Merry Christmas!

Since I have lots of present wrapping and carb eating to do, I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas a few days early! I'm sure I will be back after the big day with more pictures than you ever cared to see.

Have a very Merry Christmas!!

Drama, Dancing, Dates and Decorating

We've had a lot going on around here! Scarlett was Mary in her Mother's Day Out Program "Jesus and the Friendly Beasts". It was darling and she did a great job. Beck was Joseph and it was so fun to watch them together. I will be sad next year when they are at different schools :(Next, Scarlett had her first dance performance. Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like the bunny hop. ha! Here she is with her friends Bella and Karleigh. They were the back row dancers and did us all proud!

This video is mainly for family but it took a sweet FOREVER to download it and blogger never worked so eventually I had to figure out youtube. I feel bad for the poor little one on the front row. She was NOT in a performing mood and did this the whole time, bless her heart~

This picture kind of makes us look purple, but it was taken with someone else's camera and emailed to me, so maybe that's what did it. Anyway, I do a little data entry side job from home and every year they invite me to their Christmas Party. I have to say that I never go because since I work at home I feel like an outsider. However, this year Brody MADE me go and it was a lot of fun. Plus, it's nice having a date every now and then :)
And finally...Clark was being really quiet one day while I was getting ready and you know that means he's up to something. It took me a while, but I finally discovered what he had done:
Looks pretty proud of himself, doesn't he?!

He's Going to Have a Great Senior Slideshow

Our Thanksgiving

This will definitely be a Thanksgiving to remember. Each year we rotate where we go for the holiday because even though both sets of families are nearby, it's just too much eating for one day! :) This year it was our turn to be with Brody's family and his aunt and uncle invited us to their vacation place in Fredericksburg. Brody's brother and his family could not be there this year so it was just our family, Brody's parents and his aunt and uncle. They have such a nice home and we had a great time!

The great view from the backyard

Clark and Aunt Susan had fun on the porch swing

This is their little cabin next to the main house. It was so cute!

We hung out here on their patio most of the day and it was so pretty. The weather was cool but sunny, so it was just perfect!

Clark and Scarlett just kept going up and down these steps.

Me and Brody's mom

Scarlett LOVED playing with fire...thankfully Susan was always nearby!

Grandma took Scarlett on a nature walk :)

Clark woke up the morning of Thanksgiving with a pretty gross cough and runny nose, but he'd had a cold so I figured that it was just running it's course. However, by the time we got home that night he looked like this:
We found a clinic open on Friday and he was diagnosed with a bacterial conjunctivitis (pink eyes), and an ear/sinus infection. Poor little guy. Somehow he was still smiling though-such a trooper. He got medicine and things were starting to slowly look up. Until this morning (Monday) when we woke up to...

Pink eye round 2!

There is still so much to be thankful for even in the midst of sickness. I'm just hoping that we are all now on the mend!

Give Thanks

Tuesday I got to attend Scarlett's feast at school. I told her Monday night that I would be going and taking macaroni and cheese. She said, "Uh...do you know anything about Thanksgiving? They have turkey and pumpkin pie?!" I don't think she was too impressed with my offering.

The kids looked so cute in their hand made shirts. They each got to choose a Native American name, so I ate lunch with Princess Butterfly. ha!

This is one of her very best friends from her class. She talks about this sweet girl ALL the time!
At the end of the lunch Scarlett looked at me and asked, "When's the feast?" I had to tell her that the strawberries, two cheese cubes and roll WAS her feast. Oh, and a brownie. Because we all know that Betty Crocker was aboard the Mayflower.
It was fun to see her with her class and I wish I'd taken more pictures of them playing the drums under the tee pee, but I was busy doing "clean up". (otherwise known as eating the leftover brownies)

Family Fun

Saturday night Jaime and Ben went to a wedding, so we got to keep the boys. Everyone had a great time! I played around a little with picnik editing on these pictures showing the fun they had:

Football Frenzy

Scarlett has definitely become Brody's football buddy. Just the other day when the Cowboys had their bye week she mentioned that she was sad that they weren't playing because they're her favorite team. Last Friday night, Brody took her on a date night to watch some high school football in the new Heroes Stadium. Scarlett was thrilled to get some time with her "best friend, Daddy". Brody sent me a text that read:

"she kept saying 'I love being here with you daddy'...brody wept."

That girl has him wrapped right around her finger-ha!

I got in on the action Saturday morning. Let me start by saying we are planners by nature. We just don't do much spur of the moment-probably because that's tough with kids. However, when we got a call Saturday from someone with three tickets to the Longhorns game we HAD to go! My mom and dad had their own plans that day, but graciously offered to take the kids along with them on their errands so off we went. My brother got to come with us and I joked that it was a date for Brody and me but reminded me of high school when Mom would send Jordan up to spy and make sure nothing "inappropriate" was going on. :) The only thing inappropriate this time would be the amount of stadium food I would consume.

Let me say that I made fun of Brody for wearing tennis shoes. I told him three times he should wear his boots. After about the 2nd mile of walking uphill to the stadium in my three inch heels, I was regretting my mockery.
This certainly is NOT the stadium I remember from my days of going to games with my dad. This place was MASSIVE!
Whether you love this team or not, you have to admit how impressive it is to see 100,000+ all wearing burnt orange. It was awesome!
I know my hair looks pitiful here, but I was so happy to be at this game I didn't even care...and that's saying a lot. It was a great day, and a fun football weekend! (even the Cowboys won!!)

Our October

Love Creek Orchard

Before Trunk of Treats

Scarlett's favorite thing!

Clark got in on the action

(we went to a local nursery and our kids were the only ones in the bouncy house-it was a hit!!)

how are they all getting this BIG!?!

Halloween night

a blurry but goody

We're Practically BFF's

In every job, there are a few perks. My job gives me an endless supply of hugs and kisses.

Brody gets free rackets from his sponsor, discounted clothes and shoes, and his favorite perk: free lunches at the Men's Grill (yes-it's segregated-no women allowed). A few years ago we were able to go watch Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick play a tournament in Houston. His boss even got a trip to Wimbledon after all his years at the club. (hopefully we'll be around in 30 years for the same treat!)

Last night the club hosted a fundraiser for the Andy Roddick Youth Tennis Foundation. There was an exhibition but Andy got hurt at his last tournament so he just did the commentating. I missed that part, but Brody said it was hilarious. I DID however, make it just in time for this:

This is Mark Knowles who won the US Open a couple of years ago in doubles. He took Andy's place during the exhibition and did a great job from what I hear.

Both guys were really nice and down to earth. Brody was bummed that Roddick's swimsuit model wife wasn't there (ha!) but I think everyone had a good time anyway.

Here Andy is auctioning off some stuff-I don't know what it was because I tuned it out once I heard the bidding start at $2000.

Just another typical night out for us-schmoozing with tennis royalty. HA!

Today it was back to normal:

and I think that's pretty fabulous too!