Five Christmases

Ok, as I promised... Five Christmases - a month later. Since I am so far behind, I thought about just skipping our Christmas entry, but just couldn't bring myself not to document it for future reading and nostalgia. So... here goes.

Christmas #1

Location: Mom & Dad's aka Gran & PawPaw's

Time: Christmas Eve Day

Gran & PawPaw with all the grandkids - Hayden, Anna, Avery, Ashlyn, Savanna, Elli Kate, and Shane.

This year we drew names between the adults and then between the kiddos. And we decided to each take turns opening our gift so that everyone could see what we received instead of all tearing in at once and missing what everyone got. So we made a chair for an adult and one for a kiddo and for the order we started with the oldest adult and the youngest kid.

We began with Gran (who's 2 years older than PawPaw) and Shane (the baby).

And then down the line we went.... PawPaw and Elli Kate.

Aunt Pam and Savanna.

Uncle Randal and Ashlyn.

Uncle Todd and Avery.

Aunt Penni (holding up an inside joke sign, ha) and Anna.

And since Penni took longer to open up her gifts, then Hayden began ripping into his, which worked out well since there is 8 adults to 7 kiddos. So... that left me and Jody to open our gifts together (can I get an Ahhhhh)

Christmas #2

Location: Granny's House (The Hares (Jody's mom's side))
Time: Christmas Eve Night

Lots of cousins and gifts!!!

Granny in front of her tree - so beautiful!

Bre Bre and Shane playing with one of their gifts.

My silly boy.

Christmas #3

Location: Our House - Santa Time!

Time: Christmas Morning

Santa always over does it! We may have to have a talk with him in the future or maybe not.

Shane loved his train.

Savanna and Shane opening their gifts from us. Hannah Montana wig, headset and dance video for Savanna and a barn with animals for Shaner.

At school, they had a penguin Christmas shop and Savanna purchased gifts for us. She got me this neat Christmas tree candle. She was so proud and so was I. She's so sweet.

Savanna as Hannah Montana. It really changed her looks and she had a blast wearing it.

Christmas #4

Location: Our house - with Jody's immediate family

Time: Saturday after Christmas

The cousins - BreAnna, Savanna, Shane and Rody (in camo, of course)

Bre Bre - what a doll!

Getting ready to rip and tear into all the gifts.

DeAnna, Gramps, and Mike watching the kids.

Gramps and MiMi with the grandkids (don't ask me what Shane is doing inside his overalls - must be a guy thing)

And I had to add this one of Shane trying on the Hannah hair. Jody does not like this picture. He could pass as a little girl, couldn't he?

Christmas #5

Location: Grandma's House (Jody's dad's side)

Time: Sunday after Christmas

Grandma with her two boys.

Grandma with her grandkids - Sam, Jody, Sara, and DeAnna

Grandma with her great grandkids.

Whelp, that's it, our busy Christmas in a nutshell.

And finally, after going through all the Christmas photos, I found this cute one of Shane at the store watching the men play dominoes in the morning. I just couldn't help but add it. Hope all has a great week!

New Years

Well, I made it back from Denver safe and sound and Jody is coming in tonight. I will be so glad when he is back - the kids are missing him so bad! He's been gone from them a week and one day.

Now for my promise of past updating. On New Years Eve, Jody and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary! We were not really planning on doing anything special since we had taken our little get away trip to Jefferson but one of the ladies I work with is an avid Stars fan and obtains season tickets every year. She isn't always able to go and graciously gives her tickets away. This time they were playing on New Years Eve and knowing it was our anniversary, she gave them to us. She's the best! Thanks Patty! We had the best time. I am not a big fan of watching hockey on tv, but in person with the atmosphere is was so wonderful and to top it off they won (4 to 2). I found a room on-line at the Sheraton in downtown. It was great getting away to celebrate both a new year and being married to a great guy. We are wanting and hoping to plan a big trip for our 10 year - we'll see.

Not knowing anything about hockey, we were fortunate to sit beside a sweet couple from McKinney and they filled us in on the players and other stuff.

They were giving out these neat Star calendars at the door. We brought one back for Patty.

Stay tuned..... next post will be not four but "Five Christmases"

My Baby Is Three!!

I can NOT believe by baby boy will be 3 tomorrow. And this horrible mom is going to be out of town on the day we were blessed with him, but my other kid (Jody) needs me more and I guess we can always celebrate later - or that's what I keep telling myself to make me feel better. The other day, I was thinking about when I was expecting him and how we had scheduled my C-section on a day when Jody would be in Denver. He flew back early, of course, and I can vividly picture my Dad and me (this huge whale) waiting for him at the airport and how my heart skipped when I saw Jody come around the corner through the doors. Neither one of us really realizing how God would bless us with the life miracle of our son the next afternoon.

