BYU Bowl Game

We had a fantastic time at the BYU football game on the 30th.  We were able to sit with Don's cousin down near the team's bench with all the coach's familes.  It was so fun to be that close to the action.  It was a couple of the younger kids first live BYU football game, and I was bummed Don wasn't able to be there to enjoy it with them.    So we took some pictures on my phone and texted him live from the game, so he could enjoy it with us.



Jake and Uncle Ben



Ashley and Luke



Hayley and Grandpa

 The SMU stadium is a fun stadium to watch a game,  One of the endzones is a big grass hill instead of seats, where lots of people just watch the game.  In the 3rd quarter the younger kids and I met Bob's family on the hill and the kids had a blast together.  We were able to get right next to the band and the cheerleaders, which Hayley LOVED!

Abby and Hayley


Because it was the Armed Forces Bowl, all the branches of the military were represented and honored.  I love that we live in such a great country and so appreciate all the sacrifices that are made for us by the men and women who serve our country.  It was great to be part of honoring them in a small way that day.  Near the hill,  there were 3 real military helicopters that Luke was especially fasinated with. 

With about 7 minutes left in the game, I took Jake and Luke back with me to our seats where Michael was in the zone.  It was the perfect ending, as we cheered BYU on to victory.  The drive and touchdown to go ahead and win with 11 seconds left was amazing.  Luke and Jake had fun in the middle of all the loud yelling and cheering.  It was a great game!!  Thanks again Tracy and Ben for treating us to the game!

Fun in Dallas

The kids and I took a quick trip up to Dallas for a couple of days to visit my family in between Christmas and New Year. We missed having Don with us again, as he stayed behind to work.  We started off the trip by arriving in time on Tuesday to celebrate my niece Ashlynn's 14th birthday with her.  She is such a beautiful, kind young woman and we love her so much!

After spending a night at Bob's house, I left Hayley with her girl cousins and took Alex and Anna with us up to Grandpa and Grandmommie's house to spend the night.  We had a lot of fun playing games, including getting beat up on in basketball. 

We had the gym to ourselves and the kids had a blast.  Luke didn't want to change out of his pj's that day, but for some reason,  it just worked for him.

Thursday Bob, Cynthia and the girls came up, and Ben joined us after he dropped off his wife at the airport.  We missed having LeeAnna with us but happy she was able to visit with her family before her parents left on their mission.  We had a great day all together, like a mini-New Year's Eve party.  Lots of junk food, games, a fun movie afternoon, then a trip to the neighborhood park until dark.  Luke had a blast with his Aunt Cynthia, and is still singing a song about "Put a moon and my pocket" and shakes his booty.  That "cousin's mom" is one fun lady.

Friday we said good-bye to my mom and the rest of us all meet up at the BYU/Tulsa Armed Forces Football Bowl game.  Thanks to Tracy and Ben for getting my family tickets to get into the game for free.  The seats were amazing and the game was so much fun!  So much fun that it deserves it's own blog post :-)

 

After the amazing ending to the game, we said our good-byes to everyone and the kids and I hiked the mile back to our car. Luke rode in style on my shoulders, and everyone else did great. We drove straight back to Houston, stopping only once at a scary, nearly abandoned gas station because our fuel light was on. It was an adventure, but we were quickly back on our way, making home a little after 7.

We quickly cleaned out the car and Michael and I changed into Sunday best and were headed out the door at 7:30 for the New Year's Eve youth church dance (on New Year's Eve's Eve). It was a great dance that Michael had really been looking forward to attending, and I got to chaperone as a Young Women's leader. It was a fun dance for the youth and a long but FUN day for the mom too!

Christmas Afternoon at Grammy's

Having Church on Christmas Day was great.  We sang with beautiful music, heard a wonderful Christmas talk about our Savior and got to see lots of our friends and exchange Christmas greetings.  After a few hours at home, relaxing and enjoying playing with each other and new fun things, we went to Grammy and Grandaddy's for Christmas dinner.

We had fun cooking together over at their house and enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner. After dinner the kids still had enough energy to open another present from their grandparents. When the last present was unwrapped, we played a rousing game of JINGO!

It was a wonderful Christmas Day!

Christmas Morning

Christmas Day started well before daylight at our house.  For the month of December, 3 of the kids had been wrangling for an earlier wake-up/start time.  We heard movement by 5 in the morning, and by 5:25 most of the natives were up and starting to riot.  After pulling their teenage brother out of bed and rousing the sleeping 2 year old, we were ready to go by 5:30 am. 

Someone must have been really good this year...

ORANGE STICKS!  Santa has helpers in far off places :)

SPAM 

Harry Potter Mania

I love how they all have fun helping Luke explore his stocking and get just as excited with him as with their own stuff.

After stockings, I was all for going back to bed, but apparently Santa didn't bring me a nap.  So it was on to the tree.  We open presents one at a time, so our little elf helpers make sure everyone has a present before we begin each round.  It is so fun to see the excitement over the gifts that they are giving to others, wanting that to be the first present opened.  This year the kids drew names again but some of them also went shopping at the dollar store and got small, thoughtful gifts for everyone.  It was fun to take them shopping and see them in action.  I think my favorite gift was what Jake thought Don HAD to have...plastic hockey sticks. 

Luke was first up to open a present and Jake had drawn Luke's name.  He made sure it was the first present Luke got to open, Jake's old Thomas Tent that has been in the garage for a little while, the perfect gift for a 2 year old train crazy kid.  Luke has absolutely loved it!  Everything and everyone gets to go into the tent.  It took him a little while to realize there were more presents to be opened if he came out of the tent!

It was a fun morning, filled with surprises, hugs and lots of love. 

 

Once presents were opened, we had our wonderful Christmas breakfast, complete with Christmas Tree bread and lots of bacon. 

After breakfast, we all got ready for a wonderful morning at church, leaving at 8:30 in the morning.  It is amazing how much a person can do when they get up at 5 in the morning!