The Gingerbread House

When the girls and I went to my parent's house last month, a friend of my mom's gave the girls one of those gingerbread house kits. We were going to put it together that weekend but knew that we would never get it home intact so we waited.

The girls nearly drove me nuts asking day after day when they could work on it. They had an absolute delight of a time when they finally got to get their hands "dirty". I was pleasantly surprised with how easy the whole thing was and how well it turned out. Here are some pictures of the event for your viewing pleasure.

If you look closely at the last two pictures, you will notice that the little trees are missing in the last one. Those were the first to be eaten after the girls finished the house. You have to be quick with the camera around here if food is involved.

Stay tuned for the next installment in this December rundown...

Austin's 14th Birthday - December 14, 2008

Wow, 14 years old...I can hardly believe it. I distinctly remember the day that he was born. Keith's squadron was deploying to Saudi Arabia before Austin's due date so he was encouraged to come a little early...2 weeks to be exact.

I had a doctor's appointment on the morning of the day he was born. My midwife told me that he was about 6 1/2 lbs. I laughed and told her there was no way. I told her that all of my other boys were bigger than that and I felt bigger with Austin than with any of them. She shrugged her shoulders with a "you'll see" look on her face.

He was born at 9:54 that night and weighed in at 8 lbs. 11 1/2 oz. Yeah, this mom knows a few things about baby boys. Can you imagine how big he would have been if he had come on time or even late? Yikes!

Here is a picture of him at 9 months.

We should have known when Austin was a baby that we were in for a wild ride with him. When he was 13 months old he pulled my curling iron off the counter and wrapped both hands around the barrel holding it and crying until I got to him. It resulted in 2nd and 3rd degree burns to both hands but never slowed him down a bit. Here he is with his bandages which we changed twice a day for weeks.

It was a grueling experience for his parents but God was merciful and healed him beautifully.

Austin was the first of all four of our boys to have staples in his head...thanks to a fall on the trampoline. He was also the first of our boys to ever break a bone...which he has now done three times in the last year and 2 months. We have decided that football is not his sport if he wants to keep his bones intact. This picture was taken when he broke his arm the first time in October of 2007.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we are thankful Austin has survived to see his 14th birthday. He is active, athletic, full of energy, and all boy and he always has been. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Here is Austin on his big day.

Austin, we hope your birthday was as special as you are. And we pray that God will see you through to celebrate many more wonderful birthdays in the future. We love you, Son.

Tyler's Senior Pics

December...here we go!!!

I think I will take the events from the sneak peak one by one.

The first thing we tackled in December was taking Tyler's senior pictures. He and I went out on a Sunday afternoon and took 155 pics. We had fun and got some great shots. There really isn't much to write about our afternoon so I'll just post some of my favorite shots and leave it at that.


It's New Year's Eve so I will close by wishing you all a very Happy New Year. May 2009 draw you ever closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the reason for...everything.

Here I Am

Yes, I know, I should just be a summertime blogger. Once school started this thing got hard to keep up with and as the holidays drew closer it was just impossible. I'm not apologizing because there will always be many things that are priorities for me over this blog but I know that those who like to follow along are more than ready for an update. So over the next week or two I will try to catch you up a bit. But remember, we start back to school next week so you never know what might happen. It may be summertime again before you get the Christmas recap.

Well, the last thing I blogged about was Alicia's deer so I'll try to pick up there. The weekend before Thanksgiving Keith took the younger three boys down near College Station to a friend's hunting lodge for some male bonding time. They came home toting three 8 point bucks and some great stories.

Needless to say, we have a freezer full of venison and have enjoyed some yummy jerky since then. The guys had a great time...just don't ask Tyler where Dad shot his deer. Thanks KC and Cathy for your awesome hospitality and for feeding our family for the next year.

While the guys were down south, the girls and I spent the weekend with my folks. We had a great time as well but the time always passes too quickly. Why is that? When you are in the dentist chair the hour drags by but when you are doing something you enjoy the days tick off the clock with reckless abandon. Go figure! I forgot to take my camera along this time so I have no pictures to share of our weekend.

Next up in this whirlwind update would be Thanksgiving. We spent a quiet day at home and really enjoyed the chance to rest and do nothing...except cook and eat, that is. Keith deep fried our turkey once again. I doubt that we will ever make turkey any other way unless forced to. It is so good. Yummo! Here is the end result...before we ate it of course.

Here are the girls on our front porch on Thanksgiving Day. You know you are in Texas when you can be outside barefoot on Thanksgiving.

The day after Thanksgiving I started decorating the house for Christmas. We finally got the tree finished on Sunday afternoon. As is our custom, here is a pic of Keith putting the angel on top of the tree and another of the kids in front of the finished product.

That about sums up November for us. Tomorrow or Thursday I'll dive into December. Here is a sneak preview of our December.

