My cousin's wedding

I went for a weekend to myself to Lubbock for my cousin's wedding while Josh and the kids had a daddy/kid weekend.  My parents and all my sisters except Cheri were there, and it was fun to see lots of family.  Of course, my cousin Mary looked beautiful!

Mary with her brothers and family...

 

The sister pictures! (Just for the record...Jenny was wearing these huge heels)

I had a nice time seeing grandparents and loads of family.  Too quick of a trip though...

Our little nutcracker angel

Ashley was so excited to find out her dance studio produces the Nutcracker every year.  Wishing for non-Sunday practices, she received the part of an angel.  She was so excited to perform her part and wear her beautiful angel costume.  She did an elegant beautiful job.  We were so excited that Gramma came to see her performance.

 

She desperately wanted a picture with Clara.  She was gracious enough to pose for one!

Now, the funniest part which most people didn't see was this....they dumped the snow backstage after the performances and all the kids were running around and having a blast throwing it around.  It was hilarious and I let Ashley go back there a little before we met our family in the audience. 

  

  

 

 We are so proud of her!

Surprise date!

I have the best husband ever!  He and 2 other husbands had planned a surprise date for 3 months!  On that night, we were told to dress formal and we were picked up by one of the couples.  We all three drove down to Fort Worth together and went to a wonderful Lebanese restaurant.  We then finally found out the big surprise....RIVERDANCE tickets!!!  I had wanted to see them for so long and just a week earlier, I was lamenting to myself how they were here in town and I would probably never get to see them.   But, I have the best husband ever of course who knew how loooooonnnnnnggggg I have been wanting to see them.  The show was fabulous of course!  We took a picture of the three of us afterwards.  We had such a great time and good memories with good friends. 

Christmas time is here again...

It was a rainy evening on the night of our neighborhood Christmas party.  However, they said rain or shine the party would still go on!  The party said they had plenty of tents to cover people and lots of fun activities.  So, we go, bundled up.  We donated a toy for toys for tots, and saw Prancer (who the kids were very excited to see),

 

 made cool reindeer hats,

We also saw Santa and one of his elves.  Ashley was sure it wasn't the "real" Santa, but she was pretty convinced that the elf might really be one.  Natalie didn't want to stand over there at all (I think it was Frosty that spooked her), but she decided standing in front of Ashley would be okay. 

Well, of course it started POURING and getting really cold, and although we were under a tent, the kids were freezing!  The funniest thing was the whole neighborhood counted down to lighting the tree and then the tree wouldn't light because the rain had shorted it out!  Pretty funny...We all owe a big thank you to daddy who walked home to get the car and come back to pick us up because it was raining so hard.  We still had fun though and warmed up with hot chocolate at home and a nice fire.