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!