Santa's Lap 2008

We took Bryce & Brooke to visit Santa today. They were excited to see him and give their letters to him...unlike years in the past where we didn't know if we'd have Santa cheers or Santa tears...I am definitely that mom that gets the Santa pic regardless of how my kids feel about it! Here's some memories of Santa's lap in past years...2003 - BIG tears for Bryce at 2 1/2!
2004 - This was a good year! Bryce was 3 and Brooke was 9 months.

2006 - BIG tears for Brooke at 2 1/2 (something about that age for our kids!)!

First Snow

Here's a pic from December 1, our first snow. It wasn't much, but it was a fun launch to Christmastime!

November in a nutshell

I guess I had "bloggers block" for the majority of this month! So, here it is the last day of the month (and it's late and I need to go to sleep), so I thought I'd post a quick summary of our month.
Stacey's Birthday on the 5th. Dinner and an interesting Target shopping trip with Julie, LeAnn, Lisa, Kim, Amy and Amy!
Brad's Birthday on the 12th. We celebrated with a yummy stawberry cake, BUT note to self: Brad would much rather have the homemade one next year! (I'm still baffled; I thought it was awesome!)
We celebrated Thanksgiving at the ranch with Brad's family. Here's a pic of the cousins. The cute one in the middle wasn't too excited about being outside in the cold wind...or maybe it was because she didn't get to hold her beloved "bear."
Brad got some QT hunting with the kiddos. We had a great week in Texas. It flew by! We were sad to leave, but I was so thankful to finally get home tonight. Our routine 6 hour drive turned into about 8 hours! Mother Nature made today's trip difficult! First of all, we battled a 30 mph wind coming out of the northeast, which is obviously a challenge when you're driving from Texas to Arkansas. Then, it rained...along with the wind. Then, just as soon as we think we're on the homestretch, we pass through the tunnel and hit a parking lot on 540. When we got to the other side of the tunnel, it was snowing!...and traffic was at a standstill. We crept along for the remainder of the way home going about 10 mph. It was actually very sad and a bit scary for me. There was wreck after wreck after wreck. I hope and pray everyone is OK after all that, and I'm thankful for the protection God provided for us!We also had fun visiting Williams cousins during our Texas trip! Can't wait to be closer to you so we can play more often!

Introducing Ragamuffin!

Check out the blog for my new business! www.ragamuffincollection.blogspot.com

Halloween

This day just started out strange!?!? This morning on the way to school it was raining with lightning and thunder just above us, the sun was shining as it rose to the east and there was a rainbow to the west! THEN, we get to Bryce's school and there's a hail storm for 10 minutes!!! The ground was completely covered with marble size hail. Just a strange start for Halloween day!

We had a fun night trick or treating and eating dinner with friends. Brooke had fun being Pinkalicious again (we went a little lighter with the pink makeup this time!), and Bryce was a football player for the 4th year in a row. He was Tony Romo (wrapped pinky and all).


Kinley.Spencer.Brooke.Bryce.Madeline.Stuart.Reagan.Bodie.Jami.Ryan.Addy

Bring on the tooth fairy

Our poor baby had to have 2 teeth pulled today b/c of severe crowding. He was VERY brave and did a great job for his first dental procedure. He was pretty pitiful for the first hour afterwards but is back to his normal active self now.

Pinkalicious!

Brooke got to dress up in her Halloween costume today for school. Pinkalicious is a children's book about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink; at the end of the book she has to eat green foods to turn back to normal! Brooke took pink cupcakes to share with her class today, and let's just hope it washes off because our picky eater will NOT eat green!!


Pinkalicious and JoJo (Jami Grace)

The rest of the story...and HSM3

OK, so here's the other half of the chicken truck explanation...the empty truck headed back out of town later in the afternoon. Once again, I was in the right place at the right time!
I am a huge fan of High School Musical and HSM3 is awesome! I loved it...even cried!?! Bryce and Brooke are a little more reserved in front of the camera than Lowery! She's ready to audition!

Amber, this is for you...

This is a chicken truck...To try and explain this to you rest of you, my friend Amber (from Texas) was telling me about a challenge she took last week to take pictures and document basically everything she did for a week. I told her that I would like to do something like that before we move back to Texas to document my life here in NWA...places I go, friends, and things that I would only see here in Arkansas...like chicken trucks! Her response was, "what exactly is a chicken truck?" For those of you here in NWA, chicken trucks are normal, a daily occurence, but in Texas, it's just not something you see...ever! And low and behold I was in the right place at the right time (and with camera handy)to capture this image for you Amber!

