Christmas Part 4!

On the Friday after Christmas we drove to San Antonio for the Bowl Game. They guys went to the game and me, mom, and Steph went shopping at the Outlet Mall in San Marcos. Baylor won and the guys had a great time!

The day after the game, we decided to drive to my uncle's in Leakey since we were so close. He moved out there a few years ago and none of us had been to his place.

On the way there I saw this sign. Over Christmas we watched the movie, "Seven Days in Utopia" which was filmed in Utopia, TX and I didn't realize it was that close to Leakey. If you haven't seen this movie you should. It is a great family Christian movie with a great message.

Our first stop was my uncle's restaurant, The Hog Pen. He took an old gas station and turned it into a barbecue restaurant.

We ate lunch there and it was so good! If you are ever in Leakey you should stop and eat.

He even makes his own BBQ sauce.

My uncle loves old cars and so he has a few parked in the parking lot.

Old motorcycles hang all over the place.

My uncle rides Harleys and his place is right along a popular motorcycles ride path so he picked a great spot for them to stop and get something to eat.



After lunch we drove out to my uncle's place. This picture doesn't do it justice but the drive was so pretty!

I love this picture of Glenn and Uncle Buddy driving to his house.

My uncle built his house by himself. I was very impressed! He learned along the way and did an amazing job!

Beautiful view from his back porch.

 This weekend was the last weekend of deer season and my dad was excited to possibly get a deer off the back porch. My uncle said one morning he walked on the porch and saw a mountain lion drinking out of his water trough about 20 feet away. Scary!! 

We never saw a deer so we did some target shooting instead.

The weather was so nice and I really enjoyed relaxing on the porch and looking out at the beautiful scenery. My uncle made us some venison stew and his girlfriend made us a homemade pecan pie with pecans from a tree on his property. It was so good and I am so glad we went to visit!

I am always so thankful for my two weeks off during Christmas and this year I am even more thankful to God that my family was able to spend so much time together. I know it will not always be like this and these are priceless times.

Christmas Part 3

The Tuesday after Christmas my entire family met at Glenn's house together to celebrate Christmas with dad and Glenn. Stephanie got a week off of work and so did Ross so it was such a blessing for us all to be able to get together for a whole week!

The guys exchanged their gifts and Ross finally got to open his gifts. His birthday is January 6 so he also opened his birthday gift from dad and Glenn. They got him tickets to the Baylor Bowl Game in San Antonio for that Friday night.

Glenn was excited about his new shorts :)

We had a good time just hanging out together. One night we decided to go to Top Golf in Allen. I had never been there before and it is such a fun place.

To play you have to hit the golf ball into certain holes around certain color flags for points. I tired a few times but was horrible so the guys pretty much played while the girls watched.

It was about 30 degrees that night and so we were very thankful for the fire pits since we didn't get a heated area. The upstairs was heated and we were downstairs. I pretty much stayed right here the whole night! We also ordered food and ate dinner there. The food was really good and the hot chocolate afterwards was even better! We were freezing but it was a lot of fun!

Christmas Part 2

I have been a bad blogger lately. It is January 23rd and I still haven't finished my Christmas posts yet...

My dad and brother had to work Christmas weekend so my mom, Grammy, and I went to St. Francisville for Christmas weekend.

We got to hear Ross preach the Christmas Eve service on Saturday night at their church. I love candlelight Christmas Eve services. It was so beautiful and Ross preached a great message.

We took some pictures in front of the tree before church.

After church it was time to open gifts! We always open our gifts Christmas Eve. When we were kids we would get to open two gifts Christmas Eve and had to wait until Christmas morning to open the rest. A few years ago my family started drawing names for Christmas and we all love it. On Thanksgiving, we put all of our names in a hat and everyone draws and whoever you get is who you buy Christmas gifts for. We write down ten things we would want on a wish list and give it to that person to help them with ideas. We set a spending limit and it has made Christmas so simple and easier on the budget. We also buy a $10 gift and do a Chinese gift exchange game too. This year it worked out that all of the girls had each other's names so we could go ahead and open gifts in St. Francisville. Ross had to wait until the next week to get his gifts. 

Since they got married, Steph and Ross have added a new piece each year to their Christmas pj's (cut idea). So far, they have the pants, socks, hats, and they forgot to buy shirts this year so they both wore one they had alike.

