Christmas Night

We mustered 16 people at our house for Christmas night. There was lots of good food and good company. I was just glad there was enough seating! A great pic of Julie and Madalyn, my cousin Lacie and her boyfriend Stephen, Beck as Spiderman, and Bristol checking out the dragon.
The best moments since then have been Beck running his remote control Hummer over the Army men, Jeff and the boys on the Playstation 3 (also known as my replacement), and Madalyn wanting to play Hullabaloo 24/7. We're actually looking forward to our second Christmas this weekend in Burleson~whoo hoo!

Bristol Continues to Eat Christmas

Just to continue the trend anything in Bristol's reach goes into his mouth. There was any number of times we were just taking things out of his mouth and out of his hands. It's always fun to have company over that's not quite used to his Hoover hands, and just so many shiny objects that aren't usually around. Apparently the taste of Christmas is still sweet.

Christmas Morning

We had a great Christmas this year. Our family is complete and we have so much to be thankful for. Here's some random pictures of the kids tearing into their presents and Beck showing his Scooby Doo sticker. It was good fun chaos, but we actually did get to sleep until 8 a.m.

The Green - Lahn Wedding

Seriously, it really was the Green Lahn (pronounced 'Lawn') wedding. On December 23rd, Julie's brother, Jacob, married his high school sweetheart, Phila, in Lockhart. My picture isn't that great, but they make a great couple and the wedding was beautiful. Note the Marine uniform, Jacob has served in Afganistan and will be going to Iraq in the spring.
Until then, they will be going back to his current assignment in Hawaii. A built in honeymoon - awesome! The best part of the wedding was introducing myself as the groom's sister's boyfriend's sister. Or Jeff as the groom's sister's boyfriend's siser's husband. Ha ha, could we be any more obscur as guests?

MLR Golf Outing

The Thursday before Christmas a group of us went to the Bastrop State Park to play in a golf scramble. It was a good time hosted by one of our partners, AJ.
I also really enjoyed the EY representation of the ladies on the team, with myself, Heather B., and Diana. I never thought I would enjoying playing golf in the rain, but it's actually quite fun. And what they say is right- a day on the golf course is better than a day in the office. Even in the rain. =)

Madalyn's Posada

On December 20th, the Dual Language Kinder through 3rd graders performed a Posada of traditional Mexican Christmas songs. There was the fan favorite Feliz Navidad though, so it was all good. I love the picture of Madalyn singing, then also with her friends: Raven, Ana, Jacqueline, Madalyn, Willow and Savannah. Also note the total change in names or the kids her age- interesting for me always.

Maddy and Brenah Who

At the graduation afterparty Brandy was creative enough to turn Madalyn and Brenah into Who's like in the Grinch stole Christmas. Maybe we can work it into a Halloween costume next year....

JEFF GRADUATED!!!

Can anyone actually believe it?? On Saturday, December 16th Jeff graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a Master's Degree with an emphasis in Marketing Management. The ceremony was great and like any other graduation until the mariachi band came out at the end. Definitely the highlight.
There were 27 of us that went to dinner in New Braunfels at Clear Springs and then back to our house for margaritas and the Dallas Cowboys game. Greatness!
Thanks to everyone for their support- we made it!!!
Pics are of Bristol ready to succeed, Zach and Jake- Jeff's nephew's, the Burly Bunch, and Jeff decked out.

Tonka Truck Full Load

I'm sure that this was not the intended use for Beck's dump truck but they sure had fun driving Bristol all over the house.

Bristol's First Christmas

We've really enjoyed this Christmas since it's Bristol's first. As you can see he likes the decorations - they're extra tasty!

Budafest on Saturday

In between all of the Christmas party fun this weekend, I took Madalyn and Beck to Budafest. Like all small towns in Texas, the 'buda'-ful town of Buda has a parade, carnival, shopping, etc. We met up with Brandy and
her sister Melissa, so that's their kids Brenah and Makayla in the blue helicopter with them. Beck actually sat still long enough to get his face painted with a scary snake but they also got to tell Santa and Mrs. Claus what they wanted for Christmas. Beck wants a big choo choo train, and Madalyn wants pajamas and a mustang like Flicka. I'm not sure that Santa will be able to fit a horse on the sleigh though....

Christmas Party Weekend

As happens this time of year, Holiday Parties are hopping. Mine was on Friday night at the Westwood County Club. We went to Antone's after the party with some co-workers to see KTEL Hit Machine doing an ELO tribute. The dark picture is the lead singer. It was a fun group that went and we were front and center. In the encore they even hit some BeeGees and ABBA- great times! Although any of you that know Diana Garcia will have to ask her what the highlight of the night was - I'll just say that they should have had better security.
Jeff's was just as fun but in New Braunfels at the Civic Center. The best part was the pre-party at Mike and Allison's. The marketing group at CITM is just a great group of people and way too much fun. Although we'll have to skip the 'punishing' next time.

