Christmas 2010

Here are some things we did this Christmas!

Spend time with family!

Went to the Christmas Tree farm in Lindale to get our Christmas tree!

Made Build-a-Bears for West and Laney for their first Christmas. This is is P.W. and Princess Leah!

Went to Fredericksburg and stayed at a bed and breakfast! We went ice skating, saw the tree, ate at a German Restaurant, went to Ladybird Johnson Park, and saw some old historic bulidings and school houses.

We went to Gaylord Texan ICE exhibit to see Charlie Brown.

We went to Bethlehem revisited in Waxahaxie where they recreate the town of Bethlehem. We also toured some homes decorated for Christmas.

We looked at Christmas lights and found the TCU Superfrog, Frosty, Santa, and Rudolph at one of the houses!

We went to a house we found a few years ago. The man decorates his garage and makes it into a snow village for people to come look at!
We had a lot of fun! It is back to reality way too soon!

Christmas Classroom happenings

My class had so much fun at Christmas! We made this Grinch Village for our classroom. We rode the Polar Express in our P.J.'s. at the Stockyards. Then we came back to school ate lunch, watched the movie, and had hot chocolate.

Here are some recent quotes from my kids:

me: in sunglass at recess

Student: Your pimping Mrs. Morris

I was indeed NOT pimping ;-)

Student: (innocently) Mrs. Morris what is gay apparel?
Me: It is happy, cheerful clothes. Christmas clothes.

Me: (next day wearing a Christmas shirt)

Student: Your wearing gay apparel Mrs. Morris!

Student: proceeds to tell other teachers in the building they are wearing gay apparel!

They are a lot of fun and work too ;-) It is back to reality soon!

Class Room Happenings!

Welcome to my classroom! I can't believe it is already alomost the second semester. I have areally good class of 2nd graders this year. I am having a lot of fun with them. Here is our class!
Here is the reading center.

Here is my tweety collection!

This bell was in Nana's classroom and she gave it to me for my classroom when I started teaching. It is very special to me!

Laney Leah

Laney 1 day old!

Ok. I don't blog much when I am in school. I guess I need to work on that! I haven't introduced my niece Laney Leah on my blog yet. (I know it's about time!) She was born Sept. 7 at 8:19 am. 7 lbs. 3 ounces. 19.5 in. She is adorable! We love her!

Sweet Laney!

Laney and Lucas Dec. 2010

Look out world! JT West Noble is here!

Isn't he adorable! My nephew, JT West Noble arrived on July 26, 2010 at 5:21 p.m.! He weighed 8 lbs., 9 oz., 22 inches long. Mother and baby are doing great. We are so glad he is here. I am already in love, and so is the rest of the family!

Dear Nana

My dear Nana passed away on July 12, 2010. She was 82 years old. She was born on April 8, 1928. She will be missed and is loved by her family. I respect the work ethic she had. She was a very good teacher and had an outstanding reputation as an educator. Her co-workers had so much respect for her. I enjoyed the way she played with us as kids and she was not afraid to act silly like some adults. I remember she would sing a silly song with our names in it when we were kids. I remember the way she would smile when she saw her great grandkids, even though she was struggling with depression at the time. I hate it that she struggled with depression so much in her later years. I know that she is glad to be with Grandaddy now and in a better place. Here is a poem she wrote after Grandaddy died in 2004.

Many Thanks and Memories

by Lilymae Noble

My dog, Honey

just sits there and stares.

Waiting where Jack should be.

So she can lay her head

upon his warm knee.

Jamie spent the night with me.

When Grandaddy was very sick.

She cleaned my master bathroom.

Camron installed a toilet

And new faucets that won't drip.

In the kitchen He put in

a new disposal

that takes away the grit.

Jennifer took me out to lunch

And to a funny, funny show.

This helped to erase

some of my tears and lows.

Mike's painting my house, outside

with pretty shades of pink.

He's fixing all the gadgets and the lights.

Flowers in the yard, is a beautiful sight.

He and Jay put up new garage doors.

This makes the house

look glamorous, even more.

Brittani drew.

Rochelle painted my bathroom

with a birdhouse on the wall.

Topped it off with a flower

and a shower curtain

to match it all.

Now Suzanne orders my medicine

From the Indian store.

With Suzanne's help

I haven't as much pain anymore.

Library and Petting Zoo!

