Merry Thanks-mas!

While we were in San Antonio for the Thanksgiving week, we celebrated Christmas with my parents, brothers, sisters-in-law and nephew.  The year that Jarrad and I got married, we started spending every other Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family – alternating the years from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  It has worked out perfectly! 

Thursday morning, we opened gifts after Kyle got to the house from working around 11:30am.  We usually take turns opening gifts, but this year was more of a free for all.  I don’t think I even saw Meg open all her gifts. 

Everyone was completely spoiled (again) and had a great Christmas. 

***Luke snuggling up to Jarrad***

***Meg got a Looney Tunes collection from Meme and Poppy***

***Megan playing with her v-Tech reader from Meme and Poppy***

***Meg got her very own bow & arrow from Kyle and Sheryl this year***

We had an amazing week!  I was sad when it was time to pack the car up and head back to Mansfield.  But, I start a new job on Monday and Meg starts a new before and after school program.  We needed to get home so we could get settled back in for the changes we are about to face. 

Saturday & Happy Birthday Kyle

Megan, Meme and I had tons planned for Saturday.  Megan and I were extra tired on Saturday because Meg was up at 3:00 screaming because her head hurt so bad.  Unfortunately, Meme didn’t have any Motrin in the house, so I loaded Meg up into the car around 3:30 and headed into town to pick some up.  As we were pulling back into the driveway, Meg told me that he stomach was hurting.  Before I could get the car into the garage, Meg threw up all over the front seat of meme’s car.  It was almost 5 by the time I got Meg back to sleep, some laundry started, the car cleaned and back to sleep myself.  Not sure what the cause of it was, but Meg felt great on Saturday (other than a little bit of a headache still lingering).   

We left the house around 9:40 to get our day started.  First stop was the hair salon for Meme.  While Meme was getting her hair cut, Meg and I headed to TC for some delicious breakfast tacos.  Next stop was Dillards.  I needed to buy some work clothes for my new job (more on that later).  After Dillards, we headed to DSW.  Then it was on the the jewelry store, Target, Sam’s and then finally to Hobby Lobby.  By the time we got home it was 6:40.  Luke and Ruth came over Saturday night, so we got to hang out with them some more. 

While we were at Hobby Lobby, I picked up some craft supplies to make some ornaments.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the finished product.  I will say though, it was super fun to make and turned out very cute. 

Sunday, Meme, Meg and I got up early to head to HEB.  We thought by going early we would beat the rush – we were wrong!  The store was super busy.

Sunday evening, Kyle and Sheryl and Taylor, Ruth & Luke came over to celebrate Kyle’s birthday.  We had spaghetti for dinner and the sang Happy Birthday to Kyle and let him blow out a candle.  The only candle I could find around the house was a rose candle – I think it worked. 

Happy Birthday Kyle!!! 

San Antonio

Megan and I headed down to San Antonio last Friday for a week long visit with Meme and Poppy.  Meg and I loaded up the car Friday and hit the road right after lunch.  I let Meg skip school so she could help me with the packing. 

The drive down to SA was very uneventful.  Meg colored in the back and took a nap.  Dixie rode shotgun and slept the entire trip.  Gunner was nervous and couldn’t get comfortable.  I was so happy when we finally pulled into the driveway at Meme’s house.

Poppy and Taylor were actually out of town hunting for the weekend, so Luke and Ruth came over to hang out with us on Friday night.  Luke is so ADORABLE!  I love this little guy more than anything.  He’s always looking for the next thing that will get him into trouble.  He’s a little Dennis the Menace. 

Meg and Luke love playing with each other.  It’s super cute to watch Meg play with Luke.  She is so sweet with him.  And, he is sweet to her when it serves in his best interest…just like an 18-month old. 

 

***Luke and Megan sharing Cheetos***

Meg took Rachael and Reagan to San Antonio with us.  She also took her the babies beds with us.  Luke was very sweet with Meg’s babies and wanted to climb into the crib with Rachael.  Of course, I didn’t want to pass up the photo opportunity, so we let him get in there.  He looked very comfy. 

Megan didn’t want to be left out, so she climbed in with Luke.  I have to say that the American Girl crib is very durable – it held Meg and Luke with no problems. 

Ruth and Luke left the house around 9 or so.  Meg, Meme and I needed a good nights rest because we had lots to do on Saturday. 

Happy Birthday Parker

On Nov 16, Nick and Michelle welcomed Parker into the world.  Jarrad, Meg and I made it up to the hospital the next day for a quick visit.  Parker is so adorable and has so much hair!

School Project

Megan had to decorate a feather for a school project this month.  One afternoon after school, we sat down at the table and gathered her supplies.  She chose to paint the feather brown first and then added some embellishments. 

Adorable Jackson

Leigh Ann and Jackson came into town for a quick visit.  I was so glad we were able to finally meet Jackson.  He is a cutie! 

The most wonderful time of the year

The Sunday after we got home from camping, I got the Christmas decorations down from the attic and started putting Christmas up.  I started off small with Megan’s tree in her room.  We both took her tree and ornaments out and set it up.  She was so happy with the finished product. 

After we got Megan’s tree put up, we headed into the man cave to put up the trees in there.  These two trees were a new addition to our decorations from last year and I still love them!  They are perfect for Jarrad’s man cave. 

