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!

Holiday Highlights

Ok. I am new to this blog thing, so we will see how well I keep up with it! We are enjoying our fist Christmas in our new house! Gary decided he really wanted a live tree this year. So we went to a Christmas tree farm in East Texas. They take you on a hay ride to pick your tree and they give you a saw to cut it down yourself! Gary and I really enjoyed picking out our tree.

Of course, we had to put lights up on our house this year. Gary especially loves to look at Christmas lights. We have been to several neighborhoods all ready! We found a new neighborhood in Plano that we love.

We also went downtown to look at the Christmas Tree Downtown. We like to drive by a house on 7th street that has amazing lights each year. Not sure who lives there, but based on the house, they are important! Every year they have a few TCU decorations. I figured that they would have a ton this year. So we drove by the house about a week ago. They had a live Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty there greeting the people who drove by. And Super Frog. Yes, the TCU Super Frog. I couldn't believe it. It was so funny!

I also have to share a picture of my adorable nieces and nephew. I can't wait to watch them open their Christmas presents and spend Christmas with them! Jamie, Camron, Lucas, Gracen, Gary, and I went to a house in Grand Prairie where a man sets up a snow village in his garage. It has trains, McDonalds, schools, churches, Starbucks - anything you can imagine. Lucas especially seemed to love it. Then we went and drove through the Grand Prairie Lights-a drive through Holiday light park decorated with tons of lights. They also have a walk through forest with tons of lighted decorations. We had so much fun!

Also, one of our favorite things to do during the Holidays is to go to Bethlehem Revisited in Waxahachie. They recreate the town of Bethlehem. We followed Mary and Joseph as they walked through Bethlehem. The Shepherds and Wisemen came to visit baby Jesus. There were real camels. They have different Bethlehem shops where they make flutes, clothes, bread, etc. and give you a little lesson on how they make it. It is really neat! We also toured some beautiful, older Waxahaxie homes that are on the Candelight Tour decorated for Christmas.

As you can tell we love the Holidays! I am enjoying being out of school! I love Christmas Break!