Some Christmas Decor

Well the stockings have been hung for a while now and the rest of the inside ready for Christmas too. I just wanted to share a few of our favorite decorations, some are additions for this year others we have had for a while. However, they are all special.

First there is the cute Santa on the mantle that I bought at Kohl's last year after Christmas for a steal of a deal. I just love all the different Santas one can find during the holidays.




My next favorite thing is the Hallmark church series of ornaments. I got the first one to commemorate Cary and my first Christmas together after we got married. The one here is number 11 in the series. I love to see the way they capture a different style of church each year and they are all so beautiful!










We have also started a tradition of buying the girls an ornament each year that reflects their personality or interest at the time.

This one is Kaylee's, it pretty much speaks for itself. When you open the locker it plays a tune from HSM3 and Kaylee loves it!












This is Campbell's ornament and is very appropriate since each morning she asks immediately after waking up if she can put on her dress-up clothes and watch a Barbie movie. The Diamond Castle movie has been her favorite for several weeks now. However, today she did sit on Santa's lap at school and tell him she wanted skaters like Annika and a rainbow blanket like Annika. ( I think she is the Barbie in the Pegasus movie.) The skaters are on their way only they are roller skates instead of ice skates and I am a little unsure where the rainbow blanket came from but I am sure Santa will figure something out. Why is it every year they always come up with something random at the last minute?









Here is our very traditional tree in the den. Each ornament on it reminds me of a beautiful memory. I just love it!
















This is the tree that the girls get to claim and decorate all on their own with their special ornaments. It resides int he playroom for them to enjoy each day.















These last two pictures are of two Christmas decorations my Nannie made herself. She was not one to be overly crafty so imagine my surprise and delight when she made these for me to have each year. They meant a lot to me then, but even more to me now that she has been gone from this earth for a quite a while. Neither of my girls got to know their Great Nannie but each year we get to talk about how my Nannie made those decorations and delight in their beauty and the wonderful memories flow from me to them. The joy of the season!










I suppose I had better leave the computer now to continue making my list and checking it twice.

Christmas cards mailed...check
Teacher gifts delivered...check
Candy made...maybe this weekend??
Locate Santa to make sure he has a rainbow blanket.
Get pictures with Santa.

I am sure there are many more items to attend to but that is all I can handle right now. Hope you are all staying warm and enjoying the spirit of Christmas!

Christmas Light Parade 2008

Well it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas at our house. We went to the annual Christmas light parade downtown last night. There were well over 100 entries this year. The girls had a blast as usual. It was the perfect night for a parade because the temperature was just right and the wind was not blowing very much. Kaylee was excited because she kept recognizing her friends from school and church riding on some of the floats. I think she was most thrilled to see Mrs. O her kindergarten teacher because she saw Kaylee and said "hi" to her. The smile on Kaylee's face was a mile long. Campbell on the other hand did not care whether she recognized anyone she was just waving, smiling, and saying "Merry Christmas" to everyone. I can totally see her riding on a float doing her princess wave one day. The parade is definitely one of my favorite yearly traditions with our family because of the smiles on my daughters' faces the whole time.







Kaylee waiting for the parade to begin and hoping that there will be some candy thrown from the floats.










One of the girls favorites because there were dogs pulling the wagons.











Another favorite because of the horses. Do you see an animal theme here?











In case you cannot tell what this is it is a huge HEB shopping cart with a hot rod under it. I thought this was hilarious!









This is of course a top pick because every one loves an adorable train!












The End of the parade.
Campbell wanted Cary to take a picture of her sleeping. If only she would go to sleep that quickly:-)


Hope you are all enjoying the holidays!!

Black Friday Bargains!!

