Christmas Morning

Christmas morning my 2 sisters their husbands, my niece and nephew all came over to my parents. We had a great lunch. With all the trimmings.. Turkey, ham, dressing, green bean casserole, yams, mashed potatoes, rolls, and some other stuff I know I'm forgetting. After lunch we all gathered in the living room and started opening the gifts. This year was so much fun with Connor and Kinley. Last year he was only 7 months old and she was 2 months old. Kinley was asleep the whole time and Connor really didnt understand what was going on. However this year, He loved opening all his WIGGLES stuff and she was tearing into all her packages. They both had such a good time. After the kids finished opening their gifts we started on ours. The 3 girls and 3 boys all drew names which made it so much easier this year. Shelly drew my name and got me a sign for my house. I dont have any picutres of it but when I do ill be sure to post it. Basically it is a sign you hang on the wal, in black print letters it has our last name "HERRING" then on top of that in cursive it say's Bless Our Home. I love it. (Thanks Shelly). Jamie bought Jeff the Anthony Bourdaine cookbook he has been wanting for months. He too loves his gift but after seeing some of the rescipes i'm not sure if I agree. HA! And I have to give props to my dad this year. For as long as I can remember my mom has wanted to see Celine Dion. Everything they went to Vegas her show was always sold out and now she no longer performs out here. So he bought her 2 tickets to her show in Dallas next monday. She was so suprised and so excited! Well here are a few of my favorite pictures from our Christmas at my family.

Mom's Christmas Tree.

Kinley opening her presents

And Connor opening his
I got Shelly this BIG necklace, I think she loved it. What do you think?

Mom opening her Celine Tickets
Uncle Jeff and Kinley

Christmas Eve

Well Christmas Eve this year was alittle different than years past. Normally we spend it with one side of the family or the other. But this year both sides decided to do Christmas on Christmas day. So the day before Jeff spent the morning with his dad and went over to see some friends and I hung out with my mom and sister. We went to lunch and then did alittle shopping. ( I know weird right) After that we met Jeff back out at my parents house. We rode the ranger around and chased the cows. Yes we are 30 years old but it was fun.... That evening my mom and dad took us out to eat. Came home watched some TV and went to bed so Santa could come.

Pretty much an out of the ordinary Christmas Eve, yet it was a relaxing day.

Santa Clause is Coming to Town

On Tuesday December 23 we loaded up the sleigh (aka: my car) and headed to Waco to deliver the gifts to all the good little boys and girls.

This is a bit ridiculous huh?

Did I mention that we had to put the extra hitch basket thing on the back of the car just to carry our luggage..

Pictures

We had a great Christmas. I am still sorting through pictures to post. I promise they will be up soon.... I really dont know what is taking me so long. Going back to work this morning was ruff, what can i say!!!

Merry Christams

We just wanted to take the time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I know it is 3 days too early but since we were headed to Waco Tuesday night after work, I did not know when I would be able to post this. I am looking so forward to going home for the holidays. It is always fun when we get to go home but being home from the holidays is always so much better. We will be staying with my parents on Tuesday, and Wednesday having Christmas on Thursday and then heading over to Jeff's parents for the evening. Not sure where we will be staying Friday and Saturday, my plan is too stay with my sister and niece, not sure if that is at her house or moms. Not really sure yet either if Jeff will be with me those days or staying with his family but Im sure we will work it out. We will be heading back to Houston on Sunday, to which I am already not looking forward to.

Well again I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. And stay Safe!!!!


This was the picture from our Christmas card this year. I tried to upload a picture of our actual card but for what ever reason it would not let me.

Hallettsville Weekend

This past weekend we loaded up and went to spend the weekend in Hallettsville with a few good friends. We didn't do anything real exciting, just pretty much hung out, had alot of good food and a few beers.

