Our December in a Nutshell

Since we have not had internet at the house for the past month... I haven't updated in a month. Sorry. I will do a recap now and vow to be more diligent in the new year!

My brother Caleb and his wife Jennie moved to Brownwood, TX this past summer. Even though it is only 2 1/2 hrs away, we had not made it out to see them. So to make up for it we went twice this December. This first weekend was just becaused we missed them and the second weekend was for Reese's 2nd birthday!


This little one cracks me up with how much she likes her toes!


Uncle Randall found Reese some Jelly Beans........... a common favorite for the pair.



Aubrie really wanted that milkshake!

These pics were taken at a little soda shop/drugstore we stopped at for some ice cream!


Sweet boys.

Then Uncle Randall helped put up a Christmas tree for the second time this year! (Caleb had a meeting at church and we were anxious to decorate it!)

Here are a couple pics from when we went back down for Reese's birthday!

Yay firetrucks!

Watch out for this one- he is bound to be an all-star in one sport or another. Current favorites are golf, baseball, and basketball. (He will make a golf club out of any object he can find)

Grandmother and Poppy joined us for the trip for his brithday.

Somehow Grandmother and Aubrie always seem to match!

The weekend before Christmas, Randall's family came in to celebrate Christmas early! i LOVE that I love all my inlaws and that we have so much fun together. This year we finally got to play games and it was a blast (even if we had to lock the kids up in the back room in order to do it)...just kiddding, no children were harmed in our holiday fun! Speaking of...here are the little darlings:

Granny & Grandad came over and joined us for dinner.

I'm not sure if Uncle Randall is attacking Bryce, or if Bryce is attacking Uncle Randall here!

So many gifts! This isn't even the half of it!

Christmas Eve was celebrated at my Grandma Carol's house where we had the traditional wonderful enchilada dinner. My contribution were these snowflake red velvet cookies:

Mom and Dad being festive in their red.

My favorite part of Christmas Eve is the the midnight service - I love it! The church is old with wonderful architeture, the music is beautiful, and there are candles!

This year Shelby and Nate happened to come to the same service we went to! These two just got engaged and I think they are great for each other!

Christmas Day, Randall and I slept in until 11! We had nowhere to be this year and no kids of our own to wake us at the crack of dawn, so we enjoyed getting some extra rest! The rest of the day was spent having a lovely lunch at my cousin Amy's house, and then dinner at my Grandmother's.

My cousin Jordan's baby- Saniyah trying to kiss Aubrie. There are babies everywhere this year!

Poppy says that Aubrie "smiles with her eyes". It's true.

This is papadede's gift to Reese and Aubrie. Notice papa / dede is one word (dede is what Reese calls my mom). I think it takes my parents back to see these two so close in age like me and Caleb were.

The Day After Christmas we opened presents with my parents and Caleb and Jennie.

Also over the holidays I got together with some girlfriends and had some good food, and good conversation!

Overall it was a wonderful Christmas of relaxing and enjoying family and friends.

O Christmas Tree.....

This week Randall and I have been on vacation! Randall's job would not allow him to take vacation before now due to the pressure to get the school he was building completed by the deadline. However, he also had to take his vacation before the end of the year when it would expire. So a December vacation we had! We decided it would be best not to go anywhere to far or expensive right now, and took the opportunity to do some much needed things around the house. I got most of the kitchen things put away in the cabinets and was able to cook our first real meal in the house (frozen pizza doesn't count!). My parents and Caleb came over for chili, cornbread casserole, and chocolate pie! The more family and friends we have over to the house, the more it feels like a home.
Along with housework, we also took time to put up a few Christmas decorations and went out and got a Christmas tree. No more fake trees for this girl, I like the real thing! So we got our Noble Fir from the local Wal*mart (next year I'm going to convince Randall to go out to Wall's Family Tree Farm and cut down our own), and brought it home to decorate. Only a few small delays: First is always the fun task of cutting the seal off the bottom of the tree so it will take up water. Here's my handy man at work!



We decided to get a bigger tree this year than last as we knew our living room ceiling was raised. What we failed to remember was that it was only raised in the middle of the room and not on the sides where the tree would go:

That would not do so it was back outside for Randall and tree to cut EIGHTEEN more inches off the tree to make it fit! We had a good laugh and finally got the tree inside, at an appropriate height, and set straight in the stand. It still awaits lights and decorations.

