Namesake

We haven’t settled on a name yet, but we did order bedding for the nursery.  We ordered it plain and it came monogrammed “Johnny” by mistake.  This is actually what Nathan thinks we are naming the baby.  I just assume this is a sign.  What do you think?

January Happenings- FW Rodeo

Scott’s group at work had a family night and treated us to the Ft. Worth Stock Show and Rodeo!

I had to get the kids dressed and meet him there (since it was a week night). It started at 7:30, which is when we normally start going to bed around here.  I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but we decided to take a chance and go for it.

Hannah was really excited and got dressed first.

Nathan was in a horrible mood and didn’t want to wear cowboy clothes. I’m sure you can guess what he wanted to wear instead. He can throw some pretty massive fits. This was one of them.

Somehow I finally got him dressed and he was happy. His mood swings are worse than mine.

We had the kids animal barn all to ourselves.

We asked them later what was their favorite part.

Nathan liked the “cowboys on the horses, not the bulls.”

Hannah like the “cotton candy.”

January Happenings- Story Time

Once a week we can be found at our local library’s story time. It’s a small library with not a lot of selection but they put a lot of effort into story time. They usually read a few books, have a craft and then a snack. Some days they have guest readers (local celebrities) like the Mayor or the High School football coach.

This particular day they were focusing on exercising and eating healthy in the new year, so they had a few girls from a local gym come perform a few routines (basically they were trying to convince us moms to sign up our talented little ones at their gym so they could help them become the next Olympic champion on the floor routine). Hannah and Nathan didn’t pick up on any of that, thank goodness, and had a really good time.

Here they are right up front trying to answer all the questions. I think this particular question was, “Can anyone name a vegetable?” to which Nathan yells out, “Vegetable!” Good try, son.

Nathan and Hannah taking their turn on the beam.

January Happenings- Dinosaur Valley State Park

While Mom was here, we went out to one of our favorite state parks and enjoyed the unusually beautiful January weather. We went on a short hike and enjoyed the view from the top.

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Hannah wanted to take a picture of me and Mom. I think she did a pretty good job!

Happy New Year

We wore our party hats, counted down, drank our sparkling grape juice and the kids were in the bed by eight! 

Nan came in to help us ring in the New Year.

The Aggies played that night (such a great game against Duke) and Nathan was ready.

Mom helped me cook a great meal on New Year’s Day consisting of fried deer meat, rice, greens, and fresh peas from Pop’s garden. It was delicious!

We have a lot of changes coming our way this year. The two big ones: the addition of another little boy to our family and Hannah starting Kindergarten in the fall. I feel like it might be an emotional rollercoaster for some of us

Christmas at Home

We arrived home on Monday evening.  Tuesday morning we loaded up on groceries.  We think this is the most food we have ever had in this fridge.

Later that morning, Mama Jo and John came over to visit and exchange gifts.  Cousin Mitch came over too, but somehow managed to avoid the camera.

Mama Jo brought some yummy pimento cheese sandwiches, and cookies to bake with the kids. 

Nathan and Hannah got some really neat Spiderman and princess dinnerware which were a big hit. 

I’m not sure who this little girl is.

We managed to at least get one good group shot before they left.

That evening, we went to the Christmas Eve candlelight service at Christ Chapel.  We were a little late and got to sit on the first row.  It turned out pretty good because the musicians kept the kids attention.  Nathan listened intently to the sermon and even offered a hearty “Yes!” when Pastor Jeff asked if we thought Mary expected to have her baby in a stable (the correct answer was “No” which drew a big laugh from the congregation). Towards the end of the service, Hannah couldn’t help but dancing a little.  She would hold her candle in the air and sway it back and forth like she was at a concert.

After church we had tamales at Uncle Julio’s and then boarded the Christmas Express for some Christmas light viewing.  The kids changed into their pajamas and enjoyed some hot chocolate along the way.

That evening we went home and put out cookies and reindeer food and the kids hurried to bed.  Here is how we found the living room the next morning!  Santa left us a note and signed it with a Gig’em!

By this time, Hannah and Nathan were seasoned veterans at gift opening.  Hannah was very sweet and told us “thank you for everything” before she started opening gifts.  You will notice that Nathan couldn’t just wear his Christmas PJs without an Aggie jersey over it.  He’s a good Ag.

Ninja Turtles, superheroes and A&M gear were the gifts of choice for Nathan.  Hannah got a golden locket, tickets to the Nutcracker ballet, and dolls.

After we opened gifts, we had coffee cake for breakfast and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.  Nathan was excited about lighting the candles.

Pretty soon it was time to hit the kitchen. Jennifer cooked most of the day and prepared a fantastic Christmas dinner with ham, beans, potato salad, Brussels sprouts, squash casserole, rolls, two pecan pies, and an Italian cream cake.  Nana and Pappy drove in from Canyon and arrived just in time for dinner.

Hannah had a mild case of the flu, so we were able to exchange the Thursday Nutcracker tickets for Friday tickets.  The girls got all dressed up.

Hannah loved the ballet!  She watched the entire performance very intently and was very inspired afterwards. She danced around everywhere for a few days.

While the girls were at the theater, the boys stayed home and watched football from the couch

We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus and hope you did too!

Christmas in Evadale

We went from Devers to Evadale.  Our first stop was to visit Memaw. Her entire family came to celebrate, which was the first time everyone had been there in several years. I think the count was 5 kids, 12 grandkids and 10 great-grandkids.

Here is Memaw with her kids.

And with the Fling family.

Catalina came to visit too.

Hannah was glad to see Betsy.

Nathan wasn’t “shy” of this Santa.  (He has learned that you can’t go wrong with a Gig’em when taking a picture)

Amber’s crew came over to open presents with Nan and Pop and all the kids had lots of fun together.

They were very excited about their presents.

Hannah loves this show and has memorized most of the songs.  She was excited to get the DVD.  We didn’t bother telling her that the acting was sub-par.

She also got a Nutcracker ballet DVD. She had asked Nan multiple times to replace hers that was scratched and would not play.

It was a quick trip but we had fun seeing everyone!