Saturday morning Jeff went hunting with the guys. He shot his 1st deer of the season. He got his self a little spike. I was still asleep when the got back so I don't have any pictures of it. If I ever get Scott to email me the one he has i'll post them later. Saturday afternoon we also had MiKinleys 1st birthday party. She was such a cutie and I think she really had a good time at her party. That evening Ryan cooked up so most excellent fajita, we we all got our grub on. YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY!!!! Hung out by the fire and called it a night.

Like I said it was not too excited just a relaxing fun weekend with friends.

*( Once I got home I realized that the only pictures that I took were of the party.)*

MiKinley just CHEEZIN

I think she likes it!!!

HONESTY

Honored! (or should I say - stressed out!?)

OK - thanks to my sweet friend Shannon, I have been "honored" with this blogger award! I know I should give a wonderful, heartfelt acceptance speech, but since we are talking honesty here, thinking of ten honest things about me has been sort of stressful! I know, I know....these things are supposed to be fun! And - I love reading others' honest things about themselves. So, why do I get stressed thinking of what to write....HECK IF I KNOW!!! (and by the way - I have NO IDEA how to link people, so I am bowing out of that one piece of this post) Here goes nothin'.........








"When you receive the prize, you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in their content or design. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing that they were prized with 'Honest Weblog'. List [if you can and/or dare] at least ten honest things about yourself. Then, pass it on!"




1) I love my pillow. I dont think I can go anywhere without it. No matter where we go to spend the night or the weekend this is a total MUST HAVE for me. I have no idea why but for what ever reason for as long as I can remember I have to have MY pillow. Oh and it also has to ride in the front seat with me just incase I decide I need a nap on the way.




2) I am addicted to myspace. I have only had a "page" for a couple of years and thought that when my sister was telling me about it she was totally crazy, and had nothing better to do with her time. BUT I am now the addict. (Funny how the tables turned.) As soon as I get home from work I have to check it to see if I have a new message or a new comment. Once I have done that, then it is ok to proceed with the rest of my night.LOL




3) I met my husband the summer before my junior year of high school. And we started dating in September 1994. After a few months of us dating I remember sitting in his room telling him that one day we would get married. OF course he told me I was crazy that we were only 16 and I didn't know what was going to happen. And my reply was "You'll see." We dated for 11 years and finally got engaged October 10, 2005 and married June 3, 2006. I guess that was ANOTHER one I was right about.




4) This drives me totally insane. Since I was a junior in high school I have been dealing with a little something call gray hair. Not alot but the occasional few that just drives you absoultly nuts. Every year it had seemed to get worse and worse so finally I have given in to dying my hair. No it is not something that I enjoy matter of fact I cant stand it. I think mainly I just dont understand why I had to get these wonderful family genes and my sister lucked out. UHHH




5) I am scared to death of frogs. Yes you heard correctly frogs. Now this is not a fear that I even realized I had until I moved to Houston. We live extremly close to Lake Houston so we tend to have more frogs than the normal neighborhood. Last year I was in the front yard replanting some plants and about half way through this I felt something on my leg. I looked down and it was a slimmy little frog STUCK on my leg. I slapped at it twice before I was able to knock it off. Not to mention jumping around and screamming in my front yard like a crazy woman. It was that day that I realized I think I might have a heart attack if I ever come in contact with another one.....




6) I have a crazy family that many people can't understand. So let me explain it one more time. Before my parents got married to each other they were married before so I have an half sister. Then my parents got married and there is me and my younger sister. They then divorced and both remarried. From this I have another half sister from my dad and a step sister from my mom and and step dad. Did you get all that.. Let me recap!!!
*older half sister
* sister
* younger half sister
* step sister.
Does this explain why only 1 of them really looks like me....


7)I love photography. I have always loved pictures and frames and that sort of stuff. But the last few years I have found myself obsessed with taking pictures. I dont think I am that great at it or anything but I would like to think that one day I could be. I wish I could go back to school and take some classes and oneday be good enough to open my own studio or something.



