Fall in TX....

....just comes a little late, but it does come.

These are pics taken right by my house.

I do love it back here in the "woods".

It feels so cozy and warm and lovely.

It's Feelin' Like Christmas!

The weather, the tunes on 99.1, traditions, family, friends, parties and sweet reminders of a loving God who sent his Son to be born, only to die for my sins ,are all part of my last few weeks. It just feels like Christmas! I am loving it! Here are a few things I have been up to......

Made this cute lil' thang...

School Christmas Parties,
Christmas Programs, (Trace sitting in the front...)

Sweet night with good ole' friends, and I mean, I have known these girls since grade school, so maybe not ole' but old. :) Love you girls!

Ugly Sweater Party with HS youth....

And....my cute, kid friendly tree....and all the stockings.

Really wish I had a pic of my hubby and I at his Christmas work party!

We were smokin' hot. ;)
HaHa

Merry Christmas Friends!

Well then....

I am literally sittin', sippin' coffee, watching Christmas movies with T-race.

I have not bought any presents yet, don't yet have my whole outfit for Dean's Christmas party Friday, (THIS Fri.),half the Christmas lights are up outside,

and I am feelin' fine....just fine. :)

Thankfully, I did get a good work out in this morning. whew!

Merry Christmas & take it easy....

this time of the year should be all about

Family and celebrating the Birth of Jesus!

Fall Craft & Decor

This is my dining room table, after my aunt decorated it. So cute and easy.

This craft was super easy....you need mason jars, fall leaves from a craft store, stick of glue, and something to tie around the jar like twine or rope, a small candle...

Glue the leaves on the jar, tie the rope, put the candle in!


SO CUTE!

I know fall is over but I had to share!

Besides, I'm in TX now and fall is just getting here!

:)

Angels of Light

I participated in an event called Angel's of Light this week.

I just can't stop thinking about the family that I met.

A whole bunch of buses brought in people from different shelters around Houston to 2nd Baptist Church in Kingwood. They sat in the sanctuary with their families and had a hot meal and some great entertainment for probably the first time in a long time, or ever. There was a super funny comedian that at the end of his act, shared the sweet, simple message of Jesus with them. They had a chance to respond and make a decision to believe! And there were sooooooo many!!! So, I helped out, getting info from these people so that 2nd could give there info to a local church in their area. Nothing really prepared me for what I was about to hear....and see. I am sitting in a circle with a young lady to my left, a couple of young kids, a lady probably in her 30's, and a boy that was about 14, (all sitting in a circle). As they sat filling out their cards and as I asked them if they had any questions about Jesus or salvation or really anything, the younger girl to my left looked at me and said, "ma' am, I don't know the name of the shelter we are in now?" I think my jaw literally dropped! I told her it was ok, not to worry. My heart broke for her! Broke! I wanted to crawl under the chair and cry! I prayed with them all and encouraged them in the Lord as much as I could without breaking......

I am truly thankful and truly blessed beyond measure!

Turkey Day

My Thanksgiving was pretty awesome! Probably one of the best so far in my 34 years. Seriously! First of all, my very best friends from CO drove all the way here to spend the holiday with us! Secondly, my Aunt and her family drove in from San Antonio and she is just amazing and wonderful. She helped me get everything together and decorated my house so cute, (pics to come). And of course my sisters were there with their kids and we ALL got along great!!!! The kids were great, the food was great, we laughed, cried, danced,(yeah, I can do the worm). No, really, I did. Here are some fun pics of my day!

Hangin out around the table....chattin like we do!

My Aunt, cousin, and sisters...we are so fun together....

My Aunt had lots of cute crafts for the kids...

they made tie dye shirts...

aww man! love these guys...

some how when we hang out with our friends, we take a ton of pics just goofing off, then crack up till we almost pee our pants....then do it all over again.

Me and my love-there is a hair in my right eyeball....???

My Aunt and Uncle and cousins. :)

Here we all are! The lighting is bad but we got everyone in!

Praise the Lord for sweet family!

Runnin' and Huntin'

These past couple of weekends have been fun!

I have become pretty familiar with I10 west.

Here are a couple of pics. Dean's buck this past Sat. morning in Fredericksburg. All the kids get so excited. We are getting lots of deer sausage, jerky, and cured back strap. I am so happy about that!
This pic is of me and my cousin Hannah and her sweet hubby, Eric after our Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon. We had so much fun! I don't know why I love running theses things. This was my 3rd and I am already planning on doing one on Feb 28. I have completely lost my mind, I know.

Friends, Buddy's, Pal's

Aren't they adorable!

They talk over chicken nuggets,
Jump on the trampoline,

Trade shoes, cause they wear the same size,

Look for bugs,

These boys will be hanging out long after this day! Even if he is moving to IL.... We'll be taking some flights to Chicago, I guess. I really love watching my kids hang out with their friends. Especially at this age. Their conversations are so fun.

Have you told a friend today that you love them and cherish them?

My friendships hold so much value to me.
They Do!

Love you sweet J-Bax and T-race. :)

Fall Fest

Fall Fest 2010! Super Fun!

Goodbye...

crazy after school schedules

early saturday mornings

injuries

sore muscles

all things sports....

