Nate Meets Santa for the First Time

So I don't know if it makes me a bad parent or a smart one, but I have never been able to bring myself to take my son to the mall to sit on Santa's knee. First of all, the lines are ridiculously long. Second, the picture they take usually doesn't turn out all that good. Finally, they charge an insane amount of money for the picture. I did however attempt to take Nate this year to the mall because I thought he would finally be old enough to not cry or get too scared and I could actually get a decent picture. When we got to the mall the line to see Santa was so long that we would have had to wait over 2 hours for a 30 second visit. I nixed the idea really quick and Nate didn't seem to mind. A couple of days later, Allan decided to have Santa visit his work. He made a phone call the the North Pole and Santa was happy to make a visit. He sent out a flyer so that the kids of the community could come to the office, have some breakfast, and get their picture taken with Santa. It just so happens that I got to keep Nate an extra day from his Christmas break with his Dad. So Nate got to have a visit with Santa and got his first official Santa picture. He was a little shy at first, but finally warmed up enough to tell Santa what he really wanted for Christmas, a "Rocket Fishing Rod". Nate has been asking for one for at least 6 months now and I sure hope that Santa pulls through. ;) The best part was that I was the one taking all the pictures of the kids, so I was able to take as many pictures of Nate and Santa as I wanted to make sure I got the perfect one!

A Proud Sister Moment

On December 16th my brother Ryan and his business partner Mark hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of their new tint and sign business. The business has been open a few months already and he felt it was time to join the area chamber of commerce. It is so neat to see how my once annoying little brother has now grown up to be a responsible man and father. Meeting the Mayor of Watauga.
Receiving their "first dollar"

The cutting ceremony. (It was really cold that day.)

This ceremony took place on the heels of an exciting week for All Signs and Tint. They had just finished working on tinting a house in Keller that was built for a family by the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" crew. Ryan, Mark, and team generously donated many hours tinting around 49 windows. The day after the reveal, Ryan got to return to the home to meet the family and it was there that he offered them a free tint on one of their vehicles. And once again, another proud moment happened this past Friday when one of my students brought me "The Keller Citizen" (a local Keller paper). An article in the paper featured the "Makeover" and Ryan was quoted in the article explaining how the tint on the home will benefit the family. I could not be more proud of him and wish him all the blessings on this new adventure of his.

The Girls Make a Visit

A couple of weeks ago my 3 beautiful nieces paid me a visit to my classroom. I had told Hannah on the phone that my Christmas tree at school needed some help with decorations so they came to school to make some. Nate ended up in my room as well due to "not feeling well" and all three worked hard to decorate my tree. Makayla was an angel as usual and loved exploring around the room.

The Stocking's Were Hung by the Chimney with Care...

With my ever busy schedule it has been tough to keep up with the posting a bit. I am now currently on Christmas break and I am going to get everyone caught up by posting a handful of blogs and pictures. We did finally finish the tree after a few days of starting on it. I used to put a big bow on top of the tree, but this year I decided I wanted a real tree topper. I searched for a few days and then Nathan finally found one that he liked. I would have preferred one that actually lit up, but Nate was insistent that he had found the perfect one. I aim to please and after putting the star on top of the tree, I would have to agree with Nate. It was the perfect star.

Nate putting on the finishing touches.
My handsome little guy posing for mommy.

We needed a little help from Allan to get the star where it belongs.

The finished product!

Merry Christmas!!

It Starts...

So here the Christmas season is upon us and amongst all the hustle and bustle we have attempted to decorate the tree. Here are some pics of the beginning stages. I don't have any pictures of the completed project yet because, well, its not done yet. Tis the season..

Allan was not impressed that I took his picture!

It's up and ready for decorating!

Let there be light...

My silly Nate had to put on the tree skirt and stockings.

He said he wanted to look like Santa Claus.

The "so far" finished product, plus Nate has put up some of his decorations.

Cowboys vs 49ers

Allan and I went to the Cowboys game yesterday. It was my first experience at a Cowboys game. It was quite a bit overwhelming with all the people and noise and the up and down out of the chair. A much different experience than watching the game at home. We had so much fun and we were glad to have the opportunity to see a game at Texas Stadium before the new one is opened. Oh, and did I mention we had great seats??

The Cowboy's Offense

Romo passing 75 yards to T.O. for the touchdown!

Cowboys bringing it in for their third touchdown!

We were fortunate enough to have someone take our pic for us as we stood in the breezeway.

My Little Pilgrim

Yesterday Nathan had his Thanksgiving Feast at school. All of the kids were the pilgrims and their guests were the indians. Nathan invited me and his grandma to be his guests. He made us each our own place mat, turkey napkin holder, and our own indian head dress. It was a lot of fun and I loved being able to be "just a mom" for about an hour. (Its hard to get those moments when you work at the school.)

My Little Pilgrim

Mommy and Nate

Nate and Grandma

"We want dinner!"

And I thought I had a busy and hectic life!!

So Allan has had an intersting week at work and yes, it's only Wednesday. He is a manager for an apartment community and has a handful of people that work for him in order to keep the community running smoothly. Allan's crazy week actually started on Saturday when his leasing agent called him and told him she wouldn't be in that day or the rest of the week for that matter because her son going to have heart surgery!! So he ended up having to go into work for a bit on Saturday to wrap up some move-ins.

Monday and Tuesday have been hectic for him since he is the only one in the office. Yesterday afternoon I called Allan on the phone to see how he was doing. He was in the middle of scooping leaves out of the pools!! I thought thats what he had grounds people for, but apparently he needed to help out.

First thing this morning I received a text message from Allan saying he got a call from his lead maintenance guy saying he was in a car accident yesterday and now has a broken leg. So now he is down a leasing agent and a maintenance guy. Then around 10:30 Allan called me in a weird state. When he finally calmed down he told me that one of his residents just delivered her baby on the sidewalk in front of her apartment!!! Apparently her water had just broken and her and her husband were heading to the hospital. She made it down the stairs and couldn't get any further. The father delivered the baby while one of the maintenance guys sat at her back to hold her up. My poor Allan just watched helplessly and gave as much support as he could. The baby was born before the ambulance got there. When Allan called me the ambulance was just driving off. Both mom and baby were doing great, oh and it was a boy! Allan's parting words to me were, "I don't go to work to deliver babies!" He was quite overwhelmed and I'm sure I would have been too!

I'm just eager to see what the rest of the week has in store for him.

Not So Good.

Okay. So I'm not doing so good at this posting stuff. Not too much has been going on anyways. I would like to get some pictures on here, but my picture program on my computer is messing up so I have to fix it first. I promise to get that taken care of and get some things posted this weekend.

Other than that, all is well on the home front.

Till next time....

Trying this Blog Thing Out

So here I am!! Thought I would try out blogging. I have really enjoyed reading my sisters blog and thought it would be fun to do the same. I know I won't post near as much as my sister does, but posts here and there will help keep all of my family and friends informed on my busy life and my amazing son.

Enjoy reading!!!