South Bound for New Year's!!

This..............................................





means we are headed South for New Years!! We will be soaking in the sun and waves, trying to stay warm at the beach!!!

Happy New Year everyone!!!




See y'all next year!!!!

Ladies who Lunch!

Today the boys and I were invited to have lunch with Leeanne, Christie, and Mary Michael. We ate at Chili's our normal place, here in Lindale you have about 3 choices.



It felt like we had not seen Leeanne in ages!! We missed her!



We were all debating when to start taking Christmas down??? Oh how I love the decorations while they are up! When Christmas has come and gone I so dread it, but I usually take them down before New Years! We will be heading to the beach for New Year's so, hopefully I will get some down. I like to start the New Year off on a clean note. We shall see what I get done!!!

The Country Tavern with Nana & PawPaw

On Saturday Ryan's Mom, Dad and Brother came up so we could exchange gifts with them. We had a fire outside and we all took turns jumping on the trampoline with Barrett. It was a beautiful day outside!!

We opened presents from Nana and PawPaw. B got a laser tag game system and a tackle box with a bunch of fishing lures and hooks. Jack got a little pull around ABC phone and little interactive puppy dog. I can't believe I didn't take any pics of the gift opening, I was just enjoying relaxing and totally forgot!

We just hung around and visited most of the afternoon, while looking for Uncle Kolby a dog. Oh yes, like he didn't get enough for Christmas he decides he wants a dog. So I suggest adopting one from the Humane Society of East Texas. We got online and searched the dogs they had. We found the cutest little Brittney Spaniel. So right before they closed we all loaded up and drove down to look at her. Nana and PawPaw were not so sure because they thought he wanted a puppy. When we saw her she was so sweet and cute I knew she would be the one for him. But, we looked around at lots of puppies and dogs to be sure and then we told him lets sleep on it. We headed back to Lindale and we were all saying how tired of ham, turkey, etc. we were. So I suggested lets go to The Country Tavern!! B.B.Q sounded so good! So we drove to Kilgore for some wonderful food!!







I know these pictures are horrible quality, once again I only had the iphone. Crazy Me!!! But it captured the memories anyway, even if they are a little blurry!!

Here is my little monkey having his first taste of ribs! MMMM, yummy!! And if these are the best ribs I have ever had, or will eat!!



We had to wait a while to be seated at the restaurant, but the boys were so good! Barrett had fun playing songs on the jukebox. Miranda Lambert, Kenny Chesney, and Jason Aldean were his picks, I know he is so his Daddy's son!!



On Sunday when heading to Rough Creek (our land in Palestine); Wouldn't you know the boys decided to stop by and pick up the dog. Who we now call Roxie! Isn't she a cutie!! And now the fun begins for Nana and Kolby training her!!!

Christmas Day...At Home!!

As I said earlier, this was our first Christmas at our home. It was absolutely wonderful waking up at my own house! I woke up extra early to make sure Santa had set up everything properly. My Mom and I began cooking breakfast, and had cider while we waited for the boys to wake up. Jack was the first to wake up, but I wanted to let B sleep as late as he wanted so I just kept Jack out of the living room.



Here they are about to head into the living room to see all the goodies that Santa left them!



Barrett got a trampoline and a few Zhu Zhu pets from Santa. Jack got Chuck the talking truck, and some other cars and trucks.




Christie, Cragg and Mary Michael joined the rest of us for breakfast and then we opened the rest of the gifts. Barrett and Jack are so lucky to have wonderful Grandparents that love them to pieces and just spoil them rotten!! Barrett got a REAL shotgun (his daddy's doing) this year and he was sooooo excited!!







We all bundled up to head out and try out the new trampoline!! It was cold so we had a fire in the outside fire place and the patio heater out, and we still couldn't handle it for very long! Props to Santa and his helper Elf for getting that trampoline set up!!!





My sister and I made our annual trip to the movies on Christmas day. We had gotten tickets to see NINE, but as we were pulling up I told Christie we should go see "It's Complicated". So, we did! It was so cute, I love all Nancy Meyers films!

While we were at the movies the rest of the crew hung out at home and played with all the toys! It was a great Christmas Day in Lindale!! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and fabulous husband and kiddos! I love my life! I am so thankful for Jesus who made it all possible for us all! Happy Birthday Jesus! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2009

We had a very Merry Christmas eve this year with a lot of changes! One reason being that this was the first time Ryan and I have not spent Christmas in Lufkin. This year my parents sold the big house, and taking all the gifts, kids, etc. was getting to be a little hectic. So, we decided to have Christmas at my house this year! WOW!! On Wednesday My Parents and Grandmother came to stay with us. Barrett had a great time getting Nanny to read him stories, it's so wonderful that he and Jack have had time with their Great-Grandmothers.



Thursday Mom and I cooked and got ready for Christmas Eve dinner, Barrett even got to help a little. We made some cookies for our neighbors that had just gotten back into town.





We almost had a White Christmas!! It snowed on Christmas eve it was so neat Barrett loved it, he wanted it to keep snowing!! It didn't stick but was fun while it lasted!! Barrett loved explaining to everyone the real story behind the candy cane. It gave him an excuse to eat one every time he told someone else! Thanks Mrs. Jennifer for teaching him that!

Here are Big B and Jack, my Dad just loves that Jack is so cuddly! As do I, so sweet!!




