Christmas Trains

One of the things that we love about Texas is the wonderful Christmas spirit that people have here. It is amazing to see in such a visual way, so many others who also love Jesus Christ and celebrating his birth. Nearly every home you see is totally decked out with impressive "exterior illumination".Many neighborhoods have Christmas decor "theme's". It is so fun to go and see the dispays throughout the city. This house was by far our favorite. Every year this family sets up a huge wooden stage in their front yard which has at least 10 different trains set up on it. This year, they added a life sized Thomas the Tank train that the kids could ride and toot the whistle. Warren, being the (almost three year old) train junkie that he is, was transfixed by the beauty.
Each time the train came by in the front it would stop momentarily so the kids could score a piece of candy out of the freight car. As the train proceeded into the tunnel, Warren nearly stuck his head completely inside as he watched it depart.

Old Fashioned Family Christmas.....

Anyone who knows Weston, KNOWS how he loves Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase. He has seen it a million times. Well, I know how he has secretly dreamed of cutting down his own christmas tree and so we decided to give it a shot this year.

A few Saturday's ago we drove about 40 miles north of Kingwood up to a little place called Mill Hollow to (for the first time ever) cut down this year's Christmas tree. It was so fun! The best part was watching little Warren's face. He just thought it was the coolest thing ever that we were cutting down the tree ourselves. He was infected with perma-grin the entire time. Not to mention the constant giggles and coo's. After you drag it out, for five bucks they have a professional "tree shaker" that shakes all the dead pine needles (and bugs) out of the tree and then they net it and load it onto your car. If you ask Warren about it now he will tell you "we cut it down with a saw and then we shook out all the crumbs."


Afterwards, we enjoyed a hayride around the forest, bon fire and (Warren's fav) the tire roll down the hill. It was such a nice way to kick of the Christmas season.

Where the Ferrari's are...

This picture was taken in the hotel parking lot while we were in San Antonio. The black Altima on the right is Weston's new baby. Where ever he goes it must be parked FAR away from any other car. I always give him a hard time about it. However, Weston was so proud the next morning when he looked out our hotel window and saw that his dream car was parked right next to his. A match made in heaven. Even Warren was impressed.

Thanksgiving weekend getaway...

After we stuffed ourselves with Turkey and all the trimmings, Friday morning we took off for San Antonio to get away. This is the Alamo...Weston had been here before but it was my first time.
On a boat tour on the Riverwalk. We weren't prepared for the sudden drop in temperatures. We did not take any coats. The day before we left it was 80 degrees. It was in the low 40's all weekend. It is a good thing there was an extra sweater in the trunk!
Our friends (The Boss Family) that came to San Antone with us. We had a great time exploring...oh, and hitting the San Marcos outlets together!

Rippin Some Rug

For a good time click:

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9622208198

Love,

Weston, Emily & Warren

Gratitude

Every year we get the opportunity to gather with loved ones and celebrate our gratitude. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.

Traditionally, most of us think of all the wonderful things that we enjoy in this day and age. Most of us all have families and friends to come home to, roofs over our heads, food in our cupboards, American freedoms, modern technology and more "stuff" than we really need to make us happy. I too am grateful for these blessings.

It seems the older I get the more clearly I can see how much I really have been given. This year has been filled with many challenges and miracles. I can not possibly tell you all that I am thankful for, nor will I try. I will ,however, give you my top three.

Music:

I have always loved music. This year I was recruited by a couple of my young women to join ward choir. It sounded fun, so I did. I have always known that music was such a powerful tool of the spirit. I have re-discovered how good music can be a strength and inspiration for us. I have also discovered first hand how destructive it can be. I am so grateful for this knowledge and for the sustaining power it has proved to be for me this year. I-tunes & Deseret Book are lovin my re-discovery too.

