Mimi's Always Taking One For The Team

Mimi is my Momma and bless her sweet heart, she's always up for *almost* anything for the boys. She was very very brave and came to visit us during Thanksgiving. The boys all had such a fantastic time with her! I wish that she would just cave already and let us build her a Mother-In-Law suite :). Stop laughing Bobby...

Mimi playing "crack the egg" with Grady

 My poor mother trying to defend herself against the 4 year old onslaught...

Griffin wrangling...

 Mimi even taught Griffin the finer points of how to gnaw on a turkey leg :).

The Saturday after Thanksgiving Mimi humored us all and was the greatest sport of all and ventured out to the deer lease with us! We only stayed a couple of hours to hang out with the boys and then bring them back home with us. I think she really enjoyed it though! The leaves were just beginning to change so we had some awesome scenery to look at!

Griffin driving the Mule.

"I've got this Dad. You can let go now."

Mimi's first (and most likely last) Mule ride.

 We really did all have a great time just driving around and hanging out together!

Love you with all our hearts Mimi and can't wait to see you again soon!!!

Griffin Hates Santa

This was our first attempt this year at a super fun Santa picture!! Can you tell just how well it went? HA! We went to see Cowboy Santa in Gruene, TX. We do this every year and I just love to see how much the boys change from year to year. We had 4 pictures to choose from and this one was surprisingly the best. The other 3 might have worked just as well except that the professional Santa that we PAID to sit next to was not even looking at the camera! (and for the record I still feel like he's looking off to his right in this picture)

::Sigh::

Take number 2...

Nope. Griffin still hates Santa. Poor baby. Momma just kept having to torture him... Hopefully we'll look back on these years and all laugh!

The Santa at Bass Pro Shops suggested that I hold Griffin so they could get a better picture :).

While this might technically be a "better" picture it's still missing my sweet littlest boy. I'll take the crying Santa pictures any day!

Just So You Know...

I have a super awesome Christmas/Decorating/Look at all the amazing fun we're having post to put up but Blogger is a POS and won't let me upload anymore pictures until I purchase more space for them. I refuse to  either A.) do an amazingly fun Christmas post with out pictures to prove that I am a Christmas decorating Goddess and B.) PAY for Picassa storage that I don't feel that I need.

If I'm going to be PAYING anyone for anything then it'll be to Wordpress...

Anyone have any great ideas for me how to change this issue?

Thoughts and Prayers

My super sweet cousin passed away this morning. My heart is breaking but I know that it surely must feel a thousand times worse for my Uncle Tim and my cousin Shane's sisters, Shannon and Kendra.

Shane fought valiantly against stomach cancer and now resides in Heaven. He was able to be at home until the very end and was surrounded by all those that loved him dearest. He was preceded unto Heaven by his mother, my Aunt Karen, who passed away 10 years ago after having cancer herself. It's so very sad to those of us left with out these two special people but I find strange comfort that he was greeted in Heaven by his Momma and was perhaps not as scared as he could have been.

My cousin Shannon on the left and sweet Shane on the right. 

I was so fortunate that we got to visit with him for several days back in September. Shane lived in Alabama and had made a trek to Texas to visit a bunch more of his family. Smart boy hurried up and finished off a bunch of bucket list type things this past summer and fall. :)

Shane was my closest cousin in age (we're just a couple of months apart) and although we didn't get to see each other very often, he has always been close to my heart.

I'll miss you forever Shane! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year as every other year, I have so much to be thankful for! I am so very thankful for my family and friends. I love them dearly and I'm lucky enough that they love me as much in return :). I'm thankful for the good food I have to eat, a beautiful roof over my head, and that my beloved has a job!

I'm particularly blessed for by all my children! They keep me both laughing and on my toes :). I'm also so thankful for my wonderful hubby! He works so hard for us each day and still comes home with a smile on his face and love in his eyes!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! Psalm 100:4 (ESV)

Ice, Ice, Baby

This past weekend I headed up North to a bridal shower in Dallas (Shout out to my friend Amy!). While the boys and I were up there we decided to sneak in a little extra fun and headed out to the Gaylord Texan. They have the most amazing Christmas things already going on! We didn't have a ton of time so we picked the funnest thing they had to do which was to go see ICE! 

ICE is just what it sounds like... millions of pounds of colored are carved ice! Each year they pick a new and fun theme. This year was Merry Madagascar. My boys just adore that movie so it was even more special that we were able to see it in ice!

Each room that you toured had a particular scene carved out and then that portion of the story playing out loud for all to hear. 

(Warning now... This is one of those crazy pictures post :)

Grady and Graham at the entrance to the ICE show. Mimi (my Momma) and Griffin came with us but Griffin lost it right before we were going in and my sweet Momma kept him in the Lobby area for us. Also, let me apologize now for how funny some of my pictures turned out. My poor camera had the hardest time focusing with all that reflective ice in there!

Graham pretty much staying freezing cold (Hey! They keep it at 9 degrees in there!) the whole time. Most of his pictures look just like this one :).

Grady was just fascinated with all of the ice! He was just a tiny baby last time he was here. 

A sweet lady stopped us and asked if she could take our picture. Not the greatest but at least we're all smiling and looking at the camera right? :)

This is my very magnificent picture of the ice slides they had there. Crazy how you can see the frozen condensation in the air! They had 4 slides and Graham went down one but I couldn't get Grady to. He just cried and cried and said how scared he was. Poor baby, he missed out on such a fun ride!

My boys got so tickled at the frozen and real coconuts and just begged me to take a picture of them.

Another things that they cracked up! Banana ice skates!

At the end of the event they had the most beautiful ice sculptures depicting Christ's birth. They had the nativity story playing in this room as well. It was just so beautiful and special!

We all had the best time and made some great memories!

TREAT Time!

I keep seeing all over Facebook and other blogs I follow how more and more people seem to be getting ready for Christmas early this year.  A TON of people I know already have a tree up! Some might think "one Holiday at a time please!" but for me it's more like "I love the Holiday's so much that I want to celebrate them all for as long as I can!".

Because of this philosophy I started shopping in August! I'm already all done in that department (more on that later...) so I can focus more on fun local events going on and spending quality time with my family and friends. I'm getting ready to order my Christmas cards this week so that they can get addressed and mailed out by next week. I figure the sooner I can spread the holiday cheer to other the better :).

Would you like to spread some holiday cheer early this year too?! Treat wants to help you celebrate the season! Whether you're sending out a "Thanks for a delish Turkey dinner!" or a "Merry Christmas!" card you can personalize it however you'd like! The best part of all? They pretty much cost the same as a greeting card that you'd get in a store. How awesome to take that chore off your to-do list during this busy season!

Want to know the other great part?? Today and tomorrow Treat is giving you a free card to try them out! Just enter TREATBLOGR at checkout.

Happy card shopping ya'll!