polar express...

This year we decided that Marley was old enough to really enjoy the Polar Express in Grapevine, Texas.  

Needless to say, she had a blast!  

Grammy, Pops, Aunt Lauren, Uncle Randall and Ranger were able to join us for the fun!  It was a dreary raining day, but that didn't stop our fun!  First, we boarded the train for a ride to the North Pole.  We sang songs, wrote letters to Santa and were even visited by Mrs. Claus!  Then we "arrived" at the North Pole where we were greeted by "snow"!  Marley loved walking through the snow!  Then we watched a super cute little play where Santa finally  made his appearance and we got special "Chocolate Snow Milk" (which of course Marley had nothing to do with)!  

We will definitely be doing this again!

Getting our train tickets punched!

Writing her letter to Santa!

Getting their bells!

Waiting for Mrs. Claus!

 

thanksgiving 2016...

This Thanksgiving was definitely one full of memories and things to be thankful for and much sorrow as well.  To start the week off we went to East Texas to visit with Adam's family.  We had so much fun!  We got to ride around the family deer camp and visit with pretty much everyone in town.

Chillin' on Pawpaw's bus!

Driving with Pawpaw

Crash on burn on the way home...2 hours and 55 mins into our 3 hour drive...ugh!

On Thanksgiving Day we actually stayed home and family came to us!  I have to say everything turned out wonderfully and it was so nice to actually celebrate a holiday in our own home!

Grocery shopping with mommy for Thanksgiving dinner!

and so it begins...

Baking with mommy!

Cousin love!

Heather, Euneta & Lauren

Randall, Lauren and Ranger

Marley and Ranger

Sammy needed in on the fun too!

Slumber party proof!

Unfortunately there was also much sorrow and sadness this week as well.  Two educators from my high school died along with one of my very best friends mom on Tuesday.  Although this brought sadness to the week it also allowed me to reflect on all the things I have to be thankful for in my family being able to be together for this holiday.  Attending my friends mothers funeral was actually a very beautiful service and reaffirmed the importance of living every day as your last and to be thankful for all the small things in life.

  On Thanksgiving morning my dad was also in a terrible head-on collision.  He was traveling to help someone out when he was hit.  He is VERY stubborn so swears he is fine and refuses to go to the hospital but he's pretty banged up.  The other car was going about 65-70mph.  So with that being said, I am VERY thankful that he is "okay" and proud that he is always going out of his way to help others.  Funny end to the story was that he was stuck about 2 hours away from home in a teeny-tiny little town with no rental cars (especially on Thanksgiving), so their only option was to rent a Uhaul box truck to drive back home!  

Leave it to my family to make something funny out of a very scary situation!