My best friend's visit!

This past weekend my best friend from San Antonio came up to see me. Her step dad has a plane. He flew her up Friday. Friday night we worked on our plans to do some major letterboxing in Tyler.

Then on Saturday the two of us headed out to get the boxes. We found 8 boxes and a hitchhiker. Traffic was really bad so we weren't able to get to all the boxes we wanted too.

On Sunday I took Abbie around Harleton to get the boxes I had hid there. I found out that one of them was missing though. :( It was so cold on Sunday. We really are crazy. LOL

Then on Monday she had to go home. :( The weather wasn't cooperating so her step dad couldn't fly back to get her. So I took her to Waco where we met her step dad halfway.

We had a really good time. I miss you Abbie and I love you. :)

The Rockettes!

Last night we went and saw the The Rockettes perform in Bossier City. It was beyond awesome! I can't describe how good it was. We had a great time!

Here we are getting ready to leave for the big night.

Kimberly's recital and Gingerbread house

Today was Kimberly's piano recital. She did so well. I was very proud of her.

This evening we made our very first ever Gingerbread House! It looks pretty sloppy, but we're proud of it. :)

Day 2 of fun with my mom!

This morning shortly after we woke up, Maw Maw had a little tea party with Katherine, Kyrie and Chris.

Then we got ready to see the big Harleton Christmas parade! I always love seeing this parade. It's a simple, small town parade. The kids get alot of candy from it, so they love it too. :)

Then mom and I went shopping. I almost got all of my shopping done. We ran out of time b/c we had to meet Scott and the kids to go to Santa Land! We had never been before. It's near Tyler off of I20. It opened at 6:00. We got there at 6:20 and the line was about 2 miles long to get in!! It was crazy! However, the wait was well worth it. It was spectacular. I've never seen anything like it! The kids said they now want to come every year. I only got 1 picture of Santa Land that I can share and it didn't turn out very well. Kyrie got onto me b/c there was a sign saying no cameras allowed. I kept trying to sneak and picture though but Kyrie kept getting upset with me. So I put it up. I guess I taught her too well to follow directions. LOL

Mom's retirement!!

We headed up to Wichita Falls to see my mom's retirement ceremony at the base. She retired after working 28 years there. It was really neat witnessing a military ceremony like this. I was so proud of my mom hearing all of her accomplishments over the years and how much everyone respected her and looked up to her. It was nice and really touching.

For her present we got her a going a way getaway surprise. We told her to pack her bags b/c she was coming home with us. Tomorrow she's going to watch the Harleton Christmas parade with us, then go shopping with me, then we're all going to Santa Land. Then on Sunday after Church she gets to watch Kimberly have her piano recital. Then for the main event on Monday we are taking her to Shreveport to see the Radio City Rockettes perform. We're going to have a great time! Here are some pictures when she saw her gift. We gave her a picture frame so she can record everything we do this weekend with pictures and put it in there. We had a "brochure" in the frame that described all that would be happening. So these pictures show her reading it and crying. :)

Other things we did on this trip was celebrated Kirsten's birthday some more, and rode a "train" that one of paw paw's friends' made. It was alot of fun for the kids.

Kirsten's 9th Birthday

We had a slumber party to celebrate Kirsten's 9th birthday Friday night. The girls had a great time. They stayed up ALL night!!!! We had the usual of pizza, cake, presents, then smores. After all that Scott and I went back into the bedroom and watched 4 episodes of LOST while we just let the kids hang out. We really enjoyed that.

Kirsten is a HUGE, HUGE High School Musical fan. So when she realized she got alot of high school musical presents she was on cloud 9. :)

I love this first picture because poor Christopher has this look on his face of "Oh my goodness, I'm surrounded by girls!" LOL

These are the presents Kirsten received.

Then it was cake time.

Christmas tree

Today we went to Danville Farms and got our Christmas tree!! We LOVE going there to get our tree. It's such a neat experience.

They take you on a hay ride out to the trees. Then you walk around and pick your tree. Once you've found the one you want you cut it down yourself. Kyrie picked out our tree this year. She did a great job b/c it's perfect! :)

After we cut down the tree the workers hooked it up to a machine thingy that shook all the loose needles off of it, then tied it up in a net for us. While they did this we stood around the fire and stayed warm. We drove home singing Christmas carols. It was alot of fun.