Yes, Library and Petting Zoo go together. I took Brynlee to the Crowley Library when I was babysitting her on Wednesday. They had a petting zoo outside! We waited in line, and she did very good waiting . When we got close to the animals she started laughing. When we got in she wasn't so sure and as you can see she would not let me put her down! She wouldn't pet the animals or have anything to do with them! Oh, well. We will turn her into an animal lover eventually :-)

Then we went in the library to cool off. She played for a while...

and we got some reading time in...

Then we went home and had raviolis for lunch..yum. Brynlee had trouble staying awake during lunch! I was afraid she was going to lay her head down in the raviolis! Then she had a 2 hour nap! She needed her rest after a big day! Aunt Jennifer and Brynlee had a great day! I love summer time and getting to see Brynlee, Lucas, and Gracen more!

Camp Fusion 2010

I had so much fun at Camp Fusion last week. I went with Jamie and Camron's church youth group so I could

watch Lucas

while they were counselors. We had so much fun! It is at a Baptist Camp in Lindale. The people at Reece Prairie are so nice! When we got there Camron had dyed his hair blonde. Lucas said, "that's my daddy. It doesn't look like my daddy. Camp hair is different. Jamie's hair isn't blonde." Thanks for clearing that up Lucas. :-)

They had theme nights each evening to dress up for. One theme was stereotypes, so we dressed up like Hillbilly's.

It was a lot of fun! We got to go swimming. Lucas especially loved this! He also got to ride a paddle boat and a canoe with Camron. Lucas was so tired by the end of the day! I took him back to the room each evening while they finished up the evening activities. He would watch one of his Thomas the Train videos and he would be asleep very quickly!

One day when Lucas and I were walking he pointed to a trashcan and said that Elmo jumped out of the trash can, and he didn't like it. I was like sure, yeah. I didn't know what he was talking about. I just dismissed it and thought maybe he had a bad dream. Later I asked one of the teenagers if they knew what he was talking about. Apparently last year at camp they had a skit where Elmo jumped out of the trash can and started chasing the campers and they made a video of it. Apparently it made quite an impression on Lucas and he remembered it! It was too funny!

I did survive the heat! Jamie did too. She was really a trooper going to camp pregnant! I came back very tired and lots of laundry to be done! Did I survive the camp food? Not so much... Let's just say there was a lot of peanut butter sandwiches and ice cream for dinner! My sweet husband came on Wednesday to visit. It was good to see him. We went to Sonic and I got a drink, but I should have gotten something to eat. The food got even worse starting Wednesday at dinner! I am ready for next year.. Then I will have Lucas and Laney to help watch!

Hello 2010

Hello again! I kept meaning to post last month but never did. We said goodbye to 2009. It had it's hard times, but many blessings. Here are some highlights of 2009. We welcomed our niece Brynlee Alpine into the world on March 17, 2009. We went to South Dakota for Spring Break. We saw Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and the Badlands. We went between blizzards! Gary's team won his work state competition in Galveston in April. In May, our church celebrated 125 years. It was wonderful to see friends and youth teachers, and remember the good old days from the youth group! We moved into our first house in June 2009. I survived sinus surgery shortly after that :-) Gary's team won third place in their National Top Ops work competition in June in San Diego. We celebrated 2 years of marriage August 4th. In August, I had a great time at the Women of Faith Conference in Dallas. I started my 7th year of teaching in August. In September, we went to a Brad Paisley Concert! It was wonderful even though we got rained on. :-) I went on a wonderful Women's Retreat in Glen Rose with my church in October. We had fun camping in October with Jamie, Camron, Lucas, and Gracen. We celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving at my parent's house, and had Gary's family to our house for our first Thanksgiving in our new home. In December, we enjoyed doing Christmas stuff like picking out our tree at the Christmas tree farm, and looking at lights. We went to Gaylord Ice and saw the Grinch that Stole Christmas Ice sculptures. We loved it! We had a wonderful Christmas at my parent's house with a new family friend Victor. We had Gary's family over Christmas Eve for our first Christmas in our new house, and went to the Christmas Eve service at church. It snowed on Christmas Eve in Texas! It was so exciting and beautiful to have a White Christmas! The end of 2009 brought wonderful news of expecting 2 more nieces or nephews! Can't wait until they get here! Ready for the blessings of 2010!