Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday!!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas at home in Amarillo with our families!!! We were there for the whole week, so we got in a lot of family time and even got to enjoy some time with some of our closets friends! We are so blessed by the people in our life and were reminded of that this Christmas season!

Merry Christmas

Richard, Jennifer, & Mia on Christmas morning

Sam in his new shades!

Mia playing with her Dora "ipod"

Mia showing Grandma Liz the new boots her

Aunt Mandy & Uncle Sam gave her

Snapping a quick pic before church

*I still owe Sessler Christmas pics*

Happy New Year's

Celebrating a beginning of 2011 with

some of the best women I know!

(post wedding - hence the reason I am over-dressed!)

Celebrating the New Year and a new marriage!!

Congrats Chelsi & Brant

Happy 30th Birthday Jennifer

Dad, Mom, Richard, and I

The beautiful birthday girl with her beautiful family

Mia and her friends at the party

Speech, Speech, Speech!!!!

Happy Birthday Jennifer!

Cookies For Santa

December is my favorite month for many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is because I get to do a lot of baking!!! I think I must have spent the entire month of December in my kitchen if I wasn't at some type of celebration! Here's a peek at some of the christmas cookies that I made this year. I think I ended up making almost 7 dozen of these!!! It might have taken a long time to make all those cookies, but at least I have fun while doing it!!!

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

We have had a crazy busy, crazy fun December celebrating Christmas! What a glorious season of joy and hope as we celebrate our Lord's birth. My prayer this whole season has been that I would not loose focus on what I was celebrating. I can not say that I was always successful and didn't let the shopping, baking, cooking, wrapping, etc. get in the way, but I can say that my reflection time has been some of the most sincere and meaningful than I can remember. I pray that you all have have very Merry Christmas and take time in the next few days to really reflect on what this season means to you.

Bible Study Dinner & Gift Exchange

The Men

The Ladies
(modeling off my recent creations...I learned to sew this year, so I decided to use those new found skills to make some Christmas gifts...thanks mom for being a great teacher!)

Audrey trying to figure out what gift was for her!

PWC Christmas Party

at Neiman Marcus Downtown Sam and I sitting in Santa's Chair

(Every year Neiman does an amazing job decorating..this years Santa's theme was space. Behind us is the spaceship tree.)

The Tree (our young adult group at church)

Progressive Christmas DinnerMicheal, Sam, Trent and our faithful leader Bert

The men sporting some new mustaches!

Lady Gaga???

(This is what I ended up with at the White Elephant gift exchange, plus a whoopee cushion and Flarp.)

"An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:9-12

GO RANGERS!!!

Our lives have been consumed lately with the Rangers and we are praying that they can pull it out tonight in game 5 against the Giants!!! Go Rangers!!!

All About Sam!!!

I have a lot of things to catch up on to finish out this summer, so I thought I would start out with Sam. First off, this past year Sam has spent a lot of time coaching the Coppell Cowboys baseball team. He loves baseball so much and it was such a joy seeing him excel and enjoy coaching these boys. They had a great couple of seasons and I think Sam and the other coaches really helped these boys improve and prepare for what's to come - HIGH SCHOOL!! Here are a few pics from the summer season.

The Team and Coaches

Next, on our Labor Day trip to Lake Hadley in Kansas the guys enjoyed a day taking in a game of golf. Sam sat out that day due to a hurt back, but captured some pretty great moments as the photographer!

Brandon

Trent

Trent & Brandon

Chris

At the end of the summer, Sam and some of his buddies went fly fishing in OK. They weren't as successful as they hoped, but had a great time roughing it out in God's country without the wives!!! Here are a few amazing shots that they caught one early morning.

Cozumel

Our very last stop before heading back to Texas was Cozumel, Mexico. This time we took a "speed boat" to a private island and snorkeled, kayaked, ate some wonderful mexican food, and relaxed! The snorkeling was in a reserve that is protected by Mexico and was very beautiful. We didn't see as many fish as we did the day before, but we did get up close and personal with a sting ray! It was a wonderful scorching hot last day!!!!

On the "speed boat" heading to the island

Sam relaxing with some rum punch

Our very last evening together

Us with our wonderful waiters - Olivia & Christian