8) When I was in the 7th grade i was sitting at lunch. The table some how broke and the other kids pushed the table back up to the wall and my hand fell between the two. I was wearing a ring on my index finger. It broke and went into my finger I had to be taken to the ER to have it removed.



9)I have lived through a Hurricane. And have lots to tell about it.



10) Growing up my papaw had nicknames for all of us. I can remember being so embarrassed of mine. I mean we had a WORM, HOGIE BO, AMOS SKEETER, PUNKY, TEATLE and then there was me and I had to be guinea mae... I dont know why I thought that this was so horrible but I did. My papaw has been gone now for 12 years and what I wouldnt give to hear him call me guinea mae one more time. I mean now that I think about it, it really wasnt that bad considering the others that there were.



THERE! I did it! 10 things (some interesting, some just to fill up a number and get through this thing!) that you might not have known about me and now I am so glad that you do!

Now for the 7 blogging friends that I want to hear some honesty from......

SHELLY, KRISTY, JAMIE, KATHY, TRACI, AMY, MICHELLE

Blogger Award

Thanks Shelly for awarding my blog! Now I get to award 5 of my blogger friends..

1. Kathy

2. Kristy

3. Shannon B

4. Amy

5. Traci

It's My Lucky Day!!!

Well I guess today was my lucky day! We had our Christmas party at work today. Not a real big deal, they had fajitas catered in from Escalates. And it was of course delicious. After everyone was done eating, they had put everyone's name in a hat and pulled them out for various gift cards around town. Towards the end my name was pulled and I won 2 tickets to an Astro's game. Not any game though. The tickets were for 2nd row right behind home plate. I am soooo excited and cant wait.

Winter Wonderland

I absolutely love this time of year. I love all the decorations, lights, music, all the corney christmas movies and even the shopping. But most of all I love the time I get to spend with my family. I am so excited for Christmas day this year with Kinley and Connor. They are old enough to enjoy it this year, so I am sure they are going to be quite funny.

For the past 3 years Jeff has put up our Christmas lights without complaining. ( Well for the most part atleast). And every year they look absolutely perfect. And this year was no exception. He woke up early Saturday morning fixed himself something to eat for breakfast and got busy stringing all those lights . As much as I try to "help", Im not really sure exactly how much help I am. Either way they get done and look great. This year though turned out to be really great. The weather today got pretty cold and rainy this morning. The rain finally went away and was replaced with SNOW. Yes people we have SNOW in Houston! We got home from work and I got out and took some pictures of the house. I doubt I will ever see snow at Christmas time here again. Anyways its been alot of fun.

All of my Christmas shopping is done and everything is wrapped and under the tree. And if I do say so myself my presents are so pretty this year. Ill post pictures of that later.

Anyways, well I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, and you get everything you asked for from Santa this year.

Beenie!!!!!

I took these cute little pictures of Connor at Thanksgiving at my parent's. What a cutie huh? He pretty much played out side ALL day long, so my dad found him this little "beenie" and made him wear it. Thank GOD to because it was so cold and windy. I didn't get many pictures of either one of the kids this weekend and especially this one. Since he is up and walking (correction) running it is much harder to make him be still to take his picture. Hopefully he'll slow down a bit by Christmas so I can get some then.

Bambi's

If you look back at my post of buck rubbing's (i don't know how to make it a link yet). You will already know that we have figured out that there is deer in our yard, when we don't know it. Two weeks ago we took Spencer outside about 9:30 one night. We were out there for about 5 minutes when I looked over I saw 3 deer staring back a me. Then we were snorted by another that was in the neighbors yard. I tried to take some pictures but it was so dark you couldn't really see them. And when my flash would go off all you could see was their eyeballs. The next day we decided we were going to get some deer corn and start feeding them for awhile. Last Tuesday I walked outside scooped up some corn threw it out, went back and got another cup and before I could throw it, there were already 4 deer staring back at me. I ran back in the house and grabbed my camera and outside we went. We stood in the driveway for about 40 minutes just watching them and snapping some pictures. I grabbed another cup on corn and made my way over to the deer and was able to get within 10 feet from them. I started throwing corn out and they just kept eating... It was so neat. Anyway here are a few pictures that I able to take.

