Branson Missouri

Our family trip this year after Christmas was to Branson Missouri. It wasn't nearly as relaxing as it should have been, but we had a great time just being together and seeing the sites!

Christmas

I am sooo behind! Christmas was awesome this year and Santa and family spoiled us all rotten again! Here is a belated picture!

Cousin Photo Shoot

To surprise our Nana we took all the kids out in their finest attire and snapped a few pics! Cute kids = easy pics!

Tis the Season!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! The lights are up, Santa has been seen, Christmas shows have been performed, and gifts are wrapped!

Final game of the Season....

And just like that our football season is over... well there is a bowl game, but we aren't going this year! Until next year! (or maybe baseball season!)

Renaissance Thanksgiving

This year we made the trek to the Texas Renaissance Festival instead of our Thanksgiving Hike. It was a perfect day and I so enjoyed sharing some of my old childhood memories with our kids. I think they really enjoyed it and I know the rest of us did!

Quince Anos!

A very special day to celebrate with my sweet Lauren for her 15th birthday! Aubrie loved watching the Princess, but wanted nothing to do with her, only her picture on the floor! The kids were being so sweet and loving during their dances, but Aubrie loved going limp so that she and her Bubba fell to the ground! They are so precious! And while we were down, we of course worked on our Dr. Suess Treehouse!

Third Day!!!!

I have been wanting to see Third Day in concert for sometime! I almost had Brandon convinced to whisk me off on a quick weekend trip, but they weren't playing anywhere cool at anytime we could get there near my birthday... BUT they were playing in Round Rock! So, although a little belated, we headed down to Round Rock, sans children, and met my good friends there to listen to the all day jams of some great Christian bands! A wonderful day, capped off by a great stay at a bed and breakfast in Belton. I think I am officially done celebrating my birthday for this year!

Celina Balloon Festival

Since the our trip to the Plano Balloon Festival got rained out in September, we searched high and low for another balloon festival and surprisingly found one right up the road in Celina! It was really cool to see the balloons and even got to see a couple fly! Branson was pretty exciting, commenting, "they are gigantic!"

Carving Carving...

Its our annual tradition to carve pumpkins.... each year it gets so much better as Branson is able to participate more in this family tradition! Aubrie even helped out this year on her own baby pumpkin.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Preston!

A Biggs Bash like none other... celebrating Preston's 3rd Birthday!

Tball

A few more tball pictures....

Happy Birthday to Me!

Brandon and the kids gave me a new camera filter and zoom lens for my birthday! So excited! So of course I already had to run out and take some pictures of my favorite subjects!

Sweet Baby Ella

Love this little girl! Can't believe that she is already one year old! Happy Birthday Ella!

Texas State Fair

We enjoyed our day at the Texas State Fair! Something you just have to do if you live in the state and especially if you live in the metroplex! They have crazy friend EVERYTHING! Brandon had a fried pineapple upside down cake while I enjoyed fried cookie dough! Yummy! The kids loved their chance to be rancher/farmers and even got paid at the end with a chance to shop at the general store! So much fun!

Fall Family Photos

Too bad we were melting... this place was really neat and the pumpkin patch was the best we'd seen in years!

Another weekend of fun!

Tball and TCU Football... its becoming a habit!

My first paid gig!

While down in Cedar Park, I had the opportunity to take pics of the kiddoes at Branson and Aubrie's old daycare... it was fun to try out some of my ideas and other things I'd seen done before. Also got to take my first set of newborn pics for one of their old teachers!

Southbound and down

While Brandon was away on a business trip, the kids and I ventured down through Austin to my folks house... We were blessed to have many fun events planned for the weekend, including a fun at the new sprinkler park with the Lovicotts (and meeting August for the first time), a full day of fun with the Ramirezs, a visit with the Farrells (and their three adorable triplets), building a treehouse with Grandpapa, and getting to meet baby Cash Hutchison on the way home (since he was so cooperative and chose to be born just in time for me to head through town!) Had an amazing time with friends and family!

T-C-U Go Frogs!

We are the proud holders of season passes this year, so expect a lot of purple pics! Unfortunately the team isn't proving to be as good as last year so its very doubtful that they will end up in the Rose Bowl again, but you can't beat tailgating and cheering with friends and family!

Grapevine Grapefest

Trying more new things in our area... Grapefest is probably loads of fun at night, drinking wine, but during the day with limited funds for expensive rides... well an hour tops can be spent! But always a fun time with our cousins regardless!

Tball Giants Game

Branson's first tball game was a big success! He is building his "stamina" (a word he learned from his dad) and his skills! Couldn't be more proud of our big (little) boy!

Zoo #3 - Sharkarosa

Loosely termed zoo in our opinion... has a safari ride with camels, horses, deer, etc... holds no candle to the Exotic Zoo in Johnson City. But of course it was fun anyways!

Zoo #2 - Frank Buck

A great small zoo in Gainesville... Never fed a giraffe until now! Pretty cool!

Labor Day

Well our original plans to go to the lake got ki-boshed because it was 60 degrees outside, however the cousins still came over and we had a blast hiking and playing at the park! So good to be closer to our family!

And then....

While Brandon was grilling the kids decided to take a trip on the 4 wheeler, you gotta love that Branson takes such great care of his little sister! (well sometimes!)

Zoo day!

Actually this is about to be a whirlwind zoo week! Today we went to our fav - the FW Zoo, Tuesday we are going to the Frank Buck Zoo in Gainsville, and Saturday we are headed to Sharkarosa in Pilot Point... will let you know how the others go... Aubrie is so fun to watch at the zoo. She absolutely loves the animals and is getting much better at identifying (or at least mimicing) their names and sounds! The whole time she would say "Dada - loo (point) _____ (animal name or sound). Adorable!

A Father's Day Race

For Fathers Day we gave Brandon and my dad a "Racing Experience"... They finally got to take advantage of it today and had a great time! One more thing checked off the bucket list!