Gods Hand:

I could probably write 10 novels about all of the tender mercies we have received this year. I cannot even begin to express the fullness of my heart. God has been with us continually. I wish I could type it all for you. There is just too much. Just know that no matter what is going on in your life that God is there somewhere in it all. While trials may abound, there is an opportunity to draw closer to him and to grow. He is there, he sees us and loves us. God IS who he says he IS. He is the gardner and he knows who you really are. You can trust him.

The Atonement:

I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the knowledge that I can be forgiven for my sins. In addition to this, I have learned that the Atonement is not just about repentance. In the Garden Christ suffered all pains, grief, sorrow and afflictions so he could know how to succor us in our afflictions. As we place our faith in him, he will bless us in the ways that we need to become who HE intends us to be. The angels will come and miracles can happen. He is the gardner. The trick is faith. Find it and exersize it. It can move mountains.

We send our love to you all and hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Amelia my Love...

Warren and I took a little road trip to Austin to visit our friends the Anderson's. Cheri is one of my best friends from Ann Arbor. In September they welcomed Amelia Love Anderson, their first baby girl into their family. She is the tiniest little thing weighing in at a whopping 5 lb 10 oz at birth. It was so great to spend time with them all!

Warren was in heaven playing with Mike, Jake, Andrew.

Happy Halloween Ya'll

Our Family at the Ward Halloween Carnival. Mom always dresses up to suit with Warren for Halloween. Dad lost his Halloween spirit after his first year of law school.


A cowboy worth kissing...wouldn't you agree?





Warren Fishing at the Carnival.
Warren and his fairy princess Charlotte. Charlotte will be the first to agree that Warren IS a cowboy worth kissing!! He obviously agrees that she is a princess worth kissing because he laid his first kiss on her earlier this spring.

My Litt'l Pumpkin

It is beginning to feel like fall here in Texas. A couple of weeks ago the leaves and acorns started to fall out of the oak trees in our yard. This morning we woke up to very cool temperatures (about 60 degrees). We headed out to a great pumpkin patch at The Good Shepard (a local christian church). They had lots of pumpkins to choose from and some fun stuff for the kids to do. Warren had a great time playing with his friend Zoe...oh, and mommy too.



























After the pumpkin patch my friend Kari and I took Warren and Zoe to lunch at Panera. As you can see the chocolate chip cookies are the best thing on the menu! Honesty at its finest.

"If you build it, they will come."

I still need to be pinched myself... but yes, it is official! We are building a house! We are so excited! It should be finished somewhere around the end of April or May. We kept thinking about how few visitors we have had since we moved to Texas. Not that we can blame anyone...our accommodations have been a pretty meager, at best. So, we followed the inspiration which came from the movie Field of Dreams... "If you build it, they will come."

Kickin my can

September was back to school time for me and for some reason this semester is kickin my can! I have been going to school part time for years now. The last year and a half I have been taking between 10-12 credits each semester and have been able to manage it ok. This semester, not so graceful.

Currently, I am taking Biology, Biopsychology, Computer Science and a Library Info Systems Class. My CS and LIS classes are fine...the other two are pretty study intensive and eat up most of my time. I have always loved science and done pretty well at it. I am finding, however, that it is more difficult teaching myself science than I anticipated. (I am taking these classes online). I find myself wishing that I had the professor/classmates to interact with and cell models to play with in class, etc.

It has made life around the house a little more interesting and a bit cluttered. My kitchen has become a scientist lab. Everynight Weston comes home to test tubes, chemicals and experiments all over the place. I haven't blown anything up yet but I did suffer a mild burn a few days ago. No worries, nothing a little ice and solarcaine can't fix.

Da Stuff

Weston's first day at Sutherland... and you wondered how law firms get away with charging such high billing rates!!

Angels Landing

As most of you know, Weston received a job offer to work with Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan yesterday. We are so excited for this opportunity. We haven't had our official celebration yet but apparently that didn't stop the angels from getting it started for us! Apparently, there was a serious party going on in our front yard as we slept Monday night. We don't need a confession to know who was responsible for this. Aren't we special?? A job and angels all in the same day!

