A little taste of Texas . . .

We split our stay in Texas between Jill and Brenda's houses. Both of them moved into new houses this summer, so we were excited to finally see the houses in person!! We went to Jill's first and stayed there through Tuesday morning and then headed to Brenda's. Jill, Luke and Mia came along to Brenda's with us, so we were able to squeeze in lots of visiting and lots of cousin time while we were there. . . which meant lots of picture taking for me!

Hanging out at Jill and Marc's house . . .

Mia loves to wear everyone else's shoes around. I think these are Luke's flip flops that she stole to wear outside...
Luke used to hate my camera, but look at him now. . .

This is Mia's "cheese" pose. When I would ask her to look at my camera she would do this and then say "cheeeese". She is too cute!
Luke and Jenna with the first cupcake made with Jenna's new cupcake maker...
Sporting her little old lady look. This girl can move in heels!

Luke and Mia got a trampoline from Santa, so everyone (including some of the "big kids") had fun trying it out.

Warning. . . pink overload!

For their Christmas gift, Grandma took Jenna and Carsyn to the American Girl store in Dallas. Brenda, Jill and I also tagged along to take photos, eat and do a little shopping. Grandma let the girls take their dolls to get their hair done, eat brunch in the cafe and then pick out a new outfit for their dolls. The girls had so much fun and loved their very pink and girly gift from Grandpa and Grandma!

Picking out hairstyles for their dolls . . .

Brunch in the cafe . . .

Ready to go home . . .
Later, Brenda straightened both the girls' hair and styled Jenna's just like her doll's. She loved it! Their dolls have their new hairstyles and their new clothes from Grandma (and new glasses from me) . I think the girls look so much alike here!

Ringin' in the New Year . . .

We spent New Year's Eve at Brenda's - just hanging out, eating lots, and playing Rock Band. For the record, I am a pretty good drummer, but Jill rocked the lead vocals and Mia was definitely our star back up dancer. Marcus was brave enough to invite his girl friend over to join us - I'm sure she was more than a little overwhelmed by all of us! Brenda even broke out the sparkling grape juice for the kids and they thought they were so grown up. We also took them outside and let them throw poppers on the ground and make lots of noise. Sadly, I did not even try to tough it out and was in bed by 10:30 or so. I think the kids and Grandma and Grandpa managed to stay up a little bit longer, but I'm not sure anyone actually made it till midnight.

Jill rockin' the vocals . . .

Brenda . . . multi-tasking as a drummer and a back up singer . . .

Mia . . . the dancing queen. . .

We even let the little kids try for a while. . .They were so serious about it!

Cheers to 2009!

What can I say about these next three photos? Payton is too funny and really enjoyed her sparkling grape juice (in her oh so stylish Spiderman pjs)! She totally makes me laugh!

Christmas #5 . . .

Christmas #5 - 12.28.08 - Texas!

No words....just some photos from Christmas at Jill's house

Christmas #3...and 4

Christmas #3 - 12.24.08 - Aunt Becky's house for Lehman Christmas

I don't have too many photos of our Lehman family Christmas get together. We met at my Aunt Becky's house in Bluffton and managed to squeeze around 30 of us into her little house. We spent a few hours eating and talking and just visiting. The best part of the day is that I was able to see both my Grandma's there. My aunt and uncle brought my Grandma D. along. I was so thankful I was able to spend a little time with both of them.

Christmas #4 - 12.25.08 - our house!

On Christmas Eve, Mom and Dad came to our house and went to church with us. Later we finished last minute Texas packing and got ready for Christmas morning. Jenna left a cookie (just one...that's all we had!) and milk for Santa and wrote him a note on her plate.

We told the kids they couldn't wake us up before 7:30 on Christmas morning (I'm such a mean mom!)...and at 7:30 exactly they were in our room making sure we were ready to go. Grandpa and Grandma D. were there too. We also called Chris' parents and they came over and watched the kids open gifts and then stayed for breakfast.

