. Lando and Casey have been friends since high school and Lando even went on a family vacation with us to Florida one year. Casey and I were each allowed to bring a friend. I brought Teresa and Casey brought Lando. Casey and Lando were both at least 6 ft tall then and they were smashed into the back of my Mazda Protege as Teresa and I listened to Paperboy's "The Ditty" over and over again (on cassette tape) all the way to Florida (oh, and Teresa and I also played Uno while driving in the rain too! Ahh, the days when we were so responsible!)

Monday night we got to meet Lando's wife Brooke and their two boys Connor and Tyler. Connor and Tyler are just a little bit older than Mason and all 4 boys had a great time playing together.

Alex is showing Lando and the rest of the boys a game on his DS.

We had a great time visiting with good friends this Christmas break. 2009 brought many changes for us but along with those changes brought many blessings and great memories. We look forward to 2010 and hope everyone is blessed and happy! Hugs and Happiness from our family to yours!

Christmas Night

We had Christmas with my side of the family the night after Christmas. Aunt Evelyn (my aunt from Nashville) was able to spend Christmas with us. She used to spend every Christmas with us but in recent years hasn't been able to travel to Austin. So it was a wonderful surprise that she was going to be able to join us for Christmas. (Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of her.)We all racked it in on Christmas as well. Mason's favorite gift from Gammie and Papa was a steam train. Alex's favorite gift was the art table. I got a ton of clothes and Andy got a chain saw. With all the trees we have at our house the chain saw is going to come in handy. Everytime the wind blows we have branches that fall down from the trees! Now we can cut the branches for firewood!

Here are the boys opening Alex's art table.

Out of order picture, but here are the boys on the way to my parents. They were both trying to play their DS but the sun was so bright they couldn't see their screens. Their solution was to cover themselves up with their blankets to make some shade! Too funny!

Mason's new steam train. We now have it under our Christmas tree.

Alex enjoying his new art table.

Christmas Day

We spent Christmas morning at our house. The boys woke up SUPER early (go figure). They opened their stockings right away and them brought us our stockings. They gave us a full report on what was in their stockings, what Santa brought them (a trampoline), how much of the cookie and milk Santa ate/drank, and how many presents each of them had under the tree (Alex had one more than Mason. Mason forgot he received an early Christmas gift!). Once they finally drug us out of bed at 7:30am we watched them open their gifts. They had so much fun and were really excited about everything they received.

Alex got a barn pillow to go on his cowboy bed.

Mason got a fingerprint kit.

We bought both boys a DS. They have been asking for one for a couple of years now. Check out Mason's face!
Santa wasn't able to assemble the trampoline since it was cold, dark and raining when he delivered it!

The boys have been attached to the DS ever since they opened them. I have to admit I have been attached to one of the games they received. They are a lot of fun!

We spent a nice relaxing morning at home. Then we packed and headed to Austin for Christmas evening.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with Andy's parents. The boys asked Granna to make spaghetti for lunch so that's what we had. It was yummy. Then we opened presents and we all got some neat things. Mason's favorite present from Granna and Grandpa was a remote controlled snake. Alex's favorite present from Granna and Grandpa was an ice cream truck. I got some really neat wall decor which I desperately needed for our living room. Andy got a hitch for his truck that would make it easier to haul a full cattle trailer. But I think Andy's favorite thing was the hunting game for the wii that was intended for the boys! We all had a great time visiting. That night we went to church and then came home to play the new wii game!

Merry Christmas

Wishing all of our wonderful family and friends a Happy Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas and Spectacular 2010!

Ornament Exchange

Tuesday I went to an ornament exchange for MOPS. We had a great time eating, visiting, laughing, and stealing ornaments! I had several ornaments stolen from me, but I did my fair share of stealing too! I ended up stealing this Kneeling Santa ornament TWICE! By the second time it was frozen so I became the proud owner. I love what it says and what it stands for. It reminds us that Jesus is the real reason for Christmas.

