Merry Christmas/ Happy Birthday Jesus!

Merry Christmas everyone! I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Remember the Reason for the Season.... Happy Birthday Jesus!

A Christmas Blessing

We have been incredibly blessed this holiday season with a tremendous amount of outpouring love and support from others. Since Tim's accident last month, he is still unable to drive, he hasn't worked in months and now the hospital bills are pouring in all at once. We have had neighbors bring food over to us, a few teachers collected money at school and presented it to us to use for Christmas shopping for Houston, we have received encouraging cards, gift cards and other goodies as well this month. But recently, we had a sweet friend email us that wanted to bring dinner (check out the pics below) to our house and that they had been praying for our family in their small group at church. I haven't seen this person in years and was so happy to hear that we were in their prayers. Anyway, they came out with their precious family and visited with us for about an hour. It was so nice to have such caring friends come and just talk about what all is going on and check on us. They had no idea that my husband had lost his job 5 months ago, but their small group wanted to sponsor a family for Christmas this year, and they knew Tim had been in the hospital and they were concerned. They presented us with this generous gift and I felt so at awe and blessed. I could not believe people we did not even know would get together and do something so special for our family. Just typing this brings tears to my eyes knowing how caring people have been to our family the past few months. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and everything you have done to keep our family going strong. It is so hard to see Tim so down sometimes, but I know God has a plan for him. We just have to be patient and give it to Him.

Proverbs 11:25 - The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed!

I pray the Lord blesses you all during this CHRISTmas season

We are so blessed, Tim went to the neurologist last week and go the okay to wean himself from his eye patch. It was bothering him, so he has completely taken it off and his eyesight is slowly returning. The eye doc said it can take up to 6 months to be fully restored. He can see things close up, but still has blurred vision if he looks to the side. He also can not see in the distance and his right eye is still paralyzed from paralysis from the stroke. But, Houston and I are so happy to have him home from the hospital with us and that he is healthy. It could have been so muchg worse. Praise God to whom all blessings flow!

Check out this wonderful and yummy PESTO and garlic bread brought

****mouth watering***

I need this recipe so bad

Continuing to thank everyone for your prayers!

Christmas Party Weekened with a Christmas Gala and Christmas Party

This past weekend was our annual Christmas Gala at the Holiday Inn for all the teachers and staff. It was so much fun to get dressed up and see everyone out of their element and dance all night. I mean, I danced form around 7pm to 1 am nonstop! My calves are still paying for it three days later. haha We had a ton of fun and made some memories that I will never forget.

Also, a few teachers and I were invited to another company Christmas party the next night. There were many principals and admin as well as the superintendent. We all met up and rode to together and headed to the party. Well, funny story, the neighborhood where the party was held had quite a few houses with parties going on that night. We found the street and parked and got out to head to the party when we realized we were at the wrong address. We saw all the cars and thought it was our party. It was hilarious!!! We drove down the road a bit and there were two other parties going on. We finally found it, about the 5th house down and made our way in. We had the best time! It was catered and everything was delicious. We cranked up the karaoke machine and sang our hearts out! We got the party kicking and then decided it was time to head home to our hubby's after a few hours.

The pics are out of order, but this was the one after we had been singing karaoke for an hour.

And here we are with DOC. This is one of the nicest men you will ever meet!


Friday night fun at the Gala are the next few shots

This was in the hotel room before we headed down

Teachers just wanna have FUN

Love this girl!

Christmas Party Fun/Early Family Christmas

We had our Kindergarten party at school on Thursday. It was our last full day of school and the kids were actually pretty well behaved. I brought Tim to school with me since he is still not suppose to drive and he needed to get out of the house. Since his stroke, he has been cooped up in the house all day and has been kinda down. He sleeps all day and barely gets out of bed unless my dad or his mom come over and make him go somewhere with them. The kids loved him (they called him pirate with his eye patch) and he enjoyed himself.

Here is the setup for our party, we ordered happy meals and had a few snacks

Here are the 4, 343 Cornflake wreaths that mom and i stayed up until 9:00pm making

These were delicious! Sugar cookies with caramel kisses

and last but not least, my reindeer cupcakes I made! Of course, I should give credit to Pinterest!

