Brady's Christmas pageant

Such a great way to get into the spirit...watching little kids in a Christmas show!! I will upload some video too cause that's the cutest part!

Family pics

Now that our Christmas cards are out, here's some more family pics we took back in Oct.  If you had been there you would not have thought the photographer got a single shot, but she actually did get quite a few good ones.

 He loves to be tickled!

 When are we going to be done with this??

 He is so funny...

 And quite the ham

 

This one just speaks to me, love it so much.

More horse time

I am loving this place that Addy is riding at in Wimberley.  Too bad its a 40 minute drive there cause this girl working with Addy has taught her more in two weeks than she's probably ever learned in her whole life-- about horses, discipline, how to do it all right.  She got to ride in the saddle this week and just loved it.  I am going to get her lessons at a place around the corner next month, but if we don't like the girl as much then we will go back to this place cause it is awesome...once you are there.  They built it from scratch, the two rings, the stable and brought Jesus from California to take care of the horses and Heather does the lessons.  Here's the website:  http://silverfoxfarmsllc.com/index.html  There is a really cool poem on there called Because My Daughter Grew Up with Horses.  Here's some pics from yesterday:

How cute does she look on there!

He was my favorite horse of the day, just watching us...he had just had a bath

Heather helping Addy off the saddle, then she had to clean his hooves and brush him and put all the stuff back where it goes.  Love that!

Meaning of Christmas

I am having such a hard time keeping up this year with getting it all done before Christmas!  And I hate that cause I know what the real meaning behind Christmas is all about but I can't get through the hustle and bustle of getting it all done in time- wrapping presents here, presents there, family trip here, family trip there, baking all the goodies, gifts for school, gifts for teachers, gifts for secret Santa, Christmas cards, on and on.  I am not being bah hum bug here but I feel I haven't had time to stop this year and smell the pine trees.  I haven't even watched my annual Love Actually that I have to watch every year before Christmas. 

I was selling a Barbie doll house of Addy's because she doesn't like it anymore and I get this email from someone on Craigslist:  would you please consider donating this doll house to a little girl that is asking santa for a doll house we have no money or transportation we would need you to box it and send it to maxwell tx i'am trying to make this happen before Christmas but i think there is still time i can only promise that as soon as possible i would reemburse you for the doll house and whatever it cost to send or deliver i know this is alot to ask for but i am just trying to keep this babys belief in santa

This is one of many emails like this I got by putting this online.  It makes me want to just jump from the roof top and help people that are so much worse off than us.  I may stress a lot about money, but its not like this guy.  I did already sell the doll house but I will do what I can to help someone else get through this time.  Here I am venting about not getting it all done in time and feeling overwhelmed but in actuality, there are people out there with many worse problems.  I think I am just going to send this person some cash in the mail to help them believe in Santa, cause everyone should get that chance to.  That'll feel good.

***OK, my hubby said I was getting scammed on Craigslist by this guy, but I am still in the mood to give, so I am going to Dripping Springs Helping Hands instead. 

 

This is a picture I took this morning cause the clouds were just beautiful!  I guess that was God talking to me.

White Trash

Mom,

I added a new addition to the rest of our goodies. I wish you were here to cook with me! It's called white trash. Got it on Pinterest.  Yes, it is gluten free!!

Xoxo,

Bets

The journeys of Josh

Our elf, Josh, may be a little more creative this year, thanks to Pinterest.  I love all the ideas on there on what to do with them!  I just have to stop waking up at 1am because I forgot to move him from the previous spot.  The elf is one of my favorite parts of Christmas and I love how its the first words out of Addy's mouth in the mornings.  We've had him since 2009, when Addy was 3 and she's loved him ever since.

He stole baby Jesus from the kid's nativity to be part of the other nativity scene.

Since we had hot cocoa and marshmallows after school yesterday, Josh decided to dip into them too.

He got into the library books and started reading them himself!

Chilling with his buddy, Santa.

***Josh took a night off and spent the night at Nana and Poppy's house.

Saturday

Round 1 of 3 today...Ava's birthday party!

Round 2...a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon...Christmas at the farm.  This is by far my favorite shot.  And I took this on my iPhone!

 Annual family pic up in the tree...we are really high up here!

 Addy was so happy to get the Nutcracker!  A perfect gift for her!  And Brady was most excited about getting a wet vac.  He asked everyone there to open it for him.  That made him more excited than the remote control truck, which is odd for a 2 year old!

 Good times...Poppy and Brady in the back of the tractor!

Addy, Max and Brady eating dessert

 

And then there was round 3. Annual party at Chris' house,  his 10th annual Merry ChristmaQuanzaHanukkah party.  We have been going to this party since 2002, the years we were in town, which is most since its always the same weekend as the farm.  It is always so much fun and the most entertaining white elephant gift exchange ever.  I was even out past midnight!  Whoo hoo!

 These were the commentators of the gift exchange.  They were very animated and funny.

My other Boo, Sarah.

 



This was a really cool gift from Casey.  It's a collage of all the boys from high school/college.  I even made it on there...old school.

Today Addy and I are going to see the Nutcracker.  It's one of her favorites.

 We got dressed up for the show!

 Gotta have ice cream on a Mommy/daughter date!

Waiting for the show to start...it was so cool to see all the ballerinas.  We moved up from here so we were actually in the 2nd row!