How sad am I?

While Christmas shopping last weekend I saw this vacuum and told Andy that it would make me VERY happy if I owned that vacuum. I told him he could give it to me for Christmas but he said he refused to buy his wife a vacuum for Christmas (I have a good man!). Our house is 100% tile. So I am constantly sweeping or vacuuming crumbs, dog hair, etc. How cool would it be to have a cordless little vacuum to easily and quickly clean up those messes? So Andy bought me the vacuum and I use it every day. It's like a game now! Even Alex plays along. He goes around the house pointing out things that need to be vacuumed up. Do you think I need to get a life soon?!

Mason's Christmas program

Today the first graders put on a Christmas program. It was so cute. They did a great job incorporating stories, songs and lots of entertainment into 30 minutes. My camera wasn't able to zoom in to capture many close ups but it's better than nothing! Can you find Mason?!

Here is a little excert of the concert!

Family, PJ's, Stories and Santa- Oh my!

Last night the library hosted family story night with two added bonuses. First, you could wear your pajamas. Second, Santa was there! I take the boys to story time every Tuesday and sometimes on Wednesdays too. Monday they always have family story night but we have never gone on a Monday before. The boys LOVE Ms. Lou Lou. She is a great storyteller and talented musician/singer. She even has several Cd's out. She just published a children's Cd to go along with her Blue Grass Cd's. Ms. Lou Lou always has a puppet to go along with the books she is reading. There is always a theme. Last night we met Twinkle (the star puppet). She told two stories and we all sang Christmas songs. The boys wore their pajamas. Then they got to talk to Santa and get a special treat (stickers, pencils, etc). They thought it was really neat!

Ms. Lou Lou and Twinkle.

Singing Christmas songs
Yeah! Santa stopped by. The boys kept asking where his reindeer were!

They weren't sure about him at first!

10 more days until Christmas!

Mason

My friend Dee met us at a neat area in downtown Brenham last Friday. She was going to take some snap shots of the boys in hopes I could use them for Christmas cards. I should have known it was going to be a problem for Alex when I asked him if he wanted to change his shirt before we met Dee for pictures. He ran into my room and locked the door. We decided to go with what he had on at that point! After picking Mason up from school I told them we would go get hot chocolate and then meet Dee and her kids downtown to "play". And while they were playing Dee would take a few pictures. Mason was fine with this but Alex screamed, "I AM NOT TAKING PICTURES!" I figured once we got there he would get over it and everything would be fine. I was very wrong. He ended up going into a rage. The last time I saw him that upset was at the beginning of the year when he had to get a chest x-ray. It took 3 nurses to hold him down. Poor Dee got to see me struggle to get him to settle down. I even threatened to give all of his Christmas presents to Mason since Mason was being sweet. Nothing worked. So finally I gave up and we focused on pictures of Mason.
It was SO cold out there and we asked Mason to take his jacket off for the pictures. His teeth were chattering but he went along with everything we asked him to do without complaining. He was so sweet. He has really grown up these last couple of months. I am so proud of him. He is doing great in school. He is helping me at home. He is fighting less with Alex and actually trying to teach him things. He is more confident and mature and all around a sweet boy. I love him so much! Here is our little makeshift set!

Doesn't this look like a great ad for the coffee shop?!

Our set with no boys!

Dee brought the boys candy canes. Even that didn't work for Alex!

Thank you Dee for being so patient and freezing out there with us! You captured some sweet moments for me!

Gifts by Mason

Friday Mason brought home two more homemade Christmas gifts. I love these! I thought the hand print wreath on the washcloth was a great idea. And the finger print ornament had "snow" inside. Super cute!

