Visit from Alaska

We were so happy to have my brother, Aunt Crystal, JR, Milla, and baby River visit us a few weeks ago. The kids just loved playing with their cousins. The snow was still here and Mike took the cousins sledding. We went to Legoland and Rainforest Cafe. We made sure they tried some Chicago deep dish pizza. We were surprised to find out they thought it was really cold here! Come on guys, you live in ALASKA!! We hope they come again next year!

Blizzard 2011!!!

Several weeks ago we experienced our first blizzard since moving here. We had several days to prepare before it hit. The wind started around 3pm. The kids got out of school at 3:35pm so we had a windy walk home from school. By nightfall it was pretty eerie outside. Lots of neighbors were running around outside and we joined them for a little bit. Eventually the wind got so bad we couldn't open the door without a load of snow blowing in. The next morning we got up and the wind and snow had stopped. It was amazing. I don't know how many inches we got, probably 12 to 15. We went outside and played all morning. School was canceled for 2 days. Most of the area businesses closed as well. Enjoy the pictures!

Winter

I haven't minded the cold as much as I thought I would. I guess I always hated cold weather in Texas because I didn't have the clothes for it. But as long as you have a scarf, gloves, long-johns, boot socks, boots, hat and down coat you're good! Yesterday it was -5 degrees when we woke up. I drove the kids to school because it was too cold to walk. Last night Ryan had a playdate 3 houses down. You know it's cold when you choose to drive 3 houses rather than walk. I had to put on my coat just to bring the trash can in. I went out without one and turned right around and went back in the house to get it. I have shoveled the driveway many times this week. One day it rained and the driveway iced over. It's still pretty icy. BUT, the snow is beautiful. Here's a picture of kitty enjoying the snow.

Maddie's Tea Party

Maddie had a tea party with some of her friends the other day. Ryan was the server. We had sandwiches, fruit and mini muffins. They ate on my Grandmother Curtis's Franciscan Rose china.

Jake's graduation from basic training

Jake graduates from Air Force basic training tomorrow at Lackland AFB in San Antonio. Mike flew there this morning to attend the ceremonies. We are super proud of Jake! He will leaving for technical school in Florida in the next few weeks.

More Christmas pictures

Christmas Holidays

We spent Christmas Eve at home and then flew to San Antonio Christmas Day. We were there for 10 days and spent lots of time with both sets of grandparents. We didn't get to see the cousins as much as we wanted as they were dealing with strep throat and the flu. We got to see Aunt Marian, Uncle Pete, Christina, Jason, Landyn and Taylor. We also had lunch with Granny, Papa, Liz and Sarah. Mike and I went to a Spurs game courtesy of Jim and Arlene. We went to our annual Christmas party with our friends from high school. Mike and Jim took Ryan to the ranch and he shot a 22 for the first time. Arlene took Tori, Maddie and I to visit her friend's resale shop in Boerne, lunch at the Peach Cafe, and then to comfort to her sister's sheep farm. We spent New Years Eve day at Fiesta Texas and ended up in bed by 10pm. Mike got to play poker twice but I don't think he won either time. We went out for Mexican and Chinese food with Meme and Poppa. All in all it was a good visit. When we got back home all the snow had melted but it didn't stay gone for long. Yesterday we had to shovel the driveway 3 times!