Cousins Week aka Thanksgiving Break

It all started when we found out my brother, Scott, and his family were coming for Thanksgiving.  We LOVE Uncle Scott, Aunt Bridget, Haley, Ryker and Maddox and always enjoy our visits with them.

The cousins were so happy to be reunited...

This was our first time to get to meet Baby Maddox so we all wanted to love on him.

My boys were so sweet to their little cousins.  They are growing boys, cool, athletic...and sweet, loving and wonderful with little kids.  I'm so proud of them!

Before the kids came we were talking on FaceTime and they were telling me about the ice cream truck coming by and I told them that the ice cream truck doesn't come by here during the winter.  Ryker took from that conversation that we didn't have ice cream in Louisiana.  Ha!  So, I made sure to have Bomb Pops and DiGi had Blue Bell.

Other fun pictures...

Parker and Haley counting while playing Hide and Seek

Maddox is the SWEETEST baby.  I told Bridget that I could never be Maddox's babysitter on a daily basis because I would do nothing but hold him, look into his beautiful blue eyes, let him suck his thumb and hold his blanket.  Seriously, I would be the WORST babysitter.

I just realized I took no pictures of my sister-in-law, Bridget.  How sad!  She is a great mom to my niece and nephews and a loving wife to my brother.  Speaking of my brother...

Mom and Scott (Buddy the Elf)

My brother and his family left on Tuesday to spend Thanksgiving with Bridget's family.

On Thanksgiving Day, we had Chad's sister, Krys, and her family over.

Parker and his second cousin, Addison.  She is PRECIOUS!



We also had more cousin visits when Graham and Baylee came over Thanksgiving Day after having lunch at mom's house.

Our Provencal cousin, Dale. 

All of the boys cousins...

That night Dallas played the Raiders and won.  The guys looked so cute...both wearing their Troy Aikman jerseys.

On Black Friday, we went to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings at the Boardwalk and to see the movie,

Frozen and we enjoyed hanging out with Baylee-Boo!

After we got back from our afternoon of fun, our Florida cousins were back.

Parker and Maddox were playing Patty Cake...precious!



Little Ryker is VERY BUSY and I begged him to come sit with me.  Finally he made his way over to my lap to watch a Christmas movie.  I didnt want to disturb his movie so I snuck a picture.  All of my Florida family call me Double A for Aunt Angela but when Ryker says my name in his scratchy little voice it comes out "Dubba Way".  Melts my heart!

My little guy was needing love from DiGi, too

Ryker and Haley couldn't believe DiGi and Grandad had a couch that made out into a bed.  They had never heard of such a thing.  They were amazed when they got to see it be pulled out.  Ha!



Sadly, the following day our Florida Family would have to fly back home.  We enjoy them so much when they are here and miss them so much when they are gone.

To ease our sadness we ended up going to see Santa at the mall and eat lunch and we ran into another cousin, River.

What a great way to end Cousins Week Thanksgiving Break!

We love our family!

Halloween 2013

This year we were going to go trick-or-treating by ourselves and then we started thinking it would be fun to go with the Bryant family (our Vacation Buddies).  We called and they mentioned they were going in their neighborhood and riding in their golf cart and that we should come there.  Chad texted back..."you had me at golf cart."  Ha!

My boys...Hayden was so sweet to Parker that night.  Parker wanted to be a football player so Hayden fixed him all up.  It was cute!  Hayden didn't really want to dress up so he just wore his football jersey.

All of our little Trick-or-Treaters.

We had fun walking around their neighborhood while the guys rode in the golf cart.

We are so thankful for these "21st Century Dads".

After we were done trick-or-treating with the Bryants we came back to our neighborhood and went to visit DiGi & Granddad.

What a fun Halloween!







Merry Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas

Our family Christmas card from 2010...Jimmy took the bigger picture of us the day after Thanksgiving and his granddaughter, Katie, took the smaller one.  I thought they both turned out great so we came home and put together the card on Shutterfly.  Chad picked out the verse...

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given...Isaiah 9:6

Easter 2010...

Easter started for us on the Saturday before Easter, April 3 when we dyed Easter eggs.

Parker wearing an Easter hat from school...

