Happy 2009

Tonight our neighbors were shooting off fireworks, which Anderson did not like...so instead of going to bed, he stayed up with Mommy and we watched The Grinch while Daddy shopped online! It was nice cuddling with him and a blanket in the big chair and he actually enjoyed and watched most of the movie which surprised me...I think he was fascinated with the big green furry creature, plus he is super tired...still trying to recover from all of the holiday festivities, particularly his time at the ranch!

Tomorrow night we will be ringing in the New Year during game night with good friends...I am sure Mexican Train will be one of the games we play...and probably the Wii since we will be at Eric & Karen's house! On New Year's day, we will most likely sleep in and then have a movie marathon...you know, what we normally do on that day! At some point during the next 2 days, we will take down the Christmas decorations and pretty much reorganize the entire house...out with the old and in with the new!

We hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's celebration with loved ones! May God bless you as you seek Him in 2009! Love you! Happy New Year! Or should I say...Happy NO Year, as Joey puts it! (For all you Friends lovers!)

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things...

As 2008 comes to a close and 2009 quickly approaches, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on this past year...

Top 8 2008 Holiday Moments:

1. Ladies Night Out Christmas dinner with family and friends!

2. Although we did not get to see the lights in Marble Falls, it was nice to have dinner with friends and to drive home in the surprise snow, all the while laughing at ourselves!

3. Watching Casting Crowns perform I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day during Christmas in Washington. If you have not heard this version of the song, you need to click on the link and hear it for yourself! It has that Evanessence haunt to it as well as a very powerful message! It is amazing how something written during the Civil War can still apply today!

4. Making new friends at Holiday Fit Camp!

5. Reading the Christmas story as a family! It's what it's all about!

6. Fun Family Time: decorating the tree, family movie night, taking the boys to see Christmas lights, baking goodies together, drinking hot chocolate together, spending time at the ranch with friends and family

7. Annual Bonfire at the Ranch with friends and family, followed by a game of Mexican Train

8. Quality Time with my Wonderful Hubby, spending Christmas money and gift cards!

Top 8 2008 Moments:

1. Celebrating Anderson's 2nd birthday at Arrowhead Ranch

2. EJ's Birth!

3. 5 Year Anniversary trip to San Antonio!

4. Girls Weekend in the Hill Country to celebrate my 30th birthday!

5. No more diapers for Big Brother Anderson!

6. EJ's 1st Christmas

7. Watching the boys start to interact with and play with each other a little bit, now that EJ is getting bigger and more mobile! Also seeing their smiles and hearing their laughter!

8. Losing 20 pounds and dropping 2 sizes since we started Fit Camp in September!


We praise God for his blessings in 2008 and we pray for a blessed 2009...not only for our family but also for yours! Happy New Year!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

We had a WONDERFUL time celebrating EJ's 1st Christmas with the boys this week! I cannot possibly give all the details of our week so I will just give you the highlights! Here is the breakdown:

Monday: Family Movie Night- we watched all of the classic television shows like Rudolph, Jack Frost, and Here Comes Santa Claus...when Daddy got home we ordered pizza and watched Charlie Brown Christmas and Polar Express...when the boys went to bed we enjoyed hot chocolate and watched Dan in Real Life...we LOVE watching movies but do not get to do it very often

Tuesday: We took the boys to see Christmas Lights- they both loved it, the entire street was lit up with a Night Before Christmas Theme, one of the houses had a real train going around the front yard...of course that was Anderson's favorite house, EJ likes anything with lights

Wednesday: Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, Bob & Becky's Annual Christmas Eve Party, Vick Christmas at the Ranch- the Christmas Eve service was a wonderful, very worshipful experience and it was nice to have my whole family there with us...after it was over we stopped by Bob & Becky's Christmas Eve party to say hello and wish everyone a Merry Christmas, we also got to enjoy some yummy peppermint punch and other tasty treats...then we headed to the ranch to celebrate Christmas with Gigi, Grandaddy, Auntie Jess, Uncle Seth, Caleb, and Auntie Sarah...we have always opened our family presents on Christmas Eve so that night we had our traditional cheese fondue meal and then opened gifts, including our matching pjs which we all took a picture in and wore to bed...usually we always watch White Christmas and eat cookie monsters but we decided to wait until the next day since the boys had already had a LONG day and were exhausted...we all went to bed instead

Thursday: Here Comes Santa Claus, Christmas at Oma's, White Christmas- Thursday morning we woke up and found the gifts that Santa had left for us the night before (big kids too!), we ate breakfast and then headed to Oma's to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family...there the little ones get gifts and then the big kids do a Chinese gift exchange...Aaron ended up with some yummy Hickory Farms meats, cheeses and delicious peppermint candies and I ended up with 2 great movies, Wild Hogs and August Rush...we are both very happy with our gifts! It was so nice to see and catch up with extended family! Of course when we returned to the ranch we had pizza, cookie monsters and watched White Christmas, a family favorite

