Little Late, but Christmas Break Part 2

Wow, I can't even believe how quickly the second half of the break went! We had such a wonderful 3rd anniversary. We ended up going to eat with Brice's family who were in town for a doctors appointment, and then we got to hang out together for the rest of the evening. We usually just do card for our anniversary, but this year Brice surprised me with a Coach purse!!! I couldn't believe it...I really love it!

The last half of the week I got lots of cleaning done, got to hang out with some fun friends, and definitely caught up on my sleep!! To end the week Brice and I headed to San Angelo for one of Brice's friends weddings. This was the first time we have been back to our old stomping grounds in over 3 years!!! I can't believe it had been that long. We had SUCH a great time visiting with old friends and catching up. We couldn't believe how much the town has changed since we've been gone though! When we moved to Lubbock they were working on finishing the loop there, and since they have finished it they have built about 20 new restaurants and stores....they even have a Sam's now! :)

It has been incredibly hard hearing the alarm clock go off at 5:30 every morning this week, but I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas break. And if the second semester goes as quickly as the first, it will be summer before I know it!

Number 3

I can't believe that three years ago today Brice and I were just beginning our lives together! In so many ways it seems like we have been married our whole lives, yet at other times it seems like just yesterday I was walking down the aisle looking into Brice's teary eyes. Brice and I have been through so many highs and so many lows in these three short years, but I can't imagine going through any of it without Brice. He is loving, caring, sensitive and always has a great sense of humor no matter what we're going through. I thank God everyday for allowing our paths to cross that November night at Angelo State. God had a plan for our lives and I thank Him everyday for the life he has given us!

Happy Anniversary Brice!!

Pictures

Christmas at my parents house:

This is the front of the mountain at Ski Apache. The run under the lift is called Capitan and I've always been terrified of going down it because it's pretty steep and always crowded. But this year I conquered it!! I think my dad and I went down it at least 10 times the first hour we were there.

Here we are about to leave Ruidoso (isn't the snow beautiful?!).

Christmas Break Part 1

Wow, we have had such a wonderful Christmas break, and the great part is I still have 6 days left!! We celebrated Christmas 4 days straight. It was great to be with so much family, but I'm glad the craziness is finally over! The Saturday before Christmas we went to Amarillo to celebrate with my grandparents and cousins that live there. My grandmother had a really bad stroke in August so it made Christmas at their house even more special this year. I have always had a very special relationship with my mom's parents; they are both such strong Christians and have always been a great example of seeking God in all circumstances. Sunday morning we got up and went to church and then headed to my other grandparents that live here in Lubbock for lunch. Here are a few pictures of our day over there:

My family has a Christmas Eve tradition of going to Christmas Eve service at our church and then my grandmother always takes us out to eat afterward. This year our church decided not to have a Christmas Eve service so we just went out to eat instead. We usually go to Friday's (because it's the only place open late on Christmas Eve) but decided to try Chili's this year instead. It was my parents, my grandmother and Brice and I this year. It's so strange how our traditions are changing as we get older. My dad absolutely loves Christmas time and the traditions that come along with it. And he doesn't handle changes well at all! But he was a trooper and had a good time even though our whole family wasn't present. After dinner that evening we headed to big LA (that would be the Lazbuddie Area). We woke up Christmas morning and had a wonderful Christmas morning breakfast with mimosas! After breakfast we headed for Hereford to have Christmas with Brice's grandparents and cousins. We played a great game of pictionary and had some wonderful food as usual! Here are a few pictures:

Tuesday we came home from Lazbuddie. We did stockings with the girls and then headed over to my parents house to wait for my sister and brother-in-law who were coming in from Houston. They didn't get off as soon as they had planned so we decided to go see Night at the Museum. (Very funny!!) When Stephanie and Aaron finally got into town we had leftover Christmas dinner and opened presents with my family. Christmas was finally over! We got WAY too much stuff, but loved everything that we got!!

Another tradition that my family started a couple of years ago was going to Ruidoso right after Christmas to stay in this great cabin up in the mountains that my parents found. Because Brice started work after the first of the year vacation times were already staked out so unfortunately he couldn't take off right after Christmas. :( It wasn't the same being there without Brice, but we still had a really great time. We all skiied Thursday and then just my dad and I skiied on Friday because everyone else wasn't feeling very well. The snow wasn't great, but we had a really good time anyway!! Then Saturday morning we woke up to a foot and a half of snow!! It was beautiful! But not great for driving. My sister and Aaron had planned on leaving at 6am to head back to College Station, but since the roads to get down the mountain were so steep they decided to wait until the snow let up. At 8:30 my dad decided that he would lead the way down the mountain in his truck and they would follow. An hour and a half later we were finally down the mountain only to find out that the highways out of Ruidoso were closed!! So they got back in the truck with us and headed back up the mountain to the cabin. We waited it out a couple of hours and the highways finally opened back up so we headed home.

