Candy Churches

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, our church has Candy Churches for the kiddos instead of Sunday school.  They provide everything and we have so much fun decorating our church every year.  We decided it was just easier to leave Miles in the nursery.  We can't wait for him to join us next year.

Miller and Daddy putting the icing on.

Miller putting on the sprinkles.  His favorite part was the cross (twizzlers and tooth picks), sled (kit kats and candy canes) and tree (watermelon blow pop and tootsie pop).  Of course he liked to sample the candy first to make sure it was good enough to put on.

 We were lucky enough to sit with Katelyn, his friend from preschool.  They are such good buddies and we are so glad we get to see them at church since they no longer go to the same school.

Thanksmas

We spent the week of Thanksgiving at Jud's parents new house in Bentwater (just an hour north of us).  They moved down from Lincoln just a few weeks before.  It's so great to have them close by and their house is beautiful.  Jud's sister and her family came down for the week and we had some great family time.  The cousins always have so much fun together.

We decorated the Christmas tree and celebrated Thanksmas (Thanksgiving and Christmas).

 The boys in their new matching Superman shirts.

 GraMary and Grandpa gave pj's to all the kiddos (from left: Miles, Max, Miller and Bekah).

 The kids spent most of the time in the front yard and the cul-du-sac (they are currently the only house on the street) enjoying the weather.  We brought our bounce house up and the kids had so much fun jumping.

 Jud fried some turkeys and we showed they how to do Thanksgiving Texas style.

 Max and Miller played a little golf as did the big boys.

 My parents lake house is just a few minutes away so Jud went over and got my dad's '65 mustang and brought it over to give the kids a ride around the neighborhood.  Don't worry, we didn't let Miles sit in the front seat.

We had a great time and are looking forward to many more family memories to be made there!  Congratulations Max and Mary and welcome to Texas!

Tis the Season

Miles' school has a Christmas event every year put on by the teachers called Tis the Season.  They have all sorts of Christmas crafts, activities and goodies.  Plus, the big man himself is there.  Miller was super excited to see him and tell him about the dinosaur/car transformer thing he wants.

 Miles, on the other hand, wouldn't even get close.  I just wanted him to sit in his lap and take a picture eve if he was screaming, but this is the best we got.  He did finally accept a candy cane from him.

 Their favorite thing there, besides Santa, was the baby pool filled with tissue paper squares.  Could be hours of entertainment.  I'd have one at home if it wasn't so messy.

 Miles and I doing his teacher's craft, writing a letter to Santa.

What a fun way to start off the most wonderful time of the year!

Way to go Fire Balls!

Miller's soccer team had a great season and Jud really enjoyed coaching!  Here are a few pictures of the last game.  Miller is usually really into the game and going after the ball, but this picture shows that boys will be boys.

 Running through the tunnel at the end of the game.

 Thanks for coaching Dad - you are the best!

 Our team party was a Fuddruckers.  Jud is such a great coach and all the kids love him.  He is so patient with these 4 and 5 year olds.  He may have found his second calling.

 Miller getting his trophy.

 Coach Jud with the team and their trophys.

Our first basketball season is up next.  As much as Jud loves coaching, he is looking forward to just being a parent and watching this time.

Trick or Treat

We had lots of fun Halloween activities going on at the end of October.  Miller wanted to be Batman, so of course Miles was Robin.  Then I thought it would be a great idea for Jud to be The Joker (he was pretty creepy looking).  I didn't want to be left out so I got some cat woman sunglasses.

Trunk Treats at the church.

 Miles in his school Halloween parade.

 The parade was on the way to chapel so I stayed to watch and he found me in the crowd.  Do you like his mask headband?

 Our neighborhood is crazy, I mean really crazy.  We have over 500 trick-or-treaters.  A lot of them come from other neighborhoods or apartments in the area.  Therefore, we trick-or-treat early, even before dark.  

 Every year we trick-or-treat with our friends, the Mattinglys, that live on our street.  Here is the crew from left: cheerleader Mollie, cat Ellie, Robin Miles, Vintage Clown Trey and Batman Miller.

