Christmas lights are a very big thing around our home. We love driving up seeing our beautiful home all lit up with bright red lights. We are so grateful to Uncle Jesse and Papa for generously decorating our home every year! It is something that really really means a lot to Parker and Paxson. Paxson screams and points out every light on every house "Mommy look lights" repeat that phrase about 100 times. We take every opportunity to possibly see Christmas lights. Wichita Falls is great to offer the Electric Critters, Fantasy of Lights, Kell House and so many others. We are also planning to take a carriage ride around to see the lights. Meme and Dandy went to the Electric Critters with us this year. It was their first year and I believe they really enjoyed it. We walked through the "woods" owwwwing and ahhhhhing at all the displays and made a pit stop to roast marshmallows for smores and drink a little delicious hot chocolate. We finished out adventure with a visit to Santa. It was a very delightful evening.





Parker thought this was to cool ----





These are from the Fantasy of Lights at Midwestern State University

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

We started the gingerbread tradition two years ago and this was Paxson's first year to "really" help. First we made the gingerbread train and they both had so much fun we made a gingerbread house a few days later. Thanks to CVS and their extra care bucks it was free! Parker wants to give the house to Santa. He is a little partial to the train. The frosting was thicker for the house so it didn't squeeze out as easy. Paxson jumped right in with helping decorate both. His biggest contribution was limiting the amount of candy available for decorating. He would very carefully select a piece of candy from one of the bowls then place it on the house/train then smile...then pull it off and eat it. This happened many times. Parker was extremely patient and let Paxson help in his own way. They had fun and made a pretty big mess. I wonder when I will have to start letting them each have their own to decorate. :)

Thanksgiving day

Family, friends, food & fun! That is what our Thanksgiving was all about. We had a truly spectacular day! It was our first time to prepare the turkey so we had a little help and it was well worth it! The food was delicious and the conversation was even better. Casey and I wanted to do a little something different this year. Usually it's just family for these celebrations but we wanted to share the joy with friends and celebrate our gratitude. We decided that it would be fun to invite our neighbors and truly celebrate ALL that we are thankful for. Randy and Debora (our pool neighbors) were leaving to go to OKC to spend time with some family but the Zaeppels (our German neighbors) were able to spend Thanksgiving dinner with us. We were especially excited to share a traditional American Holiday with their family. The boys enjoyed having a little girl to entertain. It really was a wonderful day with great conversation, wonderful guests, and yummy food! Thank you God for offering us another blessed year to share with family friends. Oh yeah a big shout out to Uncle Jesse and Papa for putting the lights up....and making our home the "house with the pretty red lights"!

Thanksgiving Preparations

The boys helped me prepare for our Thanksgiving festivities by making the place mats and center piece. They water colored paper towels and I laminated them. Then they water colored leaves and we made a tree from a brown paper sack. We finished off the table decorations by using pictures of the boys as the napkin rings. It provided the boys with the opportunity to feel as though they really helped out. Things were not on the fancy side... just sweet and simple. It was as lot of fun and so far Daddy still has not noticed the paint spots in the backyard. LOL

A Day with Mom

There's nothing quite like a day with your mom. I knew I was going to see her in a few days for Thanksgiving but I just needed to be around her. So she offered to treat me and the boys to a day in the city. We started our day at the Bass Pro Shop exploring their Christmas Magic. They had several booths and exhibits set up for children to explore including a visit and picture with Santa (Which made it the 3rd picture with Santa so far for this Christmas Season). The boys also made a Christmas ornament. It was a wonderful experience and it was all FREE!! shout out to BASS PRO...(of course we did do a little Christmas shopping while we were there) After the BPS mom treated us to a nice Mexican lunch on the river walk. Then we road the boat through the canal and finished the day with a little more Christmas shopping. It was an all around fantastic day! Thank you mom!!!

Dandy Helpers...

As most of you know we have decided to put our house up for sale. We have put enormous thought and continuous prayer into this decision. So we spent one day cleaning from top to bottom. The boys went to stay with Meme and Dandy while daddy and I did some BIG TIME cleaning. I thought you might enjoy seeing how the boys helped out once they got home.

They made traps. They literally dumped every tub out of Parker's room, pulled every blanket out of the hall closet, and more! I knew they were being quiet and I could hear a ching ching (which means a tub is being emptied) but I was trying to finish something on the computer for school and Daddy well Daddy was watching TV and was unware to fear quiet.

I immediately grabbed the camera (well okay maybe i mumbled a few words in my head first) and took some pictures. Then I discussed with Parker why it would be necessary to ask first next time before making such big traps. The pictures don't do justice. Wish you could have seen it up close. :)

Operation Christmas Child

Each year we participate in Operation Christmas Child. If you are not familiar with it,

it is program supported by The Samaritan's Purse ran by Franklin Graham. This year it was especially sweet because Parker was old enough to really grasp the meaning of helping the children and the value it holds. We discussed the children and their life styles. You can imagine the surprise when daddy explained that these children have no electricity or running water inside their homes. He was shocked! We went shopping as a family and the boys selected items to fill their shoe boxes. Paxson wanted a lot of balls.....imagine that! :) Parker wanted a lot of really big things and we had to keep reminding him that it has to fit inside the shoe box. We ended up with several toys, books, play dough, floam, toothbrushes, bible character figurines, balls, and candy. On the way home Parker said "oh no we forgot clothes." I didn't understand what he was saying. He said "we forgot clothes for the kids." I am sure you can imagine what happened next. It was a great Sunday Afternoon.

Check out the link:

They have a wonderful Christmas catalog where I get lots of my gifts. It's easy and quick, Things for everyone!

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/