Dad's Top Golf Birthday

 For Christmas this year, we gave my Dad and Jacque a gift certificate to Top Golf. They had never heard of it so we agreed to play over lunch one day. We ended up playing this past week to celebrate Dad's birthday and had the most fun! It was in the mid-60s while we played and was nice and sunny!

Dad and Jacque are regular golfers so it comes as no surprise they beat us. The surprise- I beat Marcus on both games. I have zero golfing ability, but could consistently get 3-8 points in the same little area of the yellow "crater" that wasn't far away. It works for me. Marcus played around with different clubs, tried for big points by going deep and going all or nothing with his points. It was great fun to play well and beat him! We played a chipping game on our 3rd game and he beat me on that one.

I hope we get to play again- it is fun for real golfers and people like me who don't have a clue. It is heated, shaded, and they have great food and drinks while you play.

Case in point, we ended lunch with doughnut holes that you could inject with chocolate and/or raspberry sauce. What golf course brings that to you?

Happy Birthday Dad! You are the tops in my book!

2013 Christmas Day

Our Christmas Day was fun filled!

We had to wake up Abby about 7:30 because her Mimi was almost here and we didn't want her to miss out. We have minimized Santa in our house, so there were no new presents under the tree from overnight. We had left her a note from Holly (our Elf on the Shelf) that she was gone until next Christmas and she had fun and will miss Abby. She also praised her to all the times she saw her share, encourage and give grace to others. 

Before Mimi arrived, we sat on the floor and opened our stockings. Lots of great little things packed into those big plaid socks this year!

Mimi arrived about 7:45 and it gave me just enough time to put this beauty in the oven. I love Cinnamon Roll French Toast casserole on Christmas morning. We also had sausage balls and fruit salad. 

Abby opened new Little Mermaid legos and had fun impressing us with how well she can assemble them by herself. The directions on those were all pictures, so she did great!

Mimi opened a new tablet and had fun learning all the bells and whistles. She has an older laptop and flip phone so the world is apps is all new and exciting.

We assembled pizza balls (recipe coming soon!) and our Jesus birthday cake before heading to my Dad's house for a late lunch.

We played a new game- on the blog here- and had the most fun! The adults were into it as much as the kids and Abby was the big winner! She got a Target gift card. The rest of the prizes were little fun things- like Peppermint Oreos.

Cohen opened a new airsoft gun and the guys and kids had fun shooting in the country. We also played mafia together and learned quickly who is a good liar and who stinks! Cohen and Kyleigh could not fool their parents!

We were home by dark and brought Kyleigh home for a few days. It was a wonderful day!

Birthday Weekend

This post if for posterity- I totally forgot to blog about our fun night in New Braunfels!

We celebrated my Mom's birthday in late August in New Braunfels at my sister's house. Abby was so excited to see her Nana she ended up going home with her for 8 days!

Happy Birthday Mom!

After eating Olive Garden take out at Tiffany's house, Mom stayed with the kids and Tiffany, Shaun, Marcus and I went to see a concert at the Whitewater Amphitheater nearby. We had tickets for Cory Morrow and Gary Allan. 

The venue and concert were awesome. I love when an artist chooses to play their biggest hits and not just their new CD. Gary did a great job playing well known favorites! The venue was set on the water with lots of shade trees and they had local food and liquor companies as vendors. I love Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka and enjoyed it cold with a little lemonade! Great summer drink!

After the concert, Marcus and I got snacks at Bucee's and drove home. It was a late night for us old folks, but lots of fun!

Dallas Weekend

Saturday after Thanksgiving Marcus and I drove to Dallas for the Baylor and Texas Tech football game. We won't talk about the game itself, but the weekend which was more fun anyway!

Chick-fil-A was tailgating and they gave us pom poms and footballs. It made the perfect take home gift for Abby.

We got there early and Cowboys Stadium was pretty empty! The stadium is huge, but I really liked it. It was open and lively even an hour before the game. Good concessions and easy to find restrooms!

