Looking Back

I never did share the professional pictures we purchased on our cruise. What great memories! I can't wait until our next family vacation! Enjoy!

Basketball Time

Rhett is playing Upward Basketball for the first time this year. Here he is at his first practice. He is so excited!

We have to go straight from Sissy's dance class to basketball practice. Here's Sissy in her sweet little dance clothes.

What a busy and fun life we have!

Girls Shopping Trip

My group of best girlfriends takes an annual Christmas shopping trip. I've never been able to go with them in the previous 4 years they've been, but this year I got to go. I'm so glad I did! It was so fun!

I drove over to Bville early Friday morning, picked them all up around 8:30 and we headed North to Kansas City. Brenda's mom and dad were nice enough to let us stay at their house.

At our favorite place to eat, The Cheesecake Factory

Me and Tash

Jenn and Tasha

Brenda, Betty and Me

At the T-Rex restaurant. Very cool place. Very much like Rainforest Cafe.
Can't wait to take my kids there someday.

Loaded up Sunday morning and ready to head South.

Good thing Brenda's so tiny, because there wasn't much room for her to sit after we laid 1/2 of the back seat down!

And Betty barely had any room to sit up front due to all of the packages at her feet and on her lap...

and this was nothin'!

We went home by way of Springfield so we could make a Bass Pro run. We all shopped at Bass Pro and did some damage in Wal-Mart there as well before we came home.
There were packages and bags EVERYWHERE!

Good thing I drive a big 'burban! If the other 2 girls would've been able to go, we would've had to haul a trailer behind us!! Maybe I'd better practice up my trailer maneuvering skills before next year. There's talk of a trip to Chicago... wherever we go, I can't wait!

Did I ever...

Show you my new purse?

This was my souvenier from Vegas. My husband insisted I get it. He is too sweet. I always wanted a Dooney purse, but I never would've bought it on my own. He said it's my Christmas Bonus. Another benefit of having my husband for my boss!

And I got the matching wallet/wristlet too!

I love it!

I'd better because I'll probably be carrying it every single day for the rest of my natural life... :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

The day after Thanksgiving is the day that we put up our Christmas tree and begin our Christmas decorating around the house. This year was no different.

The kids wanted their own trees in their rooms this year.
Here they are decorating them.

Putting up the big tree. This year, I got a new one. It's a 9 ft tree. I thought our ceilings were 10 ft tall. Jason was right, they're only 9 ft tall. Needless to say, there is no star on top. I did buy a pretty bow to put on top though.
Our stockings on the mantle. I haven't gotten my garland on the mantle yet. The stockings in the middle are Jason and I's. They are the stockings we used when we were children. Jason's mom bought all the kids' stockins each year for their first Christmas. She got all of them from Christmas Memories in Eureka Springs. I love that store!

The Nutcracker

On Friday after Thanksgiving, we went to The Walton Arts Center to see "The Nutcracker". Mom and Maw Maw Dennie came along with our family. We had a wonderful time.

It was our first time to see it. I hope we can make it an annual tradition. We all enjoyed it very much. The kids were just angels. They couldn't have been more well behaved. What a blessing! I'm so thankful for opportunities to enjoy fun times together as a family while we're making memories for our kiddos.

November Recap

Man, has it been forever since I've updated the blog! Life has just gotten the best of me lately. I've been too busy out living life and haven't had time to blog about all of it. But, I'm back now!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We have so much to be thankful for. I am so blessed. I hosted my first Thanksgiving meal in our home this year for my family. My parents, my brother and sister in law, Russ and Aggie, and their 2 kids and my Maw Maw Dennie and her sister Aunt Adele were all here.

I decorated a little bit.

This was the table we put all the side dishes on.
It was full to the gills after we put all the food on it!

I set up this little table to have room for a few more to have somewhere to sit and eat.

Everyone contributed something to the meal, so I was far from being the provider of the meal. One of my contributions was chocolate cake. I ended up with too much icing left over, but decided it should go on the cake instead of in the trash (no room in the fridge for anything else!) So, I piled it all on and it looked great. Until we took it out of the fridge and it started to get warm. It was oozing chocolate!

How do you like my "I'm too lazy/busy to actually decorate a cake" cake decoration?
It was a tad big for the cake, but other than that, it was kinda cute!

PaPa aka The Master Turkey Fryer was hard at work.
While his "help" played.

Gracie showing off her ninja moves... in her princess dress and boots. You'd never know I had her dressed up so nice and cute for the holiday. She shed those nice clothes in about 10 seconds after our company arrived and opted for her usual princess dress. She is a mess!

Rhett showing off his best ninja moves.
Sporting his new ninja dress up set from Maw Maw Dennie.

Me and my baby brother Russ. He was showing me how to wear his scarf.
Looks good on me, dontcha think? It sure did keep me warm.

I asked for a "Vanna" to show off the turkey. Here's what I got!

Thanks to everyone for bringing your special dishes to share with all of us. It was a delicious meal to say the least!!

On Sunday after Thanksgiving, we went north to Strafford, MO to Jason's Aunt and Uncle's house to have Thanksgiving with Jason's family. It was so wonderful. The meal was great. We were stuffed to the gills! I forgot my camera, so I have no photographic evidence. But, the evidence is on my scale when I step on it. WOW. I've never been so bad at Thanksgiving before. Could've been the 8 mini pecan pies I ate over the course of 4 days. Maybe.