Thanksgiving and Black Friday

This year our turkey day was not the usual! Instead of cooking traditional food, we made Tex-Mex! We had cheese enchiladas, chicken flautas, fiesta corn, refried black beans, mexican rice, bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos, guacamole, pico de gallo, and chili con queso! YUM...this could be the start of a new tradition! Mark's aunt Marie, cousin Deve, and sister Sluz joined us in the feast.

Black Friday was a blast again this year! I left my casa around 3:15am, stopped at Starbucks for my favorite Venti Carmel Macchiato, and then headed to Target to get in line. Naomi joined me at 4:15 or so. It was cold, but it was fun. Naomi and I had a chance to catch up on things that are going on and what's coming up. We also got a "door prize", a reusable bag, just for being there. Also, because I spent more than $100 dollars, I got a $10 dollar gift card. Maybe it does payoff to do all my Christmas shopping on Black Friday!! I did get most of the things on my list. We try to limit the kids to five or so gifts each, and one or two things between Mark and me. After Target we hit Walmart and then JcPenney. I had so much fun hangin' out with Naomi, can't wait to do it again next year!

Breaking boards

Austin came home ecstatic last week with a permission slip. After I picked it up and read it, I can only imagine the confusion on my face. It was a permission slip for Austin to BREAK A BOARD. What in the world? Sure enough, I had read it correctly. Apparently Austin's PE teacher is a martial arts instructor. Austin and a few other students did very well in PE last six weeks, and as a reward, they were given the opportunity to break a board in front of their classmates. Austin was SO excited! He ran off the bus to day and whipped out the remainder of the board he had broken to show me!


Austin and his prized board

This past weekend, Mark's dad, Wendy (lady friend) and Kenzie came over for dinner. They also stayed to watch the UT game. We had a fire going, and the kids started up a game of marbles by using colored tape to mark off a circle. They were laughing so much, one of my favorite things to hear!


Austin, Abi, and Kenzie playing marbles

FINALLY, quilt #3!!!

Jenni finally opened her box so I can post a pic to my blog!! By the way, congrats to Jenni...Alex was born on November 20th at a whopping 7lbs 6oz!

Early Bird

This year we had our turkey early; well, kind of! We celebrated Thanksgiving with our small group this past Sunday. I was able to snap a couple pics before the celebration. I am ashamed to say that during the celebration my focus was primarily on the food and not taking pictures. Sorry to fail you my fellow bloggers!

Me and Abi making double-layered Pumpkin cheesecake

Abi the little chef

Mark and Travis extending the table...I missed the part where Mark was laying on his back using his legs to push!!!!

The only boo-boos I had on this special occasion were forgetting that I told Brandy to put her yummy sweet potato pie in the oven to keep it warm. I then preheated the oven for the stuffing, sent Mark to the store for some of the ingredients and then noticed that the casserole was in the oven when I went to put the stuffing in!!! Needless to say, the sweet potato pie was pretty much burnt to a crisp! Poor Brandy probably thought I was out to sabotage her dinner contributions, because I then forgot to put out the deviled eggs that she brought! Other than those miner set backs, dinner was so YUMMY!

A long time coming!

Much like a pregnancy, it takes a long time to cook up a quilt! Okay, maybe not always...but I received a special request for some quilts and if you know anything about me, you know that I like things as close to perfect as possible! When I make a quilt, the most difficult part of the process is finding the fabric. You can't just walk in the store and take the fabric "that will do". You need the perfect fabric. I started my hunt back in July and finally have a finished product today! There were three quilts to be made- 2 for boys, firetrucks, and 1 for a little girl, ladybugs. I am only posting 2 for now (because I'm waiting for Jenni to open her box to see the third!)

Little boy quilt

Little girl quilt

They were made for a twin boy and girl

A funny

Grammy, my mom, made a visit to Houston this past weekend. She brought a few treasures that she found at my grandmother's house, who passed away a couple of years ago. One of the items she brought was a child's size sewing machine from 20 plus years ago. Abi immediately fell in love with it!!! Between the time of waking up on Sunday morning and going to church that morning, she must have asked me 15 times if and when I was going to teach her how to sew. I warned her that the machine was so old that it may not work anymore, but her enthusiasm persisted. I told her that if the little one didn't work, that I would teach her on my machine. She said, "well, I've been watching you sew...so, I pretty much have it down." Then, we walked into the doors of the preschool church building and she announced to Miss Ann that her Grammy brought her a little sewing machine and her mommy was going to teach her to sew. Unfortunately, we attempted to use the machine when we got home, but it is just too old. So, Abi has added a kid's sewing machine to Christmas list...

Growing...Surprise!

Austin and Abi are getting so big. Without looking at pictures, it's difficult for me to remember just what they looked like when they were babies! Their personalities and their interests are so different from one another. Austin loves music, loves to read, can learn independently pretty much anything you put in front of him, and is constantly in thought though he may not always share his ideas. When he makes something, he hopes you like it. Even if you don't, he takes pride in his work and enjoys entertaining himself! Abi loves art. She is constantly drawing, painting, coloring, and creating many masterpieces. This year in kindergarten, she is on a journey to learn how to read. When she focuses her mind on doing something, I can pretty much count it as done. If she wants something, she has the drive and determination to achieve it. Austin and Abi have done so well in school this year. As a surprise, we set up their big kid desks yesterday in their rooms.

Before the big reveal

Before opening their doors

Abi's desk

Austin's desk

I snuck up behind them to find them working together

Austin doing his homework

Abi doing her homework