Shane is such a light to our lives! There is so much I could list about my precious baby but here are three things in honor of his 3 years:

1) He is so loving, always giving hugs and smiling. But what really cracks Jody and me up is when he will hear the tone of our voice get irritated or if we are getting on to him he will say "Love you, Momma" or "Love you, Daddy" right in the middle of our talking or frustration and will NOT stop saying it until he has been acknowledged "Yes, I love you, too". It sure makes it hard to keep a straight face when we are trying to discipline him. I really think he picked it up from Jody, because I caught Jody doing it to me when I was griping at him the other day, ha.

2) He is SO independent! We are finally getting the potty training thing almost down. This past week he has done so well, but he wants to do everything himself and he wants you to shut the door and leave him alone. Usually, I don't give in to this request but this morning I did and I went in to find poo on his elbow (how in the world did it get only there I will never know) Oh, the joys of potty training. But just about in everything, you can hear him say "I do it."

3) Finally, he continues to be all boy! This past weekend we were outside our tack office pricing products and getting ready for Jody to leave and some of our friends stopped by. They had this huge mule on their trailer and of course Shane wanted to ride (see picture above). Later, Jody and I were talking about Shane and Jody commented that he was surprised that Shane just didn't bale off when he was through riding him because that is what he does with the ponies we have. But with them, you don't have far to fall. He has no fear and is always jumping off of something (i.e. steps, beds, couches, hay, & ponies). Savanna would NEVER have done those things, so we have finally concluded that girls and boys are totally different - aren't we smart.

Back To The Future

Why does time have to fly by so fast? I have decided to start with what's going on now and then travel back to the future and update with Christmas / New Years later.

Jody has left for the big Denver Market Show and I am flying out tomorrow to meet him there and help out. These past few weeks, we have spent all of our time getting ready for this show. This is an important one for us because we are able to show our products and meet wholesale distributors who might be interested in carrying our products. We had a guy help us make a catalog 2 years ago and this year we wanted to update it and add some of our new stuff. This time, I was able to be more involved (learning how to create and design the pages for the catalog) so it has taken up so much of my time - you do not want to visit my house right now. I have a lot of house work to catch up on after this weekend. Anyway, for those few readers who have kept checking in, please don't give up on me and thank you for your dedication, ha ha!

Christmas Time's A Comin!

Let me see if I can give an abbreviated version of what's been going on so that everyone won't be worn out from reading a book of Stanley happenings.

First, on Wednesday, the 3rd, KCS Railroad had a Christmas train stopping in Sulphur Springs. So I picked up Shane early from daycare, met my co-workers daughter and grandson at work and took off to go check it out. This was the first time that Braden and Shane met and they became fast friend. We got this picture to compare their sizes - Braden will be 4 in February and Shane will be 3 in January. Shane, of course, is going to be a big boy.

The train was really cute. We stood in line for awhile, but then we had to leave early before going inside because we would be late for church. Shane was so upset, but I told him we would go to a train soon thinking I would take him to the North Pole of Texas train.

The 6th was my birthday, so Jody and I celebrated on Friday. We went out to eat at a great place on the square in Mt. Vernon and then to the movies in Mt. Pleasant to see "Four Christmases". It was cute, but there was one part of the movie we weren't too crazy about. Overall, it was a wonderful night out!

On Saturday, I spent the majority of my time putting up our tree and Christmas decorations. The kids "helped" and it helped me get into the Christmas spirit.

Next, we went to the Christmas parade in Mt. Vernon. It was a nice warm day, but by the time it started it was so cold and it seemed to get colder as the night progressed. I am not at all a fan of cold weather!

Before the parade started, we stopped in at the Geneology Society to see Granny and get a cookie. They had their windows decorated so cute so I snapped a few pictures of the kids in front of it.

After the parade, we grabbed something to eat and went over to Gene and Sherry's house and met up with more friends to go to the North Pole of Texas train ride. The Screws are a wonderful family who have been doing this for years in front of their house. Every year it gets bigger or they add more to it. They are now up to three trains running at the same time. Everything is free, but they do take donations of crayons, backpacks, pens, pencils, toothbushes, etc. to send to less fortunate children in the Philippines. It was sooooo cold but we had the best time and warmed up with some hot chocolate later.