Valentine's Day

(the pancakes are supposed to be heart shaped)

Happy Birthday Raymond!

Ray celebrated his 34th birthday February 5th. After dinner with his family we headed to his parents house for cake and ice cream.

They got creative with the candles! :)
As part of his week-long celebration, we went to BJ's! I was a good wife and got him a power tool. :)

He requested a chocolate pie. My mom makes the best and was kind enough to help me make his.

In a One Horse [dog] Open Sleigh [sled]

Davy knows exactly what to do with a sled!
Maybe its not a good idea for him to pull the string.

Let's attach him to his leash to pull us down the icy road.

Until he stops! He eventually would go with Raymond walking next to him. So. Much. Fun.

Posing in the snow...

Walking in a Winter WonderBLIZZARD!

Literally...at least for Raymond. It took him 4 and 1/2 hours to get home from work on Christmas Eve. Three miles from my parents home he didn't get stuck, but there were so many other stuck and stranded cars he couldn't get through. So my dad and I left to go pick him up about a block from where he was. Due to stuck cars everywhere the closest we could get to him was still a mile and a half away. After one last attempt to squeeze through, the last resort for Raymond was to walk to us. So we sat (actually I sat...my father was a good Samaritan and helped all the craziness around us) for about 30 minutes waiting for Raymond to walk/run to us. Finally he made it but then we still had to get back home. An hour and a 1/2 from when we left, we returned home at 9:40 (having only gone a mile and a half) to begin our Christmas Eve celebration...well not really. Raymond ate and we all went to bed exhausted.

What a adventure. My dad said that it was the worst he's even seen the roads in Oklahoma. I could not believe how many cars were stranded along the road and I also couldn't believe how many cars were actually out...and stuck. Oh how I wish I had my camera to document.

Hanging Lights Tradition

For the past several years Raymond has come up to the school the night before our Open House to hang the lights. What would I do without him!

Swimming at Sissy's

We brought Davy to Sissy's. He loved meeting new friends!

This was his favorite friend Duffy.

To get Davy in the pool Ray tricked him by calling him across the pool.

He just wanted to be close Raymond!

Dogs aren't allowed in the hot tub.

I think we have a stubborn dog even with the stairs moved away.

Jamie wanted to swim with Davy.

He didn't want to get in unless Ray was in.

Just stepping in.

Clearly Jamie doesn't like being splashed.

Loving to swim around

Jamie, with Sissy and Glenn, in the hot tub.

Day 9

For Christmas we got tickets to see the Rockettes. My mom says that everyone needs to see the Rockettes at least once.

What a fun show! It was so clever and creative. We loved every minute of it.

Then we met my family and aunt and uncle for our annual trip downtown. Each time we always eat at Toby Kieth's.

We then ventured to Bass Pro Shop. We always have fun in this store.

We then decided to go to McDonald's to get some ice cream. It worked out that they had couches where we could sit. Tomorrow is my aunts birthday so we sang to her.

Then we went to the Myriad Gardens and Crystal Bridge. During the month of December it is free on Sunday nights. Lots of people took advantage of this with us! But we still enjoyed seeing all the lights! I hadn't been since my aunt and uncle were married there my senior year in high school. We had fun remembering as we walked through despite the crowd!

I love hanging out with my family!

Day 7

Thank goodness my parents let me use their camera! Friday was such a fun and busy day!

I woke up early and met my parents to go to Target. We always go after Christmas to stock up on the half-off deals.

We celebrated Christmas with my family today. We squeezed in our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day traditions into one day. One tradition is to have green waffles on Christmas morning. Day-after-Christmas morning works just as well!

My mom's waffles are perfectly homemade and my favorite!

Jamie wouldn't let me get a picture of her. So we joked about her being like Mr. Wilson from Home Improvement.

We then played a new game Jamie brought called Bananagrams. It is like a fast-paced Scrabble. We played two games. Jamie won them both...I know shocking!

She took this picture to show that she won 2 games.

Then I had to go back to my house to let the Cox guy in. We FINALLY got cable!

I was tired of hearing about not being able to see certain football games. The last thing I heard was how we would only get to see 2 bowl games on regular TV, and how he would have to go watch them somewhere. So now we are paying to spend more time together. :) It was a surprise for Raymond, so it was so fun when we came home for him to see it! You all know that I'm super excited about it, and it has been a major distraction already.

I then headed back to my parent's house. Another tradition is to decorate sugar cookies. Jamie and I have always taken a different approach to this.

The finished product!

Another tradition is to eat appetizers for Christmas Eve dinner. Our yummy spread! Of course she had to pop in the picture! :)

I love our stockings and I love that my mom made one for Raymond that matches ours. The detail is so neat!

There were some fun surprises! The face after this shot was priceless!

It was a great Christmas with my family. We still have some fun days planned!

December Recap

It has been a while since I have posted and I have been hearing about it! :) Life has been busy, but not too exciting. Here is some of what we have been up to:

Raymond is a great helper when I have much to do for school!

We have loved driving around looking at Christmas lights. I'm so amazed at how detailed people get. The first picture is someone's home, and the second is at Chesapeake.

I have had a lot of fun baking. I made these awesome coconut-lemon loaves to give away. The recipe is here.

Life just got sweeter being on Christmas break!

Day 1: Raymond's older sister surprised their mom yesterday coming to town earlier than expected. We had a great visit eating chicken and dumplings and of course holding precious Harrison. He has grown so much and is such a happy cuddly baby!

Day 2: I took a nap today! I haven't had a nap in months. It was great!