Christmas has come to an end

This past week was one full week of Christmas!!! It was a bit different than usual, but that just made it last longer!!! We started out the week in Dallas with my family. This was a very special time since we were not going to get to be with Richard, Jennifer, and Mia for actual Christmas, and it was fun to see Mia enjoy her first Christmas. She may have not known what all was going on, but her face would light up when she would see a new toy!!! Here are a few pics from that weekend.

The fam

Mia loving the snow globe

Opening gifts

A new Disney movie!!!

Sam's nerdy PS3 carrying case!! (pretty nerdy, but I still love you)

We then spent the rest of the week in Amarillo with both of our families. I did a HORRIBLE job of taking pictures, but here are some fun pics of the t-shirt blankets our mom's made us. This is such a good way to use all those t-shirts that hold so many great memories. They cover our whole lives from elementary school to college!!! Pretty fun!!! Thanks mom's!!!

Cookies for Santa

Favorite Things - Christmas Style

We also had another favorite things party with the women of our church group last week. This time was all about your favorite christmas snacks and items. We had candles, towels, nail polish, cd's, ornaments, serving dishes, and JOY signs!!! It was so fun to see what everyone loves about the holidays. Since you asked, my favorite thing (one of many) was christmas scents from Bath and Body Works. I am loving the Fireside scent this year. I also love having holiday soap around my house!!! My camera ran out of batteries at the very beginning, but Amy was kind enough to share some of yer pics! Thanks Amy!!!

All the ladies

So many fun gifts!
My cookies (more to come)

Testing out the nail polish

Mel, Amy, and Lisa (our faithful leader..so blessed by her!!)

Christmas + Friends = BLESSED

This past weekend we had our small group over for a Christmas dinner. We had such a wonderful night of eating, laughing, and sharing together. Sam and I have been so blessed with amazing people in our lives here in Dallas. The Lord put these exact five couples (one not pictured) in our lives because he knew exactly what we needed. We are all so much alike and have shared so much over the past years. I love hanging out and growing in the Lord weekly with each of these people. I also love being able to pray over them and knowing that I am always prayed over.

The Ladies

(Emily, Amber, Mandy, Amy, Diana, and Audrey)

The Men

(Michael, Tim, Brandon, Sam, Trent)

How cute/weird is it that they all showed up in different colored

v-neck sweaters with white collared shirts underneath....hummmm
The Hadley's

The Maenius'

The Montoya's

US

The Snelling's

Audrey playing with the dancing Santa hat and LOVING it!!!

We ate A LOT of food!!!

Played some games...

(Michael attempting to draw a donkey!!!)

Opened some presents!!!

And shared some memories!!!

Love you guys!

(This all sounds like a Hallmark card...hahaha!!!)

Month-in-review

Since it has been about a month since I last posted, I figured I would just do a month-in-review post!!! I'll start with the most recent.

Thanksgiving: We had a great Thanksgiving holiday. We started the Holiday here with the Thomas family. My parents came down and Sam and I spent the weekend at my brother & sister-in-laws house. We had a really good weekend and fun shopping on Black Friday! Thanks Heather & Paul for opening up your home and cooking a fabulous dinner...Sam has said many times, "That was the best meal I have ever had!!!!"

We are so thankful for all that we have and pray that we never allow one day to pass without thanking our Lord for our many blessings. It is always good though to take a day to really reflect on all those blessings and to spend time with family.

The fam at Thanksgiving

We have an extra special reason to be thankful this year and that is for our niece Mia, who is today about a week shy of 7 months! This pic has noothing to do with thanksgiving really, but it was taken that weekend and I just thought it was a cute pic!

After a long, exciting day of shopping on Friday, Sam and I flew out to Amarillo to be with the Sessler's for the rest of the weekend. Sadly I have no pictures, but it was a great weekend spending time with family. It even snowed on Sunday!!

Mia's 1/2 birthday: We also celebrated Mia's 1/2 birthday on the 15th. I realize not everyone celebrates 1/2 birthdays, but this was extra special. This was a time for close family and close friends of Mia's to come together and celebrate the past 6 wonderful months. I know they haven't been the easiest of months for Richard and Jennifer, but the Lord has blessed them tremendously through this precious little girl. This is such a fun time to see Mia developing and getting quite the cute personality.

Celebrating with Mommy

Playing with her new Chloe doll from her friend Chloe!

Tristen's wedding: Our good friends, the Cherry's, came down for a fun weekend and to attend our friend Tristen's wedding! We had a great weekend and the wedding was gorgeous!!!

Megan and I with the bride!

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Halloween - This feels like forever ago, but here we are with our cute carved pumpkins! (mine was a cute bat, but it's hard to tell!!!)

Now on to Christmas!!!!

Kansas '09

We just had an amazing time in Hugoton, KS. The family was kind enough once again to take us hunting all weekend!

One of our friends from Church, Brandon, and one of my friends from high school, Caeleb joined my dad and I for one awesome pheasant hunt. Thanks for the memories! Here are some pics:

Happy Halloween!!!!

I know its a bit early, but Happy Halloween!!! Be safe and don't eat too much candy!!!

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY AMAZING DAD!!!!

My Favorite Things

This past weekend our young adults class at church decided it was time to split up and have a girls and guys night out! The guys did manly things like talk about sports, eat pizza, and play video games. The girls decided to have a My Favorite Things party. We had such a great time and the best part about it was that every girl left with something great!!! We had things like bubble bath, Sonic drink cards, hair products, Lincoln at Midnight nail polish, Starbucks, etc. I think I got pretty lucky because I ended up with a super cute green scarf and match gloves!!! Girls night is never really about the activity but more of a time to be together to talk and eat snacks for hours!!!!