First Cookout

December 1st brought the first cookout of the season for us.  We had a cold front come in and Jeff announced that it was time to cook hotdogs!  The kids had such a great time!  Rachel's words-"it was fun! Having a cookout!"

She couldn't get any closer to Dada.  :)

Jeff has the title of Master FireBuilder.  At least in my book.  :)

My 36th Birthday

Less than a week after dad passed away, I had a birthday.  It was hard to celebrate it but my family is awesome and made me feel so special.  I love them.

My Mom.  Isn't she beautiful?

Well, Rachey doesn't always cooperate.  Even on my birthday.

Look at that face.  :)

Haha-she probably wouldn't cooperate because we were keeping her away from the bloomin onion!  Which she loved!!!

Munch, munch, munch...

Hi Zane

Birthday donuts after Roadhouse!

Oh...all smiles with a donut, I see.  :)

Love them!

LOVE HIM!!!

There's a smile!  Anything for Grandma D.  :)

Cheese!!!!

Thank you to everybody for making my birthday so special!

My Dad

My dad passed away November 5, 2016 in the afternoon. He was in the hospital in Kerrville and had had surgery to remove his appendix. He wasn't doing well on Saturday, he got up to use the restroom and had a massive heart attack and died. He is in a much better place. He talked about heaven all the time. But I wish he wasn't gone, I wish he was still with us here. We had his memorial service on November 19 and it was so good. We had lots of family and friends come from near and far and it meant the world to us. One of the speakers told us that dad had called him a while back and said that if he died before him, to let people know that he had his graduation. Which was totally dad-he really would have called someone and said that. And so this wonderful speaker painted a picture of dad in his white graduation robe, receiving his crown of life. If you haven't obeyed the Bible to the fullest, please do. You never know when you are going to pass out of this life. We were cleaning out some of dad's things and the thought came to me that he was "just passing through" and now he's moved on to eternity. It's so hard to understand, but we need to have faith that God will take care of us. I will post some pictures of dad at a later date.


I brought some shirts of dad's home between his death and the memorial service in hopes of getting some lap quilts made for Amanda's children in Germany. I got them done.

The beautiful sunset heading to Kerrville to be with my mom after dad passed away.  I bet dad's view was way better though.

Living room takeover!

My kids playing happily and making a huge mess so I could work.

I tried to embroider some of dad's favorite verses or sayings onto the quilts.

My sister!  So glad you came.

With Aunt Amanda!

Sigh of relief...quilt one done.

Dad always said this when you asked him "How are you?"

Quilt two

With my Mama and Sister

Us girls

Definitely a bittersweet time-sending Amanda off to Germany.  But you can't help but laugh when you take a selfie and try to get all of you in it.  :)

R is for Rock

This week has been about the letter R.  Our Bible story was David killing Goliath because God was with him. 

Our memory verse this week is: 
He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him.  Psalm 92:15. 

And here are a few activities we got to do:

Sorting rocks.  Rough and smooth.

Greatest to smallest

This was a winner!  Our own balance. 

Look Mom!

Driving his puzzle pieces at the library.  I was happy they wanted to stay for toddler time.

Painting his rainbow.

Love this girl!  This picture makes me want to squeeze her!

The happiest boy in the world this morning because Kitty Kitty showed up again!!!

Playing on the mountain with Kitty Kitty.

He is so pretty!

Rachel was just squealing and squealing over Kitty Kitty. I had to try and get it on video.