Christmas 2012

Yep, it is almost Spring 2013...and I am writing about Christmas 2012...to say I am a little behind is putting it lightly. Nonetheless...I trudge on and try to catch up on all my journal entries....

This was our "Off" year as we call it. Off in that our kids are with their other families on Christmas Day so we have our Christmas either early or later in the month. This year we had it quite early. The first weekend in December. We have some dear friends that let us use their River House for our get together. It was fun to be in a different place!

Larry and I arrived on Thursday morning, got all the groceries bought, found a little tree to decorate, did a little decorating and hung the stockings then waited for the kids to all arrive!

Zach and his family arrived around 9 pm that evening and Ashley and her family arrived around 11 pm. As stated in my last post, the first order of business was to find out what the sex of the baby Snow would be! They had found out earlier in the day. Thankfully Ashley had let us know by text that all had checked out great and the baby was HEALTHY. Prayers answered. That is all that really mattered to us, finding out the sex was just icing on the cake.

After we celebrated, we all went to bed. Everyone was pretty tired and we knew our weekend would be full so we needed to rest up!

Friday morning we woke up, had breakfast and begin to make homemade ornaments to decorate our little "Charlie Brown Tree". We decided to have an old fashioned tree...where we all made ornaments out of foil, pipe cleaners and pop corn and cranberries. It was a fun morning, all in our pj's, making our little tree look festive while playing a simple game of Christmas Trivia questions while we worked! (Thanks Meg for bringing the fun game!).

We then got ready and headed to Boerne for lunch and a little looking around. The men brought the kids back to the River House while Meg, Ashley and I got to shop in Boerne for about 2 hours ALL alone. It was so fun to browse around!

Then we headed back to the River House and got things ready for supper. Tonight's meal is our traditional "snacky supper" though a different menu than normal. Larry and I have been quite crazy busy at home with Larry's dad being in the hospital and Marie living with us through out the ordeal. So...cooking and baking our favorite foods for this "Christmas Eve Meal" just didn't happen. Thanks to Sam's we got a lot of fun things to try out and no one starved! :)

While we were cleaning up the kitchen, I looked over and saw this...be still my heart!

After supper, we celebrated with some of our favorite traditions:

First" I read our annual Christmas book, while we passed little boxes around the circle everytime the word "Santa" was read. Then we opened our boxes to see who got the prize of a big whopping $5 bill! Everyone gets candy...but one lucky person finds money attached to their candy! Always fun and the kids love it!

Then we did our annual traditional Christmas Eve Hunt, where the little ones have to work as a group, following clues around the house which finally concludes with them finding their new Christmas PJ's and a game or book.

 We of course like to make things a bit challenging for them, so each round while looking for the clues they had to do something as well...such as ring jingle bells and sing...

 Or put on their reindeer antlers while searching....

 

Emma and Clay found the hidden Santa's!!!

 Sometimes those Santa's can be tricky to find!

 Or maybe do all three together....which brought lots of laughter!

 Mission accomplished! They not only found all the hidden clues but also a package!

 A new book and game

 Emma checking out her Hello Kitty Book and also a new game!

 Owen and Clay checking out the new camping book

Then the "big kids" had to write the next chapter to our Christmas Story using the list of words that Larry and I have come up with to make the story interesting. They always amaze us how creative and funny they can be!

Always fun when I can read Christmas books to the kids. My mom had a collection of wonderful Christmas books, so we always try to find time to read a few. I sure do love reading to them!

We had fun playing with their new games, visiting and then it was time to get those cute little ones in their fun new jammies tucked into bed. After the little ones were asleep, Bud and Honey got stockings stuffed and "Santa" gifts to big to wrap placed "under the tree".  Normally we wrap all the gifts but this year Larry and I got Ashley's dollhouse out of the attic, made by Larry many years ago. We stripped it down, repainted, put in new flooring, made new curtains and valances and updated the outside a bit. It was SO fun to work on it together.  Then for the boys, we made (HA...Larry made, I just was moral support!) a race track for their Lego vehicles. They love to make race cars with their Legos and race them. Then it was off to bed!

 

"Our Christmas Morning"

I love Christmas morning. I love the excitement in the kids faces. I love watching them delight over their own gifts and get just as excited over what their cousins get. Nothing much sweeter. Cousin love is the best!

Emma (3 years) Will (5 years) Clay (6 1/2 years) and Owen (8 years)

After they tore into their gifts, we had a big breakfast and had fun opening our traditional ornament boxes. Larry and I try to purchase or make an ornament based on what our "big kids" did this year. This year Ashley & David's was based on their trip to Honduras & Zach and Meg's about their big trip to Colorado. Then the kids, as tradition has it, is a ornament that reflects the birthday party theme.

After breakfast we enjoyed stockings and then spent the rest of the morning and afternoon playing with all the goodies and just hanging out together. So fun to just hang out!

We also took pictures of our best Christmas Gift...4 sweet kids under the tree!

Then we got ready, drove into San Antonio for a very yummy dinner. David's younger brother, Blake, lives in San Antonio so we invited him to join us for supper.

The next morning, Zach and Meg and the boys had to pull out early so we said our goodbyes to them, enjoyed just a bit more time with David, Ashley and Emma before they left for Mansfield. Larry and I then began to clean up, wash up all the linens and came home early the next morning. It was a wonderful sweet time with our family and we are very grateful that everyone makes time to for us to gather as a family, re-connect and build memories. We realize life can get so busy and hectic with activities but we hope and pray that our family will always find time to be together.

