Christmas Traditions

My family has a great tradition that we just started in 2008. We have a progressive dinner the first weekend of December. It really started out as a way to get our husbands to finish up the Christmas decorations early (don't tell them), but it also gives us a chance to go to each others homes and see each others decorations. This year everyone came to our soup for soup/appetizers, Chris & Gina's house for the main course and Rob & Brande's house for dessert. The kids of course had a blast! We ended it by singing Christmas carols. It is so nice to have so many musicians in the family. Brent, Chris and Dad on the guitars and Rob on the drums.

Our White Christmas

Christmas Eve turned out a little differently than we had planed, but it was really nice.

It started snowing early in the morning and didn't stop all day. It was not just snowing, it was a snow storm! I have never seen it snow here, like it did that day. As you can see, there were areas of our backyard that were 16 inches and 2 1/2 inches deep with snow! We waited all day for it to slow down so that we could go out and play.

Our Christmas Eve Service at church was cancelled due to the weather, so we stayed in, had a fire and my plan was to snuggle up on the couch and watch Christmas movies. However, Ashtyn went to watch TV in my room while she wrapped Christmas presents for me. So that just left me, Eisley, Brent and the boys. As we were flipping through the channels looking for a good movie they discovered that Star Wars was on. So instead of getting to watch holiday movies, we ended up watching Star Wars all evening! Not my choice, but I was outnumbered! It made me realize what it must be like for all of you moms out there that only have boys!

10 Years Together

Yesterday, Brent and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. I look back with awe at how quickly these years have gone and at how much God has blessed us! We would have never thought that 10 years later we would be where we are now with 4 precious children. I would have never even imagined that Brent would be an architect and that I would be homeschooling our children. I could have never imagined how much more in love with him I would be, 10 years later. These have truly been the greatest 10 years of my life and I am excited to see where God leads us over the next 10!


Brent's parents came in town for Thanksgiving and offered to keep the kids so that Brent and I could have a night out to celebrate. We decided to stay at this hotel and made reservations to eat at 560 at the top of Reunion Tower. However, on our drive over we decided to cancel our reservations for dinner and head out for some fun at Holiday in the Park! It was opening night and we had just enough time to get to ride all the things we wanted to ride. Our favorites were the Titan and the Superman Tower of Power. Even though we missed our "fancy" dinner, we did get to enjoy some excellent steak at Texas Land and Cattle after we left Six Flags.

Today, we slept in (so nice) and then went to the 6th Floor Museum. Afterwards we had excellent late lunch at a mexican restaurant in the West End and then headed back home to see our babies. It was wonderful to have an evening out, but I think we both agreed that we were ready to get home!

We ended the evening watching the Tigers beat Arkansas! Geaux Tigers! (I just had to throw that in!)

Harvest Festival

Our church's Harvest festival

On Friday night our church held a harvest festival. It has been several years since they had one and were expecting maybe 500 people in attendance. At last count we had over 1500 people! It was amazing! The kids all had a blast and we are looking forward to doing it again next year!

Ashtyn is 8!

Ashtyn had her first slumber party with 8 little girls spending the night! I think they all had a good time. We had friends from church, some friends from our school last year and a neighbor. God was definitley present. All the girls got along so well with each other!







Here is Ashtyn trying out her new purple scooter.

Dinner with the family at the Purple Cow.

Part of the family

Ashtyn, Bryce and Eisley with the purple cows

eisley's new do