New Year's Eve

We had some friends over for dinner tonight and snapped these pictures while we waited for the ball to drop in New York.

The kids look ready, but in a matter of minutes they were cuddled up and her kids were asleep!

Happy New Year!

Meal prep

We are having a few friends over to ring in the New Year with us.  AG was eager to help and wanted to iron the napkins.  I love that she wanted to make the table fancy.  Not to be outdone, ML is setting out the placecards.

Of course, I also needed taste testers for this chocolate cake.  She said it's yummy!

Worker bees

I should have devised this method early this month.  My cards would have gone out before Christmas.  However, the 5th day of Christmas will do just fine.  The girls, stuffed and stamped and labeled all of the cards.

Bourbon games

My dad likes his own kind of games.  Maybe involving a little bourbon.  He devised this whole taste test tonight to try out his new glasses.  I love his expression in this shot.  It captures him perfectly.  We love you V!

Twister

We gave Morgan Leigh Twister for Christmas this year.  She loves almost any game and this was no exception.  We are all stuffed from dinner and she wanted to play.  We got uncle Brad to join us for a round too, but somehow there's only a picture with me.  I'm undefeated so far.  Do you care to challenge me?  :)

LEGO

Only appropriate that if you gift a huge Lego set, you should have to help put it together!  So glad Uncle Brad was here for that today.

7 am!

We usually ask that the girls not come out of the hallway until 7 am.  Part of that is so that we can be out ahead of them for this very moment.

They asked for walkie talkies from Santa this year.  I swear that they were content in that moment and I bet we didn't open another gift for almost an hour.

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve!  My brother and his wife flew in today and we had an early church service and are just now sitting down to dinner.  There is nothing that fills my cup more than a table full at the holidays.  Wishing you and yours a very blessed holiday!

Christmas Eve

This is what my Christmas Eve looked like as a child.  The family was together and we would get "gussied up" as Weedie would say and then take photos.  Everyone is ready for church and so here we go!

This was the keeper of all of us.











But there were too many blooper-reel worthy ones not to post one.  Mom called this the sorority pose and of course Brad joined in.

I have so many photos like this with my grandmother.  3 generations.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Cinnamon rolls

It is one of our sweetest traditions.  Grandma Weedie's cinnamon rolls.  One of my favorite rules, is they are best enjoyed straight from the oven.

Today that happened to be at 4pm!

Good-bye

One of Anna Grace's dear friends is leaving their class over break.  She will be in a new school starting January.  We wish her the very best, but we will sure miss her!

Tree trimming

We rotate who gets to put the star on top of the tree.  It's Morgan Leigh's turn this year and she just can't quite reach it.

Until she stands on the built in bookshelves.  It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Trains

Matt decided to put out the train around the tree this year.  ML sat and ran it with him.  I don't think it went exactly as planned, but it still reminded me of a little boy with a train.

All over the city

Today we have just a few too many things to do.  Donuts with Santa in Gigi's neighborhood was this morning.  Matt snapped this photo and AG and I were off to other things.  I have our annual ladies' coffee at church and AG has a birthday party this am.  Surely it's December!

Our tree

I marvel at how different the weather is each year when we pick out our tree.  We waited way to long to go this one this year and there weren't many left.  But it is a bright and sunny afternoon in Texas today.  In fact, it's 80.  #feelslikeChristmas

New do!

I can't get over how big a new haircut makes the girls look.

Field trip

One of my favorite things to do as a stay at home mom is field trips.  This year I had 3 sweet kiddos at the zoo and we had such a great time!

Decorations

Several years ago Gigi gave the girls a ceramic gingerbread house that plays a song from the Nutcracker.  Every year when we get the decorations out this is still their favorite.  They can't even walk by it on the way out the door without making it play the song.

St. Nick

 St. Nick visited church today.  The kids all took off their shoes and sat with him toe tell him their Christmas wishes.  

Gingerbread decorating

Miss Stacey asked if we would like to decorate gingerbread cookies with her after our dinner tonight.  I should know better than to think these were the 6" cookies from her store.

Nope, these 18" cookies are gigantic and the girls had a blast with the frosting and all the candy.

Thank you Miss Stacey for starting a new tradition with us!

Messy and content

The girls have been quietly playing board games in Morgan Leigh's room for most of the afternoon.  I love that they can entertain each other for hours.  Sisters at their best!

Casa Night

One of our favorite family dates is to go to dinner and then onto Casa for a play.  Tonight we had sushi and are ready to watch Frosty the Snowman.

Merry Christmas!

Fried Green tomatoes

 What do you do with all those green tomatoes?  We have made salsa and fried green tomatoes so far!

Gratitude Turkeys 2015

This is still a one of my favorite things that we do in the month of November.  I love to see the things that they are thankful for.  I love the one for Rainbows and our neighbors that have feathers this year.  We are truly blessed!

Tomatoes!

Our tomatoes finally started producing.  And we had 50 tomatoes that we had to pick.  They were still green, but it isn't warm enough to ripen them.  She is super proud that we grew these heirlooms from seed.

Magnolia detour

 I mentioned to the girls that we would be passing through Waco on our way home today.  They consider Chip and Joanna our personal friends so they sweet talked Matt into stopping.  I think they were shocked at how many people were in the store and more than a little disappointed that we didn't have a one on one meeting with Jo Jo.

Rolandos

 A visit to San Antonio simply wouldn't be complete without a stop at our favorite breakfast spot.

Pie making

 We are getting the pies ready for tomorrow.  The girls are helping peel apples and make the crust.  

Math lessons

 Daddy never stops teaching math, even over happy hour.  I heard him explaining inverses to my 9 year old that hasn't done fractions yet!

Birthday gifts

 We gave my dad this growler this year for Christmas.  The girls have gotten quite a kick out of the fact that he drinks very little water.  :)

Shopping at Chico's

The girls and I went shopping with Nonna today.  Right next door to their favorite shop in Nonna's favorite shop.  So we popped in and patiently waited for her to try on some things.  My girls keep talking about how much one of the sweaters cost and it keeps mom and I laughing!

Aggie girls

 At dinner tonight Matt was quizzing the girls on their favorite aggie players.  ML says Speedy, AG says Kyler Murray, and daddy says Garrett.  Anyone player on the team would have made this daddy proud that his girls know their players!