 

So with laps literally full of love, we had another wonderful holiday with our sweet family!

It's a boy!!

It's official.

Actually we have known this news for over a month now.

And I am sure my few followers already know the news.

But nonetheless...because this is my "journal" of sorts.

Ashley and David and Emma announced they are expecting a boy in May!

We of course knew they were pregnant but it was fun to learn that at their December sonogram everything looks good and healthy. That is such an answer to prayers!

At this sonogram they learned they are adding a boy to their family

and our fourth grandson!

We are thrilled for David and Ashley!

We are looking forward to meeting Jelly Bean (no name yet) on or around May 8th!

We love you little one and can hardly wait to meet you!!!

By the way, even though once again, my picture is not on my computer but David and Ashley had us and Emma open a big box that was filled with blue balloons! Cute way to reveal and we were thrilled! Larry guessed it, I thought it was another girl but honestly it didn't matter to us...

our prayer is a healthy little one!

Thanksgiving 2012

It was "our" year to be together at Thanksgiving.

We take turns with our kids...one year they are with us...the next with their other family.

Ashley, David and Emma arrived on Wednesday and it was so fun for the family to all be together!

We love our family time.

Thanksgiving was busy getting everything cooked and ready for a lunch time meal but oh so fun at the same time. I love having everyone in the house, helping, sneaking samples of the meal to come and visiting while preparing the meal.

I love cooking and baking but this is the meal that tugs at my heartstrings too.

I loved doing this meal with my Mom. I was always the "taster" when it came time to testing the dressing! We had so much fun cooking together so she is never far away from my thoughts when I fix her recipe for dressing and my grandmother, Murdee's, pecan pie.

It's fun to share these traditions with my family as well.

A funny little story:

Ashley kept telling Emma she was so excited for Thanksgiving and dressing! Well, Emma would always say "Dressing! What are you going to be?" 

To her dressing, is getting dressed up...like for Halloween.

She would always want to know what Ashley was going to be! :)

So, on Thanksgiving morning, while we were getting ready she begin to talk about get dressed. So, Emma and I took a little break and made her a little vest and head dress so she could be an Indian!

The kids had such fun raking leaves. What can I say...child labor! :)

They had a blast raking them into a big pile and jumping into them. 

I love that it takes so little to entertain them and the weather was perfect!

I love this picture! The boys were so sweet to take Emma for rides in the wheelbarrow. Also, I love how David plays with the boys...they think Uncle Da-Da is so cool and fun.

We also played a fun game of Croquet, we recently got an old set (free!) and so the boys were so anxious to set it up and play!

Here are a couple more of my favorites...like I said....who knew leaves could be so entertaining?!?!?!

We could not have asked for a better day. It was such a fun day of being together. 

The next morning we got a call that Larry's dad had taken a fall and so Larry and I spent the rest of the day and pretty much the next 19 days at the hospital. It has been quite a whirlwind of events and decisions. Thankfully, Darrell got what he wanted and that was to get to go back to their house at Hawley. I am not sure how long that will last but for now, we are doing our best to take care of their needs which means a lot of trips back and forth to Hawley. But, hey, these two people loved and raised a precious man whom I am very thankful to be married to! So, its the least I can do to repay them!

They are getting so big!

Okay, I am SO far behind on blogging. I am feeling overwhelmed. I am so behind. So...to start with we attended 3 adorable (no surprise, they have a very talented mommy) birthday parties for our three grandsons this past year. Here is just a little snippet from each party...

Clay turned 6 in June (yes, like I said...I am a little behind!)

Its fun to have a summer birthday...especially a swim party and since these little boys are such little fish it was no surprise when Clay asked to have his party at the Swim Club.

 Table full of very yummy food

 I have trouble icing a flat cake, so Meg amazed me with her ball shaped cake! Clever!

 Our beautiful blue-eyed boy!

 It was so fun that Emma & Ashley were in town. Emma and her Uncle Zach hanging out.

 Oh this brings back memories. I loved it when my Dad would toss me in the air at the pool. Zach is so strong so he can send them sailing...and they love it!

Look at just how cute those three boys are!

Then the next birthday was Owen's in November! How can he be 8? 

Another adorable party. Owen wanted a camping party at Abilene State Park.

This year was the first ALL boy party and they got to stay overnight. 

We were so blessed that he wanted Bud & Honey to join them for lunch. I feel extremely blessed as I know he probably won't always want us at his parties...but I can hope he will! :)

Check out this adorable cake!!! And the decorations...adorable!

 Yummy snacks...with such cute little tags! It's all in the details! :)

 Owen, growing up!!!!!

 Owen, Clay and Will and his other boy friends. 

 What a sweet little boy!

Then a few weeks after Owen's party, Will turned 5!

It is so hard for me to grasp how quickly they are growing up.

He decided he wanted an Angry Birds Party. Ha. Meg always does such a cute job with their parties and I thought this one might stump her a bit...WRONG. Once again, she made it super cute and it was just perfect for Will!

 Aren't those such cute cupcakes! I can't even imagine the time those had to have taken! 

Okay, now comes the sad part. I don't know what happened to the other pictures from his party. I can't find them. So, I don't have a picture of him at the party. But he had a huge smile and had so much fun playing with his friends and brothers. 

But here he is a few weeks before he turned 5! Doing what he does best, loving and trying to pick a fight with his dad! He loves to be in his Dad's arms! He is such an charmer and such a precious little guy with such a funny little personality. 

So, Happy Birthday to our three little guys!

We love being in town with them, watching them grow, hanging out and seeing their little personalities take shape. 

We are so blessed!