What A Great Memory

Every year Jeff always talk about wanting to make dressing with his grandmother, for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. And this year he finally was able to do exactly what he has talk about for all these years. He and his grandma made a date and got to cookin. If you know anything about my husband you know that he LOVES to cook. And to have the opportunity to cook with the best cook in their family, was a dream come true for him. For the most part she just sat back and let him take over but she was there telling him what to add next and how much of this or that he needed.

He did a really good job and everything turned out really great. I am just so glad that they both now have this memory of cooking thanksgiving dinner together.

I have so many pictures of them together, that it was hard to pick just which ones I wanted to post. But here are a few. Well I hope that everyone had a great holiday.

Happy Turkey Day

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all have a great day and get to eat LOTS of turkey and dressing.
Just a couple of things that I am thankful for this year..

1. My husband- He takes such good care of me and without him I don't know where I would be.
2. My family- I love them all!
5. My Friends- I love you!
3. Job- even though I don't like it most of the time. I am thankful that I have one.
4. The roof over my head.
5. The health of me and my family

Lunch Date

Yesterday I met 2 of my BESTIES (Nicole and Misti "lou hoo") for lunch at On The Boarder! We had a really good time getting all caught up on everything. Since I have moved to Houston I don't get to see them near as much as I would like. And I miss them something awful.... So when ever we do get together no matter for how long or how short, we all 3 have a really good time. I dont have any pictures of our outing but i'll add one of us later.

Well I hope you girls had as good of a time as I did. I sure miss you guys.

Well I was actually TAGed with this on my email. But I thought I would put it on my blog instead.

My Top 8

I've been tagged to list a few of my top 8. Not gonna lie 8 was a little difficult in a few of these categories. If you're not interested in these random, yet wonderfully telling little tidbits of information about me, then scan to the bottom to see if you've been tagged :)

8 TV Shows I Love To Watch:
1. Jon & Kate plus 8
2. Big Brother
3.American Idol
4. How I met your mother
5. The new adventures of old christine
6. HOUSE
7. CSI Miami
8. Two and a half men

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Bush's Chicken
2. El Con
3. Olive Garden
4. Chick FilA
5. Coffee Shop
6. Vic & Anthony's
7. Out Back

8. George's
8 Things That Happened Today:
1. Got up
2. Had another stupid and worthless meeting at work

3. talked to shelly
4. Checked my email
5. Text Nicole and Kristi a few times
6. went to pee
7. took Spencer outside to pee.. haha
8. And now i am on the computer

8 Things I am looking Forward To:
1. Thanksgiving
2. Getting to see Kinley, Connor and Abby next week
3. Spending 5 days in Waco... I miss home
4. Shopping with my sister on black Friday
5. Having lunch with my girls Nicole and Misty ( i miss you guys so much)
6. Christmas in a month
7. watching my nieces and nephew open their gifts
8. getting a hair cut next wednesday

8 Things On My Wishlist:
1. win the lotto
2. move closer to home
3. my parents would come visit
4. my sister would come visit
5. a baby
6. gas prices would stay down
7. a new job.....
8. it would get cold and stay cold.

Now I choose to TAG 4 people:
SHELLY OLIVER
JAMIE COLVERT
KATHY WEITHORN
KRISTY BOYD

Totally ADDICTED

OK so I have to admit. I am 100% totally addicted to Jon & Kate plus 8 !!!! I live for Monday nights at 9:00pm. Jeff thinks I have completely lost my mind but I just cant help myself. Yeah Kate gets alittle annoying sometimes. But I figure that is just the way she deals with 8 kids. I can not imagine having 2 sets of multiples. You gotta hand it to em'. And the sextuplets! I want to bring everyone of them home. I think Aaden and this little glasses are by far the cutest thing I have ever seen. And Alexis and her AL-DOR- GATOR is adorable. I cant imagine growing up in a house with 7 other brothers and sisters. Much less giving birth to 8 children. MUCHO props to Kate.

