Christmas Photo Shoot 09

We had such a privilege to have a good friend, Kristi Thornton, take pictures for us for Christmas this year. She did such a great job! Here are some of our favs...

Silly Little Guy!

Coming to find Mommy to show off his 'pants-head' look

A Christmas Story

I have been on the hunt for the 'perfect' nativity scene for the past couple years, so when I started out on my quest again this year, I remembered one thing - I have a one-year-old who tends to throw things on occasion. Beautiful, fragile nativity...not a good idea. So I passed up on my search this year, but I found an amazing alternative; and it's one that he can play with! I found a nativity scene just for Brayden. He is loving playing with the pieces, and it also provides a great way to teach him about the true meaning of Christmas - Jesus!

One thing about this nativity is that because he can play with it, he likes to put the people and animals in the places that HE thinks they should be. See a rendition of his roof-rockin' stable below...

Shopping with a New Twist

I made a discovery at our local grocery store. They now have these cute little cars on the front of a few of the grocery carts. Our little guy is just at the age to really enjoy it and be able to stay up there by himself. So I strapped him in and took off through the aisles. He LOVED it...well, that may be an understatement! He sat there so content, smiling and waving at everyone we passed. He honked the little horn the entire time and just had a BLAST! Looks like that will become 'our' cart each time we head to the store!

Tall Guy in a Little Car

...need I say more.

Well, I just have to say, I think it's HILARIOUS that you can see his knee!!! Let's just say we'll never be getting one of these cars.

It All Happened So Fast!

A few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to go speak at a college women's retreat at Stephen F. Austin University. It was such a great time, and I truly believe the Lord moved in great ways during the weekend. I pray that God continues to move in those girls' lives and that He will use them in amazing ways on their campus! During the weekend, Jonathan held down the fort at home with Brayden. He texted me with this hilarious picture and said, "I didn't believe it could happen so fast." See, Brayden has one cabinet in the kitchen that he can get into an 'play.' It's the Tupperware cabinet. He likes to pull out the plastic tubs and paper plates and play with them. Jonathan said Brayden went into the kitchen and just a minute later had all of this already pulled out... So funny!

"It all happened so fast!"

At the BSM college women's retreat at SFA

Me & Emily - one of our former students who is now at SFA

New Moon Premiere

So, yes, I did go to the midnight premiere of New Moon - the 2nd movie of the Twilight series. I went with a few friends from church, and we had a blast! Before we headed to the movie to stand in line for, yes, 3 hours, we had our staff wives' Bible study. I decided to have a fun little Twilight display of stuff to get us all ready for the movie. We had a Twilight quiz with a lovely golden onion as the prize (Thanks, Erin). I put multiple quotes from the movie all around the snack table, and each person received a Twizzler 'bites' pack for a movie snack. They were wrapped in labels from Hostess {with the mostess}. The night was so fun, and even though I got home at 3am, it was well worth it!

Me, Erin, & Tia...ready for the movie!

Kristen, Kristin, and Whitney

SNOW!!! ...in Houston! WHAT?!

Friday...in Houston...it SNOWED!!! What?! That morning, I looked outside the front window, and sure enough, HUGE snowflakes were coming down! The weather had been warm, so it didn't really stick around for long, but it snowed enough for some good time playing out in the snow that afternoon. We put on Brayden's new snow suit (Thanks, Mimi!), and headed out to brave the cold.

The fact that snow hit Houston was pretty humorous...EVERYTHING shut down because of the snow! The offices at church closed early, so Jonathan came home around 2. Local schools shut down early, and our Winter Retreat for our HS students had to be cancelled because the bus company cancelled all travel in our area. We got about 1 inch of snow. Oh well...it made for a fun day!

Our front yard

Ready for the snow!

Loving it!

Our tired and cold ski bum, finally in from the snow.

Thanksgiving in Salt Lake City

This Thanksgiving, we headed out to Salt Lake City, Utah to visit Jonathan's family. We were so glad that the whole family was able to come in for the holiday week. This year, Brayden and Harrison, who are just a month apart, had so much fun getting to play together. We found out exciting news that Erin, Jonathan's sister, is pregnant! Woohoo! We can't wait to meet their precious little baby after he/she comes in July.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The grandbabies with Grayma

'What do I do with this stuff? It's cold!'

Jonathan & Brayden

Reading books with Grayma

Michael, Heidi & Harrison

Peekaboo!

Precious pic of Heidi w/ Harrison

The boys LOVED getting to 'ride' the elliptical machine!

All the kids ran a 5K on Thanksgiving morning...

which helped us enjoy our pumpkin pie much better!

Erin & I stopping for a quick photo op on the course

Run, boys, run! Jonathan, Jared, & Philip running hard.

Harrison & Brayden would crack up as Jonathan pushed them in the rolling chair down the tiled hallway. SO FUN!

It's Haircut Time!

Okay, so I know I am WAY behind in blog posts. It's been a crazy last couple weeks with us being out of town for Thanksgiving, working on paintings for Christmas season, etc.... I'm going to try to catch up in the next few days.

Here are some pics of Brayden's 1st 'official' haircut in a salon. It was a cute place for kids where he got to sit in his own car and 'drive' while they cut away at his hair.

Pre-haircut...check out that hair!

It was getting crazy in the back!

He was loving getting to 'drive'!

All done...and SO cute, if I may say so myself...

which I can, because I'm his Mom!