Are You KIDDING ME???

It is supposed to be 74 here on Christmas day!! That is just insane....if it's going to be that warm on the holidays, then I need to be on a beach somewhere!! Nope, just here in ugly, brown TX.. I want the snow and ice and blizzards going on in Iowa right now! I DO!!! (do you guys feel sorry for us?)


ThuDec 25
Sunny
74°45°
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I WON, I WON ....

My work had a Rhinestones and Ropers holiday party... (only in TX, right?!) It felt kind of wierd to put on jeans to go to a Christmas party.... but it was fun because I WON!!! I won 2 round trip tickets to Seattle and 2 nights hotel... yipee!! I never win anything!! The funny thing was, Calvin had just got back from Seattle that day for work.... now, he has to go back! We'll go in the summer when it's a bit warmer.

Fort Worth Parade of Lights

The day after Thanksgiving was a busy day for us ... of course I had to get up at the crack of dawn to go shopping... I didn't think there were that great of deals, but still had to get out there! I think my best find was a 10.00 stainless crockpot at Lowe's of all places! That evening we went to downtown Ft. WOrth for a parade ... even though we had reserved seats, we had to get there early to get the front row. We drank Starbucks hot chocolate and carmel apple cider (that stuff rocks!! since I don't like coffee). Thank goodness they only have it this time of year, and not year round, as I could get hooked on it! The parade was fun, and got pretty chilly and windy after the sun went down, so it really got us in the Christmas spirit!

WAAAAY Behind ...

OH my! I have not update in sooo long, I don't even know where to start! I don't think I ever posted any pics from Halloween.... so here you go:

Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch

Boy, we sure missed this place last year! We made a quick trip out on Thursday .. we had the Morse girls w/ us (Alix and Addison). The kids wanted to stay longer, but they were closing. They had a great time and as always a great place for pictures!

Is she really ready for this?!?

My baby is off to church camp ... for 2 nights... and it's 3 hours away!! When we got the info in the mail, we just threw it away.. we were like, she's to young for that and it's too far away.. she's NOT going! A few weeks later we hear of all her friends that are going .. and kept asking us if Rylee was going... then we found out that some good friends were chaperones...SO, we caved to peer pressure ... ha!! She was SO excited.. counting down the days . She is there right now, so I hope she's having fun and learning alot about Jesus!! :) Colby misses you Rylee! WE all do! Can't wait to see you tomorrow! :)

THANK YOU Pierce & Sophia!

Thank you SO much for getting us tickets to the STARS game. We had a BLAST! The Stars lost but it was still alot of fun. THere were 3 fights in the first 5 minutes! I really don't understand that, but it makes it exciting... (colby didn't really like it either)... It was a high scoring game, for Hockey ( 4 to 5).. so there was a lot of loud music and dancing... we had a great time .. thanks again! OH! and we saw Joe Cabutto there... too funny ... he was walking down the stairs, so Calvin texted him and said he had great seats .. he stood up and looked around and saw us ... it was pretty funny. Calvin knows someone EVERYWHERE we go... he even ran into someone in Albuquerque that he knew ... (can't take him anywhere)

Balloon fest was a BUST!

Thank you SO much to Larry and Monica for inviting us to your house for the Balloon Fiesta. We had a great time, even though we didn't get to see any balloons! :( Can't control the weather, can we?? If the winds are stronger than 10 mph... they don't allow the balloons to go up. The kids were pretty disappointed and didn't really understand why...maybe we'll try again next year. On the bright side, we all had a fabulous time at their house... this is it below... we have never been to Albuquerque before and didn't realize how 'mountainous' it was and beautiful!! It was great to see everyone !!

Austin REALLY enjoyed his Dunkin Donut ...

THese are carvings made from chainsaws ... pretty impressive! It was a chainsaw carving competition... not sure who won, but they were pretty cool.

Larry, Pierce, Calvin and ANthony .. guys day .. playing golf. Nice view, huh?!?

An evening with the STAHLS...

We were invited over for a tailgate party at their country club. Free food and drinks ... we'll be there!! HA! It was fun... here a few pics of our evening...

Look at Ruffles... his head is as big as ours!!

Rough-housing w/ Brenner... I don't think you will ever win. He got Calvin w/ a boot... as you see from the next picture... painful, but funny at the time... (I think he needed a stitch!!)

I don't know what Brenner was thinking... he's got his brother's underwear on his head, playing tug-of-war w/ the dog (Ruffles) ... as you can see, I think Ruffles won!

Happy Birthday

Well, we now have a teenager in the house... can you believe that Maggie is now 13? She is just now starting to show her age a little...she can't always make it up on the bed..misses sometimes and falls back down :( and she's getting a little boney...when you pet her, all you feel is her spine. Poor thing! We have some friends that are getting puppies, and ask us about Mags when she was little... I can't even remember ... I do remember her chewing up my kitchen table and my base boards... but that's about it. Happy Birthday Maggie ... we hope it's a healthy one!

HSM3

Yes, I think we are crazy... 5 moms took their daughters to see High School Musical 3 to a 12:01am show on Friday morning. They didn't have school the next day, so we thought it would be fun. They had a blast, after they got woke up. We didn't tell them what was going on, and then woke them up at 11p SURPRISE! and took them to the show. THe movie was a little corny, just like the other 2, but it was good. Rylee said, "thank you Mom for taking me to a midnight movie" ...she was very appreciative! Your welcome, Rylee. I hope you had a great time! :)

Gumpisms...

Here are some pics of our 24 hour trip to Ft Lauderdale. It was very wierd to be back there... it doesn't even seem like we ever lived there. This is a restuarant on the inner coastal... it just opened in May... it was very good and great atmosphere. The kids would've loved it! While we were eating, a boat came by and the draw bridge had to be lifted. Must be nice!

We stayed at the Hollywood Beach Marriott. This is the view from our balcony. Darn IKE, kept us from enjoying the pool and the beach. The waves were quite impressive!

After the ceremony, we went out to eat at Bubba Gumps ,from the movie "Forest Gump". It was a pretty cool place. Now, I need to rent the movie..we haven't seen it forever, but all these sayings bring it all back!

When we wanted the waiter to stop at our table (for drink refills or ready to place our order), we were supposed to flip the sign to "stop Forest stop"... when all was well, we had to keep it on "run Forest run".

He looks right at home, doesn't he? Life is like a box of chocolates....

We ate really well on this trip since his company paid for 3 meals. I had shrimp 3 times! I LOVE it! THis place is famous for their crabs, but we weren't brave enough for that. It seems like a lot of work to get very little bites!!

SO proud of you Honey!

Calvin got an award from his work! It was the 'Barrier Breaker of the Year' award. It was supposed to be an individual award, but 3 of them actually got it. They flew both of us out to Fort Lauderdale for the ceremony. It was very cool. Only the weather wasn't so great...IKE was passing through, so it was very windy and overcast... but still quite warm and humid! It was fun to get away, even if it was just for one night! Congratulations Calvin, Lenny and Tony.

Face Painting

Last Saturday we went to a bank for some 'free stuff'! That's the best kind of stuff, right? Now, we didn't just show up...our school was somehow affiliated w/ it. We actually stopped for lunch there...got a hot dog, popcorn, cotton candy, soda and ice cream. Not to mention the free backpack w/ school supplies and the kids got 'tatoos'. The lady that did them was SO awesome! Colby wanted a 'speed boat'.... she said she could 'fake' a speed boat. She did a pretty good job! Rylee's flower cover her whole face..it looked itchy too me..they wanted me to get pictures before they went swimming. Thank you to Caprock Elementary!