Christmas 2012 in Texas!

We spent Christmas in Texas this year.  It was actually the first time we have woken up in our own bed Christmas morning.  Luckily Ray, Jen, and Carter were staying home for the holiday as well, so we had some company.

Christmas Eve Jen made some really good soup for dinner...followed by a nativity performance by the Griffith family. 

After we spent 10 minutes trying to get Carter to smile in his Christmas picture with his own parents....the kid  walked right in front of our picture and gave a perfect smile.

I LOVE opening presents!!!!  My dream day would be me sitting in a chair surrounded by wrapped presents waiting to be opened.  Anyways, Brady and I both received some really great gifts that we are very excited and grateful for.

Oh and did I mention that is snowed this year in Texas.  It was actually my first white Christmas ever....weird since I lived in Utah for 4 years, but we always traveled to warm climates for the holidays.  It was so bad that we couldn't go to work the following day due to the icy roads.

I guess we know where Carter got his photo bombing skills.  

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Brady's sister, Jen, has become our official photographer.  Here are a few that she took for our holiday card.  Some of you may notice that I am always on the right and Brady is always on the left.  We are both convinced that we have a good side....luckily they are opposite of one another. So we actually could look worse than we do if we were showing you our bad side.....just in case you were wondering.

This first one is the one we used for our card.

Of course we had to a picture with a longhorn....#Texasresidents!

Weekend Wrap Up

We had a fun couple of days this weekend.  We started off by attending our church Christmas Party on Friday.  This is the only I picture I have...which is of the boys cleaning up after the party.

 Saturday we finished up some of our holiday shopping and then headed to the Dallas Temple for the first time.

Of course we had to finish the night off with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory at Watters Creek.

Tree Hunting

Ever since I moved out of the state of California, I have wanted to cut down my own Christmas tree.  You can get thrown in jail for doing something like that in CA.  Anyways, I was really excited because Ray and Jen invited us to go with them to a tree farm in Northern Texas.   Besides the fact that it was 80' that day....we had a lot of fun.

We had a lot of fun hunting for the perfect tree.  And guess what....of course I didn't find one that I liked.  The one I liked was one of the pre-cut trees they had on the side of the barn.  

My one chance to cut my own tree and I blew it.

Brady let me hold the saw for the picture.

He felt pretty manly with our mini pre-cut tree.

This year I made ornaments out of strips of fabric.

Bring on the Christmas season!

Megan's Birthday

For Megan's birthday we celebrated by going to dinner at Grimaldi's and Sublime Chocolate for dessert.  I can honestly say I have never in my life had such amazing hot chocolate.  Anyone who visits the Dallas area....make sure you check this place out.  Happy birthday Megan!

Thanksgiving

Craig, Debbie, and Justin came to Texas for Thanksgiving this year. We had a lot of fun shopping, playing games, and eating.  Of course our Thanksgiving Day meal was amazing.

Here is our lovely family photo prior to the meal.

This is me after the meal.

Debbie brought thanksgiving pictures for Carter to color.  I decided to participate since Carter was not doing a very good job.  Coloring has always been a talent of mine hahahahah.

This is the family after dessert.....can't beat Mario Cart on Nintendo 64.

On Friday we ventured out to downtown McKinney for a winter festival.  

I was going to take a picture with a human gingerbread man, but they were charging $5 for the photo...I settle for this nutcracker man.

Justin and Carter ended up in our photo....not on purpose.

Chinese Lantern Festival

The Chinese Lantern Festival is definitely one of the coolest things we have been to since living in Texas.  Every display was made out of lantern material & lit up. We spent about an hour walking through the entire park before we called it a night.  If you come visit Dallas anytime between now and February...make sure you stop here!  

I have to tell a quick story about our trip to the Lantern Festival.  Brady thought it would be a good idea for us to take the DART (rail system) into town.  We arrive at the rail station, and I hope out of the car to pay for parking.  While I am inserting my credit card into the machine a man approaches me.  He comes up and says, "Would you like to make a quick 20 bucks....it's nothing sexual."  Needless to say I didn't stick around to find out what it was that would make me a "quick 20 bucks."  Oh public transportation....what good stories you provide us with.

My favorite display was of the longhorn herd.

There were even displays on the water.

Allen Texas Football

One of the things we were most excited to experience by moving to Texas was high school football.  FYI they did not disappoint.  We decided to go to an Allen Eagles football game since it is close to our house, and they are ranked 11th in the nation and 3rd in the great state of Texas.  

Allen High School finished their brand new stadium over this past summer.  This place is insane holding 18,000 people.  There are over 600 members in their band alone.  Anyways, the Eagles ended up winning 35 to 34 against Plano.  We had a blast participating in Texas football.

Obviously I did not take this picture.

Yes...this high school has instant re-play at their games.  I think my high school had just upgraded to a digital score board when I was in high school.

Carter had fun running back and forth in front of us the whole game.

I swear I am not this pale....stupid flash.

This is actually Plano's marching band, but I thought they looked better than Allen's because they were dressed in Halloween costumes.

Cemetery Clean Up

We were able to participate in cleaning up an old cemetery in Plano today.  They had a lot for our ward to do, so it was nice to have a lot of people there to help.  We moved a ton of dead wood off the property, and we cleaned some of the headstones.

This is the oldest cemetery I have ever been to in my life.  All the people buried here lived in the 1800's.

Brady hard at work.

Me.....bossing all of my helpers around.

This was one of three loads that we hauled to the dump....the truck bed is full too.

James and Brady contemplating what to do with this big piece of wood.

Apparently they thought it would be best to jump on it.....great idea guys!