Kade played center,(he is on the right in center position), and right outside linebacker. He did a really good job! We had so much fun watching him get better and better.

GO RIVERWOOD LONGHORNS!

There goes TY! He also played so well and was the youngest on the team. This league has 1st - 3rd graders playing together and we were a little concerned but that wasn't a problem for Ty. He scored at least 1 goal at most games. Way to go Ty Ty!

And my little T-racer....wasn't much of a racer at all until a few weeks ago. He had NO desire to play and begged, cried and threw a couple of fits on our way to the first 5 games.
Thankfully, he did start playing alot and even scored 1 goal a couple weeks ago.

Praise the Lord...back to "normal"!
Dinners around the table, showers, (yes, i am serious), savings on gas, some good ole' family time, and my sanity!!!! :)
whew! way to go boys!

Brothers and a hero

OK. so dean has a BIG family....like there are 5 siblings .....and more nieces and nephews than i can keep track of.

this guy here with my hubby is his youngest brother.

he is an airborne ranger in the army and just got back from afghanistan a couple of months ago. he is here in houston visiting for a few weeks and we were so blessed that they took time to visit with us.

we love him so much. he has the cutest wife and son. i am so proud of him for serving our country.

i love to watch him with his little family because i know they all know he'll head back over seas sooner than anybody wants to talk about.

i think our service men deserve more recognition than any NFL or NBA player. their sacrifice is so great.

he flew in from afghanistan to see his son the day after he was born

and barely made it back before he turned 1.

wow.

thank you daniel.

and ashley.

and baby lucas.

(i just can't say it enough.)

they look so much alike. i love that. :)

Motivation...

Finally got some new running shoes!

Highly recommend Asics.

And a lil' sticker for some 1/2 Marathon motivation.

Thank You Luke's for some great "kicks".

My feet, back, and knees are so happy!

MY SILLLY GIRL!

-Conversation in Traffic-

Me: Paige, stop saying that, you are getting on my nerves. (in a playful but serious way ;)
Paige: How can I get on your nerves? I am right here in my seat.... (also playful)
Me: It's a figure of speech....
Paige: Yo Momma........that's a figure of speech.

She just cracks me up!

The girl is funny!

And she has recently informed me that she does NOT want to be a cheerleader,

she wants to be the mascot.

nice.

just as I would have thought.

Donuts with Daddy Day

Yesterday at MDO was, "Donuts with Daddy Day!"

So my sweet, amazing, super busy at work hubby, took Trace to school.

They sat and had donuts and did a craft together.

So cute!

These kinds of activities make me smile and make my heart more grateful than you can imagine.

I didn't grow up with a dad so seeing my kids do events like this just makes my day.

Thank You my love, you are so awesome!

bff's Retreat

This past Friday night, we took a little girl's trip with the ministry of 2nd Baptist Church to Moody Garden's. It was super fun and a chance to hang out, "girl style".
After Paige finally calmed down, (4hours later), we had a great time at our PJ dance party Friday night. (you know me and my sis tammy tore up that dance floor to music like, "can't touch this, cha cha slide, the twist, r-e-s-p-e-c-t, girls just wanna have fun", and so many more.)

Just picture it. O.K. stop laughing.....

this is our "jump" team - dance and sing to Jesus!

this was at the pj party-pooped...and it was only 9:30(ha)
the 4 of us

tammy and i and PAPA JAMZ (the DJ of course)

tam and bailey

me and paigie

ended our trip with a visit to la kings!

mmm mmm ice cream and candy shop

i love their faces in this pic! totally explains their personalities perfect! hahaa

love you girls! sure will miss y'all when you head to IL next month. (sniff sniff)

Big Fat Money Saver

for iced coffee lovers....

for some reason around 2:30, i am beat!

and always want some coffee.

being that it is still 85 degrees here, i prefer iced!

my first thought is to run to starbucks and spend $5 on and iced vanilla latte BUT,

i found out from a friend that it's perfectly o.k. to keep leftover coffee.

actually, what they do at SB's is take the leftover and put it in a pitcher and stick it in the fridge for iced coffee orders.

SO, in the morning, my sweet man makes a pot of coffee, we both have a couple of cups,

THEN, i just let it sit and cool....

~2:30~

grab a glass and put a few cubes of ice, grab the BEST creamer they could ever make,

(couple of tablespoons)

and pour my leftover coffee in and give it a lil' stir-

VOILA!

refreshing for me and my wallet.

Pancake Night

Occasionally, we have "pancake" night at our house. It is the kids favorite! We had some really fun plans with friends but Trace came down with a virus so we decided to make the best of our night in.

Some of the yumminess we like to put in our pancakes -

strawberries, blueberries,bananas, walnuts, pecans,

and of course chocolate chips.

Kade was the assistant cook.

So he chopped all the fruit and helped dad, (the head cook).
Ty was in charge of getting every ones orders.

And this is my sexy husband chef. :)

mmmmmmmmm...........

Paige, Trace, and I were rotated in when needed but were the first customers!

I had 1 fat pancake, 1/2 with walnut and bananas, the other 1/2 with chocolate chips.

We rented the new Karate Kid and had a sweet night.

(Except for the part when I was up all night with my sick 4 year old)

Hope y'all are making sweet memories with your families too.