GREEN SLIME!!!

As you can see from the pictures below we are not afraid of a little color! We recently textured and painted our kitchen and decided on GREEN!!! I for some reason have wanted to have a green kitchen for awhile, so I went for it. These aren't great pictures and please excuse the mess (the kitchen is where everything ends up!), but they give you a glimpse of what the kitchen will look like. I really wish the pictures would show the texture b/c my hands almost fell off after doing that for an entire day!

Now we need your opinions....the big debate is whether we should attempt to re-do the cabinets. They are currently a white-washed wood that we don't love, but we aren't sure if its worth putting a lot of working into them to re-do them. We have three choices:

1. sand them and put a dark stain

2. paint them white (with a sprayer; no brush lines!)

3. Keep them like they are

So what does everyone think????

Child-like faith

I received the link below in an email this morning. I just had to share it with everyone. This little boy is so cute and wise beyond his years. The things he was talking about are things that I think we all must continually remind ourselves.
We hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas, but that somehow through all the hussel and bussel we can take time to truly reflect the reason for the season - Christ our Lord.

http://www.ksbj.org/eblogs/morningShow/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/logan-calf-story.mp3

Greggy Special

Crrrrrrrown Molding

The master craftsman graced us with his presence this weekend. Here is a little bit of his handy work:

Christmas Bells are ringing

For the past two nights now I have stayed up until almost 1am baking all my Christmas treats to give to people. Wednesday I baked and made everything and then last night I iced, decorated, and packaged everything. I could do this stuff for EVER!!! Last night I was there by myself for awhile and I put in three Christmas CDs and went to town!!! I made mini bundt cakes, sugar cookies, jelly, and baskets full of different Christmas candies and goodies. Basically I made something for everyone we know (ok, maybe not everyone we know, but A LOT). Just know that if you are going to see us b/w now and Christmas, I probably made you something!!! Nothing brings joy to my heart like giving to others and being in the kitchen making stuff for others is one of my most favorite things!! I don't get to do this too many times during the year, so I really take advantage of it at Christmas time! While I was making all these goodies I thought I would take some pictures. Mostly for me to remember what I did for when next Christmas rolls around, but I thought I would put some pictures up for everyone to see! (Pictures above: to the left is my fridge with everything stuffed in it and the right is my Christmas apron that my mom made me that I wear...it even has my name on it!!!)

Bundt Cakes!!

 

 

Sugar cookies!!! (these are my all time favorite to make and my new favorite hobby)

Other goodies: (Jelly)

Fun-filled weekend!!!

As you can see from the previous post by Sam we have been hard at work at the new house!!! I have to say though that Sam has defiantly put way more time into working on the house than I have. I am so proud and thankful for him. He has been staying up late night after night doing all that he can to make our first home special. He is such a good husband and such a handy man!!!! We have also had several other people helping out. My mom has been putting in countless hours making curtains and running errands, and then she took on the tedious task of painting all the closets, pantry, and laundry room!!!! She is amazing and I am really going to be sad to see her leave tomorrow. My brother has also been helping and even my co-worker Elena came and we painted the master bedroom!!!

After going home and washing up from our day of working on the house we headed off to Neiman Marcus downtown for the PWC Christmas party. We had such a good time. The party was in the actual store throughout six floors with drinks and food set up everywhere. (and if you know us at all, you know we hit up every one of them!!!) Here are a few things I caught myself saying (shows that I don't "get out" much):

Talking to Sam's boss and his wife: "I am not sure why I have this huge glass of wine, but when we walked through the entrance to a line of servers holding trays of drinks I felt like I needed to do it...and well it made me feel really cool."

"Sam...look at the price tag on that dress (the one I am sitting by eating) it's as much as the fridge that we just bought for the house!"

"Do I just set my plate here...next to the Prada shoes?" (as Sam turns his head in embarrassment)

Needless to say these partys are pretty fun and allow us to experience things we wouldn't otherwise. Basically we just ate and mingled all night long. We also got our picture taken with Santa, got a butt sketch done (no lie...its actually pretty cool), and played (and won) some blackjack!

This picture does not show it off as well as I had intended (the sign did not really show up), but I was just trying to capture that we were just eating some sushi in the women's Armani section (I know I am a loser...Sam was not happy about taking the picture.)

