A Tender Tennessee Christmas

This year we took another Christmas vacation to Tennessee. I tried and tried to find another location to avoid getting stuck in that place where you keep going back to the same locations but we had such a good time last year... well, there you have it.

So, we took off on December 20 for a week in the mountains. We didn't do much and enjoyed every minute of it. We did manage to go over the mountains (Michael at the pass into North Carolina)

We were surprised to find an old mill

We rode the Polar Express on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad. We had taken this ride once before when Michael was about 2 on our trip to Asheville this time with much better results.



Michael and Edd rode go karts and we played a few rounds of miniature golf. Michael was finally tall enough to drive most of them by himself which made him very happy. The most fun in the world is racing daddy on the go kart...


Santa found us on our mountain and left a few things with a promise of more when we got back to Flower Mound.



We also added to the luggage by buying Michael his first pocket knife and another bb gun.

It was a great trip and we were sad to leave the beautiful scenery. Luckily the house we rented this year is for sale so we could make it a permanent addition to the family - but, a bit out of the price range... oh well, we'll have to keep looking.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas full of surprises and blessings.



And... if you're just dying to see more pictures from the trip please let me know and I'll e-mail you a link to the whole lot!!

About apples and trees...

As they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Well, a prime example was had this Christmas. Michael has always been addicted to music of all kinds and memorizes songs to sing to us at random times and places. This year for Christmas he got his very own Ipod from Grandma and Grandpa. As you might imagine, he was more excited than anything and has practically worn it out in the last few days. Here are a couple of pics of him opening the present (which we made him wait until last to open) and already enjoying his music.



Oh, and it also has several Star Wars - Clone Wars episodes on it... we didn't even have to get out the DVD player for our trip this year.

1st Christmas

This past weekend we celebrated the first of our family Christmases. This one was held at my Aunt and Uncle's farm in DEEEEEEPPPP East Texas. Michael loved playing with the cows, donkeys, puppies and other creatures big and small. He and Ryan had a great game of tag on top of the hay bales along with the assistance of Aunt Kathy, Uncle Chris and the dog Lucky. Here are a few pictures from the day...

Opening Gifts


Go Kathy!


Lucky the Dog


Ryan strategizing


Leap of Faith

Ice Skating - Round 2

So, to fill in the gap between fall baseball and basketball we took another round of ice skating lessons. While he will never be an Olympic skater he is definitely getting the "hang" of it and improving in his skills. Here are pictures from his most recent round of classes. Oh, and, in case you were wondering, it is quite cold in an ice skating rink during December.... brrrrrrrr!!

DD Construction & Remodeling at it again...

Those of you who know us well know we spend a lot of time working on projects. Well, as you know, not all of those projects are our own. So, over the long weekend we also helped my parents with a little project at their house. The goal was to remove a 35+ year old sliding glass door from the master bedroom and replace it with a window. No one has even seen this door in at least 20 years so it certainly won't be missed. Here are a few pics from the momentous occasion. The project is close to completion, waiting on Lowe's to get that siding in and still need a little trim work on the inside but definitely an improvement over that leaky old door.





Even Chris came along to help out - without Kathy, brave brave man...

December is here, already???

Hard to imagine that December is already here. Over the long weekend we decorated the tree and house and are getting ready for our big trip (mentally anyway). To let off a little steam the "boys" rode the 4 wheeler in a field near our house. I got a few pics to share. They had a lot of fun and Michael sped up just a little bit more each time he went over the big bump - he's a daredevil, wonder where he gets that from?