Its beginning to look a lot......

...like Christmas!!!

Freddy spent the day putting up the outside lights, so now its all done. Pics below....James chose the reindeer this year for the yard...lets hope his fate is better than ole Frosty we had last year...he was taller and did not fare well with the constant wind we get across our yard from the lake...spent more time on his side than upright and burned out the blower motor on him....if this one dies out, we are DONE with inflatables from here on out...we shall see!!! In the meantime....enjoy! :)

Snow In Houston...before Christmas even!

I have been lucky enough to have seen snow TWICE in Houston since I moved here just over 7 years ago. First time was for James' first Christmas in 2004, when we woke up to snow on Christmas morning...that was pretty neat! Second time was last year pretty close to Christmas and that was fun since James was old enough to get out in it and play etc.

Well it snowed in Houston for my THIRD time in 7 years yesterday! I was home sick yesterday (not quite walking pneumonia again this time but was headed that way...I sound like a barking dog...not a good thing!) but being home and all, I was able to bundle up real good and get outside for just a few minutes and get a couple pictures of our winter wonderland. Check it out! :)

Mommy's Angel

I cannot believe how BIG my kiddo is getting! He is so tall and has truly blossomed over the last year or so, it just blows my mind. Particularly the last few months since he started Kindergarten, he has just learned so much and holds full on conversations with us (what a HUGE CHANGE over a year ago, for any of you that have been around James in person). Every day it never ceases to amaze me some of the stuff he will come up with and talk to me about now, I just LOVE IT!!!

Love these pics I got of him while at my mom's house...sitting in the recliner at my mom's looking so big and grown up....and my sleeping angel crashed out on Grandma's couch...all that is missing from those shots is a halo over his head (which, would be held up by the horns that show up every now and then! HA!) I love you James, and couldnt be any prouder of you and the strides you've made the last year if I tried! :)

Grandma's Christmas Tree

On the day before Thanksgiving, my mom decided that she wanted to get her Christmas stuff out and have James help her decorate while we were there...since we were planning on getting up and bugging out early the Friday morning after Thanksgiving..no time like the present!

James had a BLAST helping Grandma get out all the ornaments and decorating her little tree. Its killing me that her tree is 4 and a half feet tall, and in some of these pics, James looks as tall as the tree! I know he's not yet, but danged close...boy is growing like a weed I tell ya. ;)

Wii.....good times

We have gotten SO MUCH use and great family fun times out of our wii since we bought it a month or so ago! I use it a lot to exercise with, James does too and he has a BLAST doing it....love it so much more than a regular video game where you sit on your butt and wear out your thumbs...the wii is totally interactive, gets you up and moving and more times than not, I (and James too last nite actually!) am drenched in sweat from the workout you get using it...anyway, enough praising of the wii......

We took the Wii with us up to DFW for our week up there at Thanksgiving....and it got a lot of use at Grandma's house as well as Auntie Berta's house too! Here are pics of Freddy and Aly (my niece...Berta's youngest daughter) boxing each other. I dont think I have to tell you who whooped up on who and won! HA! :)

Uncle Pat's 60th Birthday

We took the week off for Thanksgiving and drove up to the Dallas/Ft Worth area the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving....as Uncle Pat was turning 60 and the family had a big surprise party planned for him! Although I was a COMPLETE slacker and didnt get any pics at his party or at Thanksgiving that week (don't know what was wrong with me, just was not in photographer mode I guess).....I did get some pics from the day/night that me, my sis, my mom and my three aunts spent at Berta's lake house that first Saturday nite.

Aunt Marsha made a BEAUTIFUL quilt for Pat and then was working on a patch for the back of it that she and the other sisters signed and she then hand sewed that on to the back of it. Its STUNNINGLY GORGEOUS as you will see from the pictures below....and is a leaf design....60 leaves in all, one for each year for Pat. Then i took some more outdoor shots early on Sunday morning when i woke up...cant get enough pics of the lake in the first morning light...its amazing!!

James has a new room

After the incident of the bb shots in the window at the front of the house...it made my decision to swap rooms with James room and my craft/scrapbooking/sewing room.
I had been kicking around the idea of it for some time. James room was at the front of the house (windows right above those that got shot below) and I had slept in there a few times and it is COLD by nature pretty much year round, and it could get a bit noisy, as it faced the main road that ambulances came up sometimes at night towards the hospital, could sometimes hear freeway traffic on a clear quiet night, etc...and he has always had somewhat of a dislike of that room in general, wont really play in there/go in there much on his own.

So, I figured now was a good time to swap. Fine with me as that room IS a little bigger for my craft room (darn! LOL!) and his room would then be at the BACK of the house and was a little cozied, not as cold in there etc. No time like the present then, while all my craft room stuff got moved out, to go ahead and let him choose a color to paint his walls. So off we went to get paint, he said he wanted blue...and he chose the color all on his own. So now all that is left is to put up all the cool star wars theme stuff I haevegotten him for christmas, and it will be complete! Here are pictures of the final product as far as the color he chose...its really a pretty color and is gonna look great with the colors in the posters/comforter I got him, etc. Will be sure and post more pics once Christmas is over and we get all the new stuff hung on the walls and the comforter set on the bed and all....

Air Show

Living as close to Ellington Field as we do, we are always THRILLED when it is the time of year for the air show as we pretty much have our own show right from our front yard! The circle around SUPER LOW over our subdivision as they are swinging around back towards the air show field and its a blast to hang out in the driveway/front yard and figure out where they are coming from next...sometimes they are RIGHT over head before you realize, and you know it from the sound without a doubt! We were all loving it! Trouble was, it was a bright sunny day and I was taking pics with my Nikon and it was NOT liking trying to focus looking straight up and into the sun most of the time...that and the fact that I REALLY need a zoom lens for my Nikon BAD...here are some of the shots I got anyway, you will get the idea of how up close and personal we were in our own front yard! :)

Shots Fired

One afternoon right before Halloween, I came home after work...pulled in the driveway and glanced over at the big windows that are on the front of the house (formal dining room windows) on the first floor of the house. Noticed there were circles on the windows and in a split second realized what they were....BULLET HOLES!

I flew into the garage and came running back out once I parked the car....sure as shit (pardon my french), there were bullet holes in the window! Looked like someone had taken target practice at my halloween decorations on the windows (and were a lousy shot as the missed them all). Come to find out, they were bb holes....as we have dual paned glass windows and there were like 3 bbs in between the panes of glass stuck in there.

Upon further inspection, we have 3 of them embedded in the wood of our front door, 3 other blemishes where others grazed the door (thank GOD they missed the gorgeous glass panes on the door and didnt shatter them) and also had 6 indentations on our garage door. Apparently someone must have drove up along the front of our house and had a field day....probably kids. Better hope they dont come back or their momma's wont have much of them left to get after once I got a hold of them...still angers me..cause it is so sensless. I mean, someone breaks in and takes something, at least you know the reason behind it? Anyway, here are the pics I took that day.