Jacob's favorite gift....a PSP from Santa (I love the blue "glow" on his face from the game!)

Jenna's favorite gift....Bitty Baby Twins and a double stroller from Santa . . .

I made out pretty well in the gift department too! Chris surprised me with a new, bigger diamond for my wedding ring. I was so surprised!! He gave me a note saying he always has wished he were able to get something a little bigger at the time, but he couldn't afford to 15 years ago when we got engaged. He also said that he wanted me to be sure to get the original diamond made into something that eventually we can pass on to Jenna. I decided to have it made into a pendant. He definitely won a lot of bonus points this Christmas!!!

Dad, Mom, Jacob, Jenna and I loaded the van and were on our way to Texas by 11:15am! We ate our Christmas dinner at the Boomland Truck Stop in Charleston, Missouri. (It actually wasn't as bad as it sounds. The choices of open restaurants were pretty slim) . I definitely should have taken photos though!

Seriously?!?!?!

Dear Blogger,

Why won't you let me upload any photos to my blog? Don't you know I have tons of Christmas and Texas photos to share and it's absolutely killing me not to be able to actually post them. Won't you please cooperate with me?!?

Sincerely,

a very annoyed blogger


Seriously, as soon as Blogger decides to cooperate I have lots and lots of photos to share. Brenda, your family photos look awesome and I promise to find a way to give you a sneak peek as soon as I have a minute to breathe!

Christmas #2 . . .

Christmas Celebration #2 - 12.21.08 - Covey/Baxter Christmas at our house

After spending most of the weekend without power, I was really nervous about whether or not we would actually be able to have the Covey/Baxter Christmas get together at our house. But, thanks to the ice melting a little and AEP keeping up with the power outages, we made it through the whole day without any worries. We had Chris' extended family over - Bill, Julie, Lauren, and Megan, Bob and Celesta, Becca and Ryan, and his parents. Ryan's mom, Debby, and his sister Deena and her husband Ryan also joined us. As usual, we had really good food and way too many gifts, but that's part of what makes it so much fun!


The "kids table" . . .

Jacob and Grandpa modelling their new Buckeyes hats . . .

A fun gift for me . . .a one pound Sugar Daddy. I just don't know how to eat it without ripping out all my teeth!

Uncle Bob participating in his traditional after festivities nap . . .

Playing games after presents . . .

. . . an intense game of Scattegories . . .

Christmas Tour 2008

Each year we have multiple Christmas celebrations with family and friends, and this year was no exception. The 2008 Christmas Tour included 5 different celebrations - all with lots of visiting, good food, and tons of fun!

Christmas Celebration #1 - 12.20.08 - 2nd Annual Neighbor Christmas Gift Exchange

For the second year in a row, we got together with our neighbors and had a small gift exchange. This year we upped the price limit to $5 and even drew names. After spending 30+ hours without electricity, we decided to finally have our get together.....and 30 minutes into our party, the electricity went out again. So, we spent the majority of the evening, including gift opening, using candles and flashlights yet again. Please excuse the quality of these photos....they were taken in the dark by candlelight.

L to R: Jacob, Karlyn, Bret, Craig, Jenna, Landrie

Home!!

After spending a week in Texas and two long days in the car, we are finally home again. We had a great visit with both my sisters and their families. The weather was amazing (no coats, sunshine, and lots of time spent outside!) and we were able to cram a lot of activities into our short visit. I also managed to squeeze in lots of sleeping in and plenty of relaxing, including reading all of book #2 and half of book #3 of the Twilight series. Now I need to decide how to spend my last remaining day of Christmas vacation before heading back to school on Monday.

I will have lots of Texas stories and photos to share (I have four - yes FOUR - memory cards of photos to sort through first. That's what happens when you don't see your family for a whole year!) as soon as I find time to get caught up around here and start looking through my photos. In the meantime, I'm going to relax and look forward to a restful night of sleeping in my very own bed!