Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve this year was by far the most memorable. We actually did not have plans this year. Jeff went to meet his dad for lunch and hang out with one of his friends. And I decided to go out to the cemetery to "see" my grandparents. After that I went to spend the afternoon with my sister and Kinley. We just hung out ate some Bush's chicken and drink some homemade hot chocolate. I know weird combo right... But it was good. =) Around noon believe it or not it started to SNOW! And continued to snow pretty much all day and most of the evening. So instead of a white Christmas, Waco got its 1st ever white Christmas eve. With a little left over Christmas morning.

About 8 o'clock my parents and us decided to go driving around and check out some lights around town. We went down a street in Woodway- Wooded Crest that is decorated up literally like the Griswalds! It has been this way for quite a few years, I just have never went driving down to see everything. There were blow up decorations galore, music playing in the street that you could tune into in your car, and more lights that you can even imagine.
All in all we had a very relaxing and out of our ordinary christmas eve routine. And it sure was nice.

Mom and Dad's house

Hanging out with my sister and niece

Just a few of the MANY houses on
Griswald Lane

Our year in pictures

As 2009 is coming to a close. I have been thinking about everything that the past year held. Once again we were pretty busy all year. We have had some wonderful highs and some pretty sad lows, But on to 2010 we go. I have good feelings about this year, and hopefully everything will fall into place as we hope it will.

In January me and my good friend Lori bought tickets to "Girls Night Out"/Proverbs 31. It was such a good time and we got to listen to some great speakers. Kate Gosselin was one of the women speaking and after the show I was able to meet her and have her sign my book Multiple Blessings.

At the end of January I quit my job of 3 1/2 years. It was probably the BEST decision I have made all year. I never realized how much this job stressed me out. I hated going to work everyday, I could not stand the physician I worked for, and I'm sure that it was even effecting my marriage more that I realize or probably even care to admit. I cant imagine how much Jeff hated hearing about how much I really didn't like anything about my job. On February 2, I started my new job at Care For Women. I absolutely love my job. My 3 doctors that I take care of are awesome and my coworkers are great. And did I mention that I only work 4 miles from my house. That will pretty much fix any problem when you live in Houston. =)
In March, we welcomed our 2nd nephew. Jeff's sister delivered Benjamin Heath 3 weeks early. He joined our family St.Patrick's Day! Ben is one of the sweetest little things you will ever meet. He is such a good natured boy. And I still to this day think he is his uncle Jeff's twin!
In April, we went skiing in Breckenridge Colorado with my sister and brother n law. We were there for a week and had an absolute blast. We spent the first 2 days on the slopes, then we went snowmobiling up in the mountains and then spent an evening tubing on Copper Mountain. I am not able to spend alot of time with my sister these days so I am so happy that we were able to take a vacation and spend some quality time together. Hope we are able to do it again soon.
May we celebrated Jeff's 31st birthday. We went back home for the weekend to hang out with our family. As you can tell he made out pretty good this year. Can you also tell that they older you get, the more excited your get about things like... Your mom and dad buying your car tags for you. =) HA
June was the BIG month of 3's On June 3rd we celebrated our 3rd anniversary. I can not believe that it has been that long already. However In June we also welcomed our 3rd niece into the world. My sister Jamie delivered Camryn LeAnn on June 18 weighing in at 7lb. 15 oz. She is such a sweet and easy going little girl. And she is the spitting image of her older brother! And 6 months later she still looks exaclty like him.
July started out on a good note as we headed back to Waco to celebrate Jeff's grandmas 80th birthday. It is hard for me to believe that when I came into this family Jody was only 65 years old. She looks exactly the same 15 years later. I have said it before, she is the glue that hold this family together and I dont know what any of us would do without her.
July ended however with my moms disk herniating for a second time. No so good!
August..... Not a whole lot of good things happened to our family in August. On the 4th my mom had back surgery for the 2nd time. She did really well with her surgery and recovered in no time. Just as things were starting to get back to normal my dad had his accident on the 30th. However in the middle of these 2 big events we were able to get to spend a weekend with our good friends The Schmidt's and catch an Astros game.
September..... Well it started off with my dad spending 3 1/2 days in ICU and then another week in the hospital. He is still recovering today from every thing he went though. He now suffers from chronic headaches (daily) not to mention that to this day from the fall he still has not regained his sense of taste or smell. I still have faith that this will return as it is all in God hands. So for this I ask that you please keep him in your prayers.
I also made it back home this month to celebrate some good news. My bestie Nicole was pregnant with her 3rd little boy Cole. So we all got together to throw her a baby shower. Any time I am able to spend with my girls from back home I love. I miss you guys so much!
We waited for October pretty much all year. We went on a cruise with both of our parents. And had an absolute blast! With everything that my parents went through this year I am so thankful that they were both able to make it on the trip. I wont go ino any more detail than I already have in previous blog post because "what happens on the cruise, stays on the cruise." Right dad!
November arrived before we knew it. For the 1st time in months, we actually did not have anything to do for the 1st 3 weeks. Which we were so thankful for. The Monday before Thanksgiving we had tickets to attend a Monday night football game. So we headed out with Lori and Scott to watch the Texans VS Titans. The game was awesome and they played their little hearts out. But at the end then ended up losing (of course) but we had a blast none the less.
And here you are again December! This year has flown by so fast and I am sure 2010 will be no different. The 1st Friday of this month we welcomed a forecasted yet very suprising snow storm, and may I remind you that I live in Houston. If you look back in my blog to last December you will see that it snowed then also. Yes it was also more but it was at night so we really were not able to enjoy it as much. This year it started in the morning and lasted all day. We even had enough to make a small frosty. He melted 24 hours later but I dont think thats to bad for living in the south!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year. I hope that 2010 brings you and your family every thing you hope and wish for.