The things you do for your kids

Thursday we took some of Andy's calves to an auction barn in Sealy. They were going to be sold in the auction that took place Saturday. Alex REALLY wanted to go to the auction to watch Andy's cows "go through the gate". Saturday Andy and I had plans to go Christmas shopping. We thought we could try to squeeze both plans into the day. We would go to Sealy for about an hour and then drive to Houston to shop. We got to Sealy around 1pm when the cow portion of the auction began. Unfortunately, Andy's cows were at the end of the sale list. We thought if we watched an hour of the auction that would be good enough, but Alex was adamant about wanting to see Andy's cows. Up until recently Alex has always been scared of Andy's cows. So the fact that he was so interested in them we decided to stay. He sat through THREE hours of the auction and loved every minute of it. Needless to say we didn't go to Houston that day. It worked out though because today we took the boys to Granna and Grandpa's house so Andy and I could go shopping by ourselves. We had a great day. Lunch at Chuy's and uninterrupted shopping. We are basically done. All in one day. Whoo Hooo!

Here is a little taste of the auction. Can't you see why Alex wanted to stay for the entire thing?! I couldn't hang nearly as long. I went to the car and listened to music for the last hour!

THE deer

Remember when Andy and Mason shot a deer at the beginning of the season? Well here it is. Andy entered it into a couple of contests and he is in 1st place in one and 2nd place in another. Pretty cool! The boys went with Andy to get the deer measured for one of the contests so they got to be in the picture too!

Happy 101

I received my first blogging award yesterday! Dez gave me the Happy 101 award! How exciting is that?! Thanks Dez! It really is nice to know that my blog makes someone smile! Sometimes it can be work keeping up with it, but it's worth it when you hear that it brightens some one's day!

This award has two requirements:

1. List 10 things that make you happy.

2. List 10 bloggers that brighten your day.

I have to say I felt pretty special that I was on Dez's list of 10 blogs that brighten her day. She has over 50 blogs she follows! And I made the top 10! Pretty cool! Although my blog isn't nearly as entertaining as hers. I love reading her blog. She cracks me up. But more than anything she is real! She tells it like it is and I love it!

10 things that make me happy:

- Sunday night dates (in front of the tv) with my husband

- my boys playing nicely together (it happens every now and then)

- true friends, the kind that never judge me

- a clean house or at least vacuum marks

- wine, red please

- blogging and reading other people's blog

- fiction books

- weekends where there isn't a 1000 items on the to do list and you can stay in pj's all day

- creamy jalapeno at Chuy's

- getting cards in the mail

10 bloggers that brighten my day:

- dezzy lou where are you

- adventures of mommy girl

- we warrens

- the shady acre (even though it hasn't been updated since JUNE- hint, hint!)

- moosefeathers florist

- yonderway farms

- meat and potatoes foodie

- a gurley gurl

- tracye tells tales

- pinkle toes

Snow Village

I transformed my buffet from the Southern Living display to the snow village this morning. Now all of our Christmas decorations are up. Now it's time for Christmas shopping. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! But that's me. I work better under pressure!

School Christmas crafts

One of my favorite parts about the Christmas season is the crafts the boys make at school. Alex made this reindeer shirt using his hand prints. He looks super cute in it but refused to wear it for a picture, which by the way is one of the reasons I don't have Christmas cards sent out yet. I tell myself every year I am going to get their picture made in October so I can use it for Christmas cards and never do. But next year I REALLY AM going to get their pictures taken in October. And I may even send out the cards the first week of December instead of the week after Christmas! Who wants to hold me to that?!

Mason made this ornament and a homemade card that says "I love Mommy" on the left and "I love Daddy" on the right. So sweet!

One more week of school and then it's two weeks of sleeping late and no homework. I can't wait!!

Cookie Exchange

Last night I attended my first cookie exchange. I was invited to a party that is in it's 3rd year tradition. It was so much fun. It was 22 girls dressed in PJ's, drinking wine, snacking, and gabbing. Could it get any better?! I thought it was a great addition to the holiday season. Each girl brought 2 dozen cookies that would be shared with the group. First, we had a contest on the most festive cookies. Then after a walk on the runway the judges voted on the most festive holiday pajamas. After the contests we each got a plate and filled it with one cookie from each attendee. So I went to the party with 24 cookies and came home with 24 new cookies. What a deal! Wish I would have remembered my camera!