1) Tyler's Senior Pictures
2) Austin's 14th birthday
3) The Girls' gingerbread house
4) MBC's Annual Cookie Exchange
5) Grandma Jan comes to visit
6) Jeremy comes home for Christmas
7) Christmas!!!! Happy Birthday Jesus!
8) Little Chef revisited
9) Emma the Artist revisited
10) Austin breaks his hip...no I'm not kidding
11) Grandma Judy and Papa Wes come for New Year's Eve

Shannon, I apologize for the odd number of items but I'm too tired from all of these events to rework the list. ;)

See...it has been a busy month and it's not over yet. I can't wait to share some of these events with whoever out there cares to follow along. We are richly blessed but I could always use a few more hours in my day to share those blessings with everyone else.

For now, I wish you all a belated Blessed Christmas and a Joyful New Year! Thanks for hanging with me and gently encouraging me to update this thing. You know who you are...and there's more than one of you!

Deer Hunting Season...

...is upon us. Drew, Tyler, and Austin have already been out several times. They've seen a few deer that were out of range along with some wild boar, bobcats, and turkeys. But, so far, none of them have had a good enough angle to put any meat in our freezer. We are confident that it will happen before the season ends.

Yesterday, Drew took Alicia hunting with him. Drew's friend Levi went as well. I believe that it was Alicia's first time to hunt. As we were doing the dishes after dinner, the phone rang. Alicia had killed her first deer...a 6 point buck. Not bad for your first time out!
I'm not sure which of them was more excited...Drew or Alicia.

Levi helped Drew drag the deer back to where they were parked, and he brought it back to the house for them in the back of his truck. Thanks, Levi, you saved the back of our suburban. We are grateful.

We let the girls stay up until the hunters got back so that they could see the deer. Drew had promised on opening day of the season to bring something home for them to see, so it was a little overdue as far as they were concerned.

Once they got the deer unloaded and into the garage Kara noticed that its tongue was hanging out. She wanted to touch it. She was fascinated at the sight.

At one point, shortly after they got here, Emma, Alicia, and I were in the house together. Emma was going on and on to Alicia about killing the deer and then she said "You're going to make a fine wife someday". The way she said it sounded so grown up, almost like she was the wise older woman speaking to the wee lass. I just about cracked up and Alicia got a good snicker out of it too.

Levi and Tyler pitched in to help Drew skin the beast and cut it up. Then Drew and Alicia had a late night of meat processing but I'm pretty sure that it was worth it to them. What a fun memory.

Congratulations, Alicia! We're excited for you. Are you ready to go again?

Out of the mouths of babes...

Something funny happened on our way to Sea World.

OK...actually it wasn't on the way to Sea World but it was that morning.

As Kara and I lounged on the bed just enjoying the freedom to be lazy, I made a flippant comment that my mouth tasted funny. Her response "That's yer breath yer tastin'!" I just about fell off of the bed laughing.

Don't you love it when kids say something hilarious without even meaning to...even if it is at your expense?!

Happy Birthday to...

...both of our girls!!! Today is Emma's 6th birthday and tomorrow is Kara's 4th. In honor of their special days we decided to do something we've been wanting to do for a while now...we went to Sea World!

Last Thursday evening, Austin had a football game down in Arlington. We made the trip down to watch and then spent the night there after the game. His team won! They are undefeated for the season with two games left to play. Go Warriors!

Friday morning we headed to San Antonio and arrived about 2:30 in the afternoon. Once we checked into our hotel we were off to the pool...Kara and I preferred the hot tub. Awesome!

That evening we took the girls to PF Changs for dinner. They couldn't have cared less about where we ate but we used their birthdays as an excuse for an awesome dinner. They loved the little desserts that they got for free just because we were celebrating their birthdays. Kara prefers dessert over dinner anyway. In our rush to make our dinner reservation I forgot the camera so you'll just have to take my word for it that it was a great time for all of us.

Saturday morning, after eating breakfast in the hotel we were off to the main event.

It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time. Emma was very excited to ride her first ride with Dad and Austin. Kara wanted to go so badly but wasn't tall enough. She was crushed. When the ride was over, Emma was less than enthusiastic. She thought twice before saying that she wanted to ride anything else.

As it turns out, Kara is our little daredevil. Who would have guessed?! We took her and Emma both on a little kiddie roller coaster and the pictures that the park takes were hilarious. Kara was grinning from ear to ear and Emma had a look of "I'm not so sure about this" on her face. It was a great contrast but the pictures were outrageously priced so we let the park keep them. Here's a picture that Austin took...it's a little blurry but you get the idea.

We took them both on the log ride and Kara loved every minute of that as well although she did say that it scared her "two times". Emma liked that ride too.

Daddy took Kara on another ride that goes around and around...kind of a kiddie version of the "Tilt-a-Whirl" for all you carnival goers. I got nauseous just looking at it and Emma turned it down so SuperDad was the hero. After they got off he commented that he needed to find a bush to barf in. He didn't really but I guess Kara has an iron stomach as well. What a crack up that our little bitty shy bird of a girl would be so adventurous. Here's a couple of shots of the "spin until you puke".

On top of all the rides we got to see our favorite shows.

We saw Shamu...

the dolphins...

and the sea lions and walrus...

It was a full day and when it was over we were all exhausted as you can see.

So, that was our trip to Sea World. We had a great time and I'm so glad that we went. I think the girls will remember it for a long time. I have more to write about their birthdays but that will have to wait for another day. For now, I will leave you with one final picture just because I think it's cute.