Well my friends I survived Black Friday shopping and I have a new love! When we got our paper on Thanksgiving I quickly went through the ads and found that my favorite store, Target, was going to have the pink Dyson vacuum on sale for a great price. From that moment on I started thinking about what our plan would be to make this mine. I had already been to Target on Tuesday and knew there were only two on the shelf so I was going to have to be near the front of the line or just pray everyone else would be there to purchase something more fun. My Mom and I got up and went to Target at 5:30am with Starbucks in hand and I was shocked at the line. Let's just say there were at least 100 people in front of us. Everything was going great until it started to rain. I could not believe that of all times for the rain to start this was the moment. Once the doors opened we proceeded into the store at a fairly rapid pace. I went straight to the vacuums and my sweet Mom grabbed a cart. As I rounded the corner of the aisle I saw one of my dreams coming true, there sat two pink Dyson vacuums. I grabbed the first one and headed to the aisle to find my Mom with the cart. I lost count as to how many people stopped to ask me where to find one of these treasured finds. After getting a few more items we left Target to continue our shopping, of course I was grinning from ear to ear about my good deal. Then as I was walking to the car I thought about how my life has changed. I use to only get excited about jewelry and now I was almost as equally excited about a vacuum. I would not trade my life for anything! Just in case my husband is reading this jewelry still thrills me and I saw several pieces that would look great on me while using my new vacuum:-) In case any of you reading do not have a Dyson I highly recommend them. I have already vacuumed the whole house twice. (In my defense we did put the Christmas decorations up after vacuuming the first time so the floor was dirty again.)


I also have to brag on my husband who got up at and was in line at Sears at 4:30am to get these so our garage could finally be a little organized. He even put them up and had the garage organized by Friday afternoon. Thanks also to my Dad for helping too:-) First a Dyson then shelves...last week turned out to be a great week for me! Thank you Honey

I hope all of my friends who fought the Black Friday crowds had good luck too.

Thankful for our 7 Year Old!

Today has been a very special day around our house because we not only got to celebrate Thanksgiving at home with my parents and grandfather but we also got to celebrate our oldest, Kaylee, turning 7!! It was so fitting that her Birthday falls on Thanksgiving every few years because she has given us so much to be Thankful for. Some of the best times of our life started with her birth and have continued each year. We are so blessed to have a healthy, funny, intelligent, beautiful daughter who loves others and the Lord with all of her heart. She is a joy to our life each day and I love to see her mind at work contemplating different situations and the way you embrace each day with everything you have in you. You light up our life and we love you so much!

I am going to list 7 Things about Kaylee:

1. She has a smile that will light up a room and definitely put me in a better mood if I am having a challenging day. Her laugh is infectious too.

2. She loves Bible class and school, anything that has to do with learning. There is not a teacher that is not your favorite or a subject for that matter. You love to read and so far have not picked up a book that you do not love!

3. She is a loyal friend and will call each of them her best friend. She does not play favorites and includes everyone.

4. She is very tenderhearted and loving after getting past her shyness.

5. She likes to be aware of new situations and what to expect.

6. She still can remember things that occurred when she was two years old. If I have ever forgotten anything I just have to ask her. My little sponge:-)

7. She loves her family and is happiest when we are all doing something together.






My firstborn at age One!

How sad and wonderful at the same time. I am sad the years are flying by but happy that she is growing into such a wonderful child.












Kaylee at Seven years old!

Thank you for giving us so much to be "thankful" for every day but especially today! We love you to the moon and back!

Cooking Up Some Fun!

We decided to have Kaylee's party a little early due to it being on Thanksgiving day this year. Therefore Saturday night was the big night for her to celebrate. Kaylee loves to be creative and just have fun so we decided to have a Cooking Party. We started off with having each child make their own mini pizza using biscuits and toppings of their choice. It was so fun to watch them all creating their own masterpiece just the way they liked it.
As you can see from this picture it was all hands on deck as far as helpers to make this party a hit. (Thank you Lindi, Mendy, and Keri for your helping hands.)