Here we are on Christmas Eve!! I love my boys!!!








These two just melt my heart, although trying to get them to pose for a picture does the opposite! Ha ha!

Kelly, Dad, Mom, and Christie!!!






Christmas was a little more tame this year. Our tradition has always been to have a big group of friends and family over to my parents house to have dinner/drinks and watch "Christmas Vacation!!" When the little ones started coming, each year became a little different. After all, there is Santa, early bedtimes, reindeer food, etc. Plus the fact that the children CANNOT watch "Christmas Vacation." I will say things are much different now, not bad, just different. I wouldn't change a thing!!

We had dinner and opened a few presents from SuSu and Big B, and Christie and Cragg. B got the funniest little hunting hat from C and C, he LOVES anything to do with hunting! Jack had so much fun climbing on boxes and pulling ribbons off packages. My Dad is famous for saying "just give the kids boxes, they like that just as well."






After our fabulous dinner and presents were done; we put out our reindeer food, and laid out our cookies for Santa, along with his thank you notes.





Then we called it a night and all headed to bed!!!

Baking and BB guns!

Yesterday while B and Ryan were still at the deer lease, I decided I would bake our neighborhood gifts for all the neighbors. I had to go to walmart for a few ingredients before Jack and I started baking, it's was pretty crazy in there. While in walmart I made a quick dash down the toy aisle to see if I could find Jack anything else for Christmas. (the poor little thing doesn't have much this year, not that he will know or anything) Anyhoo, what do my little wondering eyes spy sitting right there in plain sight, no one fighting or grabbing for them, TWO Zhu Zhu pets. That's right just sitting there, you didn't have to get in line with a ticket or anything. CRAZY! I guess I could have saved a lot of time and $$$ doing it this way instead of eBay!! Oh well!!!

So Jack and I headed home to bake, actually I baked and he slept. I decided to make the Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls for everyone because they are soooooo good they should be illegal! I mean when you can actually feel the grains of sugar melting in your mouth it's a problem!!!! Plus anything that starts off like this is going to taste Divine!!!!!





Jack and Mary Michael got their first tastes of sinful deliciousness and they wanted more!!!!





In my rushed crazy deliveries I forgot to take a picture of the rolls all packaged up in bows. :(

My other two boys arrived home last night and brought me a present.................

Mistletoe!

Barrett had a great time at the deer lease as usual, his Big B and Uncle Cragg even went for the last trip of the year. Big B bought him a BB and took it with them. Barrett was shooting like there was no tomorrow, loves it. Ryan called me and said " he's hitting the cans 4 out of 5 times". Well what can I say he gets his shooting abilities from his Mommy!!

Just the Two of Us....Cousins!

This weekend all the big boys headed to the deer lease for the last hunting weekend of 2009 and the little ones stayed home with the girls. Christie and I were in Lufkin for a shower I was hosting and we had a great weekend at SuSu's house.

Mary Michael and Jack are so funny together, they really love each other and just smile and laugh when they see one another. I am so glad Christie and I have babies so close in age so that they can grow up together, so fun!

My Mom has all these little Christmas animals that sing and dance, the kiddos couldn't get enough of them. They thought they were so funny and would clap and dance when we turned them on. (please excuse Jack's outfit in this pic, we still had on his pj top)



Mims and Jack had their first bath together, and sadly most likely the last. Mary Michael didn't like the bath with her cuz to much. He is a little rough and splashy in the tub so I don't blame her!









You can see Mary Michael's little tears, and there is my son just laughing!!

On Sunday the girls plus one little man headed to Sam's for a little shopping! Here are the cuties in the cart together, and that lasted about as long as the bath did. They were grabbing each others paci's and grabbing each other so Jack ended up riding alone!!




After Sam's we had lunch at Ralph and Kacoo's where Jack had his first taste of ranch dressing!! Mmmm! He loved it, comes by that naturally his Dad and Brother eat it on everything!!

Jenny's Baby Shower!!

On Saturday I helped host a shower for one of my best friends Jenny. She is having a baby boy in a few months, her first and I was so happy to see her!! When Jenny walked in I just died laughing, it's so funny to see her preggers, she is always so tiny and I haven't seen her pregnant(she lives in MS). She didn't think it was to funny, but she looks so cute and I am so happy for she and Corey.



We had the shower at one of the hostesses Mom's house in Lufkin, and it was a lot of fun. It was so good to see all the girls again, it's not very often that we all get to see each other.





Jenny got so many cute outfits and a ton of diaper genie's, I guess she's going to be ready for the dirty diapers! LOL!!

Karen's husband sent Corey the new daddy to be a humorous little gift, from an LSU fan to the Ole Miss fan! So funny!!



Here is the beautiful Mommy to be with some of her gifts!!





Jack and Mary Michael even made their appearance at the shower with SuSu!!



I am so ready for Jenny to have Baby Jackson so she can experience all the wonders of motherhood!! Congratulations Jenny and Corey!! We can't wait to meet you Jackson.

PS. If you know Jenny and I at all, you would know that we are two of the most girlie girls there are. And for us not to have girls is just crazy, they would have bows the size of their heads!! I will say though that little boys love their Mommy's and are the sweetest things on earth!! And I wouldn't trade mine for anything in the World!! All three of my boys...Ryan, Barrett and Jack are my greatest gifts!!