And for our last eventful part of the weekend...keeping Lilly at our place!!! Her mom and dad were having a Christmas party for Jennifer's employees so Lilly got to come stay with us. Ok, my mom might have been with us, but it was fun babysitting. She was so good! Here's a shot of Uncle Sam and Lilly playing.

This weekend is just as packed with Christmas parties and the Sessler's are coming to put up crown molding in the new house. But we are still having fun!!! We'll continue to take some pictures so that those of you that are interested can see our progress!!!

Making Progress

Super Bad Luck

Me and RT are about to do some serious Mirror breaking here. As you can see, Richard has a science lab later on to get to. Thanks for risking your life, Mr. Thomas. Hopefully you can make it back over. Next time we will do something a little less life threatening.

Before and After

Still painting...

Painting the Roses Red

Sammy Boy

It is embarrassing going to work with primer on your hands. Not that I'm the stinky kid, it's just impossible to get all of it off. Carol has been helping with the painting and Mandy has done her share as well. Mandy has been cleaning the house from top to bottom. This is the room I have been in charge of. Notice that nice prep work. Need sleepy. No more painty.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit!!!

Well Sam and I have been really getting into the Christmas spirit this year, so we thought we would share with you a little clip!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1160153886


ENJOY!!!

Ryan Jackson Photography

Just want to give a shout out to Ryno. Looks like he is showing some skills with his love of photography. Feel free to check out his stuff. It's always fun to look at photographer's sites.

Check out his blog and/or his official site:

http://jacksonphotography.blogspot.com/

http://web.mac.com/ryan.jackson/iWeb/jacksonphotography/Home.html

House Update

On a side note, we finally get our keys tomorrow (Sunday). We are going to clean, clean clean, and I am going to paint paint paint. I usually do a great job on home projects that I work on, except I usually make one big mistake (classic). So Mandy said that she will allow me one mistake. Not anymore, not on our house. :) He he. No mistakes for Sammy Boy!

I think we finally finished our Christmas shopping. We got to do our Angel Trees, which we love doing. It is so much fun! We shopped 'till we dropped, literally (12 hours). You never really appreciate Amarillo until it takes you an entire Saturday to go to 3 stores in Dallas. :) Big city livin'! We will take pictures for everyone to see our painting progress!!!

Our new HOME!!!

So just a quick post to say that we bought a new house this week! We closed on Wednesday so now this weekend we are going to go clean (from top to bottom) and start painting!!! We are so excited and can't wait till we actually move in. Sadly enough this is the only picture that I have, but I will take more as we work and show how much progress we are making!!!

COME VISIT SOON!!!

On to Christmas

We had such a great time at home for Thanksgiving. Time always seems to fly by when we are there, but this time we had a good four days there. Thanksgiving day was DELICIOUS - thanks to everyone that helped cook. After two dinners though we were stuffed!!!

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We got to experience some great weather while we were at home. It was pretty sink'n cold, but it was a nice change from what we have been used to here. It only snowed alittle bit on Friday, that's right on shopping day, but it wasn't too bad. Sam got to experience way more snow than me though. On Friday morning Sam and his dad headed out at the crack of dawn to drive to Kansas to hunt. They could hardly walk when they got home because their legs were so tired from trekking through knee high snow ALL day. They got back around 9:00 that night and had four birds to show for it. Here are some pictures of them preparing their guns the night before (sorry, I know you are disappointed, but there are no pictures of the birds...darn!!!)

We also got the chance to see all of our friends back at home. It was so much fun seeing everyone. Saturday night we got together at the Ingram's casa with the Ingram's, the Cherry's, the Wilson's, and the Master's. It was such a good time with all the kids. When Sam and I left I said, "Can you imagine how much fun and how crazy it will be when we all have kids and get together!!!" We'll need a few more years before that will happen!! Here are some pictures that we took that night.

Mia and her new baby sister Eisley


Noah w/ mommy and baby Kayt

Thankful

"Give THANKS to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.
Give THANKS to the God of gods. His love endures forever.
Give THANKS to the Lord of lords. His love endures forever..."