That night we decided to celebrate Christmas early with my parents. We usually do it on Christmas Eve and then have the extended family over and it is chaos and rushed. This year, we thought if we do it early, it would be more relaxed. It was, don't get me wrong, but it was just a busy day for me with our parties and all at school.

Houston got his camera/camcorder! Santa is bringing him an underwater one too. He will be in Heaven as he loves to take pictures.

Gotta love those TIGERS! Thanks Mimi and Paw

This is all of our loot when we got home. We had such a great time laughing and having fun. We ordered Pizza Hut and had corn dip with chips and sat around laughing and slowly opening presents. Houston made mom the cutest homeade story book with photos. This brought up an old memory of my sister Holly from when she was 12 and we all got some grreat laughs from those old stories she use to write.

And....... I got my Coach purse! Couldn't have been more surprised! Best Gift EVER!

It was the last gift I opened, not on purpose and was hidden in HERE.

And yes, we STILL get presents from Santa! AND I WILL ADMIT~I LOVE IT!!!!!

Ornament Exchange

I participated in an ornament exchange this year through Kerbi's blog last month. I can post about it now because I heard from my partner today and she has definitely received her ornament from me last week.

Here is what I sent her

I loved this when I saw it and knew I had to get it for my partner. I was so scared it would break, but Lindsey (my partner) said that it made it okay.

And here is what I got in the mail 2 weeks ago

2 ornaments. An adorable reindeer and the Christmas Pickle story one

I have never heard of the Christmas Pickle, but it is a really cute story. A tradition in Germany that the first person to wake up and find the hidden Pickle in the tree would have good luck all year. The child also got an extra gift!

Don't they look great?

My tree

Can you find the pickle?

SNOW AGAIN!!!!!

We had our 2nd snow already and it is only December 8th! It snowed when Tim was in the hospital the last week of November and we woke up one day this week to snow again! School was closed when it barely snowed in November for our county and it was not closed this week when we had like 3 inches. Crazy stuff! Here is Hou Boo before school yesterday in the snow.

He had to change his jacket because by the time I got outside, he was already soaking wet from playing in the snow.
When we got home from school, he just had to build a snowman. And actually he built this one all by himself.

Usually we don't get snow until January or February and we get very little when we do. Looks like we may have a long,cold winter!

Christmas Parade Fun

Friday night my dad came by and picked up Houston and I and our horses and we headed to the Oakland Christmas Parade to ride. Tim was so upset he could not ride this year, but his aunt picked him up and he sat in the car and got to watch us.

Here we are on Lightning and Chloe before the parade began

Here is dad and his wagon team

Houston and Rudolph

Tim got out of the car to have our pic made in the freezing cold weather

Lately....

This post should have been done over a month ago. But here is what we have been up to, prior to my husband's mini stroke and hospital stay. So, no he has not been riding horses, shooting guns or driving or doing anything else. Doctor's orders! He still is having some eyesight issues. He had an eye appt yesterday and your prayers would be greatly appreciated! His vision won't be restored fully for up to 3 months.

I am just a little behind in posting these to my blog, but here are some things we have been doing this fall........

Houston's Thanksgiving Luncheon at school. It was hat day too!

Shooting with Tim and his new Gun. This is one BAD BOY! It even has a Gold Trigger. lol
Houston of course had to get his gun out and shoot too

Visiting new churches in the area

Having fun and celebrating one of my bestie's little boy's 5th birthday at ChuckECheese

Visiting my grandmother in the Hospital/Rehab Center (Now she has moved to assisted living)

Enjoying this little piece of Heaven at night

Riding and getting to know Tim's new horse Tank. He is such a sweetie!

Checking the cows

Hanging out with this little cutie!

Love Living out in the country this time of year

and being entertained by one of the funniest 6 year olds in TN. I tell you, this child says the most hilarious things. I never knew I could love someone so much! He is my heart!

Well, there you have it. That sums up the past few months for us. We have been pretty low key since coming home from the hospital last week. Tim is still sore and is trying to catch up on his sleep. Thank you for all the kind emails that were sent. Yall know how to make a girl feel special!