Friday: Boys at the Ranch, Girls hit the outlet malls, Annual Bon Fire- The boys hung out at the ranch all day, probably riding the Gator 100 times (that is all Caleb and Anderson want to do when they are there) while me, mom, Jess and Sarah went to the outlets to spend all of our Christmas money and gifts cards....we had a great time and bought alot of great stuff...everything was on sale! Back at the ranch, we lit up our annual bonfire and our friends Matt, Kristen, Mario, Denna and Mia came out to roast hot dogs and smores with us...we ended the night with a fun game of Mexican Train, our favorite family game

Saturday: Cowboy Shopping, Naps, Fajita Dinner-Granddaddy took the boys shopping for cowboy clothes, boots and jackets since they have outgrown all of their cowboy attire, then the boys took LONG naps...you can imagine their exhaustion at this point! That night, Seth cooked a delicious fajita dinner and we all went to bed early!

Sunday: A Day All to Ourselves! Aaron and I enjoyed a day without the boys... we left the boys at the ranch with Gigi and Granddaddy while we went out and ate some good food and did some shopping...we spent alot of our Christmas money and gift cards...we ended the day with dinner and a movie. Thanks for a great day off Gigi and Granddaddy!

Monday: A Week Off- Today we all headed home and did some organizing around the house...trying to clear space for the new stuff...we are looking foward to a week of having Daddy home with us as we recover from Christmas and anticipate the New Year!

Here are some pictures from the week:

With Granddaddy on Christmas morning...

With Gigi on Christmas morning...

On the Gator with my best buddy K-wub...

Having fun on the horse swing...

Fun with friends on the Gator...

Christmas at the Ranch

We are off to the ranch for Christmas! We hope everyone has a Very Merry Christmas with your loved ones! Be back in about a week!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

A & E's 2008 Tour of Homes

I have already shown you pictures of the door, tree and fireplace so I thought I would show you a few of my favorite unique decorations around the house...these are the kind of decorations you do not see in every home...and there is probably a reason for that....ha!

Twinkle lights on the candles in the fireplace, to make them look lit

(they look much better in person)...

A little Whoville...

My elephants are in the spirit...
The advent calendar from Gigi, you build the nativity scene as you go...

Our respective Santas...

Santa reading the Bible, a reminder to keep the focus on the true meaning of Christmas...

Here are a few of Anderson's favorite decorations...

His advent calendar from Gigi, he gets to open 1 gift each day...

Charlie Brown handbell choir ringing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"...

The little sleigh dog from Grandma & Grandpa that barks "Jingle Bells"...

The Precious Moments nativity from Grandma & Grandpa that he and EJ like to play with, the sheep is already missing, it's probably in the barn with the other farm animals...

It was SO hard to choose which decorations to post but I had to limit it to these...hope you like them! Stop by and see us if you are ever in Austin! Merry Christmas!

Christmas in Cowtown

Anderson, EJ and I had a great time in Fort Worth this past weekend visiting with family and friends that we had not seen in awhile! We drove down Friday morning, stopping in Waco on the way so that we could celebrate Oma's birthday (my mom's mom) with my mom and her sisters. Anderson had a blast playing in Oma's backyard, particularly on her hammock! And EJ adored all of the love and attention he received...of course all of the girls wanted to hold him!

We arrived in FW that afternoon and went to Timeless Christmas at my parent's church on Friday night. EJ enjoyed strolling around looking at all of the lights and Anderson of course LOVED the petting zoo, hayride (or gator ride as he called it) and the pony rides...he even got to go back Saturday night with Gigi to do it all again!

Saturday morning we slept in and then went downtown to see Santa with Gigi, Grandaddy, Auntie Jess, Uncle Seth and Caleb. Anderson and Caleb had fun playing in line together while we waited to see Santa and again, EJ enjoyed being held! All the boys did really well when it was time to sit in Santa's lap and the pictures actually turned out pretty good considering the fact that we had 5 adults and 3 kiddos who all had to look and smile at the same time!

After visiting with Santa, we headed on over to the Cats Stadium for Mikey's 3rd birthday party! Mikey is Anderson's friend and Mikey's Mommy is my longtime friend, we grew up in church together and have known one another since elementary school! Her family is friend's with my whole family. The party was alot of fun, the kids got to make farm animals, which Anderson of course LOVED! Basically it was like Build-A-Bear but with farm animals and you did not have to go to the store, it was brought to you. Each kid got to choose an animal...Anderson chose the pink piggy and then you could either choose a t-shirt or bandana to put on it...he chose the bandana! Most of the party he spent running around wrestling and tackling Caleb, Griffin and Mikey! What fun! EJ, on the other hand, slept through the entire party! Both boys were pretty exhausted by this point!