Psalm 136

Sam and I took some time this thanksgiving morning to reflect on the things that we are most thankful for. Our Lord has graciously overflowed our cup with blessing beyond our wildest dreams. I know too often we take advantage of these things; it is so easy to become of this world. So although today is the day of thanksgiving our prayer is that we would not take the time to do this just today but everyday.

We are thankful for:

God/Savior/Lord - Who gave us the greatest gift to be thankful for - His son. He lavishly gives us his grace, mercy, and forgiveness each day and we PRAISE Him for that.

Family - We have an AMAZING family (both sides). How did we get so lucky?! The love that we have for each of you is so often unspoken, so we take this day to say that we LOVE you.

Friends - Old and new, we have wonderful friends that we love dearly and hold close to our hearts. We highly value our friendships and thank God that He has blessed us with great circles of friends.

Health - We are thankful that we have been able to wake up and see these beautiful days together.


We are thankful for each other first of all. We are like dust, and God is so gracious to give us and our families good health so that we may spend more time on this earth together. :)

- "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy."

Philippians 1:3-4

- We are thankful for Lilly too!

Home Sweet Home

Lilly and her mom and dad got to come home from the hospital yesterday. They took some really cute pictures so I had to share them. (I love how she is saying "Peace out Hospital" in the middle picture!)

Mom and Dad

Sam and I also got the opportunity to take the Irving Fire Department Station #6 lunch on Saturday with our young adults class. It was a really fun experience. Just to hear about their lives and all that they do to protect us everyday was so interesting. They then took us on a tour and let us checkout the fire trucks!!! They had the coolest set up and I think it made Sam want to be a fireman!!! We took some pictures, but my camera ran out of batteries so only one came out!!

Last, I have been holding off saying anything until we knew for sure, but we FINALLY found a house!!! We are set to close on Nov 28th, so it has been going pretty fast. We had the inspection last week and now are we set to move forward. We are so excited to have our first home and after 4 long months of looking we are so happy this is all over!!! We will be moving North into Lewisville! For now I think it will be a great place to us to start. So as you can tell we had quite the exciting week! I'll post some pictures of the house sometime soon.

Uncle Sam and Aunt Mandy

Well we finally got to see & hold Lilly on the night that she was born. I had to fight through traffic for an hour, but we got there. Its amazing how instantly I fell in love with her and I am only her aunt! I have to say that it was a pretty cool feeling though and only gives me a glimpse of what the Lord has in store for us one day. She is a beautiful baby. The way the Lord creates every single baby piece by piece is an extraordinary thing; Lilly had a perfect mixture of traits from each of her parents and then her own. The Lord amazes me every day, but the creation of a human-being is unfathomable!

Happy Birthday Lilly!!!!

Lillian Reese Thomas was born at 8:33am! She was exactly 8 pounds and 20 inches. I was at the hospital this morning, but b/c she was delivered by a c-section I was not able to see her in person before I had to be back at work. Uncle Sam and I will have to wait to see her until after work; we can't hardly wait!!!! From the pictures and phone calls I can already tell she is amazing! Also Jennifer is doing great! Here are just a few pictures that Grancy sent me today while I was at work.

Proud Daddy!!!

Babies, babies, and more babies!!!

No we are NOT having a baby, but everyone else is!!! hahahaha!!! We got to see some precious babies while we were in Amarillo this weekend, so I thought everyone might like to see a few pictures.

Kayt Emmerson Ingram - Look at those eyes; aren't they beautiful!!!

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Eisley Mae Wilson - This picture doesn't show it as well as some, but this girl takes after her daddy!!!!

Also tomorrow morning Sam and I will be Aunt Mandy and Uncle Sam!!!!! My brother, Richard and his wife, Jennifer are having a little girl - Lillian Reese Thomas (Lilly). We have been waiting a LONG 9 months for her to arrive and the time is finally here. Jennifer is going to have to have a c-section b/c Ms. Lilly decided to grow too big!!! So please keep baby and mom in your prayer tomorrow. Her c-section is scheduled for 8:00am. All the family is on their way at the moment so it will be a fun few weeks!!! Grancy and Pops (my parents) are on cloud 9 to have their first grandchild; I hope they aren't expecting more too soon!!! I will post a TON of pictures as soon as she gets here!!! If you would like to get to know Lilly more you can go to her blog at: http://babylillyspad.blogspot.com/