Hay Ride

We went on our annual hay ride with our small group from church. As always, we had a blast!


All of the hay riders, minus the boys and baby in the truck...


Mom & Brady

Our family

Brady staying warm!

Luke's Class Christmas Party

Wednesday was Luke's Christmas party at school. Parents were invited, so I decided to join in on the fun!



Just a few pictures of the class bulletin board. Mrs. Alissa does a wonderful job on their classroom.


Luke's peace dove.


Luke's Rudolf

After pizza we decorated sugar cookies.

Luke did an amazing job on his!

When the kids returned from washing their hands, it had snowed in the classroom!

So, we had a big snowball fight!!!

Mrs. Alissa with the kids!

After the snowball fight, they had a book exchange.

Luke checking out Madi's book.

Luke and his super cool teacher Mrs. Alissa!

Life Group Christmas Party

Tuesday night we had our annual Life Group Christmas Party. Mindy and Danny hosted it in their lovely new home. We had a white elephant gift exchange and tons of really good food. I think everyone had a great time. What an awesome group we have!

The Elf on the Shelf

This year we started a new tradition called Elf on the Shelf. Our Elf, who doesn't yet have a definite name, comes on the first day of the twelve days of Christmas. He appears in a new spot every day. At night he flies back to the North Pole and reports to Santa on Luke & Brady's behavior. His name started out as Trudy, then changed to Rudy, but daddy doesn't like either of those names and wants to name him Duke. So, who knows what his name really is...

The above picture shows him on his first day at our house. He was sitting on the mantle.


Luke wasn't to sure if he really liked the idea of the Elf watching his every little move. The first day, Luke would stand and yell at him to go back to the North Pole and come back when it was time for presents. So Trudy, the wise elf he is, brought a peace offering the next day. Since then things have been great between the two.

So much fun!

The Polar Express

Yesterday Luke & I drove to Palestine, TX with our friends Kristen, Madi, & Abi. We went to the Texas State Railway to ride the Polar Express.


The five of us before we boarded the train.


Outside the train depot


The train when it first pulled up

The kids with the conductor.

Luke & Madi waiting to get on the train...

here is comes!

Abi, Kristen, & Madi on the train

Me & Luke

The chefs bringing out the hot chocolate.

As you can see Luke really enjoyed his!

Madi & Luke with one of the chefs.

The conductor punching the tickets.

The North Pole!

Once we stopped at the North Pole Santa got on the train.

The the Elfs. Luke doesn't understand why there were no boy elfs...

The five of us!

We had a wonderful time and made lots of wonderful memories. The kids loved every minute of it! The one thing they didn't understand was why we didn't get to see Santa's deer????

Who knows...

Brady 15 Months

Here's what Brady is up to at 15 months:

weight: 25 lbs 12 oz
height: 33 inches

vocabulary:
mama
dada
bubba (favorite word)
bye bye
trash
touch down
ball
"bob" (his word for his bottle- yes he still drinks a bottle at night)
bath

favorite toy: any vacuum cleaner
favorite food: anything he can get his hands on
favorite game: hide & go seek

accomplishments:
doing better at sleeping through the night, but still not a pro at it
climbing
running
clapping
acting like a monkey (for real)
having fun at Mother's Day Out

Our Christmas Card 2009