Christmas Card 2013

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas was a little different for us but still full of family and fun.  The Friday that Christmas break began, Colby woke up from his nap and was inconsolable.  We ended up at urgent care and eventually figured out he had hand, foot, and mouth.  Since he had it once last year, I unfortunately knew what we were in for.  We had a long 4-5 days of him basically barely eating and being really sad.  But on Christmas Eve morning he woke up almost back to himself.  And I woke up with pink eye.  Awesome.  We were still able to enjoy Christmas Eve with family even if we couldn't go to church.  Missy had us over to her house for a yummy mexican dinner and opening presents.

Playing with his new cars stacking toy

Lexy's always a helper

He was better but not 100%... so lots of snuggles for mama.

Christmas morning we enjoyed opening gifts and seeing what Santa brought Colby.  Then Gran, Pop, Aunt Missy and Lexy came over for brunch and presents.

After they left when I was going to get Colby some lunch, I realized he had a fever!  Ugh!  So that effectively ended his Christmas celebration.  I did go over to my parents later to see my Grandmother, Uncle Roy and Aunt Shirley... swollen eye and all :)

Colby continued to have a fever off and on so we had to cancel our trip to Victoria to celebrate Christmas with them until January.

The good thing about being sick on Christmas is it forces you to simplify.  And we absolutely still celebrated Jesus and are thankful for his birth.  Merry Christmas!

Getting Ready for Christmas

We did so many fun things to celebrate and prepare for Christmas this year.  We took our first trip to Santa's Wonderland which will definitely become a tradition for us!

Colby had a Christmas party at school that I was lucky enough to attend.  Here he is with his friends Walter and Avery celebrating.

Even the zoo had Christmas lights which we saw with the Maas family.

One thing we have zero evidence of was our attempt to visit Santa.  The short of the story is Mom and Dad played it all wrong and by the time Colby got up to Santa he was done.  He pitched a huge fit and couldn't even sit near Santa.  So... yeah.  We didn't even try a second time because Santa isn't really so important to us.  That and we didn't want to relive it.  Maybe next year!

A Meaningful Christmas

One of our new traditions we started this year was A Meaningful Christmas.  I joined with a group of 24 women to make a set of advent ornaments.  So I made 24 shepherds and then we all met and exchanged them.  I can't get over how precious they all are!

The idea comes from a book written by some girls that went to Baylor with me.  There is a devotional for each day and an ornament to hang.  Colby is obviously too young to understand but that didn't stop us from talking about it.  I might have done it over a meal because I had a captive audience.  I look forward to having it for years to come!

BU/TCU Rivalry Weekend

This year's BU/TCU game fell on the weekend of Thanksgiving, so we left Round Rock Friday morning to head to Ft. Worth.  We made a stop to Rick's alma mater, UMHB, since we are hardly ever that way.  It was so nice to walk around and see everything!  Colby was pretty tired and crabby but we enjoyed it anyway.

 This documents this sweet boy's only nap in three days.  He was on the go :)

Got checked into our hotel and made some important phone calls.  The best part of this weekend is obviously time with family.  My cousin Mark lives in Ft. Worth and is a doctor for the TCU football team.  So we enjoy being in their home and visiting with them.  And Caroline is so good with Colby.  She taught him to play ring around the rosie and took him to see her fish and hamster a billion times.

We had a great time at the game!  You know my family were all wearing purple and talking trash... which I let them do because honestly... we all knew what was about to go down.  It wasn't as pretty as I would have liked, but a little adversity made the victory even sweeter.  

Riding the shuttle with Pop

Love how my dad tries to play both sides with his attire :)

 It got pretty chilly so Colby and I took a break.  Not so much green and gold in the club, but we did ok.  This kid loves some nachos :)  After the game Mark was able to get us on the field.  So very cool for Colby to get to run on the field.  One of the members of the TCU band even let him play the huge drum she was carrying.  So so fun!

 And finally some post-game family pics (Rick and Colby had already gone back to the hotel).

 Love that this is an annual game now that TCU is in the Big 12.  Nothing like family no matter where you went to school :)