Happy Birthday Mom!

Today my mother and the boys Mimi celebrates her birthday! She is the most talented woman I have ever known. I caught a glimpse of this when I was in high school and I wanted this very expensive dress and she said to me, "I can make that." I was like - right! But of course - without a pattern - she whips me out a dress that is identical to the one in the store. From then on she made me some clothes and was so good that I had friends asking her to make them clothes!

She is also an incredibly hard worker. Every time she comes to visit, she cooks just about every meal - yummy. G. really likes this part as I rarely cook!! She also makes curtains, wreaths, keeps the boys, does minor home repairs...she really doesn't get much of a vacation when she is at our house!

The boys love to play games, build puzzles and watch movies with her. She sets such an amazing example of the kind of person I would like to be. And did I mention what a great cook she is?? We love you Mom/Mimi!! Happy Birthday!

Another Christmas!

I did not mean to skip over our other Christmas with our other family. We celebrated with G's mom and sister and the gang the weekend before Christmas. The kids always have such a great time together playing and growing close as cousins. I was raised in a big family (even though I am an only child), I have 10 (first)cousins on one side of the family and 7 (first)cousins on the other side. We were very close and spent many holidays and summers together. Even though my boys only have 2 (first)cousins total, they cherish their time together and we make great efforts to see them as often as possible!






We were also able to attend and Aggie basketball game with fabulous seats - thank you to our sweet friends who call and offer tickets - on the court no less! My brother-in-law was in Heaven!

It was a great visit and we can't wait to get together again! Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2007

So, this is how it went at our house...the boys went to bed at a reasonable time on Christmas Eve, but they were so excited...I even commented to G that I had never seen them so ready. Well, B was in our room wide awake before 2 a.m. So, we put him in between us and he tossed and turned and tossed and turned....then at 3:30 here comes Lu! Keep in mind they both walked by the gifts that Santa left on their way to our room - thank goodness it was dimly lit and they were tired as they made their way. So, with 4 now in the bed and 3 of us not sleeping (luckily, Lu is usually able to sleep anytime, anywhere - he gets this from me:)), I decided to take B back to his room and see if that helped. Finally around 4 I tell him to start counting sheep and that seemed to work. However he was up again before 6:30 - wow! So he and I go back into where G and Lu are and wake them up to finally make our way out to see what Santa has left us! At first B was not that impressed. Just 3 days before Christmas he had completely changed his request to Santa - and Santa was unable (or possibly unwilling) to fill his new order for 5 different NFL jerseys! So the Wii and the Aggie jersey weren't quite what he had in mind. However, by 9 a.m. he was singing a different tune claiming Santa was the smartest man on Earth! We were all having such a great time playing games we kind of forgot about getting lunch ready - needless to say, we ate about 2 hours later than we had intended, but we had such a great day that no one cared!

Christmas Eve Anticipation...

Ready for church! We have never worn jeans to church before, but because we picked the casual and kid-friendly 5 o'clock service, I decided it would be ok - this time!!

Papa came to church with us as well....you might be asking yourself, Where is Mimi? Well, due to a pumpkin pie situation, she was unable to accompany us to the service. We missed her, but the pumpkin pie turned out beautifully so all is well! She also cleaned the kitchen and got dinner started for us - thanks Mimi!!

The traditional Christmas p.j.'s that the boys got to open on Christmas eve. G said they looked like jailbirds, so that made the boys love them even more!

Getting Santa's plate ready - we wanted to make sure that he had plenty to eat when he stopped at our house!

Lucy is exhausted as are we all...little did we know what this night would have in store for us!!!

Growing up Aggie, part 2

I know that I have said it before, but I love that the boys are growing up with a love of sports - in particular Aggie sports! We were able to attend both the women's and the men's basketball games this weekend. It is so fun to put on the Aggie maroon and cheer for the student athletes. Walking away with 2 wins felt pretty great as well!

The Christmas Card!

This is the card we ended up sending! We had a photographer meet us at the George Bush Library to take our pictures. The grounds of the library are beautiful! I think the pictures turned out well given it was 100% humidity and so hot!

Mom and her boys: they are getting so big!

Dad and his boys: 3 very handsome men!

All I want for Christmas....

Last year around this time, B had lost both of his front teeth. Well, this year the same thing has happened to Lu! It is so funny to see how so much of their development and different milestones are happening at or around the same time, just a year or so apart!

A Walk Thru Bethlehem

Our church does the most wonderful recreation of Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth. It is so wonderful and work-intensive that it only occurs every other year. We have been looking forward to this event for a few months and today we finally got to walk the streets of Bethlehem. I am always amazed at the amount of talent our church has. The costumes were authentic and the market was truly out of the pages of the bible. There were Roman soldiers chasing beggars out of the city, there was a royal wedding with a feast and there was John the Baptist walking the streets telling anyone who would listen about the coming of a saviour for all the world.

Baby Jesus was worn out, but incredibly beautiful!

A camel waits outside the market for its owner to arrive.

Dinner on a stick!

The many spices that were used in the days of Jesus.