New York City - Day 1

Matt walking the Brooklyn Bridge on a VERY cold December 30 evening.

Me walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. I am VERY afraid of heights but I'm glad to say that I walked it and I didn't cry and I enjoyed the sights from the bridge.

The big Christmas tree at Rockefeller Plaza. It was unfortunate for me that I did NOT get to wave to Matt Lauer on the Today show.

We walked around NY when we first got here and I took a ton of pictures of buildings and stuff, but it's just not that fun to blog about those things. We say Radio City Music Hall, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler building and lots of other buildings that I can't remember right now.

December 30, 2008 - This is our 13th anniversary. Matt and I decided to leave both of our children in Texas with Pops and Jarre (thank you by the way) and head to NYC for a few days to see the sights, go to shows and celebrate our 13 years. Oh yeah, Matt has a conference here too, so that helped us choose the destination. Here we are at the Lubbock airport, playing a little chess before our flight. Matt won.

Making Christmas Cookies

We made mint green and pink icing. I couldn't bear to squeeze any more food coloring into the white icing.

Katie - eating more icing than what she is putting on the cookie.

Collin is wearing my Raggedy Ann hat from when I was a little girl. It is paired with a newborn towel. Since we don't use that towel as a towel anymore, it is worn with a large hair band to make an Israelite, Moses, Jesus, and Bible character. I'm not sure why Collin felt the need to be in costume for the icing of the cookies.

Leaving Cookies for Santa.

Kindergarten Tradition

Collin with his finished product.
Collin is decorating his Gingerbread House.

Here is Collin's classroom at Charles Haskell Elementary. His teacher, Mrs. Bigelow is reading a story to all 24 children. Collin wanted Daddy to go to the party with him so Matt is taking pictures here. Collin happily shared his gingerbread house with Katie and made sure to tell her to NOT eat the graham crackers because they have hot glue on them and to only eat the candies and icing. However, Katie was caught eating a graham cracker and I guess dried hot glue doesn't make you sick if it is eaten.

Now I've Been Tagged

Thanks Katie. I've wanted to avoid being tagged, but now I can bless others with the opportunity, right? Ok, here we go.

8 Things I Did Today
1. Spoke on the phone with an attorney
2. Made cookies
3. Watched Charlie Brown Christmas with Collin and Katie (and Matt)
4. Went to Jazzercise
5. Phoned a friend from high school
6. Worked in Journey Land with the great Judy Branch, love her!
7. Went to a staff Christmas party at MRCC
8. Dropped off and picked up Collin from Kindergarten

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Poblano Grill
2. Hideaway Pizza
3. Charlestons
4. Qdoba
5. PF Changs
6. Elephant Bar
7. Perini Ranch (Abilene, TX)
8. Holly's (Post, TX)

8 Favorite Shows
1. The Biggest Loser
2. The Today Show
3. Dateline
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. I don't really watch much tv.

8 Things I Wish For
1. Someone to come clean my house on Thursdays while I'm at SSS
2. To go to Disney World every year
3. To be caught up in my scrapbooking
4. To respond to my alarm the first time it rings
5. To be organized again
6. To park both cars in the garage
7. My carpet and bookshelf to be fixed by the roofing company without engaging an attorney
8. a reunion of all our friends from Tallahassee

8 Things I Look Forward To
1. 13th anniversary trip to NYC with Matt
2. Going to Vienna with family and OC kids
3. Seeing all our family over the Christmas break
4. Singing "You are Special", "We Want to Wish you Happy Birthday" and/or "There's a Brand New Baby at ____'s house" at Sonshine School
5. Catching up with Laura every week
6. Date night
7. a Coke
8. scrapbooking with friends at Delise's house

And now I tag JanesMom, Tickled Pink, I Drive My Tractor in Pearls, Moir or Less, Northern Exposure, Fowler Five, Bloggin with the Boggs, and Life Around the White's House.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Collin is putting up his 5 firetruck ornaments.
Katie wants to know why she cannot play with her 3 snowman ornaments.

Yep...I'm one of THOSE moms. I MAKE my children collect ornaments. I MAKE them collect a particular kind. And I MAKE them hang them up every year without playing with them. I used to be SO against Hallmark getting their Christmas stuff out in July and now when they have their ornament unveiling I'm there the first day buying my children's ornaments for that Christmas. Because what if they didn't get the next one in the collection??? What would happen then?? Let's not think about it.

Help...serious help!

I need some help...serious help. You see how it says "For cute FREE backgrounds click here" (or something like that) in the upper left hand corner of my blog? Well, somehow I got THAT to appear on my blog, but not my cute new background, with the additional bonus that my blog is now plain white instead of plain black. I need some technical support here.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving Day in Post this year. We were so glad Jarre's sister "Aunt Dee" could come to Post and join us. Going around the table we have Aunt Dee, Pops, Matt, Kristen, Colt and Jarre.
Katie and Collin were the only cousins at Thanksgiving this year. They got alot of attention and Collin really latched on to Aunt Dee, having her play hide and seek daily.

The girls enjoyed a lunch out and a day of shopping. Luckily Tech was playing in town so the stores were not full of crazy people...just us.
Katie, Pops, Collin and Jarre
Uncle Colt, Katie, Collin and Aunt Kristen
Collin fell asleep about an hour outside of Post. He had been drinking a Blue Coconut Slush before he fell asleep.
I LOVE to take pictures of my kids sleeping. Sister Kate fell asleep right before we stopped for dinner.