TEXAS!-San Antonio Zoo

San Antonio was lots of fun too. We met up with all the Aunts, Uncles, and cousins from Corpus and went to the zoo! Unfortunatly, with such a big group it was hard to stay together. We all wandered around and did our own thing.

There are TONS of pics...so I'll just put in a few of my favs!

HIPPO...

LOVE this one

and of course Ron is encouraging our child to be a delinquent

ok so this made me just a tad bit nervous..THEN I saw the pictures!  WOW!

Love Love Love this one!

After the zoo, we headed over to Lulu's Bakery and Cafe-known for the "Best Chicken Fried Steak" and their 3 POUND cinnamon roles! Not even kidding, they had a whole page in the menu dedicated to chicken fried steak! (Then again they were HUGE 'steaks'...seriously bigger than both of your hands put together!)
Ron was wonderful. He sat in the car with the sleeping kids while the rest of us enjoyed our dinner-don't worry his order to go came out 45 minutes before anyone else's!

TEXAS! -Fort Worth Stock Yards

Since we didn't make it on a tour of the stadium.  Dad took us to see the old stock yards in Fort Worth.  We were all thinking "Woowho!" Some old corrals!"  We were all pretty impressed with what it was.  I'd have to say it was one of the best "attractions" we went to!

Madilyn and Landon riding the horse...

There was this really cool human maze.  I told Ron I'd only do it if he wouldn't lose me in it!...

He tried pretty hard...till he'd meet a dead end! :)

The over look...planning our route.

Of course the best part was the train!

If you know anything about me...I LOVE TRAINS!

..she was just mad Camille couldn't hold her for our family picture!

Then we waited...

for the cattle drive down Main Street!

TEXAS! -Cowboy Stadium

The ONLY thing Ron wanted to do on our vacation was to go see the cowboy stadium!  If you know anything about Grand-dad, we ALWAYS take the "senic" route. We learned young that that meant THE LONG WAY! Being older, I know appreciate the senic routes! We got there around 1:00 only to find out all tours had been sold out by noon! So we made the best of it in the gift shop...no, it wasn't good enough for Ron!

TEXAS!-Christmas

Christmas Eve

We made cookies for Santa!!!!

!IT SNOWED!
yes, it snowed Christmas Eve in Texas!

...everyone decided to go to the movies. The boys and Dianna went to see Avatar. While the rest of us sisters took Madilyn to see Princess and the Frog! Sounds fun, right? Biggest Pain in the Rear EVER! Not only did the movie shut off on us 3 times, because it had been 100 hours since their last cleaning, but Madilyn had to 'go potty' every 10 minutes! Longest show I have ever sat through! Don't get me wrong it was a cute movie and I liked it...it was just a pain!

Mom's Christmas Tree!

WE had a nice Christmas Dinner. Madilyn helped with the dishes.

Then Mom started a new Christmas Eve Tradition a few years ago. Instead of getting everyone PJ's, she gets us a Christmas book and something little to go with it. Then Grandma and Granddad too the grandkids to see Christmas Lights.

Christmas Eve Jammies for the kids!

Mom, Dad, Phil, and, Mill..reading this years story

The AFTERMATH!

 leave it to Ron to turn an exercise 'resister bungee thingy' into a slingshot!

Christmas Day:

He really came?

and brought me TOYS!!

But Landon's Favorite was the toothbrush!

Checkin' out the new toys!

The famous PJ's!

and the story:  Dad came home from work Christmas Eve with fancy decorated Christmas Presents. One for each of us (sisters and mom). Nobody had any idea what it was all about. Come to find out Dad had been asking mom about our sizes....So we figured they were just some company shirts. Boy were we surprised to find LONG UNDERWEAR PJ'S! ...Don't worry I only wore them once to try them on!!

Texas!-BLORA Festival of Lights

Christmas Lights have always been a big deal to our family. Especially Christmas Eve.  We would always get new Pajama's then drive around and look at all the lights around town. Every year we would also make it apoint to go to BLORA (Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area).  They always have a fabulous display of motion lights around the lake with music. I was excited to take Madilyn I thought she's love it...

turns out she had more fun in the back seat with Dianna and Phil!

Landon was just happy he didn't have to be buckled down!

If you look close you can see all the prestents aren't lit up...they looked like they were on a conveyer...yah, the pictures doesn't give it justice!

Thought this tunnel of lights was pretty cool!

TEXAS! -the drive

We finally made it back to Texas for Christmas this year. We decided that having two kids-and the STUFF that comes with them, flying would just be a hastle! So here's to our first road trip to Texas!! It was exciting and fun! We didn't leave Mud town until 11ish because we had to take care of some Spud business...then we met Grandma Jane in IF for a little Christmas for the kids, stopped in Pocatello to exchange Christmas with Melanie, AND again at Cabella's in Utah to meet up with Grandpa Evans. Then we finally felt like we were on our way.

With the money we saved in not flying we splurged a little and bought Madilyn a DVD player for the car. BEST INVESTMENT EVER! She was too funny! She watched movies the entire trip! Infact, if a movie was on-she was awake. It was finally 1:00am when I turned off the TV and made her go to sleep! (yes, we drove straight through.-not too bad, until we got 'home'-then all we wanted to do was SLEEP!) The drive was actually pretty quick...until we hit the Texas border...THEN it went on FOREVER! Ronald thought we were getting close, but I knew better having travled out of Texas many many times! We hit the border around 7am, didn't get to my parents until 1:30 that afternoon!

I'd say the kids traveld just fine!  Wouldn't you?

A new Milestone...

We can't believe how fast Landon is learning and growing!  He can..

Wave Hi!

Wave Bye!

*Not sure if HE knows it yet but he can*

Say Bye

Say Dadadada

Say Momomom

He has NO teeth ( I swear he's been teething for 6 months) but he can

Eat anything and everything WE eat!

He loves to

Play Peek a Boo

Push Cars and Tractors around the house

Play with anything Madilyn has out...especially the little teeny tiny toys!

But most recently he has started WALKING!!

While we were down in Texas he started getting braver.  He'd take two or three mini-steps. Then he got sick.  REALLY SICK he didn't even move if he didn't have to.  Now that he's better he's really taken off.