XLR8 Worship Night

The kids (XLR8) led worship last night at church. They were so cute...esp. the art group! (I lead that one :)) Anyways, I love it that Bryce gets excited about being up there praising God, and I know I shouldn't laugh, but it's pretty funny too!
Bryce was in the "rythm" small group, and I'm thinking he needs to stick to sports before coming a rock star!(watch all the way through to understand)

These boys just make me smile...and laugh.

Pumpkin Patch 2004

I took a short stroll down memory lane tonight! This pics are from the pumpkin patch 4 years ago!!! Bryce was 3 and Brooke was 6 months. Yikes, how the time flies!

Pumpkin Patch

It's a tradition in our family that we make a trip to the pumpkin patch every year. We've gone every year since Bryce was a baby. Those of you in Texas (and even those here in Arkansas b/c I've told you how awesome it is)know how much we've missed the Flower Mound pumpkin patch...endless rows of neatly organized pumpkins, dozens of great photo opps, bounce houses, food, etc... So, it was hard to replace that and find a new place to visit here in Arkansas. The one we visited last year was OK, but we decided to try a new pumpkin patch this year, and it was the REAL DEAL. It was the actual farm where they grow the pumpkins, so we got to cut our own pumpkin from the vine. It was so much fun, and now we all have a better appreciation of where the pumpkins come from!

BD Ranch Hunting Camp

Brad did a mini hunting camp with Bryce last weekend teaching him gun safety and hunting lessons. Bryce got his first BB gun and had to pass all his tests to earn safety glasses and BB's! Bryce got to shoot at an armadillo and a trapped raccoon...giving each of them just a little headache! They had a blast!

It's starting...

For someone who's gone without 4 true seasons pretty much all her life, this is pretty exciting! I'm so excited to see the leaves turn colorful one more time before we return to 2 seasons...hot and hotter!

Fan on Location

Yes, this is the same child who proudly wore his Texas jersey last Monday! I like to call him a "fan on location." He just loves football, and the whole spirit of rooting for your team...one of the many that he loves! Bryce and I had a blast today at the Razorback game even though they got beat bad...again. It was a fun experience. Thanks Steve and April for sharing your tickets with us!

True to his roots...

This one's for you mom! He wore his Texas jersey proudly to school today after a lil' slaughter on the hogs this weekend. He'll probably turn around and wear his Razorback jersey tomorrow, but for today...

Superstar, Fall Ball, Happy Fall, & Hangin' Around

It's a BIG deal to be the Superstar at Brooke's preschool, and she earned that privilege yesterday. Yeah Brooke! She loves going to school and playing school even when she's not there. She's doing a great job learning all her letters, even though her favorite is still "B"...guess that's a good thing!

Bryce is busy(like almost every day busy) with Fall baseball right now. He loves playing even though it's football season right now and not baseball season, he says. He excels at baseball on the field but is consumed in just about every other way, shape and form with football right now. His baseball team, the Red Dogs, is currently undefeated, so that's pretty fun (and a big change from last spring!)...even though supposedly no one is keeping score!
We were happy to welcome Fall this week! Although, it was cooler in August than it is now!!!
In the little spare time where he's not playing baseball or watching football, we have found a little time to just play and hang around! :)

Hurricanes Gustav and Ike

I haven't given any updates at all since I began my work in LA since April, but I thought that this was worth sharing. The past few days have been a real wake up call to the reality of mother nature and her wrath. We, those of us in Texas and Arkansas, may not understand the havoc that a hurricane can create in your life. I hope we will all remember to pray for those in south Texas and Louisiana for their safety and future as they are beaten by these storms. You may not realize how far reaching one of these storms can be, but Ike who hit at Galveston last night and today knocked out the power at my RV park on Thursday night with high winds and rain as it knocked down another tree. Thats a 5 hour drive away from where I am at and I still felt the effects. Here are only a few of the pics that I will share with you.


This mobile home is next door to my RV park





This is a LARGE root ball


This tree is about 4 ft in diameter and the last trailer in the back with the blue around the bottom is mine. Maybe 40 yards away.


These three are on the same road that I am staying on








This trailer is in the RV park I am staying in



This is at a near by park


The first time I drove by the tree was still there and you couldnt see the white car at all


I counted about 15 large trees that were down in this one yard