Christmas in Amarillo

All of my family was able to get together, except my brother Don & his wife, Kelley. We are such a blessed family, everybody genuinely loves each other and we all get along great!

Lee and Greg's son, Joe.

Greg's family. From the left is Joe, Ashley (UT hat), Nickie (back), Greg, Diane and Venus. Paul's wife and daughter, Jody and Jaqlyn. Even the dogs love each other! Venus and Max (our dog). And Joe loves them, too!Brock looking extremely excited. LOL Ryan is ready for some football!Guitar Hero was the big entertainment for the week. We all had a blast playing it. Here is Lee and his wife, Michelle. Brock and I joined in on the fun! Lee's son, Connor, turned 13 on Dec. 24, so we celebrated with a cake, ice cream and some bad Brockman singing! Lee's daughter, Maggie, and Ryan.Joe and Brock. Lee's daughter, McKenzie and Paul's son, Jake. Jake and Lee's son, Ben. Ben, Nickie, Lee & Ashley. Paul, Diane, Greg & Joe. Connor, Lee & Ashley. Steve & Jody. This is one of my favorite pictures; Uncle Greg & Ryan.Maggie got a new tea set from Santa, so us girls had a tea party.

It was so much fun and Maggie & Kenzie were so cute!



Ashley & Ryan.

Ryan & Connor.Diane, Kenzie, Maggie & Brock playing "Operation." Kenzie, JoJo (Paul & Jody's dog) & Ryan.

Christmas 2008

This Christmas we were planning on traveling to Amarillo to celebrate with the Brockman's. So, we decided to have Christmas and Santa come early to our house. A couple days before we left we opened presents from each other at night.

Ryan gave Brock a Transformers book. He loved it and thought it was awesome!

Brock gave Ryan candy. I don't know if there was a better gift to give. Ryan has a HUGE sweet tooth (just like his mommy!) and you can see the joy on his face!Cookies and milk for Santa. The next morning, Santa had come. The boys were so excited!
Santa brought Ryan a Radio Flyer Big Wheel...

...and Brock got a Huffy Green Machine.

They have both loved riding their Big Wheels around! It has been one of the best things Santa has given them!

They've even learned how to skid on them and are becoming quite good at it, too!

Brock & Ryan

I forgot to scan and add this picture in with our November blog. It's such a good picture of the boys that I didn't want to leave it out, though.

Singing at CBS

Brock and Ryan go to Community Bible Study (CBS) with me, where they have their Bible lesson, learn songs and do crafts. At our last meeting this year, the teachers brought in the kids to sing for us. Here are just a couple of the songs they sang. In the first one, it's hard to see Brock because he's standing right behind a little girl. So, I got more video of Ryan singing "Jesus Said 'Let the Children Come'" and more of Brock singing "Jingle Bells."

More Snow

Later that same day (12/10), we got more snow. I think we ended up getting about 3 inches! We went back out for some more fun.

Brock trying to catch snowflakes in his mouth...

Ryan eating snow (no telling how much dirt was mixed in!!)...

Brock taking a bite....

Then Daddy got home and we just had to go out again and play in the snow with him!!

Ryan's turn to try to catch snowflakes falling...

...and the perfect way to end a cold, snowy day...HOT CHOCOLATE!! Here's a video of the snow. I wasn't sure how good it would turn out or if you would be able to see the snow, but I think you can really see how hard it was snowing!

What IS This Stuff?!?!?!

We woke up this morning to an unusual sight...SNOW!!!!! It rarely snows in College Station, so this was a treat. We dressed warmly and went out (at 7:30 am!)...

...made our snowballs...

...had a snowball fight...

...and build a snowman!!

(O.K...so it was only about a foot tall, but that's taller than any other snowman we've built since we've lived here!!!)
By the way...the high temp yesterday was 80 degrees!!!!! Crazy Texas weather!

Santa Claus & Christmas Trees

Our church's preschool has a fundraiser every year called Dinner with Santa. We have gone several years now, but this year was by far the most fun. Ryan is old enough now to really know what's going on, who Santa is and to just have fun. We had a really good time. The boys told Santa what they wanted for Christmas and we got some great pictures of them...and our family!

We also decorated our Christmas tree. The boys had a lot of fun helping Daddy put it together and put the ornaments on it. We mostly have personal ornaments that we've given the kids over the years or that they've made. It is really a pretty and special tree with so many memories.

Ryan and Brock with Ryan's tree in his bedroom. This was the first year that he got one of his own and he sure is proud of it!!
Brock's tree in his bedroom. He had his last year, but didn't have a star to put on top. So, we made sure to get a star for him this year!

Nov. ~ 2008

The boys were invited to a birthday party at Mt. Aggie. We had never heard of this place before, but were told that there was sledding. We found out that it is white astroturf that they water down on a big hill. So, the kids actually do sled down it! It was a lot of fun! Steve and I even got to go sledding!! It was so much fun that's where Brock said he wanted his birthday party next year.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.

Brock and Ryan made these hats at their Mother's Day Out. We think they represented the Pilgrims and Indians well.

Steve's mom & dad and my brother, Walter, joined us for Thanksgiving this year. It was my first time to cook a turkey and it turned out pretty good! We had a nice time and the boys sure loved seeing Gramma & Papa and Uncle Walter again!

Oct. ~ 2008

Here are a couple more good pictures of the boys in Oct.
Anytime I tell the boys that I want to take a good picture of them, they ask if we can take a "goofy" picture first. Here's their goofy picture...
...and here's the good one!

Brock and Ryan go to Community Bible Study (CBS) with me each week. The Children's program is awesome and they have learned so much about God, Jesus, the Bible, Bible stories & verses and songs. A couple weeks ago, Ryan came home from CBS singing this song. I had never heard it before and he sang it over and over. It was so cute I just had to get a video! You need to turn up your speakers...he gets pretty quiet in some parts.

"I got a little caterpillar, I put him in a little box.

'Don't go out,' I said, but

when I open the little box, there's a little butterfly.

I can never make a one, but only God in heaven

can make a butterfly."

Halloween ~ Oct. 31, 2008

Halloween was so much fun this year! Ryan is old enough now to really get into it and have fun. For their birthdays, they each got a Mr. Potato Head Pumpkin kit. They had a great time putting their pumpkin together. Brock's was a Monster and Ryan's was a Pirate.

They both decided that they wanted to be Transformers this year.

Ryan was Bumblebee...

...and Brock was Optimus Prime.

Two loving robots...

...fighting the "evil Decepticons!"

The loot at the end of the night...

...and the joy it brings!!