Saturday evening we went to my Mom and Jimmy's friends house, Francis and Neil...they are neighbors, good friends and travelling buddies.  Francis and Neil had us over for Easter egg hunting and fried fish and delicious homemade hushpuppies made by Neil.

From left to right...Hayden, Parker, Luke and Graham



During the hunt...

This is Francis (on the right) and her daugher, Kathleen.

Sunday morning before church I was able to get a few pictures of the kids.  They looked so handsome in their dress shirts and ties.

Look at the fake smiles...can you hear me..."Okay put your arm around each other. Now put your heads together. Smile..."

Now this is more normal :)

After church we always have lunch at the church and egg hunting.  This is before going out hunting...you can see by the red cheeks they had been playing with all the other kids.

Christmas Update...

We have had a great and very relaxing couple of weeks. We had Christmas Eve at our house and then went to our church for a candlelight service. I didn't take ONE picture. Can you believe? You know, sometimes you just need to enjoy and not view it behind a camera. After waking up to see what Santa brought and open gifts we went to my Sugie's house. The whole family was there and it was a great day. New Years Eve was low key with us all in bed before 10:30. We have kept strange hours since we got out of school and we were all tired.

The picture on our Christmas card...Have I told you how much I love doing field trips with Hayden's class? We get to do some fun things! The week before school got out we went to the Dollar Tree to shop for someone in the class (they drew names). Then went to the Gingerbread House in Haughton (local girls I had to drive by my old house). That is the neatest place. They make BEAUTIFUL gingerbread houses that sell for $50 to $100 and then send them all over the world. Afterwards, we went to the mall to see Santa and eat at the food court. We had a fun time! I checked Hayden out of "school" after we were done with all of this and we shopped around the mall for a few Christmas gifts for Chad and then got some cookies at the Cookie Company. It was a GREAT time!The finished product...On Parker's last day of Mom's Day Out before Christmas we went to his school and got to make gingerbread houses with Parker. Then the kids had a Christmas program and then lunch. It was nice. Here are a few pictures...Parker's Gingerbread Houses with a little help from Mom and Dad...

Parker and MePicture of our Christmas tree and with the gifts underneath and Santa stuff set out. They typically get only one or two things from Santa (unwrapped) plus their stocking and then the rest are from us. Oh, by the way, my big window will have curtains on it in the near future. As in near future, I mean, the next six months :). I've got my curtain rod and I just need to find the right curtains.I love the pictures when the kids first come in the room to see what Santa brought. They look all sleepy and poor Parker, his eyes are VERY sensitive to light so he probably couldn't see a thing.Hayden showing his robe. He LOVES that thing and wears it every day. He thinks it is just like daddy's robe. So sweet!

Parker stripped off his pj's that he woke up in and put on his new pj's, new slippers and decided to open his new umbrella.Santa also brought Hayden a basketball goal, which he is LOVING! Santa just set out the basketball and he was so excited just to have that but when we went outside to "bounce the basketball" he was really excited to see the goal, too. He also got an MP3 player, too. He loves that thing and we were able to put great Christian music on there for him (okay, a little Elvis, too). You know the good stuff!This picture was taken a few days after Christmas. Hayden wanted a "basketball shirt" so he took just a plain white undershirt and cut the sleeves off then drew the number 1 on it and wrote his name like a jersey. He also made one for Parker, too. I thought it was cute! I just noticed that Hayden has his patch on in this picture. He really is NOT LIKING doing the whole patch thing. He will not go anywhere with it and I'm really surprised he let me take his picture while wearing it. We go back to the doctor next month and I pray there has been some improvement in him "bad" eye. It would be great if he only had to wear the patch for an hour or so a day.Let me tell you about our cruise! We are leaving not this Sunday but the next Sunday (the 18th). We are going with 10 other friends. We are really looking forward to a getaway right here in the middle of winter. We are sailing out of Galveston and stopping in Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Jamaica. The boys are staying at our house with Chad's mom with help from all of our parents throughout the week. We have promised the boys that next year, 2010, we'll be taking the boys on a cruise. They are so excited! I'm guessing they don't realize how far away that is but, you know, time will fly.

Our home January 18-25...Voyager of the Seas.Hayden is back in school as of this morning and, while he wasn't really excited about going, he'll get back into the groove. Parker and I are hanging out at home lots this week. Happy New Year!