A New Tradition

This year we built and decorated a gingerbread house! This is the first year we have done this as a family. Both of my sister in laws did them (or are going to) which was what made me decide to buy one. I think this is going to end up being a new Christmas tradition for us! It was so much fun! I don't know who had more fun with it....daddy or the kids! I think Erika had more fun eating the candy than putting the candy on the house! In fact when we were all done she snuck back up to the table to pick some of the candy off of the house! Little stinker! Here are some pictures....

Notice here the empty candy bowl, the piece of candy in her right hand, and you can't see it but she has a piece of candy in her mouth...which explains the little smirk on her face!The finished product! It's not perfect, but that is the fun part! We'll get better and better at this as the years go on and we will be able to look back and see how they started out! The red icing didn't turn out as cute as we were hoping. The little window on the left looks a little gory!

So tell me...what is your favorite Christmas tradition???

Aren't they cute???

I think they are! But then again, I guess I am a little bias!

I have a blog goal...

I am going to try and blog more each month than I did the previous month! I am going to start in January! Why am I doing this? I don't know. haha. Just for the fun of it! Because I like to blog. So now here is your challenge.....if you have never left me a comment on here...leave me one! Just one. That's it. That's all I'm asking for! I want to know that I am not bloggin in vain. (however feel free to leave me as many comments as you'd like!)

The Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children's Parade

Last week I took the kids to downtown Dallas to watch the Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children's Parade. It started at 10, but we got our spots around 7:40! We were told to get there early in order to get good spots! I am so glad we did. You can see in the first picture that there is no one behind us, but by the time the parade started it was packed. This parade is nationally televised so if your family is the parade watching kind, check your local listings to see when it is going to be on. I believe most places it will be on Christmas day. We were a couple of blocks away from the cameras so we didn't get on tv, but we didn't go to get on tv...we went to have a good time and that was what we did! Here are some pictures!This was Erika's favorite! She loves anything pink and recently received her very first My Little Pony toy, so she was ecstatic!
Larger than life size Cabbage Patch Kid dolls.....SO COOL! We have two CPK fans in this household so we (we as in Erika & Mommy!) liked this one too!This was hilarious (at least I thought it was...) Elvis impersonators came after a group of horses to clean up the horse poo and put it in their sparkly garbage can.
Last but certainly not least....Jolly Old St. Nick...aka Santa
Overall, it was worth the early and cold morning. The kids had a blast and it was fun to do something different!

A few random things....

Only ten days till Christmas

Haven't mailed my Christmas cards yet

They are ready to go minus stamps

All Christmas presents have been wrapped

Exept for David's....haven't bought anything for him

Probably won't until next week

I would feel bad, but I know he hasnt' bought anything for me yet.

I still need to make a couple gifts to mail

Probably won't do it till later this week

Yesterday it was 70

Today it is 28!!!! BRRR

Still warmer than good ol Minnesota!

I am going to make candy today

I am thinking I need to do the dishes first

I am cold...time to go warm up with a cup of hot chocolate

Four in all....

That's how many Thanksgiving's we had! We made a stop at my mom's house, my aunts house and then my dad's house on Thanksgiving Day. Then we had Thanksgiving with Nate & Jodi on the following Saturday.

Grandma Mary & Grandpa Matt with the kids

Auntie Melissa with Erika & then Caleb.

Uncle Lee & Caleb
Aunt Teri & Caleb

Papa Ole & Grandma Deb with the kids

Nate, Jodi & all their boys with all of us. :)

Erika and her bff Allie

Erika had a blast playing with Allie while we were in MN! These girls are crazy together...I can only imagine what the teenage years hold for them! You'll notice in the last picture that the pj's Erika has on are way too small for her. That's simply because they are Allie's and not hers! Allie put her pj's on and Erika wanted pj's too. Erika is sitting on my lap as I post this blog and screaming "Allie where are you".....she misses her friend!

Fall pictures

We certainly did not miss having to deal with all these leaves this year, we did however miss the photo ops that come with fall raking!!! When we stopped by our old house to check on a few things the kids had a blast playing in the leaves!!!! And I got my fall pics that I wanted! Enjoy!

Dylan's 4th Birthday!

November 24th marked Dylan's fourth birthday. It's hard to believe it's been four years since we said hello and goodbye to Dylan. It's seems like it's been a life time since I held him in my arms and kissed his sweet cheeks, yet I remember every minute with him like it was yesterday. Here are a few pictures from his special day!

Balloons all ready to go!

Daddy taking care of Dylan's headstone.

I didn't do this on purpose, but I took this picture of Dylan's headstone and captured Daddy and Uncle Nate looking down at the headstone.
We sang Happy Birthday and sent the balloons off!
Watching the balloons make their way up to Dylan.

Just curious....

So I made the background that I currently have. (well I put it all together from a digital scrapbooking kit, I didn't create the background and other elements) So I'm just curious how it looks on your end? Does everything look right? Does the border go to the edges of your screen, or is there a white background on the sides? Of course I only know how it looks on my computer, so that is why I am asking. :) Thanks!!

We are home!

