Somebody like this purse a lot.....

Tonight I finished our second Christmas tree. I like to do a smaller one upstairs that I call our "kid Christmas tree." The garland is fake candy. I have candy canes and popsicles as ornaments. The rest of the ornaments are all kid like. Disney characters, teddy bears, all the ornaments I made when I was in elementary school, and some from when my parents were kids. Charlie has added some of his and we have started to add some for Savannah. I know one day she will come home with some cute ornament she made and we will have the perfect place to put it:)

My little helper:)

Candy canes, candy garland, and popsicles

Savannah, Brittany, and Charlie:) Thanks MIL!

Baby's First Christmas...me when I was a baby:)

Charlie and I's first Christmas ornament!

Charlie's baby ornament

First of all...HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I am thankful for my family, friends, my health, and my job. We had a great day. Savi ended the day with mommy by falling asleep in my arms. She rarely does that and I enjoyed every second!

Today I spent a moment in silence to remember a dear friend. I feel like I haven't retold this story to anyone in so long. Yet it is so fresh in my mind. 13 years ago... when I moved to a new private school in 6th grade I was definitely nervous. The school had a program called the buddy program. They hook you up with a family/student the summer before you attend school so that they can help you get to know some people and just so the first day there is at least one friendly face. Mine was Brooke Gray. I remember she invited me over for a girls lunch to introduce me to some of her friends. Her mom and her were very nice. For the rest of my many years at school, we became great friends. It turned out we went to the same church. Between her and some other girls, I became much more involved in church. We were in choir together at church and went on some great trips together. I spent many Friday nights at her house doing crazy stunts and all kinds of fun stuff.

We also went to summer camp together. Our last summer that we went to camp we were introduced to Mercy Me. Our counselors had there cd and played it all the time. I remember both Brooke and I loved them. Later our senior year of high school we found out that our church would be having them every Monday night as the worship band for a young single service. It was sort of meant for a college crowd, but it was fine if we went and we DEFINITELY wanted to. A chance to see Mercy Me live to sing one of our favorite songs was so fun. "I Can Only Imagine" was that song. We got to hear them play it several Monday nights as we went.

We were all on Thanksgiving break our senior year and having a blast. One night we went to the Super Target parking lot and just hung out in the back of a friends truck. Not getting into trouble or anything, but just being seniors I guess. The day before Thanksgiving I went with my mom and sister to see the Rockettes in Grand Prairie. In the middle of the show, one of my other friends was calling me constantly. Kind of unusual for her. I thought because her parents were going through a divorce she was having a rough time and needed me for something. I got up from the show to call her back. She was out of town at the time visiting family in San Angelo. She answered crying and I asked what was wrong. She asked if I had heard anything and I said no. What? Her mom had called and said she had heard of a small airplane crash matching the description of the Gray family and there plane. I dropped to my knees in the middle of the lobby. I was at a loss for words. At that time it was not completely confirmed, but speculated the whole family had died. They were on there way to see family for Thanksgiving. Brooke's dad had his own plane and pilots license. November 26, 2002 Kathy, Bill, Chad, Chase, and Brooke Gray all died in a plane crash.

I had never experienced loss like this. I mean it is sad when your grandparents die for sure, but they lived (hopefully) a long wonderful life. Brooke was one month shy of her 18th birthday. Her brothers both college age and her wonderful parents had many years ahead of them. I will never forget when I got that call from Laurie telling me the news. I spent the rest of the night in the lobby waiting for my mom and sister to get out of the show and waited for more details for sure confirming it was them. I was shocked and wasn't sure how to feel. It was an unreal feeling. As we drove home, my dad confirmed via the internet that it was them. I drove over to some friends houses that night and we just sat around kinda numbly. None of us knew what to do or feel.

The next day was Thanksgiving and probably the worst Thanksgiving of my life. I didn't know what to be thankful for. I was thankful that my family was with me, but why not Brooke. I cried all day. My dad drove me and another friend to the funeral in Missouri where they lay to rest today. I still have a rose from Brooke's casket today. All of senior year was hard. We missed Brooke and her family so much that year. Going to class was a daunting task, walking by her locker, eating lunch....everything was a reminder of her. It took awhile for all of us to get back to reality and through a day without her. It happened 7 years ago and that is so crazy to me. I don't think about her every second of every day. Every year does get easier and easier, but I certainly never want to forget her and her wonderful family. At her funerals and anything that was for her that year, they played "I Can Only Imagine." It was the perfect song to remember her by. Anytime I hear that song, I only think of her.....