I also started on another project this week: setting up the Christmas Village my mother in law gave me that was given to her by a friend who bought it all and only used it once! It is so cute and I love all the little details on each one. The set comes complete with train, bridge, lamp posts and village people. My only problem is where to place all the houses, toy shops, bakeries, and churches as there are limited surfaces to put things in my house.


For now they all rest on a folding table waiting for someone to arrange them and adorn them with snow..... any volunteers?!

Randall couldn't believe how many houses I pulled from the boxes... they just kept coming. His favorite part was the train- boys will be boys!

We are having fun settling in for our first holidays in our new home!

Turkey Day Recap!

This year Thanksgiving was spent with Randall's family. All of his siblings arrived a few days early to hang out and prepare. Here's are all my sister's-in-law and mother-in-law making Christmas wreaths! It was a success and we now all have beautiful wreaths to put on our doors (except Betty who was too busy helping the rest of us to finish hers!)


Think we had enough materials??



Thankgiving morning turned out to be beautiful. So beautiful that the boys thought it was a perfect time for a little football at the school yard across the street!


But everyone managed to clean up in time for dinner which was held at Randall's Granny & Grandad's. Here is some of the wonderful spread (it's a good think that both of our grandmas make cornbread stuffing, so we never miss out!)

This was my contribution to the meal this year: German Chocolate Cake (my dad and my husband's favorite)

I only got a few family pics before my camera batteries died! But here is Randall with his little sis Katie. Can you believe she is carrying TWO babies in that belly! We should have two new nieces or a new niece & nephew sometime this Spring! Our family was growing fast enough without people bringing them in two at a time!!

And here is Randall's older sis' family: Bryce, Ty, & Lainey!

...then the camera died. Oh well, Thanksgiving was wonderful and by the end of the day our bellies were full and our hearts were warm from a great day of food and family!

Thankfulness

This weekend I have been thankful for flushing toilets and almost-clear running water! But most importantly I am thankful for a good husband and father-in-law who work tirelessly to make a beautiful home for us!

The bare necessities

We now have internet and cable..... now it really feels more like home :) Oh the things we have become accustomed to!

MOVING DAY!

We don't have internet access at the house yet, so I haven't been able to update in a few days. Moving day was this past Saturday. Luckily we haven't acquired too much stuff in the year we've been married, so moving only took a few hours. Putting everything in just the right place and getting it all organized and clean will be a different story though!
We were so glad that Caleb & Jennie came in to help! Our friend Aaron from church, who recently returned from active duty in the Navy, also came to help us!





(I told Caleb he looked like the little mouse on the Cinderella movie who stacks up as much cheese as he can up to his chin until he drops it all!)









Yay for siblings!



Caleb & Aaron tuckered out after a little manual labor.



(This is one of the infamous garage-sale chairs that I will attempt to reupholster in the upcoming months.....right Aunt Claire?!)



Mom & Dad gave the windows a much needed cleaning. Randall commented the other day that now they look like they're not even there they are so clean!



Reese came over later to check out everything.



We are very happy to be all moved into our new home...this has been a long time coming! Celebratory wine given to us by Caleb... reminded me of the scene in It's A Wonderful Life when George and Mary Bailey are welcoming a couple into their new home and give them this blessing:
"Bread...that this house may never know hunger, Salt...that life may always have flavor, and Wine...that joy and prosperity may reign forever."

Surprise Visitors!

These two little cuties along with their parents surprised us and came in town this weekend to help us move!

No more dirty concrete floors!

Here's the wood floor, installed, in our house..... I still can't believe my eyes!



Here I am smiling because all the floors are in, and it actually looks like a home now! I'm starting to get really excited!

(ignore the dusty footprints on the floor, we still need to clean it)

A day after the wood was put in....the CARPET came! Carpet went in all of the bedrooms. Randall couldn't resist testing out the soft comfy floors!


And here is the carpet in the master:


Just so you have a realistic picture of where our house currently stands- the master bath still needs some work (as does the kitchen, back porch, and garage). But all in due time!