Well, our home in Texas that is. We drove back yesterday and got home around 1 am! We made it in 16 1/2 hours! That was also how long it took me when I drove up there last Saturday. We had a great trip! Thanksgiving was great! We made three stops that day, but it didn't end up being as stressful as I thought three stops would be! We got to see two of our nephews be baptized on Sunday, and we were so glad to be a part of that. I have a few more highlights from our trip on the camera that I will share very soon! Just wanted to update real quick that we are home!

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning I am heading out at 6am with the kids and driving home!!! We are very excited! Our original plan was to drive on Wednesday with David, but I wanted more time there. David is working on Monday & Tuesday, so he can't come early with us. We were able to find a cheap flight for David on Wednesday morning, so it's going to work out perfect! He'll get an extra day there too and he's happy about that. And I am contemplating driving straight through and not stopping! (of course with the exception of eating and potty breaks...I'm just not stopping anywhere over night like I have done in the past) I'm crazy I know! But I think I can do it! The kids are VERY good in the car so that is what makes it possible. Plus with leaving so early I should be able to make good time and hopefully get to Blaine around 10 or 11. I do know my limits and I will stop if I need to though. I'll have plenty of movies and snacks packed for the kids! Pray for safety as we travel! See you all soon! (If you are in MN that is!)

No snow....

Tonight in the car we were talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas. Caleb is starting to get a grasp on the concept of time, so he was asking how long till Christmas. I don't remember exactly how the conversation went, but we did say that Christmas is a little over a month away. To which Caleb replied "it can't be almost Christmas, there is no snow".......oh yeah, is he a Minnesotan or what???? Everyone said we wouldn't miss the snow and winters of Minnesota.... you're all wrong! I mean, we definitely will enjoy the 70 degree weather while we can, but Christmas really won't be the same without snow! This will be the first Christmas with no snow for any of us. Maybe God can work out a miracle for us!

Oh and speaking of Christmas...I know it's a little early for my blog to be all decked out for Christmas. I put it all together myself though and I want to be able to look at it for quite a while so I skipped making a Thanksgiving one. However, once I figured out what I was doing, it was really easy to make it all. I might be changing it up more often now! No promises. My kids need me more than my blog needs a new layout. And I need some sleep. Goodnight.

Getting a new look.....

I'm working on making my own background and design for the blog. Sorry if you are visiting tonight and my blog is a mess! I will have it all figured out soon! :)

Halloween Pictures!

These are a little overdue! We had a pretty good Halloween this year, although it was just another reminder of how much we miss home! We normally go to my dad's and the kids trick or treat with their cousins, we really missed that!!!
The playgroup that we are a part of had a Halloween party, so we went to that (which was the weekend before Halloween). On Halloween we took the kids to a "trunk or treat"....yes you read that right. We had never heard of anything like that before! And it's literally just that. The one that we went to was sponsored by a local church and people decorated their trunks and it was pretty much like a mini carnival. The kids had a really good time! We also did a little trick or treating at a near by neighborhood. Overall, the kids had a blast. They got WAY too much candy though! I'll probably toss it all out in a couple of weeks because I'd rather them not have a sugar high everyday for the next two months!

At the trunk or treat....bowling on the streets of gold. Complete with a guardian angel. :) (just a tad bit cheesy....)

Superman with his Superdaddy! :)

This is November??

Yesterday it was sunny and 78! It was the perfect afternoon to take the bikes out and wear off some energy! (while having fun, of course!) Seems weird that Thanksgiving will be here in a couple of weeks!

Another funeral

David's Uncle Jim passed away a little over a week ago, and the funeral was last Thursday. If you read my blog regularily, you will know that this is the second funeral for David's side within the past six weeks. First his Grandma's at the end of September, and now Uncle Jim's. Funerals certainly get you thinking about life. This time of year is always a little different for us. In just two weeks we will celebrate Dylan's 4th Birthday. In case you are wondering...we won't ever stop celebrating his birthday. He's our son and he deserves to be celebrated and remembered! We will be in MN for Thanksgiving, so we will have a chance to celebrate there as well. Our yearly tradition is to send him balloons and have cake. We purposely chose to travel to MN on Thanksgiving and not Christmas so we could be there around his birthday. We know that it's only his earthly body in the cemetery, he is not there, we know that. But it's still important for us to go to the cemetery. It's one way for us to honor his all too short life.

PhotoHunt: Blue

I found this fun new blog! Each week there is a photohunt theme. This week is blue. Here is my FAVORITE blue picture! We have a large version framed in our house. This was taken in January 2005 on our vacation to San Diego.



PhotoHunt

More practice....

The other day I was on the phone and David was home....on the couch napping I believe...anyways. Erika is two and man, two year olds know when nobody is watching them. I forgot to put my makeup bag away. Need I say more. I got to her before she destroyed anything. She got to the eye liner before I got to her though. I must say that I am impressed that it was only on her eye and the surrounding area. (the mark on her cheek is a scratch from earlier this week) The girl knew what it was for! Did I mention she's two? She could use a little more practice. I think we'll wait about 10 more years for that though. Lesson learned: put makeup bag away every morning!

And yes, I bribed her with a sucker so I could take a picture.

600!

That's how many view's I've had since I added the counter at the bottom of the page! WOW! I didn't think too many people were actually reading my blog! YAY! Now maybe we can get to 1000....haha! :)