New Year's Eve we went to Stella's with a couple of friends. We had dinner reservations at 8:45, we got there around 8:40 and saw several people we knew who had been waiting for almost an hour for their reservations!! This should have been a sign to us that we should just try to find somewhere else to eat instead, but we decided to stick it out. They finally called us at like 9:15, but when we were seated we realized that they didn't even have the full menu that night and there weren't very many things on the menu that looked good to us at all. When we finally decided on something that sounded ok the waiter told us that they were actually out of just about everything on the menu except really strange things like seared duck (which none of us really cared for....even Brice!) So we called Outback and luckily they were still open (by this point it was already almost 10:00!) We figured that when we told the waiter we were leaving he would just bring us the ticket for our appetizer and drinks and we would leave, but much to our surprise he sent the manager over and he told us they would take care of the drinks and appetizer and he even brought us a $40 gift certificate to come back later!! Although it started off a little rocky the night ended great!

Sorry this was a kind of long update...in fact I will be very surprised if anyone is even still reading at this point! Hopefully Christmas Break part 2 will be a little less eventful!!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! (Wow, I just can't beleive it's already 2007!!!!!)

I have SO many more pictures to post, but blogger isn't cooperating right now...hopefully I will be able to post them later!

Brice's Birthday

I have been meaning to post about Brice's birthday all week but have been pretty busy, so here it is! Brice turned the big 2-7 on the 7th. We had his work Christmas party that night, so we celebrated the next day with a few friends at Texas Roadhouse. If you've ever been to Texas Roadhouse when someone was having a birthday you know that they really like to embarrass you, AND if you know Brice you know that he LOVES attention. When you put those 2 together this is what you get.....

Needless to say he had a good time. Afterwards we all went bowling. It has been a really long time since we've been bowling, but we all had so much fun!

Blood Diamond

Brice has been talking about wanting to see this movie since he saw the previews, but to be honest with you I wasn't too thrilled about seeing it. We had planned on going to see it last night, but the plans changed and we didn't. Since Brice came along to see the Holiday with me last weekend I decided it would be the nice thing to do to go with him this afternoon to see it. Without giving too much away, for those of you that are planning on seeing it, let me just tell you that it was one of the most eye opening movies I have seen in a long time. Brice said that it was based on things that have really happened in Africa, and some are still going on today. Basically it's about a civil war that was going on there where they were fighting for control of the diamond fields. The rebel forces use young boys as soldiers to kill innocent women and children so they can smuggle the diamonds and sell them to large companies in the US and England. Because there is such a huge market for diamonds in these countries these companies pay a lot of money for these smuggled diamonds, therefore funding the rebels in this civil war. It is just so amazing to me all the horrible things that go on in our world that we have no idea about. There were several parts that were so hard to watch, but it was an amazing story of survival and the bond shared between a father and his son.

So, if your looking for an eye opening movie to watch, I highly recommend the Blood Diamond. And if you're looking for a great romantic comedy, I highly recommend The Holiday!! (I could write a whole other post about that movie!!)

More Christmas Pictures

MMM....this smells good!

Mom, I'm so cold!!

Ahhh....much better!

Before our date last week. We were celebrating Brice's most recent promotion...Assistant Vice President!! :)

I'm still here!

Man, being a first year teacher has been much more time consuming than I ever imagined! Don't get me wrong, I love what I'm doing (SOOOO much more than working at the bank), but it just requires a lot more energy than I ever imagined. It's so hard to believe that it's only three weeks until Christmas. Yay, I can't wait! And if the second semester goes as fast as the first summer will be here before I know it.

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I absolutely love decorating, the cold weather, the "Christmas" smells, basically I love everything about Christmas. AND fortunately I'm married to a man who shares my love for this holiday. It's funny because when we were building our house Brice's main concerns were how it would look with Christmas lights, and where were we going to put the tree! Our Christmas presents to each other were a new digital camera and a new laptop, so hopefully I will be able to post a lot more pictures and update my blog more frequently. Our old digital camera didn't take very good pictures and they were a pain to upload, and our old computer is WAY slow so, like I said hopefully I will be updating more often now.

Here are a few pictures of my favorite Christmas decorations!! (Ugh...blogger is being difficult, I will try to add more pictures later.)

Praise You In This Storm

I was sure by now

God You would have reached down

And wiped our tears away

And stepped in and saved the day

Once again, I say Amen, and it is still raining

As the thunder rolls

I barely hear you whisper through the rain

I'm with you

As your mercy falls

I raise my hands and praise the God who gives

And takes away

I'll Praise you in this storm

And I will lift my hands

You are who you are

No matter where I am

And every tear I've cried

You hold in your hand

You never left my side

And though my heart is torn

I will Praise You in this storm

I remember when

I stumbled in the wind

You heard my cry

You raised me up again

My strength is almost gone

How can I carry on

If I can't find you

I lift my eyes into the hills

Where does my help come from

My help comes from the Lord

The maker of heaven and earth

Casting Crowns

I survived!

By the grace of God I survived my first week and 2 days of school! :) The first couple of days were pretty rough, but it is getting easier and easier everyday. I got a new student the first day of school, so I now have 21 five year olds!! They are all so much fun, and I have had a blast getting to know their personalities. (I can already tell that I will have plenty of funny stories to tell!) I feel like I have such a huge responsibility caring for them all and I pray daily for patience and wisdom. They are like little sponges at this age and I just hope that I can be a positive influence on thier lives. I can see that God has a plan in all things and that His hand was definitely on my life when I was moved to Kindergarten. Thanks for all the prayers and letters of encouragement my first week of school!!