Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a blessed Christmas. Mom and Dad were blessed to be able to travel to SA and attend Chris Tomlin's Glory in the Highest Christmas Concert. Louie Giglio gave the Christmas message from Luke 2 that we've all heard before; BUT, He reminded us of how AWESOME it is that God REALLY did come to earth as a tiny baby in order to save us from our sin which separates us from Him. 400 yrs of silence from God between the OT and NT was broken by a baby's cry. WOW! Everything we celebrate is because of Him.

Emanuel, Emanuel, God Incarnate Here to Dwell.

We spent our Christmas weekend at Paw Paw and Granny's house this year.

McB was a happy camper all weekend.

He had a great time playing with his cousins...

and his new toy trucks...

driving them on everything, sound effects, drool and all...

and he esp. loved his new"Tommmy" the train set.

McB gave Paw Paw a Lincoln Log set and Daddy and Paw Paw had fun building log cabins and towers for the "wrecking crew" to kick down.

I'm sure we all gained a few pounds from Granny's yummy cooking.

McB took every opportunity available to go outside and see the cows and "hoooorses". We had to lock the screen doors on the porch after he managed to open one of them and make a bee line for the barn. He made it through the gate and 1/2 way to the barn before we saw him...prancing/running as fast as he could towards the "track" (tractor). He was very proud of himself. Here's a shot of him going for a ride on his Uncle Layne's shoulders.

The adults ended the weekend with a game of Mad Gab that stressed Uncle Cody out. He's the guy with his hands over his ears. Girls beat the guys 3 to 1. Mommy had to go to bed a little early several of the nights b/c she was afraid of going into labor from laughing so hard. It was a great weekend:)

We celebrated Christmas with our family in Dallas, the day after Thanksgiving. This included decorating Gramma and Grammpa's house, being silly, dinner at a great Italian restaurant, and lots of presents:)

Our family actually kicked off the Christmas Season with a lighted Christmas Parade on Nov 20th this yr.

McB LOVED the parade. Everytime a scene like the bus below would drive by, he would quickly sign and say more, more, more, more.

We recently spent an evening touring a Bethlehem scene via lighted horse and carriage. This was a 1st for all 3 of us.

We also spent an evening decorating our tree. McB enjoyed helping this yr.

Don't be jealous of our fancy tree. It has survived a college trailer house with a cat that liked to climb into it and a dog that liked to attack the cat in the branches. I think it spent a few yrs in a 1st grade classroom after that. We figured tons of lights and ornaments would hide the pitiful branches:)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sooo many things to be thankful for this year. We like to decorate with lots of pumpkins or as McB says "pump" around our house this time of year. Here is a shot of McB and dad playing with the "pumps" on our front porch. I'm sure they have plenty of bruises by now. They are often mistaken for a ball. Not sure we can use them to make anything tasty.

We visited the Medina Pumpkin Patch and mommy got accused of trying to smuggle out a pumpkin. Noooo...here is baby#2 making his or her debut. If you're really good, you can make out a little bit of the face next to the left hand in the 1st pic and hopefully everyone can make out the cute little feet in the 2nd pic.

McB mastered the hay maze real quick.

No, this is not really a pumpkin patch but the tall grass at cousin E's and C's house was very similar to traipsing through the hay pile at the end of the hay maze. 4 wheelers make it easier to get around. There's already an argument over who gets to drive/ride in front.

Sword fight! Cousin C found some straw and McB found a stick. Mom came to the rescue real quick.

McB got to travel with G'pa and G'ma to this pumpkin patch in Arlington without mom or dad.

Cousin Katybug got to go along too.

McB tried to teach her some of his horse handling skills.

Here are a few more shots from the Medina Pumpkin patch. McB got to explore the whole place with his best bud Giddy-up.

Last year we took all kinds of great pics of these two in the pumpkins. It was great b/c you could plop them down next to a pumpkin and get plenty of pics. This year we had to TRAP them in the middle of a huge pile of pumpkins and be REALLY fast with the camera....and then edit/crop the shots that were close to what we were aiming for. It's amazing how much they change in a year.

Now that is an adorable scare-crow...tongue and all.

Fall Festivities

OK, no excuses this time, we're just getting bad about blogging regularly. We're starting our 3rd trimester so I don't think our blogging frequency will improve much over the next few months. Here are some of the things we've been up to:

#1. Being Silly

Like Father/Like Son. Definitely his daddy's boy.

#2. Getting a Haircut

We finally took him to get a real haircut. The 1st 5 or 6 haircuts were done by mom and the last one didn't go so well. He did great...as long as we kept a sucker in his mouth and he got to watch daddy getting his haircut in the chair next to him.

#3. Going to the Fair

He has been to 3 fairs this yr including the State Fair in Dallas. Here is a shot at the Jackson County Fair in the BIG city of Edna:)

Not sure the goat was too thrilled, but he LOVES animals.

...especially horses.

He takes his horse handling skills very seriously...just in case you missed his facial expresion in both of these shots.

This fair had the biggest sand box we've ever seen (not counting the beach). Paw Paw took the time to share some of his farming skills with McB.

Here's a shot of McB and his big cousin cruising around in the boats at the fair. She picked the color of their boat. He's still not to sure about carnival rides. I think he made it one time around before we had to stop the ride and get him out. This picture was taken before it actually started moving.

#4 Being a Boy

He is getting more adventurous "dangerous" each day. Daddy encourages this as much as possible. Mama is slowly getting used to the idea.

Just about anything can be turned into something you can climb on or through or ride:)

Swinging is one of his favorite things to do right now...

...even if he has to create a swing of his own.

McB was trying to help his cousin swing higher. He got in trouble as soon as we got the picture taken. 1st things 1st!

I see an ER trip in the future if these two keep hanging out together. This makes mommy look like the worst babysitter in the world but it was lots of fun. The pictures look a little worse than it really was. McB's buddy got smart and decided to sit back and let him try the dangerous stuff first. It was soon back to seeing who could out-do the other going down the slide.

They are not even 2 yet;)

They eventualy settled down for some good ole Elmo entertainment.