Christmas with Allie

We left last Sunday to come home and stopped by Allie's house for an early Christmas with the girls. 

He knew we were gonna be in Wichita for Christmas so he wanted to give the girls their presents and watch them open them

We gave him a memory book and a gift card for his new camera

Then Jaina opened her gift, a Claires card and a book, "The giving Tree"

Some Critter's for Jolee

And a big surprise for Jaina, her detective kit!

She was sooooooo excited as you can see. She had been begging us for one for the longest time. My uncle searched high and low until he found the right one for her. She loved it! She was soo excited!

And more Critter's for Jolee!

The girls say Thank You uncle Allie!

Mimi's Birthday Celebration

I'm still a little behind...well I've been behind on blogging all of 2016!

Anyways, last weekend when we were down at my mom's we celebrated my mom's birthday and had a small gift exchange with the girls, grandparents and my nieces and nephew. 

As you can see their all in their Christmas outfits, haha!

We celebrated Mimi's birthday with pizza, presents and and ice cream cake!

Then the girls gave Austin his gift, a Peppa Pig train. He loved it!

We gave Alyssa some Shopkins and a fairy garden

Jaina got a rock tumbler and an ant farm. Ha! She didn't know what to think about the ant farm!

And of course both girls got some Critter's

We had a great time celebrating, especially since PawPaw got to be home for Christmas and celebrate with us :)

Christmas #1 at Mimi's

This past weekend the girls and I headed to my parents house for the weekend to help celebrate my mom's birthday and have Christmas with my family 

The girls were so excited. Once we got to my mom's house we decided to let the girls open their parents from my parents and then the next day we would trade gifts with my nieces and nephew. 

Right now the girls are really into Calico Critters and Lil Woodzeez. The girls already have a few and play with them all the time. I actually had some as a child too and was one of my favorite toys to play with when I was little.I love that my girls enjoy playing with them too

Jaina is into anything science right now. My mom got her a gemstone and crystal dig kit

and a rock tumbler. I also had a rock tumbler when I was little and love it too. She is definitely me made over. She's my mini me, looks like me, acts like me and loves the same things I was into when I was her age :) 

Haha Jolee's faces crack me up. She's such a character

100% Justin made over

She was soooooo excited to get a critter bus!

Jaina also got this BOMB game. She was so excited! 

And a kit to make art out of beads

I would have to say the girls loved their gifts. Thank you Mimi and Paw Paw!

The Box Car Children

Christmas break is finally here and so is the cold weather! Two kids, two dogs, and two cats in the bed, guess I'll sleep on the floor.

Here was a couple things Jaina brought home from school.

Learning about the Presidents

Math, she's loathes math just like her momma

So something I was excited about was that her class just finished up reading The Box Car Children book. The 1st book of the series. I LOOOOOOOOVED The Box Car Children books when I was little. I remember reading the book in class and doing a project too. Guess much hasn't changed in school in 20 years, lol. Her project was to make a book cover and tell a short story about the book on the back. I think she did a great job!!

Candle Light Visual

Last Sunday our funeral home held our first candle light visual for all the families we served this year. I work at 3 different locations and we all had our Christmas program on the same night. This is my location that I'm head Director of. Each location had to decorate  a refreshment table and drink table.  Here is our refreshment table.

I came up with the idea for the candle light visual this year and am soooo glad each location went through with it. We use to do this program every year at the funeral home I use to work at. We always had a great turn out and everyone loved it. So I suggested we do one at each of our locations I work at now. A way to give back to the families we served this year. 

Our Christmas tree and drink table

The program was VERY emotional not only for the families we served but for staff and I. We all cried. We started it with a pray followed by the song "In the Arms of an Angel". Then we had one of our staff members who's a preacher give a short message about encouragement and hope and then I played a video with pictures of all the loved ones who passed this year. After it was over all the families who came gave me a great big hug sharing tears and thanking me for all I did for them.  This will hopefully be a new tradition that the funeral home will do for now on. 

Salado Christmas Stroll 2016

Last weekend was the Salado Christmas Stroll. It was super cold and Gma DoDo and Richard didn't feel like going so Justin and I made a date out of it. It was nice to spend some time with him alone without any kids around. We walked to all the stores and did some late night shopping

Then we went by our friend Tisha's pottery shop to pick up my belated anniversary gift. 9 years is clay/pottery so Justin had this plate made for me.

 I loved it!

After I got the plate we walked down to The Shed to eat and then came back and headed home. I love all the little thoughtful gifts Justin gets me. Such a sweet man at times :) 

Annual CB Christmas Party

Last Friday Justin and I attended my annual work Christmas party 

This year it was held at the Brick and Barrel in downtown Killeen. The facility is gorgeous! Here I am with Brenda

We had Italian food & drinks

We exchanged gifts, laughed and danced the night away

Me with my oh so sweet co-worker Debbie

We had a great time!

All about Dolly

Last Monday Jaina got to go to a show of a life time. She and her daddy went to see Dolly Parton in concert in Houston. Back during the summer I saw Dolly was gonna be in concert in Austin so I told Justin about it. Jaina is a HUGE Dolly fan! She loves her and all things Dolly. So for her birthday he got two tickets for the show in Houston. He wanted me to take her but I thought it would be sweeter if her daddy took her so I let Justin take her :)

He drove down to my mom's house in Houston to pick her up. He said they went to the Olive Garden first for dinner before the show

They made it! 

VIP! He said they got to skip the line and go right in. They got there really really but he said it was nice because they got to see everything before everybody got there. They stopped at her booth and she got a book of Dolly.

Then they found their seats. Not bad!

Justin was great because he texted me all throughout the show and took pictures of their fun time

Here she is!

 Both Justin and Jaina said the show was awesome. She played all her old hits and some of her new ones

 The next day Jaina told me all about the show and how much she loved it!

I'm so glad Justin took her. He's such a good daddy. It will be a night she will always remember!

Quick trip to Houston

Last weekend we made a quick two day trip to Houston to go see my parents. It's a 4 hour drive. Sometimes it's a super boring drive but not this time. We stopped at Bellville's Small Town Christmas. We happened to drive through, saw tons of people out and all their shops open so we stopped and walked around.

We went to several shops, had cookies, fudge and hot coco

Look what we ran into, Trump Cafe, haha! 

I had to take a picture for Justin

We walked through the whole square until it started a heavy down pour. It rained the rest of the way to my mom's house

Saturday my sister Steph, uncle and I went into Houston to see my dad at the hospital. He has been there since August. He was super surprised to see us. We had a great visit with him, we all laughed, talked and he was looking really good this time. 

After our visit we went to the Rice Village to shop and get a Chocolate Bar and at The Chocolate Bar :)

It rained the entire weekend we were in Houston. It put a damper on my plans but it didn't stop my uncle and I from late night shopping at Toys R Us for Christmas gifts 

The girls had a great weekend playing at Mimi's and with their cousin Alyssa

Sunday we headed home. Jolee was NOT a happy girl because we left Jaina at my parents house because Justin was heading to Houston Monday to take Jaina to the Dolly Parton concert. She wanted to stay with sissy at Mimi's house. 

We had a bit of a rough ride home but pie fixes everything

Or at least ice cream does!