Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

I hope that everyone's Christmas was as fabulous as ours!

My parents were in town and since we haven't spent a holiday with them in FOREVER, it was great!! The kiddos had such a wonderful time and there was constant excitement in the air. Lexi woke up Christmas morning at 4:30am!!! She actually woke up my mom at 4:30am (thank goodness it wasn't me,... or else....). Grandma Cissy actually stayed up with her. Finally at 6:30am, she was "allowed" to come get us. She was screaming down the hall, "Santa came, Santa came!!". Which... of course, woke up Cooper too. So, we woke up Big Daddy, got out the video camera, and filmed both of the kids walking into the main event. Cooper was clueless but very funny going from one new toy to the next. Lexi's screams woke up the neighbors! It was GREAT! My in-laws came over at 7am and we opened even more gifts. Good times. My brother later surprised us by showing up! That was great, but we still missed Jenny and the kids. It was really good to see him though. Uncle Herman was greatly missed and we said a little prayer for his safe return from Iraq. Dinner was great, and we had another family, the McGowan's (Paul, Kelley, Ashley, & Madeline) over. We all stuffed ourselves full and when we thought we were done, dessert was brought up. The highlights of the meal was Clarence's fried turkey, Grandma Cissy's dressing, Granny's sweet potatoes, and Jesus' Birthday cake that Lexi & I made. For the rest of the day, we opened, put together, and used MORE batteries on the kids' new toys (what IS up with those silver twist things.... I feel REALLY sorry for the factory worker that has to do that EVERY day!!

Anyways, I hope that everyone has a wonderful New Year and BE SAFE!!

Love~

Suzie's Birthday

I know I'm getting old, but SERIOUSLY!! Last night I took one of my friends, Suzie, downtown for her birthday. We started the night off "early", 6pm. This is normally the time that I am wrapping up dinner with the kids and getting ready for bath time, then bedtime is shortly after. I felt so liberated to be doing something "adult" and grown-up. We started off at a local pub for some beer and burgers. ***Let me take some time to give some props to Shoal Creek in Austin, TX for their awesome food and great service!!*** Anyways, time crept by, but we were having good conversation. Before we knew it, it was 7:30pm. In my mind, I'm thinking, "Cooper's bed time". We decided to leave and go downtown to a relatives bar. ***Props to Chris & Dirty Dog*** A band was performing there that night, so they were expecting a full house. Luckily we were on the "list" and was able to walk straight in. Gee, it is GOOD to know people in high places! We quickly grabbed the last 2 available bar stools. As we're sitting there, sipping on our Dos XX, we realize that the club isn't that full. Later we will come to the grim fact that, 8pm is still early for all of the "young un's". Then we began reminiscing about the fact that in college, we would work until 10pmish, go home, shower, get ready, then go out. Now, I am normally in Zzzzzzzz land by 9:30pm. When exactly did this happen? As we are discussing this youth we once had, we remembered "the time" I drove from College Station to San Marcos to get a ladybug tattoo with Suzie. It was quite a funny story, but not nearly as all of the "old, drunk" people we were watching. With that, we decided that we should go to the tattoo parlor. Now, keep in mind, we are NOT intoxicated in any way, just remembering "the days". My friend ended up getting a new tattoo, and I, being indecisive, decided I would just get my tattoos touched up and a piercing (upper ear.... I know, pretty boring!) Well, after the tattoo touch-ups and the excruciating pain... Apparently, my sense of pain has gotten stronger in old age, I decided to nix the idea of the piercing. We later returned to Dirty Dog and peopled watched for another hour. After way too many yawns, we decided to call it a night and went home!

I have heard that life begins at 30. I really hope this is true!!

The Kids by The Tree

I am now going to try this blog thing! Here are the pictures I took of the kids in front of the tree to try and get the "perfect" pose! As you can see, Cooper had me running around like crazy!! Lexi was really trying to help, but we had our hands full. The pictures of our cute little angels still turned out cute! They won't be this little forever ;(

Here, Cooper is calling "Momma, Momma, Momma,..." over and over!