More Christmas pix...

Yes, that Tristan is a sweet one!!! (most of the time) Actually, they are ALL sweet, but Tristan is the kisser this season.

Christmas in Waco!!

This year, we stayed home for Christmas since it was Greg's year to be available to work if needed. So, my mom surprised us by coming for a whole 9 days!! We enjoyed having her here so much! All the kids wanted to jump on the plane when her departure day got here. We had so much fun shopping, reading, playing games, drinking hot chocolate, looking at lights, opening presents, and of course eating tons.... all better with Gramma!! The top few pictures were taken at our church's Christmas Eve service.... then the kids in their new PJ's. This year, keeping up with the Advent was so fun b/c all the kids could count- the took turns, writing the # of days left, opening the next door on the "tree" and opening doors each night in our Advent Book. Tristan's one liners and animation kept us rolling all month. He and Vanson can now practically read the story from memory. They'll be sad to see that book packed up soon. Yesterday, on Mom's last day here, her brother Claude and his wife Susan came to town for a visit on their way home to OK. We so enjoyed having them here!! My kids had not met him before, so they loved getting to know Gramma's little brother. This weekend, we'll be travelling to Austin to see their other grandparents and complete our Christmas celebrations.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!

Many of you may have already gotten this wish from us, but if you haven't I wanted you to see it here! Merry Christmas & Blessings for the New Year to all of you ~ from all of us!! :)

Decorating for Christmas!

The weekend after Thanksgiving, while it poured down rain outside, we made good use of the time indoors by decorating for Christmas. For the first time ever, all our kids were actually old enough to help!! How long have we waited for that?? So, we had a great time working & playing together as we jammed to Sirrius Holiday music.

The last photo is our finished tree and all the kids piled under it.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This year, for Thanksgiving, we found out last minute that Greg would actually be off Friday. So, we jumped in the car and headed south! We visited our dear friends Theresa and Harper in the big city of Pearland- LOVED seeing them!! Then headed over to Alvin for a scrumptious Thanksgiving spread with my Memaw,

Aunt Carolyn, Uncle Bob, their kids and their kids' kids!! My kids enjoyed having all the other little ones to play with & I enjoyed holding those precious babies that aren't mine! :) The next day we drove down to the East TX. stix to visit my Nanny in Woodville. After all that excitement, we made it home just in time before the big rains came!!

Weekend with Family

This past weekend we made a quick trip to Texas City and Alvin to see Nana & Paw paw and my Grandma. We got the added bonus of seeing two of my cousins and their new babies... so sweet.... baby Jack and little Violet. The kids enjoyed watering plants with Paw paw, but came in soaked to the skin! It was a fast, but very productive trip- its rare to go that distance and see so many family members!

All I want for Christmas is.....

MY TWO FRONT TEETH!!!!

what will he think???

Tristan will probably hate this picture one day, but I couldn't resist! He is so cool....

Race Day for me and Autumn

This weekend, Autumn & I raced together in a one mile race at the Miracle Match Marathon here in town. It was so cold Sunday am, we thought we'd freeze! But, we had a great time and did really well together. Autumn even signed up to be a Miracle Match kid, which requires her to run a marathon (26 miles), one mile at a time with the first being this race. Then, when she finishes she gets a marathon medal!! How cool is that? I wish I could earn one like that! :)

Great Books!!

For anyone looking for a great read, I can recommend these books by Francine Rivers. Redeeming Love was the first book I read by her and it was one of those " so amazing you can't put it down" books. Then, a friend recommended her Mark of the Lion series below~ though harder to get into at first, they were even more amazing!!

Then, if you need more, there is an excellent series by Liz Curtiss Higgs that starts with Thorn in my Heart which is patterned after the Bible story of Jacob/Esau/Leah/Rachel. It too is one I couldn't put down (actually all 4 in the series).

Just wanted to share....

TCA Fall Festival

OK, so these are out of order... this was Friday night at Autumn's school. After our BBQ and hot dog dinner, the kids were in hog heaven with all that candy!!! We rode the hayride, played some games, and ran the third grade hairspray booth (which explains why my hair is orange!) The last picture is of Autumn and her classmate Julian.

Happy Birthday Gram!!

We went to Austin for the day Sunday to celebrate Greg's mom's birthday with more than 25 of the Newman clan. Everyone had a great time visiting and showering Gram with love on this special day. As always, the kids loved seeing their cousins and jumping on the trampoline at aunt Tracy's!

Better late than never....

Just thought I'd post a photo of my hubby in our new date car! They are both so cute!

Family Fun with the Broadways @ the Kaska Farm

Last weekend, we went with our good friends Brian, Dana, Julian, and Sam to a family farm in West. We had a great time there playing in the nice fall breeze we had that morning! The kids loved playing in that pool of corn- it was quite therapeutic. Then, we shot corn cannons, went through the corn maze together, played in the huge "ant" pile, rode the cow train, and had an absolute ball jumping off of their hay mountain!! Everyone had a great time together and the weather was perfect!

Autumn is here!!!

On the first day of autumn this year, our little Autumn turned 8. After receiving her wanted gifts, including this pioneer outft, she requested a day out in the Spyder with just me to have lunch and then shop- those gift cards from her grandparents were already burning a whole in her new purse! So, Sunday after church, we took off for our day of leisure! We had a great time shopping and chatting- and she even let me keep the top down this time :)

Uncle Shane comes to visit!!

We were so excited to have Shane visit us this past weekend. He arrived Friday in time to join us for our traditional night out for pizza. We played at home with the kids till the mosquitoes got too bad. Then, we enjoyed hearing Shane's guitar music while the kids danced all over the place. The next morning, he joined us for a trip to the zoo before moving on to Austin to see Brad. This was he first time we've seen Shane in almost a year. Next week, he'll be leaving for 3 months for a trip to El Salvador where he'll work on a water project there. So, we were so glad for his visit! Please remember him in your prayers.