Pictures and Updates as promised... I hope you are ready for this....

This post has been a long time coming..... =)

Where do I begin? I said awhile back that I was going to talk about the kids first weekend away from us together..... so here it is. It started with my parents asking if they could have Jayna for the weekend so that they could take her to see Madagascar 2. Of course we agreed and it was set. And then that Friday morning, my Aunt Kelley called and asked if she could take Barrett and then we could have the weekend to ourselves. So our first weekend without the kids... you can imagine all the fun we had planned! Yeah right! Bonham had to work all weekend, so I tagged along so that we could spend time together. It wasn't much of a weekend.

The next weekend we had planned to go to Fossil Rim with my parents and Jayna. Barrett was scheduled to stay with Aunt Kelley again. I know, two weekends in a row... she says that she enjoyed it. He started sleeping through the night a few nights before he first stayed with her. I wasn't sure if I should blog about it, because I didn't want to jinx it, but I think that we are safe now! It has been almost a month solid now and he sleeps through the night almost every single night. I'm sure some of you picked up on that since the 'I'm so tired' blog postings had stopped.
Anyway, Aunt Kelley took Barrett over to Aunt Laura's for their Thanksgiving feast and she got to show him off to everyone. I don't have any pictures from that.... still waiting.....
I do have some pictures from us going to Fossil Rim though.....

Jayna had so much fun throwing the rocks into the water.

It was hard to get her to do much else.

So while she was doing that, I thought I would try to be artsy with my mom's camera.... What do you think Elizabeth?

This is Jayna in the tree. She was scared at first, so it took a little while to get a smile....

Me and Jayna getting ready for the campfire.....

She is her father's child.... she loves to play in the dirt!

This was a friend that we made as we headed back the campsite.... (we were in our car)

This is a picture of the tent that we stayed in.... my parents had one and we had one

Jayna and Daddy... she liked when we drove through to see the animals because we didn't make her sit in her car seat

Another friend that we made....

The giraffes were the only animals that they gave us permission to feed by hand... this picture was as we drove up to them....

He is so big that we couldn't even get a full shot of his head

Photo Op!

Nana, don't be scared!

They had a petting zoo and Jayna liked that. If I would have known that we were going to take so many pictures the second day, we would have tried harder to look nice! Oh well, now we know!

She's a goat-hugger

Photo Op #2

And then the weekend of Thanksgiving we went to Bonham's Grandparent's lake house in Kingsland. We spent time with his grandparents, Billie and Preston and Bonham's Aunt Sharon. Also, Billie's sister Mary Nell and her husband Clarence live next door to the lake house, so we got to visit with them too. Bonham used to work at a camp close to their house, so this is a spot that we both like to travel to when going on a road trip. The scenery is so pretty; nothing like Abilene. There are trees and hills everywhere. Next time we go there, I am going to take some pictures of the views, but I didn't this time. We had a good time. Sharon, Billie and I went to Wal-Mart at midnight on Black Friday, just to find out that the sale didn't start until 5:00 am! Too bad, we decided to go home and sleep instead of waiting it out.

Aunt Sharon and Barrett... 'feed me faster Aunt Sharon!!!'

This is not Barrett's everyday attire.... this outfit was Robert's (Bonham's dad) and I just had to put it on him. This outfit is over 55 years old and still in good shape!

This was too sweet not to share....

Sharon wanted to get the kids something, so she got Barrett this really cute V-tech bug toy that lights up and sings. And she got Jayna a camera of her own since she loves to take pictures. Once we got it home and Jayna opened it, we realized that it didn't have a preview screen. As adults, we were disappointed, but Jayna loves it. But Sharon decided that Jayna needed another camera, so she and Billie chipped in together to get her a better one. We are going to save it for Christmas though. She is very happy with the one that she has. Thank you Sharon! =)

This is Jayna helping to make a cake with Mimi (Billie) and me giving the instructions

On Saturday the 29th, Billie and I took the kids to a walk-through Christmas Light Display. It was so cool. Here are a few pictures....

Jayna and Mimi

Jayna liked it so much, she wanted to go through it again, even though it was freezing cold. We didn't know that we would be going to this thing, so we didn't prepare when we packed, that is why she has on a cheesy shirt, a pink hat and blue gloves. I'm glad we went back through it a second time, because the Santa line was shorter thee second time around so we went through and Jayna did great. We paid for the Polaroid, but my camera batteries were dead, so I have nothing to post there. But I will tell you, that she didn't cry and she wasn't even scared of him. Now, I did prepare her a little by talking it up while a group of kids got their picture taken and then I had Santa give her the candy first and I handed Barrett over before I had her get on his lap and it worked!!!! Now, if I can just have that good of success when I take them to the mall in their Christmas outfits! Fingers crossed!

While we were at Wal-mart, they had a jumperoo (sp?) on sale for $35 and I just couldn't pass it up. They are normally $80. I think Barrett likes it okay..... what do you think?

Getting Ready to leave the lake house....

Jayna, Barrett, Mimi and 'Nother Papa (that what Jayna says when she sees his picture, but in person she calls him Papa. She calls all of her Grandpas that right now)

Barrett and 'Nother Papa

Jayna and Barrett with their Great, Great Aunt Mary Nell... she would like to be called Granny Mary, so we are going to work on that. =)

This last weekend, my parents came to visit because we had a DJ gig on the 6th. They put up the Christmas Tree and took some pictures.

Today, Jayna and I made Christmas cookies and watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. She loves Christmas stuff.... Christmas lights, Santa, everything! This is such a great age!

We have been so busy, but we aren't stopping here, oh no! For those of you in Fort Worth who might want to meet up or try to see us soon, here is our itinerary:

Dec 12: Date Night for Bonham and I, you don't need anymore information on that.... =) Jayna is going to Holiday in the Park with my parents, so hopefully I will have some pictures of that to share

Dec 13: Presley's Birthday Party at 2:00pm

Dec 14: Christmas with the Pate's (Mamo, etc.)

Dec 19: We are heading to Waco to visit Uncle Marty and his Family (Bonham's Uncle)

Dec 20: Playhouse Disney Live! http://disney.go.com/disneylive/playhouse/ This is Jayna's Christmas present. I hope she likes it!
Then that night we are headed to New Braunfels to stay with the Wright's - Bonham's grandparents/Julie's parents
Dec 21: We are going to try to get over to Bonham's Aunt Kathy's house to see her new house and visit with his cousin Scott, who was the best man in our wedding
We also need to make time to see my Aunt Stella, she is Mamo's sister and she makes the best homemade tortillas every time we visit her.

That night we are going to stay with Bonham's other grandparents - The Calk's and we will get to meet the newest addition to the clan... Baby Seth. He was born yesterday and we can't want to meet him. This is Bonham's cousin's first baby. I know, so many people.....

Dec 23: We are heading to Weatherford to begin the Christmas festivities with my parents

Dec 25: Back to Abilene for Christmas with the Calk's

Whew! I am worn out and we haven't even started the journey yet! This was a CRAZY long blog! Sorry! And I apologize that all of my long blogs with pictures are so skewed, I don't know how to make them look right.... in time, in time.

I know that Bobbie Jo enjoyed it though!

Love you!!