White Thanksgiving

Well, I am a born and raised Texan and I am still always amazed by the weather around here! Only in Texas can it be 82 one day and then 30 and snowing the next. We were still in Abilene this past week and it started snowing around noon on Thanksgiving day. I think we had a total of 5 inches that day. It was so pretty and great weather for Christmas shopping the next day. Usually when it snows in Texas, you get a little bit of snow and a lot of ice, but this time we only had snow. Ryan thought it was pretty neat. Peyton was having a cranky day and wasn't really interested in being out in the cold. Especially since neither of my kids own a coat or a hat at the moment. It really hasn't been cold enough for anything more than heavy sweatshirts so I havn't bothered to shop for them yet, but guess we need to now that we've had a few cold days in a row. As you can see from the pictures, they were just wearing layers of clothes and had their heads wrapped in scarves! I don't think it snows very often in Austin, so this was likely the only snow they will see this year. We got home to Hutto yesterday and got started decorating the house for Christmas. It is cold here and rainy, but no snow. I talked to my mom this afternoon and they just had another 7 or 8 inches this afternoon in Abilene. The first picture is our matching Christmas pj's we found at GAP. I had to order some online from Old Navy since they didn't have our sizes in the store. They should be here this week! Yeah!! Hopefully I'll get some really good holiday pictures to share with you this Christmas. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Crazy weekend

I have been in Abilene for the past week with the kids while Brandon is in Dallas working AGAIN! We've been busy packing up my mom and dad's house since they will be moving to Hutto soon. They close on their house the week after Thanksgiving, but will actually be ready to move the beginning of Jan. I'm so excited that my parents will be living 5 minutes away! Brandon and I can actually have date nights again. Yeah!
Anyhow...I got to spend this past few days with Brandon and I think it has been the most we have connected in almost 4 months. It was a much needed mini vacation! My mom and dad kept the kids and I headed to Dallas on Friday. Brandon had meetings until late that evening so I drove into Frisco and spent the afternoon with my best friend who I havn't seen in 6 months or longer. I miss her so much! She had lunch ready for me when I got there around 1:30 and we talked non-stop until I had to leave at 6. Man did the afternoon fly by! I left at 6 to drive into Dallas to meet Brandon. Took me almost an hour to get to our hotel, but we left his truck in the parking lot and headed to the airport for our flight to California. My brother in law is turning 30 and Brandon's family was throwing him a surprise party...we were part of the surprise since he had no idea we were coming. Anyhow...we got to LA around midnight and by the time we got checked into a hotel, it was almost 2 am Texas time. I think the last time I was up that late was when I was in labor with Ryan! :-) Anyhow, we got up early and had another flight into Fresno and it was hit the ground running. Grabbed our rental car and drove the hour to Tulare where Brandon grew up. We went straight to Brandon's best friends house to have lunch and spend some time with his family. They just had a new baby girl in May and she is beautiful! I think Brandon has been annoyed that I am questioning weather or not I'm done having babies this weekend! My best friend is pregnant right now too and due next May!
Anyhow...after some awesome pizza at VIP pizza (the best in the world!) we headed to Brandon's dad's house to help get ready for the festivities. I think Cary (Brandon's brother) knew that his wife was planning something because he was being difficult in cooperating with the plans that were made to get him to the party. I sympathized with Natalie since I live with a Hodge man myself! But, he finally showed up and he was surprised that we were there...actually made him cry so it was totally worth it! We had a lot of fun visiting with all the family that came and we know most of their friends too since we've been there to visit several times. It was just such a fast trip! Brandon got up at the crack of dawn Sunday and went to the local Starbucks to work...something we can't ever seem to get away from these days...and unfortunately my sister in law had to go to work yesterday too. So, Cary and I hung out and had a nice visit until Brandon came back and we went to breakfast. That was all our time...we had to leave before lunch to catch our flight back to Dallas. We did grab some In and Out burgers for lunch (also a must have when I visit California) and headed back to Dallas. We went out for a late date night to my favorite place, PF Chang, and headed to our hotel. Brandon had to work for a while after that and then he had a conference call at 4 am this morning and left for the office at 6. So, he's in meetings all day until 9 tonight and I just got back to Abilene an hour ago. Back to the crappy work routine, but at least we had 48 hours of fun!
I'm looking forward to going home. We are heading back to Hutto on Sat. morning. Hopefully we will get to decorate our house for Christmas before Brandon heads back to Dallas for the entire following week. He is SUPPOSE to be done with all this crazy work schedule by Dec. 8th. Pray for him that he will hang in there for a few more weeks.

Still Here

I know it has been awhile since I've posted anything. We don't really have much going on right now besides Brandon working. He's in Dallas again...I'm ready for December to be here. Not just because I love Christmas, but Brandon will finally be done with the constant trips to Dallas and we can get back to some sort of normal. Peyton has been so out of sorts for the past 2 1/2 months with Daddy being gone so much. We have a lot of things to work on with her behavior and other routines, but I feel like we won't get things fixed until she feels more secure. So, I am definately ready for the new year! We had a great Halloween. I think Peyton really enjoyed trick or treating for the first time. Daddy took her around the neighborhood and she quickly learned what to do. She would whisper trick or treat because she is shy with strangers, but once they gave her candy she would give them a huge smile and thank you! She and Peter Pan were adorable this year!
We had a pretty laid back weekend...Brandon's boss made him take a few days off at the end of last week and we were suppose to go on some kind of fun family trip. Unfortunately the kids weren't feeling so great (Peyton has another ear infection) so we just worked on cleaning the house. Sunday was our football day and Peyton and I were so dissappointed that the Colts lost! I don't really care much about the Cowboys, but daddy and Ryan were very happy that they won. My fantasy football team lost for the first time this week! I'm still leading the league, but I have another tough week coming up since my quarterback is on a bye this week and I am playing the team that is in second place right behind me. Oh well...maybe my team will pull through...Brandon has no sympathy for me since I am so far ahead of him! :-)
As you can see, I finally figured out how to post pictures so hopefully this blog will be a little more interesting from now on! I could still use a tutorial on how to jazz this up a bit so Amanda, when you are free (I know it might be Jan. before that happens) we need to blog together!