Sneak peak...

Look what I found when I got home from work....

Apparently we have a new member of the family, Toby.

So...What do you think?

Merry CHRISTmas

This is a combo Christmas Eve - Christmas Day post. We spent Christmas Eve at my house with my brother and sister and their families and our dad and his wife. We ate a great Ham dinner and enjoyed lots of great gifts. At 7:00 we headed to a Christmas Eve service at our Church.

Christmas morning was a blur as gifts were exchanged. The kids had an over abundance of gifts this year and we have been very blessed. We ate brunch at my sister's with my brother and our dear friends the Hodges'. Below are some pictures from both days.

We are very lucky to be able to spend the holidays with our friends and family celebrating Christ's birth!
Keith and I

Kim & Kevin

Brad & Kym

Greg & Cathy

Kids getting Rock Band from Dad & Jeanne

Ellaina

Gavin

Braden & Jeanne

Mason

Kim, Gavin and I

Jeanne, Dad, Brad, Ellaina, Braden, Kym

Kids playing Rock Band

Connor with legos

Courtney with DS game

Santa spotting

Look who we just ran into at Chick-fil-a....

Great friends and family

Last Saturday, my sister, sister-in-law and two best friends surprised me with an early birthday celebration.

My sister was the mastermind and had convinced me that she and her hubby had a big fight and he had gone to his mom's with the boy's for the weekend. She was sad and asked if I wanted to go grab a drink. She picked me up and took me to our new office space (claims she forgot her cell phone charger and needed to stop there first to get it) where my sis-in-law, Toni and Cathy were hiding. We opened the door and they yelled surprise. We popped open a bottle of champagne and toasted my birthday and new office.

Next, we went accross the street to Aparicio's Mexican Food for dinner and drinks.

We had a great time socializing and teasing the bartender. I was then told I had 5 minutes to pack an overnight bag and we were headed to the Hampton Inn Suites in Allen for the night that is next to a outlet mall for a little shopping. We checked into our room then had about an hour to do some shopping before the stores closed. We headed back to our room and changed and went to sit out in the hot tub. It felt great. The cold air and the hot water was a very relaxing way to spend an evening after shopping.

After getting out of the hot tub we went back to our room for cake and ice crean and then played a game called "Marry, Date or Dump". It was a lot of fun and a total chick game.

Like all that wasn't enough the bought me the apothecary drink dispenser I've had my eye on for a few months. ( I can't wait to use it on Christmas Eve for Rudolph Punch)


I just have to say THANK YOU to each of them. I love you all dearly and it was one of the sweetest things that anyone has ever done for me. I love you guys.

Christmas Card Carousel

A really cool blogger set this up for people to post their Christmas Cards. There are a lot of really cool ones out there and I've enjoyed looking.



It reads:
Merry Christmas!
And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.
Luke 1:14

Go take a look!

Birthday continued and ICE DAY

Keith and I went to school yesterday and had lunch with the birthday girl. Her lunch is at 1:20, super late, and we brought cookies. Later that evening we went to Macaroni Grill and they sang Happy Birthday in Italian to her plus she got a chocolate cake.
Forgot my camera so these were take with my camera.



All in all she had a great day!

Today the kids are home from school due to ice on the roads. They have gone outside to play and have been reinacting a scene from A Christmas Story.

Happy 11th Birthday Courtney!

Today at 4:13 p.m. Courtney will turn 11. I can't believe it. She has turned into a sweet and beautiful girl. I am so blessed to call her my daughter. Courtney, I hope this is your best birthday yet!

After a lot of begging and a lot of consideration on our part we decided to get her a cell phone. When we were kids we had a house phone and some of my friends had their own phone line. In 2008 cell phones are all the rage and we don't have a home phone so she used my cell phone which I use both personally and professionally. Let me tell you....as she approaches middles school next year....I want to be able to get a hold of her and there will be random phone testing to see what she is doing. Kind of like drug testing, hee hee! She had to unwrap 4 boxes to get to the phone box then there was a squel of delight.
Box #1

Box #2

Box #3

Phone Box

Blackjack II

More celebrating to come tonight.

Cookie Exchange

I hosted the annual Christmas Cookie Exchange at my home this year. We had a great turnout and many yummy cookies. I took pictures before the party started and then FORGOT all about my camera and not one picture taken during the party, I'm so bummed!

100th Post! Christmas in our home....

I can't believe this is my 100th post. I started posting December 26th almost one year ago. I can't believe that I've stuck with it but I've come to enjoy it.

Tonight the kids decorated a gingerbread house with Keith.

I've been making my cookies for the cookie exchange tomorrow, I can't wait!



Here are some random pictures of our Christmas decorations.





I collect music boxes and this is my favorite one that I received from my awesome sister!

Courtney's CRAZY birthday!

Tonight is Courtney's 11th birthday party. It is a scavenger hunt/slumber party. We did the scavenger hunt was after a pizza dinner and it was a lot of fun. The neighbors were a good sport. They were broken into two teams, I led one and my best friend Toni led the other.


After the hunt the girls had hot chocolate and smores then when the last of the party guests arrived Courtney opened her gifts. She got some cute stuff, she has great friends.

Courtney FACT: Courtney absolutely LOVES toe socks. She asked each of her guests to wear a pair.

Currently they are playing a game in the dark. I had to hide a santa hat upstairs and they turned off all the lights and are looking for it, hope nothing breaks.

Wonder what's to come next.....Stay tuned!

Songs of the Season

Tonight was the Glen Oaks choir concert. They did a great job and tomorrow they perform at Stonebriar Mall then go ice skating.