Bristol - 9 months

Bristol is 9 months now, and just as amazing as ever. As seen here he loves to eat and black beans are a favorite. He will eat anything you put in front of him, sometimes I wonder where it all goes. In those long legs I guess. At his appointment he is 30 inches long (growing a steady inch per month since he was born) and 19 pounds, 4 ounces. He is still on the light side 25-50th percentile, but 75-90th percentile for his length. So the trend continues for him. My black bean loving string bean. Bristol's two top teeth are trying to come through right now, he crawls everywhere he wants to go, and is pulling up like crazy. He especially likes our L-shaped couch because he can shuffle along 'walking'.

I shouldn't let the kids play with the camera

I should know this by now, but these are priceless. All taken by Madalyn and Brenah- except the one of the butts. That was Beck- surprise, surprise!

Wurstfest in New Braunfels

A couple of Jeff's buddies from CITM are super involved with Wurstfest. For those of you who have never attended, it's a 10 day German festival to celebrate sausage and beer. It was the first time for the Raymond clan, and we will all be going back next year for sure. It is the best fair food ever - not only huge sausages on sticks, but homemade potato chips, potato pancakes with applesauce, and lots of Shiner Bock beer. We met some of Jeff's friends from work down there and just had a great time. Here are some pictures from the fun- Jeff (after many beers) racing with and Beck down the Super Slide, Maddy and Beck on the dragon rollercoaster, and me with Bristol who LOVED the sausage.

NASCAR in Fort Worth

Okay, so now you know the real reason we were in Burleson for the weekend. It was the November race at Texas Motor Speedway, race #8 in the Chase for the Cup (if you know what that means great, and if not ask a friendly redneck). My mullet count was down to only 6 this year, from 17 last year. I felt the drop must be a sign that almost everyone has finally gotten the memo that its no longer an acceptable hair style. Or maybe they were just hiding them under their ballcaps.
We decided that Madalyn was old enough to sit through the all day event and it made it fun to experience it with her for the first time. She was really excited to hear our driver, Dale Earnhardt Junior (if you haven't seen the #8 on the back of my Suburban) on the scanner talking to his crew. That was until he started with colorful language and we had to take the headphones off her ears. Pics of her with Cody, Jeff and myself as well as the family pic in front of one of Junior's haulers. Ah, god I love racing.

Rock Climing at DynoRock

While we were visiting Jeff's family over the weekend we went to Arlington for Peyton's birthday party. He and his mom Paula have been good friends of their family for years, and freshman Peyton is in the band with Zach. Good times! Madalyn and Beck did really well, except Beck's short attention span didn't keep him interested for very long. He did like the repelling part, and Maddy made it all the way to the top!

Friday Night Lights

Last Friday we went to Jeff's alma mater Burleson High School to route on the Elks (yes, Elks are not nearly as cool as the fightin' Hays Rebels). His nephew Zachary was marching with the Band at half time during the game and we wanted to be there to cheer him on. It was great football weather, just chilly enough for me and Beck to have to bundle up, but not unbearable. The Elks won the game, and remain undefeated in district play.... maybe we'll get to go to a playoff game!

Dia de los Muertes

Or Day of the Dead for you English speakers. Madalyn's Dual language class did a social studies project on the Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muertes. The kids chose a loved one that has died (Maddy chose her great-grandfather Glenn Watts) to celebrate. Their class built an altar with pictures of who they had chosen, candles, and a favorite snack. In PawPaw's case it was baked peanuts. Madalyn also polled Jeff's family for things they remembered about him and wrote a story about his life and why she chose to celebrate him. The whole process culminated in a parade around the school with the kids dressed in black, wearing their masks and singing Spanish songs for the occasion. I had some reservations about the project at first because it seemed a bit creepy, but she knows so much more about PawPaw and what a wonderful man he was - it was really a blessing.

Halloween 2006

Halloween was a very exciting time for us since Beck and Madalyn were really in to it this year. Madalyn was Miss Texas, complete with black satin dress, heels, banner, and tiara she got to pick out online. (The 3 days it took to get to the house were too many.) Beck was a UT football player, #25 Jamaal Charles but I'm not sure he's going to have the running back build - maybe more of a tight end or QB. A mother can dream... For Bristol's first Halloween he was a race car driver and spent most of the time cruising the stroller. We went with a group of about 10 kids, and Beck led the Trick-or-Treating charge hitting the houses with gusto and with Uncle Cody's coaching. He complained that his bucket was too heavy so we had to keep emptying the candy into my Dad's pockets. Madalyn, trooper that she is was content to keep all of her candy in sight and in her bag no matter how heavy it got. That's what we like to call professional skepticism.