It's That Time of Year Again!

Today we received the first Christmas card in the mail, so exciting!  Are my friends on top of it or what?  Of course it was adorable and reminded me that I need to book a photo session so we can send out Christmas cards this year.  Even better is I saw on a friend's blog that I can get 50 free Shutterfly cards just by blogging about them...how easy is that?  I start looking at Shutterfly holiday cards every year in October but I never manage to get it together in time to actually order them and send them out.  This year is going to be different!  I have the worst time trying to pick out a card - I like about 90% of them!  Here are some I am thinking about.

Love the classic colors & the monogram in the middle!

similar to the one above but a little different.  classic card that i love!

this one is just fun.  i love the letters in different colors.

the card pretty much sums it up, right?

I love the monogram cards and the colorful but cannot decide which cards to get for my sweet family picture.  I do know that receiving photo cards is a highlight of the holiday season for me...I love it!  I have also been browsing the site for some possible grandparent gifts - I mean, what grandparent wouldn't want a coffee mug or calendar with my rugrat's face on it, right?  :) i have also started looking at birthday invites for Colin's 2nd birthday - it is only 2 months away and he is young enough to still be able to send out those adorable photo invites, yay!  Happy Holiday shopping everyone!!!! And don't forget to send me a christmas card!!!

Thanksgiving 2010

We took to the road for Thanksgiving this year! We spent the long holiday weekend with the Horton/McKenney clan in New Braunfels at the Cactus Ranch.  We ate, we took walks, we went to a wine tasting, we sat around the fire, we fed the donkey, we watched the cows, we watched movies, we made ornaments, and we ate ... did I mention that?  We were lucky enough to spend some quality time with G.G. (Luke's Grandma), Aunt Linda, Uncle Earl, Aunt Patty, cousin Jennifer, Aunt Angie, Uncle Scot, Aunt Leah, Uncle Brian, Honey, Daddy Jay and cousins Lauren, Nora, and Jillian...whew, that is a lot of people!  We have so much to be thankful for - our families, our friends, our church, our health...the list goes on and on.  Here is a little bit of our Thanksgiving in pictures...which unfortunately I did not take too many of.

Colin & Jillian watching cartoons.

Breakfast on Thanksgiving...the windows were gorgeous!

Colin & Daddy on Thanksgiving.

Feeding Peaches the Donkey.

Luke giving soccer lessons.  Ha!

Cousins on Thankgiving...this was the only photo where you could at least see their faces.

Wine Tasting @ Dry Comal Creek!!!!  Yum!

Me and my love at the winery.

Colin found a (toy) gun.  We are in Texas afterall.  :)

Miss Nora (aka Dora, as Colin says)

Miss Lauren, aka Lolly (says Colin)

Colin & Jillybean playing on the slide.  They are 9 months apart and have a fierce love/hate relationship....more love than anything.  Aren't they so cute w/eachother? 

Big man going down the slide.

Me & my almost 2-year old!

Sitting by the fire.

Chillaxing.

Aunt Patty helped all the kids make cinnamon ornaments, so fun!

Colin & Jillian in Gruene, climbing trees.

handsome boy.

my failed attempt to get a picture of the cousins...love them.

the sweetest boy ever.

tonight before bathtime the 3 of us sat of us sat on the couch to watch the barney video colin had been requesting all afternoon.  colin was sitting in the middle and grabbed my hand and luke's hand and put them together so luke and i were holding hands, then he put them in his lap and put his hands on top.  seriously melted my heart.  if either luke or i tried to move our hands he would tell us 'no' and then put them back together.  i love my little boy to to the moon and back, a million times.

How I Spent My Sunday Afternoon....

We went to church this morning and worked the coffee bar w/the Walkups....it was really fun today and is always good to spend time with M & B....even if it is while making and serving coffee!  Then we stayed after church for the Thanksgiving potluck...once our tummies were filled we headed home for naps.  Well, the boys napped and I started working on a little project.  Here is a clue.

I know it seems so silly but I am so proud of myself that I actually made a crayon caddy for Colin!!!  I have been wanting to make one forever and today I finally did (check out this tutorial).  I'll be totally honest...it's not the prettiest thing I have ever seen but it works!  I didn't use two different coordinating material, but who cares?  I didn't measure anything - probably b/c I was too lazy.  I can't wait to make another one - with some different fabrics and a better ribbon.  Today I used scrap fabric I had in my drawer and I took the ribbon off of a christmas decoration I found in the garage...can you tell I was too lazy to go to the fabric store or what?  Here are some pictures of my finished product - can't wait for Colin to use it!  This will be definitely be going in his backpack along w/a coloring book - so he can have some kind of entertainment no matter where we are.

The Houston Zoo!

Today we went to the Houston Zoo with some good friends of ours and their sweet baby girl.  Colin has always had a crush on Kandace but I think she might have some competition now...he was pretty sweet on baby Kirsten too!  Even let her play with his Woody toy at lunch...is he a gentleman or what?  We had a great morning at the zoo - the weather was perfect!  Here are just a couple of photos of the animals, or as Colin says am-in-als we saw today....

baby elephant and his momma -- so cute!  i've never seen an elephant that small!

all of the animals were lounging around today.

the meerkats are always entertaining.

colin 'feeding' the bird money.

colin & daddy

lions!

notice the ginormous lion sunning himself in the background.  :)

orangutan

cute little turtle

my boy, just strolling along.

monkey!

after the zoo & lunch we came home and everyone took a long nap!   then we got up and went to dinner with grammie, pappy, & uncle doug (of course i forgot the camera for that).  hope everyone else had a great saturday too!!!!

Crazy Hat Day

Friday was crazy hat day at school.  I don't know how long he wore his hat at school, but it was long enough for me to get a couple of pictures.  :)

a pretty perfect weekend (in pictures)

my man, my dog, and my boy.  love them.

it's difficult trying to get a picture of a 21-month old and crazy dog!  they are so cute!

colin loves to say ''cheese!''

our best attempt at a family picture using the timer on my camera.  i love my family so much my heart might explode.

luke and colin found a walking stick for the rest of the trail.

just hanging out after naptime, reading the paper.  the toys r us big toy magazine, that is.

watching 'sid the science kid' on momma's laptop is like the coolest thing ever.

sweet little boy.