Unfortunately, after getting Meg’s room and Jarrad’s man cave set up, I didn’t have the energy to put up my tree in the living room.  It had to wait until a few days later.  I will post pictures of the living room tree soon. 

Love this bridge!

While we were camping last weekend, our campsite was right up the street from this adorable bridge.  I couldn’t resist shooting a few pictures of Meg on the bridge.  Thankfully, she was in the mood to have her pictures taken. 

 

Camping continued

Saturday morning, Jarrad had to go into work for a few hours, so Meg and I decided to go exploring.  She grabbed a walking stick and we headed out on some walking trails in the park. 

After breakfast, we both got dressed, put on our boots and hit the trails.  Meg had picked out a perfect walking stick the night before and grabbed it before we left.  Of course, we got about 20 feet down the road and she decided to turn back and leave her stick behind.  I don’t think she wanted to carry it around. 

   

We got back to Joey about 2 hours later, just in time for some lunch.  Meg asked me to fix Reagan’s hair.  After I was finished with Reagan’s hair, Meg liked it so much that she asked me to do hers the same way.  I’m pretty sure that the 15 minutes that it took me to fix Meg’s hair was the only time that she sat still the entire weekend. 

After doing Meg’s hair and cleaning up our lunch mess, Meg and I headed down to the bridge so she could run around.   While we were down there, Jarrad and Dixie drove by and we went back up to the camp site.  Dixie was so excited that she barely let Jarrad get out of the truck before running to us. 

The weather on Saturday was absolutely beautiful.  After Jarrad had some lunch, we put Dixie on her leash and headed out to go walking again.  We walked through some of the “neighborhoods” in the park. 

Once we got back to the camp site, we decided to start a campfire and play some ladder ball.  Meg slowed down enough for me to snap a quick picture of her and her daddy, then it was off to explore a little more. 

Meg took a quick break to have a cookie and spend some time with her girls.  Rachael (baby) and Reagan went camping with us.  I love watching Meg interact with her baby dolls.  She’s so sweet, but doesn’t take any of their attitudes.  I actually heard her say “don’t roll your eyes at me little girl” to Reagan.  It took all my strength not to laugh. 

 

We had a great weekend camping and can’t wait to do it again! 

Wordless Wednesday

Camping

This past weekend, we went camping at Loyd Park right down the street.  Even though we were minutes from the house, it felt like we were a millions miles away.  We headed over to our camping spot on Friday after Megan got out of school.  Meg was super excited about the camping weekend. 

Friday night, Boompaw & Nawnaw came down to have burgers with us and hang out around the camp fire.  It was a little cold, but thankfully Jarrad loves to make camp fires, so we stayed warm.  After burgers, we made s’mores.  I’m not sure if Meg had ever made them before, but she loved it.  She didn’t really like the actual s’mores, just cooking the marshmallows. 

 

We stay thru Sunday, I will post about our Saturday adventures soon. 

2010 World Series

DISCLAIMER – COMPLETE PICTURE OVERLOAD
(and, this isn’t even 10% of the pictures I took)

Last night, we had the opportunity of a lifetime!  We were taken to the World Series!  Luke and Patty got tickets to Game 5 of the 2010 World Series.  The game didn’t turn out how we had hoped, but we were still able to witness a deciding game for the World Series! 

Luke and Patty pulled out all the stops for the game!  We all met at their house before the game and rode together in a party bus that they had rented for the game.  The ride was so much fun. 

***Patty & Luke on the way to the game***

***Nick & Michelle***
 

***Bryan & Stacy***

***Uncle Bryan, Megan & Aunt Stacy***

***Nawnaw, Boompaw & Megan***
 

There were 12 of us in total!  Luke and Patty; Megan, Jarrad and Me; Stacy and Bryan; Albert and Barbara; Nick and Michelle; and Tommy (a family friend’s son).  We had amazing seats and got the the game early enough to see a little batting practice, have some nachos and take lots of pictures! 

***The World Series at the Ballpark in Arlington***

I don’t think I will ever be able to explain the atmosphere at the Ballpark last night.  I will never be able to explain how I felt walking into the Ballpark knowing that the game we were about to witness could be the final game of the 2010 World Series. 

***Stacy & Bryan outside the Ballpark in Arlington***

 

***Megan, Mommy & Daddy outside the Ballpark***

***Megan getting ready to go in***

The Rangers fans had high hopes that we would win this game and send the series back to San Francisco.  Unfortunately, Game 5 wasn’t good to the Rangers, and the 2010 World Series was decided on November 1, 2010 at the Ballpark in Arlington. 

***Barbara, Albert & Patty in their seats***

***Patty & Luke waiting for the game to start***

***Let’s go Rangers***

***Barbara, Albert, Stacy, Patty & Luke***

***Nawnaw & Megan***

Even though the Rangers didn’t win the World Series, the season was amazing.  Meg and I only made it to two regular season games this past year.  I have a feeling we’ll be going to a lot more next season. 

***Meg and Aunt Stacy***

***Uncle Bryan, Aunt Stacy & Megan – such goofballs***

***Meg & Daddy waiting for the game to start***

***Meg and Mommy***
 

***Jarrad and me***

***Daddy, Meg and Mommy***   

I’m definitely sad that the season is over!  However, I look forward to next year’s season and all that it will be.  I hope that we will go to a lot more games next season than we did this year! 

Thank you Rangers for an AMAZING season!  Enjoy the offseason and get ready for April 1, 2011!