Fa la la la la la la la la . . .

Well I'm sorry I've been a little behind since Thanksgiving started . . . I've actually been rather busy with work--praise hallelujah! For several months work has been slow, dangerously slow and of course David still hasn't gotten any more raises from his huge cut a while back. So thankfully this month has been pretty good to me. David's work has picked up some so I'm hoping he will get his regular paycheck back in the next few months . . . we'll keep praying . . .

I'm ecstatic about Christmas this year since Sophie and Kelton will be old enough to have a bit more fun with it. We are all going to Austin to my mom's and then will see my step-sisters and their families too. We get to see most all of my family on both sides with the exception of my grandparents in San Angelo (Mimi and Granda) and my cousin and her family in Lubbock (Lara, Jeff, TJ, Tom, Cathy and Tom Matthew).

I still remember Christmas as a kid with my cousins. I only have 2 first cousins since my dad is an only child. Tracy and I are extremely close to Lara since we are only 3 months apart in age. We are all like sisters and we even shared a dorm in college and went through some seriously fun times our entire lives! We always put together some ridiculous "play" for our parents and grandparents to suffer through at Christmas time. The one that sticks out in my mind is the year we did one to "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer". Tom Matthew is 5 years younger than we are so as kids we never wanted him to play much with us. He got to be the grandpa in the play and he loved it. He wore a fake beard and came out on a cane and pretended to be old. I know we have it on VHS somewhere and we will have to transfer it to DVD one day so we can have it forever . . . along with many videos we have on VHS.

Well Sophie is growing like a weed. She's trying to talk like crazy and Daddy has taught her to raise her hands and do "touchdown" when you say it. It's so darn cute, those little arms go up like a little mini ref. Then we get all happy that she did it and we clap so she then claps her tiny little hands together. Ooooh, she's so squeezable!

The tree is quite a treat to her and all the ornaments on the bottom 30" of the tree are gone. So we have a tree with ornaments half way up and then to the top! My dogs never did bother stuff like that (ah such good boys!) so we didn't have this issue until she came around! She loves the ornaments and they are the plastic ones so she is chewing on one in the pic of her with the dogs. She was much more difficult to get to sit there than they were. The boys were actually sitting quite nicely and as you can see from their faces they were saying, "What is with this kid?! Take the picture already!" Trevor is peeking around Sophie like she's in his way. So funny.

Well I've got a lot to do to prepare for the holidays so I'll be back with reports after Santa comes! Have a great Christmas and happy holiday with family and loved ones!