Ice Day!!

Yea Haw!! We had an "ice day" today which means no school!! I don't know who was more excited about it, me or my kids. In case you have never had an "ice day" here is what you do:) Watch cartoons in your jammies...
Get a Christmas tree pedicure...

Make and eat chocolate chip pancakes...

If you are a teenager, don't wake up until 10:30am AT THE EARLIEST!!!

Eat four chocolate chip pancakes while you read the comics....

Make a big pillow fort...

Work on your art project in your jammies and a Santa hat...

Have a friend over and make HUGE snowman sugar cookies...

Put ridiculous amounts of icing and sprinkles on them...

and finally, make homemade pizza's and eat them watching the Polar Express!

"Little full, lot of sap"

To quote a line from Christmas Vacation!!! We feel just like the Griswold's with our huge tree:) Let me tell you, it didn't look so big at the tree farm! (Yes that is our chandelier you see!)

Rachel smiles with Santa!

The Tree Farm!

We decided to cut our own tree down this year! We headed about 45 minutes northeast to Wintergreen Farms (thanks Colbergs for recommending this great place:)!

Rachel, Jeff and Preston, loaded up on the hay ride, hot chocolate in hand!

Preston and Heather snuggled up:)

The hay ride took us out to the tree farm where we started hunting for the perfect tree!

Hunting...

Hunting...

We found it!



Jeff and Preston start to saw.

Rach is checking it out!

She wants to try :)

Here it goes...

Good thing we have two strong guys to carry it to the road!


and a strong girl!

Preston and Jeff tie it to the car. If you know Jeff, that tree's not going anywhere!!!!


Rachel entertains herself with a stick while the boys tie the tree to the roof:)


We get to watch the sun set on the Drive home. What a great day!

This is what love looks like

We had so much fun on our trip to Arizona! We love our family SO MUCH!

Movie night at Aunt Jenny's!

How fun was this!!
On Thanksgiving morning, a bunch of us hiked a beautiful mountian. What a wonderful way to start the day:)

All of our kids were troupers! It was about a 3 mile hike one way!

Preston and Rach taking a break.


At the wind caves (almost at the top)

Xanon, Stephy, Saige, River, Jenny, Rachel, Heather, Preston

Raven, Lauren, and Jeff

Preston is king of the mountian! This is him at the top, I mean the very tip top of the mountian!

Aunt Nee Nee and Rachel


Jenny and her boys

Preston and Mom



Daddy and Rach

A gorgeous view from the top! After we hiked down, we went to Tommy's For Thanksgiving dinner. This is the first time in years our whole entire family was together. Talk about alot to be thankful for!

The sisters! Liz, Heather, Rhea-Rhea, Stephy and Jenny


All 8 of us! Oldest to youngest-

Paul, Liz, Stephanie, Tommy, Heather, Jenny, Bobby, and Rhea-Lynn

My whole family!

It was VERY hard to say goodbye (as usual)! I am so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful family.

To cheer us up, we stopped at the Sandhill in west Texas for some sledding! That is Preston way up there!



Rachel hanging out on her sled:)

Rachel's 6 year old B-day pictures

It doesn't seem so long ago that we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl...

Preston the Rock Star!!

Preston ran the city of Frisco 5k this morning. His wrestling coach made all the boys participate in it. Little did we know that Preston would completely kick butt!!! He placed 19th out of 800 contestants of all ages!! His coach thinks he could make state in cross country and wants him to run next year (it's too late for this year). It looks like he takes after his uncle Tommy!

Rounding the final corner! Jeff and I couldn't believe it when he came around the corner. He was way ahead of everyone else!

here comes the kick!

Here is the chart that shows rank and time. Yea Preston! We are so proud of you!!

Halloween!

Rachel the beautiful queen:)

Rach, Jeff, NanaMy pre-school class! Aren't they cute:)

These are the girls I teach with. In case you couldn't tell, we were the Wizard of Oz! A lolli-pop kid, Glenda the good witch, the lion and the scarecrow. All the little girls in my class were SO pumped that I was a princess!! Mom- aren't you glad to see the prom dresses you slaved over are still being put to good use?!