Anyways... I am obsessed with this family. Seasons 1 & 2 came out of DVD this month. I asked Jeff to buy them for me for Christmas and well he pretty much told me to "get a life". HAHA for some reason I dont think he is in love with this family as much as me. I cant imagine why! If you haven't seen an episode you must find the time to watch it. Like I said it comes on Monday night at 9 on TLC. I swear, you watch one show and you'll be hooked. You will want Cara, Mady, Alexis, Hannah, Colin, Leah, Aaden and Joel to move in with you.

Couch Potato

Well this is pretty much exactly how we spent our weekend. We have been so busy the past couple of weeks and with Thanksgiving only 2 weeks away, laying on the couch for the past 2 days was exactly what we both needed. We actually did get up yesterday and get some house work done and go to the grocerie store. However we jumped quickly back into our PJ's just as soon as we got home.
I hope everyone else had as relaxing weekend as we did. Because I hate to tell ya, but tomorrow is MONDAY! **yuck**

TAG

You're it! Now if you read this & have a blog of your own, you gotta do it too!



Go to the picture folder on your computer.
Open the 4th folder.
Pull up the 4th picture.
Tell us about it.


On our 1st anniversary we took a Carnival cruise out of Galveston. We went to Jamaica, Grand Caymen Island and Cozumel. While we were in Grand Caymen we took an excursion that took us about 5-10 miles out in the ocean to a sand bar where we got out and swam with the STING RAYS... yes people I said STING RAYS... I was a little hesitant at first but then jumped in with both feet. Literally!!! But it was an absolute blast, and I would do it again in a heart beat. *if your ever in the caymen's this is a MUST do*

Tag..... Your IT

So, here are the rules to receiving this award:

1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.

2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.

3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

Instructions: On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. To add the award to your post, simply right-click, save image, then "add image" it in your post as a picture so your winners can save it as well. To add it to your sidebar, add the "picture" gidget.Also, don't forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog.

My 5 addictions:

1. Jeff~ Cant live without him

2. Kinley~ Every girl should have a niece like this one....

3. Connor~ Love him

4. Family~ Couldn't live with em'

5.MySpace~ must not live without!!!

Who I'm tagging:

1. Amy- the wilson six
2 Jamie- The colvert adventures
3.Kristy- The many adventures of Price
4.Shannon~ The BROWN bag.
5.Traci~Varvarigos Family

(sorry for some reason it wouldnt let me put any spaces between all of this!!)

Family Reunion

This weekend was Jeff's grandmother's annual family reunion with her side of the family. It was nice to get to see everyone again. Since we all seem to be all over the place, we don't all really get to see each other that much. Friday night when we got in town we stayed out at Jeff's parents. Then Saturday we went over to his grandma's for the afternoon. We ate a BIG lunch and had some great pecan pie. *Courtesy of Judy* Which was delicious!!!
Saturday night we went out to my mom's and hung out with them, Shelly and Kinley. I didnt get many pictures of the reunion but I did get to snap a couple of Abigale, Autumn and Hannah and their great grandmother. Enjoy!

GreatGrandma Jody and Abby
Nanny, Autumn, Abigale and
Hannah
Kinley
She is asking Jeff
"Why you touchin me, MAN!"

Galveston

Yesterday we decided to take a little road trip down to Galveston to see what IKE had left behind. It absolutely took my breath away to see just how devastating it really was. We were only able to get on the island and go down the sea wall. The ferry is not running yet on Bolivar Peninsula, and that is where ALOT of the damage was. So I am in hopes that we can get down there in the next few months.

