Thanksmas 2009

On Wednesday we headed North to Dallas to spend Thanksmas with the Cox side of the family. We have "Thanksmas" every other year, Thanksgiving for lunch then we open Christmas gifts in the evening. This year we were all together except for Blake and Katie. They spent Thanksgiving in Boerne. And Blake sure did take my grandmother's cinnamon roll recipe and make me very jealous by tweeting me and Tiffany pictures of them. We sure did miss them being with us, Blake and Katie, and maybe the cinnamon rolls too!!My uncle is a lover of trains. Ryan appears to have become a lover of trains as well. He was so funny. He would just lay down on the floor and watch the train go round and round. Courtney joined him some of the time.

Bella LOVES the Christmas tree. She looks at it and goes "ooooohhh". I think she is saying pretty tree but it sounds more like "pee-ee teeee". She has a VERY hard time not touching it....ok, she doesn't even try not to touch it and she just smiles at you when you tell her "no".
Neat....

Courtney loves her little brother. I love them both. I have the sweetest most gorgeous niece and nephew in the whole wide world.

Ryan looked like such a big boy, hanging out, lounging on his side watching the train. Such a cutie pants!!

Bella relaxing with cousin Calli.

Every year each family has to take a family picture. The boys usually complain although they didn't to much this year. I guess they have just given up an quit fighting it. It's about time.

Calli, Aunt Michele, Uncle Gary, Christopher and his wife Kilee

Christopher and Kilee Cox

Alyssa, Tim, Courtney and Ryan

Tyler and his wife Ashley, Aunt Marcia, Uncle Jerry, and Tiffany (not pictured - Blake and his wife Katie)

Tiffany and Papa

Papa and Mema

Us

and again....

All the cousins in our very cool Thanksmas shirts that Tiffany had made for us!!

Cousins crazy picture. Notice on the left Ashley is throwing up in a fake bowl made by Calli. Tyler and Ashley drove from Nashville on Wednesday night. Ashely caught a virus from someone at work and had the unfortunate privilege of throwing up all the way from Nashville to Denton. Tyler didn't make the picture because he was so lucky to get the virus on Thanksgiving. Also take note of Christopher in the middle of the picture..... What is HE doing?!?!

Tim and Papa

Apparently my grandparents are gangsta's...

After our pictures we opened presents. We have a tradition of starting from the youngest and then one by one going all the way to the oldest. All of us grandkids exchanged names and gave gift cards and we always get money from Mema and Papa. The great grandkids however still get a couple of presents to open. Ryan got a doll, ummmm I mean, a dump truck. But he was REALLY excited about this doll. Bella began pulling it out of the sack and the boy literally pushed Terry out of his way so that he could get to it. It was his turn to open his present next and he was NOT happy about it because he wanted the doll. Funny thing is.... Bella kept picking up the clothes he got. I don't know...... Anyway he finally got to Bella's doll and he was so sweet with her. He loved on her and made sure she had her paci in her mouth. He's gonna be a good daddy!!

Ryan with his baby.

Ryan was hugging Bella. He actually hugged her right into the Christmas tree :)

Tiffany and I in our Thanksmas 2009 t-shirts. Just in case you were wondering it's Santa riding a turkey....that's how we roll.

I have so much to be thankful this year:

• my precious husband
• my precious baby girl
• a roof over my head
• a great job
• a great family
• mom and dad
• grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins
  
• siblings, nieces, and nephews
  
• our health
• our sweet puppy
  
• but most importantly - my precious husband and my precious baby girl - I know I said that twice :)
  

uh oh....

Any body that knows me well, knows that this could cause a MAJOR problem. Notice that she is looking at me and smiling from ear to ear. I already had to fight Courtney off of my blanket when she was about Bella's age. Now it seems as though this could be even worse, seeing as how this child actually lives with me...... It's a good thing I love this girl, alot!!

Trunk or Treat

Yes, I am behind.....again....story of my life lately.

On to Trunk or Treat. On Halloween we took Bella up to the church for Trunk or Treat. She had so much fun walking around and seeing all the kids. She was definitely exerting her independence. I have no idea where she gets that from :).





This is a new thing she does..every time we grab her hand to walk with her, she sits down. Again with the independence thing.

Talkin' to Tilly. I am sure she was telling her something very important.

Our trunk. We had no idea what we were doing as it was our first year to participate. Next year we know exactly what we need to do.


She had a great 2nd Halloween. It's hard to believe we have already had two with her. Now it's time to get ready for our 2nd Thanksgiving and Christmas!!

Happy Halloween......

.........from our flower princess!!

SFA Homecoming 2009

This weekend we headed up to our favorite place in Texas....Nacogdoches. It was SFA's homecoming and it is actually my 10th year. Yep, I'm that old. We met up with some friends which makes being up there even better. We got into town on Friday night and I couldn't help but get all emotional when we pull into town. I REALLY LOVE that place. There are so many good memories there and it just makes me happy to be surrounded by all things SFA.

Dear SFA,
I love you.
I miss you.

Love, Me

We met up with our friend Tim and his girlfriend Erin and headed out to La Carretta. Yummy mexican food. Then we were going to go out to the bonfire but gave up on that when we couldn't find a place to park..... plus it was cold :). We decided instead to go meet up with more friends. We turned in pretty early knowing we had a big day ahead of us on Saturday.

Saturday we got up and headed straight to the bookstore(s). We do this everytime we go. You can never have too many SFA shirts. We shopped while we waited for the rest of the group to get into town. Rebecca and RJ got there and got us a spot to hang out and we ran to get some food. Chicken Express...YUM.

Dear Chicken Express,
Please open a store in Clear Lake.
I would really like that a lot.
I promise I would never take you for granted.
I would eat your chicken everyday if you would just move here.

Love, Me

We headed up to the commuter parking lot and hung out and listened to the game. We never went in but we KILLED Sam Houston.

Dear Sam Houston,
You lost 42-3.
I call that a beat down.
HAHAHAHAHAHA.
See you at Reliant next year.

Me

Me, Rebecca, and Natalie

YEA for good friends. Rebecca is now going to Sam Houston and will graduate in December. We're still friends. It's a good thing she didn't wear orange or we may not be :) Just kidding, she was in our wedding so I will always love her anyway.

Terry and me!

Rebecca and RJ

Tim and Erin

I ran back to the bookstore with Natalie and we decided to stop in at Steen Hall on the way back. She and I both lived there.....several years apart. We were curious if it still looked the same.

Dear Steen Hall,
You still smell funny.

Love, Me

Natalie talked the desk assistant into giving us a key to the show room. We went in and it felt so weird. The room has moveable beds now. Back in the day they were attached to the wall. AND they have microwaves. Those were a huge NO NO when I was there.

The second window was my room back in 1997.


The girls!


This is what happens when the boys get a hold of the camera. I shouldn't set it down.

We had so much fun this weekend getting together with everybody. Can't wait to do it again. Hopefully we won't wait a whole year!!!

We were ready to get home to our precious little princess. She was asleep when Mom and Dad got to their house with her so she was out of it. She woke up and I think she was excited to see us. As we were driving out of the neighborhood I turned around to talk to her and she blew me a kiss. CUTEST THING EVER!!! Luckily I had the camera with me and was able to capture the kiss blowing.

Dear Bella,
You are the most precious thing in the world.
I love you all the way to the moon and back.

Love, Mama