Merry and Bright!

Didn't get the blow-up framer of the family I had hoped for, but I did get these PRECIOUS Christmas pictures of the boys from our session last week with Crystal Garcia.  Family, do you see any pics you want for Christmas??  

Hope you are having a great week.  Ours is crazy busy with the play.  Gotta go more later...

Fun at the Farm

So much fun yesterday celebrating John Cole's 3rd Birthday at Papa Simpson's Farm!  Thanks to all of our special friends who came to play.  We love you all and are grateful to have you in our lives!!!

Holidays are HERE!

First of all, I just have to say I can't BELIEVE my baby John Cole turned 3 yesterday!!!!! He potty trained himself, is just a JOY to be around and is so hilarious.  We all love you so much baby brother.  You did great at your first dental check-up too!  Mrs. Amanda told Mommy you were her best patient of the day :)

It's THANKSGIVING BREAK!  I can't remember a time in recent memory (well, except when I was in the hospital having a baby) that I took off a whole week for Thanksgiving.  But I'm hanging with my boys all week and I couldn't be happier.  Jeff and I really enjoyed our first AEP Thanksgiving Feast and I think Preston did too.  We even found the bricks commemorating Jeff and my graduation from Tech.  I think P was actually impressed.....

Daddy has been at the Duck camp so Mommy is INTO the Christmas spirit and decided to take the boys on a ride on the Polar Express in Palestine, TX.  Look, this is not Disney World.  Nor is is a short drive from Ruston....especially in the rain....but for these two boys it was a SWELL time. John Cole's favorite part was the train (which I regret not getting pictures of but the rain made it kinda hard) and Preston said his favorite part was the hot chocolate.  My favorite part was seeing the smiles on my boys' faces as they were singing Christmas carols.  Thanks so much for going with us Nana...couldn't have done it without you!!

Hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving and are gearing up for a wonderful CHRISTMAS!  This is one girl who can't WAIT!!!  More later...

A check off the bucket list.....

I don't have any pictures of him running--and I tried to respect the fact he probably didn't feel like pictures post-race---but JEFF RAN THE NYC MARATHON!  In 4:20 and some change.  Folks, that's NOT an easy task.  Especially considering the conditions Sunday were VERY windy and at times he felt like the wind might literally blow him down.  I'm so proud of him.  Not just for running the race, but for still being a super hard working husband and father ALL THE WHILE putting in mega miles to get trained.  He never looks at this but I just have to brag on him that he is an amazing guy.

Again thanks to Nana--and the VILLAGE--for stepping up to help with kids for us to be gone.  We greatly appreciate it!

**Pic in middle is a fallen Marine who was on our flight from ATL to Newark on Friday.  The whole plane sat in teary silence as we watched him leave with a HUGE police/Marine escort.  It was so touching and I will never forget how proud I was(AM!) to be an American at that very moment...GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

Fall Fun

It has been busy...but it has been a FUN Fall!

Our biggest news to report is that Mommy and Preston are doing Ruston Community Theater's production of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" together!!!  Preston has a speaking part and will appear in all 6 shows, and by some fluke I got double cast as the female LEAD!!  We have been rehearsing twice a week and let me tell you it is time consuming--but soooooo fun!  Preston will most definitely steal the show if you are interested show times are:

12/4   7pm
12/5   7pm
12/6   7pm
12/7   2pm matinee

I will appear in the 12/4 and 12/7 shows.  We are also doing two school shows that are SOLD OUT already!  Such a fun experience....now I need to go work on my LINES!!

Kendal and Kevin were gracious to host BOTH boys for their annual pumpkin carving night this year.  I think you can tell they both had a great time ;)

And we all had so much fun at our first TUMC Trunk-or-Treat!  I don't usually do a trunk--but since we were going to be gone for Halloween I thought I'd step up to the plate for this fun, family event.  And I WON favorite trunk!  GO figure.  All credit to Pinterest...and those two cute little cowboys who surely won me some votes!!

Lastly, had a great birthday and birthday night celebrating at the Boys and Girls Club "Gatsby Gala." Glad my super cute hubby still likes to take me "out" and that we got to support such a great ministry in our community....more later...

A little pumpkin in the patch...

I'm no Crystal Garcia...that's for SURE!  But John Cole and I had so much fun in the Pumpkin Patch today.  He was so excited to take home this little pumpkin and I am happy to get these pics even if they aren't professional...

More later...

San Fran Weekend

Sorry I am almost a week late!  Whew.  So much going on......

Preston got to "skip school" on the Friday before Columbus and joined Mommy and Daddy on a quick trip to San Fran.  Our official reason for the trip was to visit the Dykes family who live in Berkeley because Daddy is still their banker.  We had to squeeze in some touristy stuff too, of course.  And the icing on the cake was that Preston had his class mascot--CHAMP--home for the week so we got to show Champ a really good time :)

Trip Friday was fairly uneventful--as far as commercial air travel goes these days.  We didn't realize the reason we sat on the runway delayed for 45 minutes in Houston until we found out...

President Obama was staying one block from our hotel Friday night!  So the entire airport was shut down for a time for him to land.  However, we had a super fun adventure walking around town and meeting a REAL Secret Service agent and barely missing the Presidential motorcade.  We were super tired but it was very exciting.

Saturday morning we squeezed in a couple of rides on the historic cable car.  It was a GORGEOUS day.  Around noon we rode the BART (or the Subway as P called it) to Berkeley.  I can't TELL you how precious the reunion was between Preston and Ally.  Really, it was so cute.  The game...well....it wasn't so great. Cal was just not having a good game.  It was  a fun day anyways. The boys and I had delicious grass-fed burgers after the game.  Then we were in for the night...

Sunday was jam packed and FUN!  We took out some of the first bikes from the Fisherman's Wharf bike shop ready to "Bike the Bridge."  I was so PROUD of how Preston handled himself on the bike.  Were there some sketchy moments...um....yes.  But he really did GREAT considering there were HUGE crowds because of the holiday weekend.  We biked all the way to Sausalito then rode the ferry back to the city. And what a TREAT the air show was going on so we saw basically the whole thing!
Next was Alcatraz.  Preston would report this was his favorite.  He so cute wearing his headphones listening to the tour.  He really was into it and I think it made quite an impression.  That night we cleaned up and went to a nice place for dinner.  My favorite morsel of the trip--the YUMMY brussel sprouts :)

Monday, we got up at 4:30 am and were SUPPOSED to be HOME by 3:00.  John Cole had been home this whole time as was with a high school sitter on Monday because Jeff's mom went to work on Monday. I really, really don't want to type out the MISERY that was our travel day Monday.  And I am certainly aware that we were blessed to not be affected by the horrible storms that caused our travel nightmare day.  But I will say we finally made it home in a CAR at 1am with no luggage.  It was a car we were lucky to have because there were NONE at the airport.  Preston was a TROOPER. He did get airsick once---super NOT FUN--but bless it he had nothing on his stomach and we had been trapped in the hot plane for ages. Poor baby.  Anywhoo, you can see from the pic that after a chocolate shake and hot dog he rallied.

So much fun with my boys.  Hope we can take John Cole one day.  But I will shop while they go to Alcatraz....