Christmas has begun :)

We are blessed to have so much family near by at Christmas. Because of this we have several "Christmases" during this time of year. This year we did something different (that will hopefully happen every year now) and had Christmas at our house with my cousins and their spouses and my Aunt and Uncle; along with my mom and dad and sister and brother-in-law. The kids were so excited and we had a great time opening gifts and playing games!

This is a picture of Presleigh dancing to her FAVORITE Christmas song "All I want for Christmas is you" by Mariah Carey. Kaden is sitting anxiously on the floor waiting to open his present that had been hissing at him since he touched it. :)

Kaden with his moving and hissing snake. So cool!


Presleigh in her new pink tutu. The girl loves pink and dancing so this was a big hit!

Presleigh helping daddy open his gift.

Presleigh made the rounds helping people open their gifts. This is her with Uncle Alan.

A group shot of the adults at the end of our fun night. :)

The North Pole Express

We took the kids to ride the "North Pole Express" in downtown Grapevine on Sunday the 5th. We went when it got dark so it would be more realistic. This was the night it was freezing cold! We had a great time and b/c it was a Sunday night they were not very busy at all.

The first thing we did when we got there was buy corn dogs. The kids were hungry!

They had a tent set up where you could make ornaments. Kaden chose to make a snowman.


Presleigh Joy chose to make a santa and despite how it looks she was smiling very big. :)



Sweet kids with the nutcracker.

Before you boarded the train you went into another tent where they put on a show for you. Presleigh really enjoyed this but Kaden just wanted to ride the train.

Presleigh Joy loves to dance and sing and be on stage! She has asked me repeatedly lately if she can "take dance and be a pink ballerina and dance on stage." This night showed me just how much she would love it. They asked for all the kids to come to the front to sing and dance and she marched right up there and did not want to get down when it was over! :) Our precious Kaden David was more hesitant and watched with us.

Our attempt at a quick family picture right before boarding the train.

Kaden loved riding the train and pretty much did this the whole time.

Seeing Santa!

They had so much fun!

Mexico!!

Nick and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary this November. To celebrate we took a trip to Mexico for 5 days and 4 nights and stayed at the Zoetry resort in the Riviera Maya. It was amazing!!

Nick and I in the plane on the way to Mexico. Because of Nick's flight status we got bumped up to first class coming and going. I guess there are some perks to having a husband that travels. :)


Crazy iguans that were everywhere! One walked right up to our table one morning at breakfast. They lived in the big rocks off of the beach.



After breakfast the first morning we were there.

Relaxing in the hammock. We actually fell asleep here and took a nap. We payed no attention to the time or clocks. Ahhhh.........

This is me about to get blown away by the wind on the dock. The first day we were there it was very windy and a little rainy off and on.

At the entrance enjoying the sunset.

We look like drowned rats! On our way back to our room to get ready for dinner it downpoured on us. :) Our room was at the very end of the hotel, which we loved b/c it was private, but it made for a long and funny run in the rain!

Our first night in Mexcio enjoying an amazing dinner together.

One of the many peacocks right by our room. There were peacocks, turkeys, crabs, weird looking ducks and all kinds of things that you would see just walking from our room to the main part of the resort.

Breakfast the second morning.

Didn't get one of the coveted beach beds this morning so we enjoyed sitting by the pool instead. :)

Always the adventurer wherever he goes. :) Nick decided to go kayaking and I waved and watched from the beach. I got the red flag in the pic. b/c they put those up the day we got there and we could never figure out what they meant. Oh well. :)

One of my anniversary presents was a massage at the spa in the resort. That is me in the corner relaxing before my massage.

Our anniversary dinner. Nick had the guys decoarate our table special for the occassion.

Nick and I. Happy 5 years!

A surprise dessert from Nick. :)

These odd looking statues were at the entrance of the resort and we got our picture with them b/c there were pictures in the library at the resort with Robert DeNiro, Terri Hatcher, Enrique Iglesias, Cynthia Nixon, etc. with them. :)

Lunch at one of the restaurants.

Our sunset cruise!

Together on the boat.

Another dinner at our favorite restaurant. Zoetry is an all inclusive resort so Nick and I took full advantage and got dressed up for a 5 course dinner each night we were there. :)

Our last morning in Mexico. Nick staked out and literally guarded this beach bed so we would have one the last day. There were only 6 and they were very popular. Luckily we got one almost every day we were there. We had our breakfast delivered to our beach bed this last morning.

A little bit of the beautiful pool with the caribbean sea in the background.

This was in the main lobby area looking out to the ocean.

This is the living room area of our room. We were in the room called "Pompeya".

One of our balcony's with the relaxing bed to lay and look out at the ocean.

Our view from the balcony.

Picture of our room

bathroom

Standing in front of the entrance right before our driver took us to the airport to come home.

What a great time we had! My mom and Nick's mom took care of Kaden and Presleigh while we were gone and we were able to have a wonderful time. We were talking about the next time we come back even before we had left. :)

Halloween 2010

This year Kaden wanted to be iron man and Presleigh wanted to be a pink princess. A few days before Halloween we went to a church that some of my friends from bible study go to. They had tons of games and fun things for the kids to do. The kids had a great time! We went trick or treating in our neighborhood on Halloween. This was only the 2nd year we have actually gone "trick-or-treating" b/c our church has always done something on Halloween but they do not anymore. However, we have absolutely loved trick or treating in our neighborhood the past two years and being out with our neighbors and friends. We will continue to do this!

Presleigh Joy playing a game

Me with my "hero" and "princess". I love them!

Kaden going fishing!

Kaden with his pumpkin masterpiece that daddy made from scratch just for him! :)

All set to trick or treat. Yeah!

At first the kids would ring the bell and take off running the opposite direction leaving me or Nick standing there. It took them a few houses to get comfortable. The real problem is my kids are scared of dogs and if they heard a dog barking when they rang the bell they were gone!! :)

Happy Halloween!

Gramma with KD and PJ

This is Kaden and Presleigh with our next door neighbors, Jacob and Jacqueline. :)

Nick and the kids with their best treat- a light up stick that glowed and flickered and did all kinds of cool stuff!

Presleigh with her pink "nerds"

A happy fella with his "loot"

This is random but a rare picture of Nick and I all dressed up. :) We went to a wedding the night before Halloween.