Our Little Artist

A has been taking after school art lessons after school this year.  They are taught by the art teacher at her school who is also a professional artist.  She absolutely loves it!.  At school this week, there was an art exhibit displaying some of the students' artwork.  A had painted a wooden "thing" that was used to decorate one of the tables.  She was so proud of her masterpiece!  Her teacher told us that A is creative and very confident and independent with her art.  She knows what she wants to do, and she gets to it!  Art is definitely ones of the gifts God has given A.  I am so proud of her for lettng this talent of hers shine! 

Basketball

GO COWBOYS!!!!!!

Basketball season has officially started at the YMCA!  This year B-Ri has a couple of his buddies from school on his team.  They had their first game yesterday and won 20-8 (or something like that)!  Brendan played a good game.  He was great on defense and even made a basket.  Good thing he has been practicing and shooting hoops this week outside in the 20* temperatures.  Of course, the other kiddos spent the time going up and down the bleachers and jumping off the side of them.  Chad and I were worn out by the end and even got to see some of the game!  And that is how we will be spending our Saturdays for the next 2 months! It 's always fun to see how well the boys improve their game by the end of the season.  Maybe by then J will not be so intrigued by the bleachers!  ;)

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Our New Godson

Our new godson, William Xavier, was baptized today. What a beautiful and sweet baby! He didn't make a peep during the baptism and had his eyes open watching the whole thing. He is just about a week old...and even though he was a big baby, he is such a tiny doll. The gown he wore was a family heirloom and just gorgeous. I think it was originally worn by his great-great grandfather. We feel very honored to be William's godparents and to have such wonderful friends!

William with his beautiful mommy.

       

         Some of the big kids were taking pictures of themselves.

Collage

Here is my first attempt at a collage of photos. These are pics from Christmas programs and parties at school. There's even one of J breakdancing!!!

Family Pics

Finally took our pictures by the Christmas tree...our family photos of 2009.  Maybe this year (2010) we will actually have a professional take them.  MAYBE...but it is so much fun to try to get the perfect shot...before we give up and say, "That's good enough!"  The kids have really been into the silly shots this year! 

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas surrounded by our awesome family.  We spent Christmas eve and day in Dension.  Then went to Brad and Jen's house in McKinney before heading home to see what Santa left in the stockings and to see if he ate his cookies.  We had five Christmas celebrations, including one the Sunday after in Denton with my dad's extended family.  The kids had a blast playing with all their cousins...almost made me wish we lived closer to them.  (Then again, maybe they should move closer to us!:))  It is always a crazy, busy time!!!! We are very blessed to have such a generous and loving family.  We are blessed also to have such grateful children who know the true meaning of Christmas!

Lone Star Cattle Co. Trip

As our Christmas present to the kids this year, we wanted to give them the gift of memories.  So we took them on a trip to a ranch in East Texas that has some guesthouses.  We started off making memories right away when one of us ran over a small tree stump and had to have a flatbed tow truck lift the car off of it!  ;(  Luckily, there was no damage done to the car! 

The house we stayed in was so cozy and  fun.  It had lots of room for the kids to play, plenty of space for everyone to sleep comfortably, and cable.  Everything you would need was provided at the house.  All we had to bring was clothes and groceries!   The place also had a pin outside with miniature horses, goats, and chickens...of course, there were plenty of cows around too!  The kids spent a lot of time in the pin with the animals...just chasing them around trying to catch them.  Sometimes they caught one...everytime we laughed!  It was so funny to watch.  There was also a large pond right beind our house where we fished and rode in the canoe.  The kids loved the canoe-even though it was cold and a little rainy when they were going out in it!  Chad loved the wood stove in the house and kept the place nice and toasty with a blazing fire! 

We all had a blast just being together and taking it easy.  Enjoying the outdoors, watching movies, chasing the animals, playing boardgames, drinking hot chocolate...doesn't take much to make us happy.  Chad and I are so blessed to have such wonderful and grateful children.  We will definitely be going back to Lone Star Cattle Company!