http://www.texnews.com/1998/2002/texas/texas_At_least_1128.html

Today was a GREAT day! Charlie and I were both off and we put up most of our Christmas decorations. We do a "formal" tree, if you will, downstairs and then a "kid" tree upstairs. The kid tree has fun candy garland, candy canes, and most of the ornaments are from when I was little and either my parents bought special ones for me or I made them in grade school. Soon Savi will have some great popsicle stick ones to add I am sure! Here is the downstairs....
Later we went out and ran some errands and stopped by my moms to give her her birthday present. We stopped to pick up a couple ingredients for apple dump cake. I was in charge of dessert for Thanksgiving dinner with Charlie's parents. Since Charlie works tomorrow, we did Thanksgiving early. It was yummy!

Me and my baby by the fire:)

Now time to get ready for my next Thanksgiving dinner. Happy Thanksgiving!!! I am thankful for my family, friends, my health, and my job!

Tonight we are celebrating my moms birthday and starting off the Christmas season. We are going to eat dinner on the patio and watch the Christmas tree lighting at the Shops at Legacy. This is the area that surrounds where I work. It is so pretty at Christmas time. I am very excited. I hope Savi will enjoy too. The weather seems to be good:)

I think the shoes fit quite nicely:)

This is our little family....and I love them more and more each day:)

Friday night I was on my way home and my husband says I have "3 surprises"...I'm like sweet...what are they? He says "my parents called and invited us out for Chinese food! I'm thinking...oh wow that sounds so good and I'm tired. Where do we go?" Charlie then proceeds to tell me I told them no. Savi seems kinda tired so we need to stay home. Can you say disappointment. And why would you start out with I have 3 surprises and then tell me we are NOT having Chinese food. Plain cruel:) Well he immediately noticed my disappointment and called his parents to see if we could still go. This is why I love him! He had actually made dinner already. He put it up in the fridge for another night and out to dinner we went:) We also did some browsing in Kirklands. That place is the next best thing to Hobby Lobby. I found some cute gift ideas and a Christmas decoration!

Saturday, Savi and I just hung out. I went to work later in the evening and saw Emmitt Smith! Kinda cool:) He was at this hospital gala that was going on at the hotel. Here is a back shot of him. Best I could do with out just being plain obnoxious:) Oh and his wife...Pat Smith...is plain GORGEOUS!

Sunday I did this....

It can be an exhausting process, but so worth it. Never to early to get these out of the way:)

I wanted to throw a sip and see for my friend Cathy. I felt like sip and see's though were kinda girly and I needed to man it up a little:) So I came up with the idea of a Sparkling Sip and See! A champagne themed party! Here was the invite...
The party was super fun to plan and turned out cute. I did a little champagne station of bellini's and mimosa's. Then just some yummy party food. You don't have to do much else since the main attraction is the BABY:)

I made brownie lollipops! So yummy!

This past weekend wasn't to busy but was at the same time. Friday night Charlie and I just hung out. We had a family outing to Target and we bought a new game Charlie and I were interested in called Scrabble Slam. Charlie and I LOVE to play scrabble. He almost always beats me. I have to try real hard to keep up. The game is fun. Not to much like scrabble, but has a small resemblance.Saturday, Savi and I just hung out and had a great day. I took her to the park and she was just an absolute doll:) Later Kristin came over and we went to run some errands. I made some yummy BBQ chicken on the grill and once Charlie got home, we enjoyed a great dinner.

This is my favorite picture of her right now! My girl so happy in the swing:)

Love her!

Sunday, I hosted a Sparkling Sip and See. Look for more on that in my next post:) I was exhausted after that and crashed in bed! I may or may not have eaten a Sprinkles cupcake for dinner and went to sleep. (Thanks MIL for dinner:))

I had seen this idea somewhere and really wanted to do it. I love dancing and I thought it would be special for me to be in the picture with her. It is me in my pointe shoes and my cute little ballerina:)

Here are some pictures from our Halloween! Savi loved just walking up and down the streets. We would just point her in the direction of a house and she did well. My in laws live in the neighborhood, so we first went to visit them!

Here she is getting candy from Mims:)

Daddy took her up to a house.

Aunt Kristin came with us!

Walking up to a house with mommy! I had so much fun taking her:)

Look at all my candy!

After we put Savi to bed, Kristin and I got ready for a Halloween party we were invited to. We wanted to go 80's and look the same, so we went with Aerobic 80's Girls! It was pretty fun. Here we are getting a workout in before we head out! "Let's get physical, physical...." lol