While the pizzas were cooking we moved on to the next activity which was having all of them paint their own aprons. Being the responsible parents we did round up a variety of old shirts for the children to wear while painting. (Most of them were from conferences Cary has attended or our ACU days.) It was so quiet in the room while all of the children were trying to decide what to paint and making their ideas real on their aprons you actually could have heard a pin drop. Each of their personalities came alive in their artwork. I just love to watch little minds at work.




Once all the artists were finished we moved the party into the dining room so they could eat their pizza creations. I think Bobby Flay and Rachael Ray would have approved. My sweet husband even put some in the oven for all the adults to
sample too.






After the pizza it was time to move on to the cupcake frosting part of our evening. Kaylee requested some chocolate and funfetti cupcakes so that is what we had. My sweet friend and lifesaver on most days, Lindi, made some yummy homemade frosting in a variety of colors for the children to decorate with. We also had a variety of sprinkles in many colors and even some animal shaped. As you can see they were all business when it came to frosting their cupcakes. We really may have some future Food Network stars on our hands.











At the end of the party came Kaylee's favorite part as you can see on her face...the presents. All of her friends (and their sweet Moms) made sure that Kaylee's Birthday was a hit! She got so many wonderful things and the best of all was just getting to be around so many of her precious friends. These are the times we will remember and cherish forever. Thank you all for being a part of it!

We love you sweet girl and hope the party was all you had dreamed!

Happy Halloween 2008!!

Well I hope everyone is enjoying a Happy Halloween!! Here are my two girls this year in their costumes before Trunk or Treat last night at our church. We have one Gabriella from High School Musical 1-3 fame and one Butterfly Fairy. They were both very excited about the holiday and a little shy too when it came to saying Trick or Treat but by the second row of cars I think they had overcome it. The candy helps a lot of course:-)















Kaylee's favorite part of her costume was the "T" necklace which of course stands for Troy Bolton.











Campbell was most excited about her wings. That was her only request this year is that she had wings.











Here is most of the crew from the Halloween Part we went to at the Robinsons' Home.











How would you like to have this crew show up at your door?











Campbell in action Halloween Night.











Kaylee after getting some candy...ready to move on to the next house.


I hope all of my blogging friends have a wonderful and safe Halloween. I look forward to the pictures of all of your children dressed up:-)

ACU Homecoming 2008

Well I am just now recovered enough to blog about the weekend which was a lot of fun but left us all very tired.

This year was not only the typical ACU Homecoming activities we usually do but we also had some 10 year Reunion festivities to add to the fun with Cary's class. There was an Elvis theme this year hence the man dressed as Elvis. We kicked things off by attending the Carnival which our girls look forward to each year. Kaylee stayed near all the games where you could get prizes most of the time while Campbell wanted to do all of the activities. It was great to see all of our friends who had some to town for the reunion. I even got to reconnect with my precious friend Reagan who I had not seen in about 10 years. It was so good to be able to see everyone in person and actually have a conversation while chasing our children of course. It seemed like no mater where we ended up all evening there was someone there that we knew. So wonderful! Here are a few pictures of the Friday night fun!




Campbell in the bounce house that looked like a firetruck which she referred to as "the train".














Kaylee suited up for laser tag the one time we lured her away from the games.

















Campbell with a baby duck from the petting zoo.










After all the fun activities the girls were worn out and ready for bed so they could get up early on Saturday for the big parade.




The theme of Homecoming this year had to do with Elvis hence the man dressed as Elvis in the parade.










Here are our girls in their cheerleader outfits ready to yell about their ACU pride!















Kaylee & Mom
















Campbell & Daddy













Saturday night we went to Cary's reunion dinner and enjoyed catching up with a lot of friends we had not seen in a long time. It is always so good to be able to relive fond memories of our ACU days together. We even went out with a group of about 30 friends afterwards to continue the fun and laughter. (Lucky for us the girls were home with a great babysitter who had them in bed asleep before we got home. ) I think the next morning my side still hurt from all the laughter the night before. There is nothing better than making memories with friends and reconnecting with those you have not seen in a while. Thanks ACU for giving us all a reason to come back!!