Southern Living party

Last Thursday I had my launch party for Southern Living. I had a GREAT turn out. I figured about 10-15 people would attend and to my surprise I had about 30 attendees! It was a true testament to the wonderful friends and family I have. They came out in full force to support my new venture.
I have to back up a little to explain some of the prep work that went into the party. I scheduled this party in early November. A few days after I sent out the invitation my friend Missy called to tell me she would like to do a flower arrangement for the party as my "going into business gift." I was ecstatic! She is an amazing florist and has an eye for decor. I couldn't wait to see what she would put together. Also during the weeks before my party my friend Natalie was giving me lots of things to put around the house (lanterns, vases, candle holders, Christmas decorations, etc). Like Missy, she has an eye for decor. She can arrange the most boring items into something amazing. During this same time my husband was working like a mad man to complete our half bath (remember me peeling the paint off the wall in Sept?!) which included texture, paint and hardware. He was also completing a walk way from our front door to our circle drive by sinking huge white stones into the ground. He also hung pictures in 4 rooms. Outside my FIL was mowing and vacuuming up an entire cattle trailer full of leaves so people could actually see my house when they came to the party! While all of this was going on, I was eating bon bons and watching Oprah! (wink, wink!)
A week before the party Missy came over and went through my main rooms and told me what I needed to do to spruce them up (things I needed to buy, things I needed to put out and where, etc). The morning of the party Missy comes to my house with 4 loads of things. She ended up making 4 flower arrangements, decorating both of my mantels and setting up my Southern Living display. All in about an hour. It was unreal how quickly she transformed my bare house into a beautiful, festive, inviting atmosphere.
The evening of the party my MIL, SIL and LMS (Like My Sister) Natalie came to help me get all of the food and drinks ready to serve. I could not have pulled off this party without their help. I can't forgot how Andy helped me that night too. He got home from work and immediately started helping in the kitchen and then took the boys AND Scotty out of the house so we could start our girls night! I have never entertained 30+ people before but thanks to the above mentioned we pulled it off without a hitch (at least I don't remember their being any hitches! :))
It went so well we decided to entertain 30+ people 2 days later for Alex's birthday! :)
I wish I had before and after pictures, but the day Missy came over for my "consultation" this mantle was completely bare, no mirror and no decorations. Look at it after Missy got her hands on it! The pictures don't do it justice, but let me just tell ya, it looks amazing!

This is my Southern Living display.

This is a flower arrangement Missy made to fit inside my Southern Living Hemingway Hurricane. We put blue and silver Christmas ornaments inside the vase.

Here is the other mantle with the festive reds! She added red flowers to my existing arrangements, she added ribbon and live berries to my garland (or should I say Natalie's garland!) She floated roses inside a bowl with a pillar candle in the middle.

The lighting in the picture takes away from how awesome this flower arrangement looked. But it was the center piece of my kitchen. She did a great job! The best part of all of this is she took existing items and turned them into something fancy (at least in my eyes!) She went into my yard and cut greenery to add to the arrangement, garland, my SL display!

Here are some of the guests that attended the party. Andy's mom (far right) and her cousins and niece.

Missy (left) and Lynsey who by the way is also extremely talented in basically everything she touches. I am hoping eventually some of these talents will rub off on me!

Missy, Nicole (Natalie's sister) and Natalie.

Thank you everyone that helped make this party happen. While on the outside it was a Southern Living party, on the inside it was WAY more than that for me! It was an opportunity for me to use some business skills I haven't used in years (I even used Excel!). It motivated me and Andy to get some home projects completed. It gave me a closer bond to Missy. It showed me how many wonderful people I have in my life that would take time out of their busy schedules to come support my new adventure. And it's given me a little extra purpose and drive in my day!