The perfect touch (notice the "s" in Halls).... nice!

On the Bayou

One of our regular family outings is hopping on our bikes and exploring the greenbelt trails in Kingwood. We fill up a ziplock baggie of cheerios and find the nearest bayou. They are stocked with wild turtles and Warren loves to feed them. On a good day there are sometimes hundreds. One time we even saw a huge cottonmouth snake! Warren pointed it out and with wide eyes and the most serious face, he exclaimed..."mamma, I never saw such a He-ooo-ge snake before!" You have to hear him say it to get the full effect. He is so animated. Anyways, I was just glad that we were on the bridge and the snake was swimming upstream. Cree-py.

Fat Cat-Feesh

For Labor Day we decided to head down to a little town near the gulf named Kemah. It has a great boardwalk that is lined with rides, restaraunts, boats, etc. They had a live band playing some classic rock (my personal favorite) which was an added bonus. It is such a fun atmosphere and we enjoyed walking around checking it all out. It was a beautiful day until about 3:00 and it started pouring on us. Warren loved watching all the sailboats floating by.













There was a section off the boarwalk where people go to feed the catfish, apparently on a regular basis. I have never seen fish hang out like this. There were thousands of them! As soon as someone would throw the smallest thing into the water they would all go for it. The water shivered. Warren thought it was cool but I think we were more entertained than he was.

When the house gets quiet...

Every mom knows that when the house gets quiet you need to do a quick inventory of what your kids are doing because it is usually not a good thing. In our house when the house gets quiet this is usually what we find our 2 year old doing. I know it seems ridiculous but its not. Its wonderful! Sometimes blessings come in the strangest ways. We are thankful for them nonetheless.

Milk and the morning paper

Toddler brain candy is what this moment is all about!This is one of my very favorite "Warren" moments of all time. As you probably know, Warren LOVES Thomas the Train. Every time you buy a new character, it comes with a little fold out catalog that has all the Thomas characters on it (There is probably around 75-100 on it). We keep one in the car for longer car trips. Once we give it to Warren he is good to go for the entire ride. He will sit there and study every character ever so carefully! Just like a business man reading his morning paper. Occasionally he will pause and tell us about one of them and then continue with his studies. It always gives us a good chuckle. Love that boy.

Chillin at the Beach

We love going to Galveston. Warren loves gathering sea shells and building sand castles. He usually also loves crashing waves with us. We couldnt figure out why he was so scared this time. Especially since it had been a good 5 minutes before that Weston told him their were sharks in the water. ...hmmm....it was so odd. Dads are good for that kind of stuff. Maybe next time. lol

Camp Takula

The girls: The first night at camp we suprised the girls matching PJ'S with their names going down each leg and the intitials PJS on the hip. PJS was an acronym for Prayer Journal Scriptures and was to be a reminder for the girls to do these things each night. They loved them.

Push Jumps: My little sister Rach came up to camp with us and was continually amazing everyone with her athletic ability. This particular time she was jump roping in a military pushup position. That girl is an animal. The 10 other little girls that tried to follow her lead injured themselves in their attempts...wonder why.

Boating: We had a blast boating and swimming in the lake. We only got thrown off the tube once!

Camp was awesome. I was a little worried at first about the heat but it ended up not being so bad since we had air conditioned cabins, showers and a cafeteria. I know it sounds easy but it wasn't. The food in the cafeteria was horrible. :)

Do not try this at home

Another perk of having Rach around (for Warren) is that he gets free boarding lessons. Now he can do a sweet kick jump and is almost ready for the half pipe!

Warren at Work

While visiting Weston's office Warren made himself at home at the nearest empty desk. He told us he was checking his email and kept shooshing us saying, "Excuse me, I am doing my work." Once we were quiet he would get back to his important phone call saying "yes...I understand." He is such a little man.

Downtown Houston

From time to time Warren and I go downtown and meet up with Weston for lunch. This picture was taken in front of the Penzoil Tower, which is right next to the Shell Tower.