After the party, Anderson went with Gigi to Timeless Christmas and EJ went to Caleb's house, where 2 of our favorite former volleyball players babysat for us, while Jess and I went to Joe Ts for yummy dinner with Sarah and some of our other friends from HS. Good food and good company makes for a great evening!

Sunday morning we slept in and then had the Vick Family Christmas at my parent's condo. Jess, Seth, Caleb, Sarah, Mema, Uncle Ray, Uncle Jim, Isabella, Camille, Robert and Sophia came over for lunch! We ate yummy enchiladas and yummy sopapilla cheesecake and then we exchanged gifts. It was great to see everyone and the boys really enjoyed playing with their cousins and we enjoyed the help!

As soon as it was over, we headed back to Austin to see Daddy! We all really missed him and are glad to be back...but are looking foward to spending time at the ranch with my family in a few days for Christmas!

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

With Gigi and Frosty at Oma's...

3 peas in a pod...

Our sweet Santa baby...

Crazy wrestling buddies...

Sweet cousins...

With Auntie Jess and Eli...

It was nice to be able to go home to FW and FINALLY get to do some fun Christmas stuff after being so sick for a week...keep praying for me to get better...I am supposed to speak at our Christmas Eve service but still do not have much of a voice and although I feel better, I am still not 100%....I don't want to be sick on Christmas!

In Honor of EJ's 1st Christmas...

Christmas Joy
By Erin Vick Franklin

What a wonderful year
Another bundle of joy
Evan Jackson Franklin
Our sweet baby boy

Anderson's little brother
Our 5th anniversary gift
Sent from God above
To Him our praises we lift

EJ is what we call him
He is the sweetest thing
His bright eyes will light up
If you talk, smile or sing

But at Christmastime and always
We remember with delight
The true joy of Christmas
Born that holy night

'For unto us is born this day,
in the City of David,
a Savior, which is Christ the Lord!'
(Luke 2:11)

May you and yours find joy
Not underneath your tree
But in Jesus Christ our Savior
In faith you must believe


The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy!
(Psalm 126:3)

Blue Christmas

You may have been wondering what happened to me because I told you that I would post again on December 15th, when I participated in the 2008 Tour of Homes! Well...unfortunately I have been SICK SICK SICK, which prevented me from participating in the tour.

This is not the only thing that has not gone my way so far this Christmas. In fact, in the words of Elvis, I would say that this has been a "blue blue blue blue Christmas" in our home this year! Ok, maybe not that bad...you know how dramatic I can be! Besides technically Christmas is not even here yet! But seriously, here are a few things that have not gone our way so far:

1. We spent the 1st 2 weeks of December frantically running from one church event to another, leaving the boys with 5 babysitters in 2 weeks, not including the time they were away from us in the nursery or preschool...this is probably why I ended up SICK! Now, don't get me wrong, these were all good and fun events in and of themselves...but when you have 1, 2, even 3 events a day almost everyday for 2 weeks straight...this can get a little crazy, even tiring, leaving you beat down! Not to mention all of the responsibilities we held at each of these events and the meltdowns we had to deal with from our children along the way!

2. We finally made it through the marathon, only to end up SICK and not able to do the fun family things I had plannned for us...including movie marathon day, taking the boys to see Christmas lights, and playing with all of the fun stuff Gigi sent the boys!

3. For the 2nd year in a row, Aaron and I were not able to go to Hyde Park Praise with some friends of ours!

4. I was not able to attend my Girls Night Christmas Ornament Exchange!

5. I was not able to go to church this past Sunday or lead Fit Camp this week!

6. My house is a DISASTER since I have been too sick to care, Anderson just does whatever he wants!

7. And to top it all off...the one night we had free in the 1st 2 weeks of December before I got sick, we went with 2 other families out to Marble Falls to see the lights but when we got there, it started raining so we went to eat dinner hoping the rain would pass...by the time dinner was over, it was sleeting and freezing so the lights were turned out, we never got to see them! On the way home, it started snowing! Only in Austin can it go from 80 to freezing and snowing in one day! We joked about the fact that we went all the way to Marble Falls just to eat at Chili's, we could have just stayed in Austin to do that! At least we have a funny story to tell!

On a more serious note, I have been a little down because my friend Melissa's dad has been in ICU for over a week and I have another friend who is struggling in her marriage. Please pray for these 2 situations as well as for me to get better FAST and stay well! I am supposed to go home this weekend to see family and friends but I am afraid that may not happen either!

OK...enough of the pity party...just wanted to let you know where I have been and what has been going on! As soon as I get better, I promise to post my own tour of homes so that you can see the rest of my Christmas decorations, as promised, and I will also give a report of the fun family stuff we end up doing with the boys in the next week or so!

