Christmas Texas Trip 2009

Before we left for the states, Leo sold Christmas trees with the boy scouts!

with a little help from Emma!
First stop in Texas was in Silsbee for some recuperation... we did a whole lot of NOTHING! I finished a novel, the kids did kid stuff, I shopped and basically just vegged out...


hard at work decorating cookies! and playing in the woods!!!

Then on to Austin! I stopped and had lunch with a college friend Tiffany and then visited with another friend Jackie before heading to hang with more family!

Christmas Light viewing!


We tortured little Leo with this hat... not when his parents were around though... they wouldn't have stood for it I don't think! Gig Em!

Baby Savanah!!!!
Decorating the Gingerbread house with Auntie Aara and Uncle Lumpy

The crew! Just missing Rusty!!!! ;-(
Fun with Nana!

Ready for Church!
And Christmas morning!!!!! Seeing what the big guy brought!


We got to skype with Russ while the kids opened presents! Our adventure continues tomorrow as we head to Cleburne... I will post more pictures then!!!

Thanksgiving

Emma's class did a Thanksgiving play and Emma was the lead character... it was a play about Sarah Josefina Hale who wrote the poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb"... she also went to President Abe Lincoln to petition him to make Thanksgiving a National Holiday! Emma was just brilliant!

Normally I would do a gumbo on Thanksgiving (or we have fried a turkey) but since Deanna was visiting and hasn't had an American Thanksgiving in many years, I did the traditional roasted Turkey... of course, I am not used to it... but it came out just fine... I also made my Mawmaw's cornbread dressing, Some yummy sweet potato soup, fresh cranberry sauce... and Deanna made her family's traditional "Pink Stuff" ... but we have since renamed it "Fat Salad"!

We got to skype with Russ for 45 minutes... so even though we miss him terribly, at least he was there in spirit!

Pulling the Wish Bone...

Had to include this... Leo was hiding in hide-n-seek... look at his face~! Hilarious! I think he is trying to blend in with the frig...
His job was to carry the gravy to the table... yeah...
and he can clean off a drum stick like nobodies business!


We had a fabulous wonderful day...

We love you all and miss you so much! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!!

First Karate Tournament

Leo had his very first Karate Tournament this past weekend. He did great! He competed in two events... form and sparring. He tied for 3rd in form... but unfortunately lost in the run-off so he didn't place... but I was very impressed with the little man! He won his first sparring contest so progressed to round two and was then eliminated. So no trophies... but for his first time out he did fantastic. And his attitude about the entire thing was great! He had such a great time and can't wait until he is old enough to 'fight with a sword' ... nice... As for the tournament itself, it was very frustrating. It was the 'First Annual International" tournament... the others had only been American only... so it being the 'First' we had to deal with all the problems that come along with that... so the event starting 2 hours late, being pretty unorganized and all ... not to mention my behind going numb after sitting on bleachers for 7 hours straight. 7 hours of sitting to watch a cumulitive 30 minutes of Leo doing his thing. Worth it... but painful!!!

OH... and did I fail to mention that I left my lights on the entire day and had to get the battery jumped before leaving????

Leo's friend Nolan...
Leo in front of the three judges beginning his form... He got a 6.3, 6.3 and 6.2 tying for 3rd...
Leo won his first spar... which was unfortunately against his friend Nolan... the kids' attitudes were so great about it. Both ways! They were so proud of each other!!!

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LegoLand

So I braved a road trip with the kids to LegoLand. It was about a 3 hour drive down to Bavaria... roughly an hour away from Munich... Super cool...

The first day we met up with the Praveceks... our closest friends here in Germany...

These rocks in the background were 'singing rocks' every time they passed them, the kids would start singing the songs and dancing... they were such a riot!

This and the next few pictures are AMAZING! Everything is made out of Legos!!!! Hundreds of Thousands of them... it was incredibly impressive!
This is the Lego replica of Neuschwanstein Castle (the Cinderella Castle's Model...)

This was INCREDIBLE!!!!!! A full soccer stadium in Munich in full Lego-replica glory... all the fans were little lego people... hard to see in the picture, but you can imagine the complexity of this display... unbelievable!
This was just hilarious... the second day of LegoLand was EXTREMELY FREEZING and very empty. (We went on the last weekend the park was open before closing for the winter season) so it was DEAD! Emma and Leo went on this roller coaster 10 times in a row... they only had to change seats a few times... they thought changing seats and riding again was the funniest thing....