There were 44, 186 people in attendance and we had seats next to friends from Great Hills. Isn't that crazy? Thank you God for the reminder that we will see our Great Hills friends outside of church. It was super sunny where we sat, so Britney and I used our Raider Red masks as visors.

I love college bands- they make live college football so much fun! The Goin' Band from Raiderland did a great job!

After the game we walked to the hotel, checked into our room, and then had dinner at a Dallas-area favorite, Red Hot and Blue. Their smoked sausage and potato salad are the best!

Sunday morning we had breakfast with our cousins Jason and Courtney and met their new baby boy, Callum. Look how sweet he is- those big lips! I loved holding him and seeing our friends/cousins in their new role as parents.

Since we were coming back the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we took an alternate route home to avoid the traffic. It took longer than IH35 with no traffic, but was stress free! We took Hwy 67 to 220 to 281 to 183 and it took us through Glen Rose, a fun little town we had never visited before.

We stopped and had lunch at The Riverhouse Grill. This was out side porch table view...

And, this was the view of my lunch on the table. The best food I have had in a long time. I ordered the house special mac and cheese with bacon and jalapenos. It was au gratin style with penne noodles and Alfredo sauce.

I also had the house salad with an orange vinaigrette that was so good, our server smuggled a to go cup of it for me. I loved the sweet of the oranges with honey on the salad.

You can see a friendly butterfly joined in on my salad!

We had a fun weekend with good food, football and family!

Our Day

Today is both my birthday and my sister's birthday! We were born 4 years and 20 minutes apart.

Happy Birthday Tiffany! Enjoy your day and fun celebratory weekend with the family!

Family Reunion 2011

Two weekends ago I attended my annual family reunion for my Dad's side of the family. I LOVED going to this every year and playing with my cousin Kristi. We are still good friends and I'm so glad we saw each other at least annually. I want Abby to have cousins her age to play with since siblings are not likely!

Kyleigh came with us in case Abby was super bored! They had fun playing with Tessa, a granddaughter of a sibling of my grandmother.

The reunion was super small this year- it happened the weekend after my Dad's Dad's family reunion (this is Dad's Mom). But, I did get to see some of my favorite people, eat fried catfish, and enjoy the hill country. Next year, there is talk of combining the 2 reunions which will lead to 100 plus people!

Above: (L) my Dad's sister and (R) her daughter Mary, me and Mary's youngest son's girlfriend Lindsay. Below: my Dad's sister Nell, her daughter Tina and her granddaughter. I want to be Aunt Nell when I grow up! She takes care of everyone, always has a fridge full of desserts ready in case 20 people pop in, and doesn't weigh 400 pounds from eating all those desserts in the fridge!

My Dad didn't join me since he is still up north for the summer- enjoy these pics Dad!

Sunday Swim

We spent the entire weekend out of town with family and had the most fun! I took way too many pictures, so we'll go out of order since Sunday was easiest to edit and post!

We met my Aunt Vicki and Uncle Cecil for lunch on Sunday. They have a beautiful backyard with a swimming pool to occupy the kids. It allowed me to visit since I haven't seen them since I was on maternity leave more than 2 years ago and it had been 10 years before that. Our family was so close to theirs growing up and it was nice to eat hot dogs in the backyard, watch NASCAR, swim and catch up!

Abby found goggles. I was certain she wouldn't put them on. I was obviously wrong. She didn't wear them for long, but sure looked cute in them.

Abby takes to Aunt Vicki super well, as do most kids. She is the fun Aunt that everyone loves. We had regular BINGO tournaments with prizes growing up! She has taught most kids in our family how to swim and has no problem pushing you in the pool! She swam with the kids yesterday and held Abby most of the time.

The same goggles that fit Abby, fit Uncle Cecil and Abby was not happy about it! Uncle Cecil was a landscaper many years ago and know uses all that knowledge in his own backyard. I was trying to get lots of advice to add some colorful plants to our yard.

This float was a great lounger for Abby. K&C were swimming all around, so we loved securing her in this and letting her play with toys and her Daddy.