In the meantime, as a reminder to myself, we are commanded to "Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Philippians 4). Thankfully only happiness is equated with circumstance...not JOY! We can still be joyful despite our circumstances because of JESUS!

Let's not get SO caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season that we forget the TRUE reason for the season! Luckily I did all of my decorating and shopping early this year and have already done most of my cards and wrapping so that I can now stop and focus on this one incredible event in human history(Matthew 1:20-23):

An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.'

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord said through the prophet: 'The virgin will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel' which means, 'God with us.'

Quote of the Day

As we are pulling out of the driveway to go to church this evening, Anderson says:

"Mommy, you forgot your Jesus book." (Aka, the Bible!)

Happy 1/2 Birthday EJ

I forgot to tell you that EJ turned 6 months on November 28th, the day after Thanksgiving! This is a picture of him on his 1/2 birthday. It is hard to believe that he is already 6 months old! He is such a big boy like his brother! He is the same size as other kids who are twice his age! He is still the sweetest baby I have ever been around...he continues to smile, "talk" and laugh more and more each day! And what a pretty boy!

He does not crawl yet but somehow gets around by scooting and rolling. He really likes to play with his toys, jungle gym, baby einstein, etc. He is grabbing everything and shaking his rattle! He has a strong grip too...so watch out for your hair and jewelry ladies! He also likes to play the drums (and by this I mean tap out the rythm with his hands on whatever is nearby). He is still drawn to light and music. He is now eating his vegetables....so far he has had carrots, squash and green beans. He did fine with carrots and squash but HATES green beans! I'm talking gagging and throwing up! We will try those again later down the road but for now, he is not having them!

He looks like Anderson in some ways...especially now that he is getting a little personality, some of his mannerisms remind me of him...but he looks a little different too...everything about him is lighter than Anderson...skin, hair and eyes...and in my opinion he looks more like Aaron in ways that Anderson looks more like me! But both boys change daily and are a good mixture of Aaron and I... and our two families! My dad swears that all of his grandsons look like him, even though they all look different...and are much cuter than him! Ha! But like Grandaddy says...he may not be cuter than EJ but he has more hair and teeth than him! Which is true...EJ is still pretty bald (and the hair he does have is so light it is hard to see) and he has no teeth yet! By 6 months Anderson had a head full of hair and 2 teeth!

It is fun to watch the two boys start to interact with each other...EJ can get down on the floor now and play with Anderson a little! Anderson is pretty sweet to him most of the time, sharing his toys with and talking to him...although he does have his moments of jealousy...these mostly come when he is tired and feels like EJ is getting more attention than he...and we all know how Anderson likes to demand your attention!

Well... I could probably talk about my boys all day long...but I better be going now...don't want to bore you! Ha!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas...

Ever since we returned from Missouri, we have been diligently working on decorating the house and the tree, wrapping presents and stuffing cards! I am SO excited that the Christmas season is finally upon us...I have spent the last month anxiously awaiting it! Why, you ask?!!? Simply because it is such a joyous time of year! I love everything about it....from the little twinkle lights to the music to the hustle and bustle in the air to the smiles on the faces around me to the real reason for the season! This year I am really working ahead to get everything done because the next 2 weeks of my life are going to be pretty insane with all that we have going on! I learned my lesson last year...we will pretty much be living at AMBC for the next 2 weeks...and I have ALOT of responsibilities upon me! This year should be a little easier considering I will not be pregnant (although now I have a 2 1/2 year old and a 6 month old) and I am not the featured speaker at the Ladies Night Out Christmas dinner, thank goodness! But I am hoping to get all of my work done ahead of time so that I can maybe enjoy all of the fun stuff I am about to be apart of in the upcoming weeks!

Tonight we pretty much finished decorating the house...our last project being the decorating of the Christmas tree...which is actually the only thing that the boys (and by boys I mean Aaron too) helped with...we had a good time! I am desperately trying to come up with new Christmas traditions that we can do as a family...we are trying to start our own traditions now that Anderson is old enough to participate! It is harder than you think considering I will be spending my Christmases with a house full of boys...who I am sure will not be into all of the silly traditions that my sisters and I LOVE! I do plan on keeping some of our traditions alive in my house...but I am also trying to come up with some more boyish ones too! I am sure they will kind of evolve naturally on their own like ours did BUT...one of the traditions will definitely be to decorate the Christmas tree together while listening to Christmas music, which is what we did tonight!

Here are a few pictures of the house and the tree:

The front door...

The fireplace...

The tree...

Anderson enjoyed helping...

He is very proud of his work...

EJ helped too...sort of...

I will give a more detailed account of the house on December 15th, when I participate in the Tour of Homes! Until then...Merry Christmas to ALL...may you and your loved ones have a blessed holiday season!

Even in the hard times, we still have the following to celebrate this Christmas, if nothing else:

For unto us is born this day in the City of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord!

(Luke 2:11)