Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String....

These are a few of my favorite things...

Just wrapping, watching Christmas movies, and sipping hot cider tonight!  Are you ready????

December So Far...

Well, I forgot my camera over Thanksgiving Break - we spent 5 days in Galveston at the beach...so...on to December and all the fun Christmas festivities so far!

Me, Jae, and Mom went to my Christmas Dinner at church!  It was AH-MAZ-ING - incredible food, music, entertainment, etc!

At the dinner after party they had smores making stations:)  So fun!

The very next day we bundled up and headed to Dallas for the Neiman Marcus Parade - this was our first time ever...and such a blast!!!  We met Jae, John, and Kai - and some friends of their's the Morriss's.

Then this little guy joined our family...meet Smiley Elfibob!  He is so much fun and such a rascal - here are some of the shenanigans he's gotten into since becoming a part of the family!

First he drew mustaches, elf hats, and reindeer ears on our family photo...

Then when the kiddos were sleeping he drew Rudolph noses on them...

little stinker...

Next, we found him in the fridge and he'd turned our milk pink!

Our most favorite so far - we found him one morning cuddled up to baby Jesus...

the next day he made snow angels out of sugar on our kitchen counter!

he forgot to move one night...but then, when we least expected it...and Kinsley was in the bathroom...he moved to the gingerbread house, we thought he might have even snatched a piece of candy!

He had a date night with Barbie one night!

And was the life of the party swinging from the chandelier...

Brief intermission - Kinsley had her Winter Program at school and even had a part playing the xylophone - so adorable!

Now back to Smiley - he helped himself to a midnight snack...

had a little downtime...

another intermission - Kinsley and Kaden at their Christmas parties at school...

Then we found him one morning like this...he had written a message to Santa!  He continues to suprise us with his antics but that's all up til' now!  More to come on Smiley Elfibob's adventures:)

We've also had Kaden and Kinsley's church program - it's been a super busy December and Christmas isn't even here yet - whew!!!!

October 2011 - Catching up!

Hello there blog world friends!  It's been awhile...let me catch you up!

Kinsley had pirate day at school - so fun and so cute - she was thrilled to dress up!

At the beginning of October we went to the Flowermound Pumpkin Patch, a yearly tradition with Kim (Curtis's sister) and Kaden and Kinsley's cousin Malakai!!

Curtis and John both celebrated their birthdays toward the end of the month...

And we celebrated Halloween!  Mom came over and made fun treats with the kiddos...

We went trick-or-treating for the first time ever with Grandma and Granpops - they moved to town and we are so excited to have them here!!!

and I got good and settled in my classroom - still and forever will be a work in progress;)  So thankful for my job - I'm LOVING it!

In this pic my room was set up for Reading Night - we had a "Midnight Snack Restaurant" theme and the kiddos got to wear their pajamas, make a reading "menu" and come and read to their parents:)

more updates to come...stay tuned:)

Chicago - October 7-9 2011

Curtis and I flew to Chicago this past weekend for a little getaway!  He ran the Chicago marathon and we thoroughly enjoyed the city!!!

 We stayed at the Congress hotel - it was a super old hotel with great character and charm, plus it was right across the street from the start line of the race:) - here's a pic of our room!

These are the old elevators - I thought they were cool!

We asked the concierge where the best place was to get pizza - he recommended this little pub - so delish!

This was the little pub - must go back!!!

This was the deep dish we had to eat with a fork - oh my it was gooooood!!!

This is a view of the street our hotel was on - the one with the red letters is ours;)

Pic of our hotel

I loved the sculptures and artwork in this city - here's a sculpture of Abe

Buckingham fountain was right in front of our hotel!

Curt and I in front of the fountain

So beautiful!!!

Fountain with our hotel in the background!

Navy Pier was gorgeous with all the sailboats!

All the trees were turning and the geese were out along the Pier - it was so pretty!

I loved people watching as the owners of these boats pulled in, cleaned their boats, and just hung out

After strolling down Navy Pier, we ate at Ralph Lauren's restaurant - I had tomato bisque soup and a arugula chicken salad, and Curtis had the Amish Chicken and Green Beans Almondine - sp?

I had such a wonderful time with my hubs - this was one of our first trips just the two of us since our honeymoon:)

This is the awesome amphitheater

The bean:)  Loved this sculpture;)

Us in front of the bean!

This is the lobby of our hotel!  This hotel boasts that the most presidents have stayed here than any other hotel!

We loved that we were able to see Curt's bro and sis-in-law and their kiddos - this is Emerson and Corbin - too cute!!!

Curt, his bro Kevin, and Corbin at Artiste Cafe - yummy breakfast place!

Emerson and Sarah - so cute!

Here is Curt and Kevin at the expo for the marathon!

Own it baby!!!!

I ran into my good friend Jacob - we grew up together in school and went to A&M together!  It was great to see him!!!

Hal Higdon was there - this is the man who started it all for Curt and I - we were nonrunners when we started his training plan for a half marathon about a year ago!!!  It was cool to meet him and get his autograph - he signed the boys bibs!

This is Dean K.  he just ran 100 miles - he has also done 50 marathons in 50 days!  Whew!  The boys were so pumped to meet him.  Curtis, Kevin and Sarah's friend Wes, Dean, and Kevin

Their names were on the "Wall of Fame" runners wall!

This yummy place is where we had our "pasta party" the night before the race!  Sooo goood!  From l to r:  Curt, Me, Wes, Hillary, Kevin, Sarah

Race day - unfortunately I did not get any pics of Curt or Kevin running - my camera has a huge delay and they ran by so fast it was hard to even see them, much less have time to catch a pic!  So...I just took a pic of all the runners - 45,000 to be exact!

This guy was awesome - what a way to stand out in the crowd - we told our boys to do this next year - ha ha!

All the boys after the race - Kevin shaved his face and cut his hair the night before!  Curtis had already showered here while the other two went to the massage tent, that's why he doesn't still have his running clothes on!

The girls - had so much fun with these two!!!

Such a blast - hope to do it all again next year!!!