Steph ready to open her gifts from me!

Opening gifts is so much fun but I am thankful for the best gift of all at Christmas....Jesus! Without his birth there would be no Christmas at all!

Christmas Part 1!

I spent Christmas Break this year traveling pretty much all over Texas! My first trip was home to Beaumont. It was my first time back home since I moved so I couldn't wait to get to see everyone! I drove home on Saturday for Becca's wedding. Becca is a friend from my church in Beaumont so it was really good to see everyone from church there too. It was a beautiful wedding and I wish I had taken more pictures!

Sara and her three kids at the wedding

Kathy and her granddaughter Ava at Becca's wedding

I was not able to go to the wedding reception because my mom's side of the family had their Christmas party that night so we headed to my aunt and uncle's house after the wedding. Stephanie and Ross drove in for the Christmas party and we all had a really good time. My dad was able to be there but Glenn had to work.

Group picture

While in Beaumont I got to spend some time catching up with friends. I met Kathy and Meredith at Rao's and we had such a good time catching up over coffee and the best sugar cookies in Beaumont :)

Kathy and Meredith

I also go to visit one of my favorite now 2 year olds!! Ryan turned two in November and I wasn't able to make it for his birthday party so I was excited to get to see him and give him his gift.

Ryan opening his birthday gift (a t-ball set)

Katie, Alecia, and I got together at Katie's house for a girls night (I have really missed those!) We always have such a good time together eating and catching up. The only problem  is that it is never long enough!

The Beaumont part of Christmas Break was great and I really enjoyed going to church and seeing everybody and catching up with friends and family. The rest of the trip is still to come because it is just too much for one post :) 

To be continued....

Mom's Birthday!

After Thanksgiving my  mom came back to my apartment. She was only going to stay for a few days but then she decided to stay through the weekend (which I had a little to do with :) Her birthday was the following week so we celebrated it early that weekend. We went shopping at Stonebriar Mall and then we went to eat at La Hacienda Ranch.

I love this place! They have the best Mexican food (especially the hot sauce) I have ever had and I love the atmosphere. It looks like a log cabin/ranch house and this time of year it is decorated for Christmas with all the fireplaces going which makes it even better! 

My mom is my best friend and we always have such a good time doing whatever we are doing. I love spending time with her and can't wait until her next visit! 

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

Thanksgiving 2011

My family and I spent Thanksgiving this year at my brother's house in Rockwall. With my dad and brother's work schedules we never know until the last minute if they will have holidays off and so we were so thankful this year that they both had Thanksgiving off. My brother-in-laws family lives in the Dallas area and so it just made more since for us all to meet in Rockwall for Thanksgiving. While we were all together we took some family pictures in a field beside Glenn's house. It was muddy and cold but so worth it!!! My sister took the photos and set up her camera on a tripod to take a whole group one. I love how they turned out! You know I am a picture person and family photos are something I treasure!!!

This is my favorite!

Love my parents and this picture so much!!

I love this one with Stephanie looking up at Ross laughing!

I took this one :)

I don't know if it is just my family but the guys are not big on photo taking so it was only a matter of time until they had had enough and started goofing off while we were trying to take their photo. I actually love all the photos of them playing around...they are so funny!

Boys will be boys!

While we were together we went out to eat and celebrated my mom's birthday early. We went to this really great Japanese Steak House and Sushi Bar called Kyoto's. I finally convinced my mom to try sushi and she really liked it...I have been telling her she would :)

Mom and I were in charge of cooking the whole Thanksgiving meal and we both enjoyed doing it. I love everything  about Thanksgiving...the colors, the time of year, the meaning of it, and especially the food!!

After Thanksgiving Glenn had to go back to work and so mom and I decided we would put up his Christmas tree for him. We went to buy ornaments for the tree and I saw the clear ones and had an idea!

We decided to do a golf themed tree and surprise him! My brother LOVES golf and we figured this will probably be the only time in his life he will be able to have a golf themed tree (I can't imagine his future wife would want one :)

We didn't have a tree topper so a golf hat would do!

My mom added the golf shoes and golf balls for a special touch!

I was proud of our golf tree and Glenn loved it!



It was so good to see my family especially since I moved and don't get to see my parents as often as I use to! It was a wonderful Thanksgiving! There is so much to be thankful for and I am very, very grateful for all the blessings in my life!