 Noni, JoJo, Evan and Blake came over to hang out in the front yard (we can't go inside because we would never be able to close our door with the amount of trick-or-treaters).  Blake, weird old man hunter, brought silly string for the boys and they loved it.

 Here is an example of the line up our sidewalk.  This is basically how it is from 6-8pm.  The whole street bans together and turns out lights out at 8:00.

 Halloween is so much fun when you have little kids!

Pumpkins

Our church has a pumpkin patch every year to raise money for the youth group.  I can remember when I was in the youth group there and helping unload pumpkins.  It's something we always look forward to.  Miles got to visit it several times with his class since he goes to school there.  They even took some pictures one day.

 Here is his whole class. I'm pretty impressed they got them all to sit down.

I then took both boys over one afternoon to take some pictures and pick out some pumpkins for our front porch.  I think I got some pretty cute ones.

 Love this...

 Miller had to have a silly one.

 Of course, this is how it ended up with tackling.

 Love this one too.

Happy Fall!

NOLA Girls Weekend

The first weekend in October I had three nights away for a girls trip to New Orleans.  Thanks to Jud for watching the boys by himself for four days - you are such an amazing dad).  My college girlfriends and I try to get together every year and this is the first time since college that all eight of us (me, Maggie, Erin, Taylor, Lindsay, Sarah, Cherie and Kelly) have been able to be there.  We stayed at Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter. It is the perfect location and has a nice rooftop pool and turning carousel bar.  Here we are all stuffed in the small elevator after we arrived.  I took the picture using my go-go-gadget arms.  It's blurry, the color is horrible and I cut Lindsay out, but I love the picture.

The first night we went to a nice dinner at Restaurant August.  It was good, a nice atmosphere and expensive.  I would recommend it, but it's not my favorite.  We took a great picture of all of us but it came out blurry.

On Saturday morning some of us headed to Cafe Du Monde for breakfast.  I'm pretty sure I can't go to New Orleans without going there and getting beignets - so good!

That afternoon we took a culinary bike tour through the city.  It was so much fun especially since we had such great weather.  

We stopped at four different hole-in-the-wall restaurants.  The first was an African place (New Orleans was originally settled by Africans) where we had amazing spinach.

We then headed to have some amazing shrimp and sausage gumbo.

 Parkway Bakery and Tavern was our next stop for the most amazing Roast Beef Poor Boys.  It may have been the best sandwich I've ever had.  It's a must if you are looking for a good NOLA Poor Boy.

 For dessert we went to a great little Italian bakery/gelato place.  Those cannoli's - yum!

That night we were all stuffed from the bike tour so we headed to Frenchman Street and had some apps at a casual hole-in-the-wall place.  We then walked around a little bit and went to this fun outdoor night craft market.  They had some interesting stuff and I loved how it was lit by the draping lights.

Of course we walked back by way of Bourbon Street to get a frozen daiquiri.  I've never seen Bourbon street so busy.  You had to push your way through the crowd just to get anywhere.  We all pretty much decided we were too old for that craziness.

 Sunday we all had appointments at the spa (four in the morning and four in the afternoon).  Kelly, Lindsay, Sarah and I were in the afternoon so we we to brunch a Brennan's.  So good.  Yep, that's our banana's foster in flames.

 Erin, Taylor and Cherie left on Sunday night so we made a quick stop for a send off glass of wine.  It was a pub atmosphere inside, but a quaint little courtyard outside in the back.

 Sunday night, Lindsay, Kelly, Sarah, Maggie and I went to Restaurant R'evolution.  This place was so good, I want to go back to NOLA just take Jud there.  Everything we got was amazing!  From the gumbo and crab beignets to the unbelievable boneless braised short ribs everything was to die for.  I got a trio of ice cream for dessert (red velvet, toasted marshmellow and crunchy peanut butter) that was a perfect ending.  The wine list was top notch and on an iPad and the dessert menu lit up when opened.  If you are going to New Orleans and want to go to a nice dinner, don't go anywhere else but R'evolution!

We had an amazing trip!  We mainly ate and drank our way through the city, but isn't that what you are supposed to do in NOLA?  It was so good to see my girls.  We don't get to see each other enough.  Until next year....