We were about 5 miles or so north of Galveston on IH45, and there were boats that were still sitting on the side of the road and in the median. Unbelievable! We got into town and it was just house after house, business after business of debris. We drove by one house and I began to cry, there was a pile of trash out front with some child's stuffed dog mixed in. It broke my heart.
We went by one of our favorite restraunt's WillieG's. They had a HUGE shrimp boat in their parking lot. Jeff just kept asking me " how did that get there."

As we drove down the sea wall there were a few business and restraunt's open. But twice as many closed. We passed by the FlagShip Hotel which is basically a hotel that is over the water. The hotel is still standing, even though the front has a big hole in it and the bride you drive on to get over to it is gone. There is still is a car in the parking lot? How will those people ever get there car back? There was also another pier with a truck "thrown" in the middle of it. Again I was asked "how did that get there?"

As bad as I thought our problems were here. They are truly and honestly nothing compared to what these people have gone through ,and are still going through. I think alot of us think that the hurricane is over and the lights are back on. So everything is over. Well seeing what I saw yesterday only 6 weeks after IKE. It is far from over. Please keep these people and this town in your prayers. They need it!
**click on the pictures to make them bigger**

Boat on the side of IH45

Shrimp boat in the parking lot of
Willie G's

Check out the truck that is on this pier.
"How did it get there"?

Debris in the street outside
people's houses!

This breaks my heart.

When Life Hands You LEMON's Make Lemon Aid

Jeff acquired this lemon tree about 4 years ago. And for the past 3 years he has been pampering this baby to death. And this year we FINALLY have a lemon folks. Yes just one but a lemon none the less. HAHA!! Our only problem now is that we don't exactly know when it is ready! Do we pick it off the tree or will it fall off? The pictures below that I have of it do not really do it justice. It is alot bigger than it looks.

I never knew my husband had such a GREEN thumb. Way to go babe!


I guess if he keeps this up at lease our kids can make "homemade" lemon aid for their lemon aid stands right!!!!!

Happy Halloween

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy and Safe Halloween. We really don't have anything exciting planned, we are just going to pass out candy to the few trick or treaters we do get. We live at the end of a culd-a-sac so it is hard to see our porch light from the street. So we never really get very many kiddos. But it will be fun none the less with the ones that we do get.

HaPpY HaLLowEEn

My scarecrow people on the front porch.
How cute are they!

Jesse

Jesse, Jesse, Jesse.... What can I say about Jesse! Our neighbor's ended up with him after the hurricane. His previous owner lived in Galveston and lost his home to IKE. He moved into our neighborhood to his sisters house who said that he couldn't not keep the dog. So long story short our neighbor's directly next door took him in. The first week or so he was real cute and all that good mushy stuff. Now he GROWING!!!! We actually feel kind of sorry for him though. I think he is to much DOG for them to handle. It was all fun and games at first and now I feel like they neglect him a little.. About 2 weeks ago we noticed that they keep him chained to a tire in the back yard. Pretty much because they are to lazy to fix their fallen down fence from the storm. Being in the backard is one thing but he has no where to go for shade because they have no trees, and his small little water bowl seems to never have water in it because he always dumps it over. Now when they do let him out to play, they bring him in the front yard and let him off the leash. NOT SO SMART!!!

This weekend Jeff was working in the yard and out of no where here comes Jesse! And what a SHOCKER no one was with him. So he hung out with Jeff doing yard work for a few minutes until we took him back home. Did I mention that Spencer is scared of him..... My poor baby! OH and did I also mention that he has massive poop? I know this because he keeps leaving it in my yard. And his nice owners do not ever pick it up...... So the next time Spencer thinks he wants to go to their yard to visit.. I think Ill let him and repay the favor!

Jesse hanging out to do yard work!


Telling Spencer Hello through
the dining room window. Spencer
is telling him to GO HOME!