Last day of 2006 with lots of cousins!

Gabe & Mason














Zoe & Carmen


















Mason, Paloma, & Maya













Gabe and Mason














Paloma and Carmen














Zoe

Angi reads to Mason, Paloma and Gabe

Go TECH!!!!!

If you missed watching Texas Tech in their bowl game, you missed a historical event!!!

We were geared up and ready to cheer for our Red Raiders. The first 2 quarters of the game were so terrible, that we left to go home at half time. My Dad was in a horrible mood seeing them make so many turnovers and just embarrassing all the Tech fans!

Brian and I got the kids home and in bed and watched the 2nd half....Tech came back to win in O.T. after being down, I think it was, 31 POINTS!! The announcers said it was the greatest come back in Bowl History! WAY TO GO TECH!!


How could Mason and Maya possibly consider any other school with all of this bribing so early in life???? You surely are looking at 2 future Red Raiders!! ;)

Maya Doodle

Our Junior Nashville Star

Mason got this cool guitar for Christmas from Gigi and Hidy. This night he was singing and playing a song he was making up as he went along. I thought he looked like a pro!

The evening of the day I went into labor to birth Mason, I was watching Nashville Star!

Gingerbread house with cousins!

The cousins all decorate a Gingerbread house together....

Unfortunately Maya only understood that candy is for eating, not decorating!!!!

When the house was almost complete, she did figure out that you were supposed to put the candy on the house and not in your mouth...



This was the finished product with all the artists!!


Until next year, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Christmas morning with Grandmother and Pops

Christmas morning Grandmother and Pops came to our house to see what Santa left and open more gifts.

Maya shows Grandmother how her new Dora Magnadoodle works...








Mason is pretty excited about his new Buzz Lightyear...





















Daddy, Pops and Mason try to figure out how to make the air hockey table work that Grandmother and Pops gave Mason for Christmas....















AND they are successful!! VERY cool...

I have lost my underwear, I DO care....

Mason got some cool new Buzz Lightyear underwear in his stocking from Santa on Christmas morning. Maya wanted to wear them....

Mason was not at all happy about sharing them, but she only wore them for a little bit.

Lots of presents!

Christmas eve was spent at Hidy and Gigi's house with Hidy, Gigi, David, Angi, Carmen, Gabriel, Paloma, Bill, Allison, Lauren, Zoe, Brian, Mason, Maya and Me! If you are counting, that is 7 Grandchildren...and it is REALLY WILD!!! The presents take up the whole room. We are truly blessed to be able to celebrate Jesus' Birthday like we do every year!

Zoe, Maya and Mason are sitting waiting to start opening gifts!














Maya looks at the huge assortment of gifts...














Mason stands in front of the Harris Family gifts!!














Maya plays in the tissue paper after many gifts are opened!

We wait....

Mason and Maya wait patiently... (sort of) for Chip, Grandmother and Pops to arrive for a quick spaghetti dinner....

It was a nice surprise to get to see Chip who was in town for less than 24 hours!

They insisted on looking out the window. Then when they got tired, they sat on the window... Mason told me to take a picture of them..

Maya reads to Santa

The kids are excited for Christmas to be here!

Maya loves to read -- and she enjoyed reading Christmas books to Santa.



















Early this morning, Mason came to the side of my bed and said "Mommy, you know what is in that bag by the tree????"
I said, "what bag?"
He continued, "one has a Lightning McQueen puzzle"
"MASON!!" I exclaimed trying to wake up...
he said "one had an elephant puzzle"
"MASON - YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE LOOKING IN THE BAGS BY THE TREE!!!!" I say.
No further comments...

This is why most of our gifts are wrapped in paper. Nesha brought Mason, Maya and Zoe gifts in gift bags... she is letting them open today anyway - so at least he didn't ruin the surprise much earlier!!

Book Worms

Maya and Zoe are 2 cute little book worms... they LOVE to read.

(Maya on the left in case you can't tell)

Happy Birthday Hidy and Congrats to Jennifer & Michael

This post is long overdue.
My Dad had a birthday on December 9th. We celebrated his birthday on another day for dinner at Babe's! The only pictures I had from that evening apparently I took with no flash and none of them are good enough to post. My dad is always a good sport and he wore the chicken on his head and danced as we and the Babe's staff sang him "Happy Birthday!"

Brian and I hosted along with several other couples an Engagement party for Jennifer and Michael on my Dad's birthday!
The last picture was Maya after she enjoyed some pudding and before she got sent down to the neighbors house while we had a party!

Happy Birthday Jesus

Mason and Maya had their Christmas program tonight at school... It was called "Happy Birthday Jesus."

Maya's class was in a video that was pretty cute. Mason's class got to sing on stage for us - and Mason did a great job.
The first picture is of some of his class sitting waiting for the program to begin... they looked pretty wild to me. That is Mason next to the red headed little girl in the bright green --- he saw me and looked right at me for the picture.

Then I took many shots of him singing... here are a few... I didn't have a good place for getting pictures - Brian got better video from where he was.

He is on the front fow sitting down.

I

And as soon as we got home he ran upstairs to put on his "soccer shirt and soccer shorts..." He wanted me to take his picture in them.. I'm pretty sure this is his Sportacus pose.

Daddy's chair

I didn't stage this for a picture - that is what makes it so great.

Mason and Maya climbed up in "daddy's chair" and requested to watch something... I put on Wonder Pets for them. They happily watched it together very nicely.

Maya has with her many things that she loves... her 2 blankies and her "wiwwow" (Pillow).
Mason has on one of his favorite outfits... BUZZ Lightyear sweatshirt and pants!

Jennifer & Christine's birthday dinner

Happy Birthday to Jennifer and Christine! These 2 girls and I go WAY back. We've been friends since elementary school.

We went out and had a nice dinner with them on Saturday.

Both of the birthday girls have exciting years coming up.... Jennifer is getting married in September and Christine has her 2nd child on the way, a boy, due in April.

The 3 of us have gone thru a lot together over the last 20+ years!!! (gosh that makes us sound old.)

Happy Birthday Brian

I know, I know... what's up with all the birthday posts... there are like a million in my family / friends in November.....

Happy Birthday Brian!! I have no pictures for this post yet -- I hope to add some.
We went to dinner on Friday for Brian and Allison (remember she doesn't like turkey).
Saturday, on his birthday, college football was on..... he would rather be no other place than in his chair watching football. SO... that's what he did. I will say that he also put out Christmas lights that day and did several other errands or tasks.

I love you, P... and your kids do too. Thanks for being a great husband, friend and daddy!

Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday to Allison!

Allison's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year. She hates that because she doesn't like turkey.... she also doesn't particularly like casseroles - and there seems to be a lot of those on Thanksgiving. I hosted this years feast - but I didn't do the food on my own. Brian fried the turkey. Ever since he fried his first turkey for my family, it is requested every year. We like it much better than the traditional kind. You see Lauren made some special cranberry sauce for us this year. She cut each piece in a heart shape.


While we are all busy in the kitchen, Maya finds Carmens shoes.....WHAT A TREASURE that is for her.
She threw a pretty big fit when she had to give them back to Carmen.

The kids enjoyed the beautiful day out in the backyard.