Abby also learned how to squirt a water gun on Sunday! She wanted to make it upside down most of the time, but Nana taught her and then she squirted us all!

Thank you Aunt Vicki and Uncle Cecil for having us all over! I promise we will not wait 2 years to visit again!

Girls Day

My sister and I both drove to Fredericksburg to give our kids some time with Nana and to spend time without them. It was so nice to see, talk and shop with her without a little person around. We have to make it an annual tradition- everyone wins. Our husbands had alone time. Nana and the kids were happy to be together and we got to shop Main Street.

We both bought lots of fun things- shoes, belts, jewelry, home stuff, fabric, gifts for the kids, etc. I loved the fabric on embroidery hoops in this store. So cute and vintage. They had oil cloth galore including by the yard. My sister wanted to oil cloth the workout bench in their home gym. Lucky for her husband I convinced her not to.

Abby and Cohen had fun with Nana- playing, eating a yummy lunch (apparently my child likes black eyed peas!!!) and napping. We gave them giant marshmallows for being so good for Nana.

After an early dinner, Abby and I drove home to see Daddy! In total we spent 3.5 hours in the car today and this girl cracked me up. I don't want to forget how funny this age can be!

A few examples:

At one point in the car, Abby had been talking non-stop for a good 5 minutes and I looked back at her. She said, "I'm talking to myself."

We currently love to sing. While singing a sweet version of Jesus Loves Me, I was driving and thinking what a sweet good little girl I have. Then, the singing stopped for Abby to loudly proclaim, "Look Momma, I pick my nose."

Finally, Abby has picked up my habit of saying "how about" in a drawn out manner. When I am giving her options, I often ask how about blank or blank. So, she was talking to herself and would ask:

How About Twinkle Twinkle Little star?

Alright.

Alright.

... and then begin singing.

Hilarious!

Birthday Wishes

We hope you have a wonderful day! After spending just one evening with you, Abby is clearly smitten. When we do family roll call, she always includes you and Kaki! We can't wait to see you again soon. Eat lots of cake!

Birthdays and Baby Boys

This morning we went to Kiersten's 3rd birthday party. Kiersten's Mom and I went to school together, from 5th grade to sophomore year of college and are still great friends. Tabriah does a SUPER job with her girls parties - you always know she will carry out a theme perfectly, have awesome food, and great activities for the kids!

It was so nice having us all at the party! Last week, Marcus did some things around the house while Abby and I attended a party and I prefer the 2 adults to 1 child ratio so much better!

They had a large bounce house and a big slide in the backyard. Last time we tried a bouncey was this summer and Abby hated it. This time- she LOVED it! She got to practice her jump and falling down numerous times!

Once the bigger kids climbed the little ladder and Abby realized there was a slide- she wanted to go on it. Marcus did the first time with her and then she wanted to do it by herself.

She went down it at least 10 times. Marcus sat at the top to help her up and release her when she was ready and I was at the bottom to watch her glee and help her down. She had so much fun!

Next up, the sweet monkey pinata the kids had fun beating! They went youngest to oldest and it was broken by a strong 6 year old girl!

Abby took a couple of good swings at it. She would not let go of her candy bag while trying to hit the pinata. It hindered her ability just a little.

After Abby took a nap, we made dinner for our newest family member Read. He is just 16 days old and was so sweet. When we arrived he was quietly sleeping on a little blanket just under the Christmas tree. What a great gift his parents received this year!

He woke up before we left and my Mom held him. Marcus would prefer I not hold a newborn baby ;)

Read has 2 wonderful big sisters to love on him- Landry and Bella are truly two of the most well-behaved and kind little girls. We love seeing them.

After delivering chicken pot pie and cookies, we drove to eat BBQ for dinner and came home in time to put a very tired girl to bed!

Tomorrow, Abby will go home with my Mom until Wednesday. Mom is excited to have her and we are looking forward to football, long naps, dinner out with friends and converting part of Abby's nursery into her little girl room.