Her Comes the HOT STEPPER

How fitting of my sisters daughter, to be the next Hot Stepper...

I wish I would have had Kinleys new moves on video. But you'll just have to use your imagination, just know its one of the funniest things I have ever seen

Disclaimer:
Pay no attention to the rolled up pants as they were a tad long!

I HOLD YOU

I was going through some pictures from the holidays and found a couple of the girls. Kinley loves her some Camryn! Every time they are together she has to hold her. "I hold you?"

I love Kinleys face in this one. So excited

As if Camryn is saying...."Hey if you just put me down I promise we can find something to get into."

Thanksgiving 2009

I know, I know this post is almost a month late. But I didn't really take a lot of pictures over the Thanksgiving holiday so I do not have to many to blog. We have a lot of be thankful for this year.... Family, our health, friends, jobs, the 2 new additions to our family. My list could go on and on. We did things a little different this year than in year past. Thanksgiving day we were with Jeffs family. Since both of my sisters were with their inlaws, my parents came the the Herrings to celebrate the day with us. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we had dinner at my paretns house. Since by that time everyone had already celebrated for one side of their families or another we were able to have more people over to celebrate with us. In addition to the normal crew we had my aunt Cindy and uncle greg, as well as aunt Kim, uncle James, and Brent. We had a great time just haning out, eatting, playing games, eatting... did i mention eatting...

Herring Thankgiving:

Jeff fried up a yummy turkey

We also had 5 games of scrabble going on at once.... On the iPhone......Against each other!
I know this is sad but this is literally the ONLY picture that I have from my families Turkey day!
Having a good time playing scattergories

Merry Christams & Happy Holidays from the Herrings

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Monday Night Football

So this post is 2 weeks late but again its better late than never right! On the Monday before Thanksgiving, Jeff was able to get Monday Night Football tickets so we went with our friends Scott & Lori to the Texans vs Titans game. We had such a good time and the crowd was absolutely crazy! It was literally SO loud in the stadium that I could not hear Jeff in the seat right next to me talking. And any time we get together with the Motal's is always great! The only disappointing part was the fact that the Texans lost. But they played a great game till the bitter end.

Reliant Stadium

These are your Houston Texans!
Houston setting up for a field goal
This guy still cracks me up. He sat a few rows in front of us and even though he could see the game he still brought his TV to watch!

Scott and Lori
(poor Scott wasn't feeling so good but he hung in there till the VERY end!)
Us

Winter Snow Storm 2009

Well he doesn't have a corn cob pipe or a button nose, instead he got a carrot and some chocolate chips!

Today was defiantly as BIG surprise. They had called for snow in the forecast all week, but since we do lived in Houston, you do have to see it to believe it. And we did just that! On my way to work there were a few snow flurries, but by 9:00 it was coming down. It took it a few hours but once the temperatures finally started falling it finally started to stick. We ended up only getting about an inch at our house, but some places around town got any where from 2-4". Pretty good way to start off the Christmas season if I do say so myself.