Christmas at Mimi and Papa's House

The whole crew: Autumn, Tripp, Hope, Summer & Trail Townsend, Riley, Scout and Tori Smith, Will Wood and Kayla, Krista, Papa Preston, Aunt Pat, Mimi, KD, Tandy, Pake and Tate.

The grandkids: Krista, Summer, Scout, Autumn, Pake, Trail and Tate

Pake opening his laser tag gun!

Riley, Tori and Hope ~ We had tonz of good food! Of course! I will tell a funny on Mom and me.... we made this cranberry salad stuff... forgot the sugar... yeah it didn't turn out sooo good but it was pretty!

Tori sewing... she's such the little miss homemaker! I'm actually jealous, wish I had more patiences. She made 4 aprons and they were sooo cute. She made mine cowgirl!

Riley playing with the boys... they roped and played football! The little boys just think Riley is IT! Also, Tori and Riley made the boys roping dummies out of PVC pipe... they are great and the boys LOVE them... finally they can rope something other than KD's mechanicing stool.

Tripp's kids: Autumn, Trail and Summer.... We watched the video they shot this summer when they were visiting Mimi and Papa! Summer was the reporter and it was hiliarious!

Mimi, Scout and the singing snow man! Scout is the sweetest baby!

Sandy (Mimi and Papa's red border collie) had puppies and I wanted to take one home sooo bad! But then my better judgement kicked in and I realized we had NO business with a puppy! But they were adorable and the kids had fun playing with them!

Tater petting the horses!

We had a very special Christmas in New Mexico! God has truly blessed us!

Snow Sking in Angel Fire

It snowed 10 inches when we were there! The snow was beautiful but it was COLD!
First ride up the lift....
Next ride up the lift.... This picture tells it all! It was miserably COLD! And blowing snow! But we made the best of it and still had fun.

The boys took ski school on Tuesday. They did really well and were ready to ski with us on Wednesday! They snow plowed all the way down the mountain!

The view is beautiful up there.... It wasn't tooo crowded and the snow was great!

Laying in a snow drift waiting on the shuttle! What a day!

Heading to Mimi's house... this is a picture of Cimarron Canyon!

It is a very scenic drive... thank goodness the roads were clear!

The boys said snow sking was the best vacation they've been on! Now we know they'll be begging to go every year. Luckily the New Mexico ski valley is only an hour from Mimi's house!

Girlfriend Christmas Parties

My Kaleidoscope Sisters - I had our Christmas Party at my house. Sherry, Julie, Traci, and Sam helped me host the party. We had enchiladas. We welcomed some new members and had an ornament exchange too!
Leslie hosted a Ornament Exchange party again this year. She always has a cute presentation... this year she gave us all a Daily Survival Kit: a Toothpick to remind you to pick out the good qualities in other people, a Rubber band to remind you to be flexible, a Band-Aid to remind you to heal hurt feelings, a Pencil to remind you to list your blessings, an Eraser to remind you that everyone makes mistakes, Glue to remind you to stick with it, if you do you can accomplish anything, etc... It was really special!

I am BLESSed with wonderful girlfriends! They are always there for me!

Christmas Bowling Party

We had Christmas with Dexter and Sherry last Sunday. We ate at Cheddars and bowled at Western Bowl!
The Other Adams family!


Pake, Aaron, Bailey, Drew, Sher an Brenden.

Mr. Drew and Mr. Pake... best buds!

Bailey and Tater man... cute!

The kids had sooo much fun.... We have a tradition of getting together every Christmas.

Santa Clause Came to Town!

Tate was proud of his race track and it's even our favorite drivers!

Wii... what's a Wii? Tater had NO clue, but they love it! I think KD might like it more than the boys!

NEW MOTORCYCLE HELMETS... one of their favorite gifts!
We actually cheated and opened presents early because we decided to head to Angel Fire on Monday, December 22nd. Kerry Don is taking us snow sking! What an awesome surprise!

All I Want for Christmas are My Two Front Teeth

I think Tate has been listening to this Christmas carol or observing all the kids in his class losing their teeth, so he thinks he should be losing his teeth. He told me yesterday, "Momma is my tooth loose?" or "Momma feel this tooth.... it feels loose doesn't it? I think it's loose!"

Well his front teeth ARE not loose. So I'm like, "No Tate I don't think your teeth are loose."

He replies, "Man, when am I going to lose some teeth?"

So I say, "Tate you will lose your teeth when you lose them. Why are you so worried about it?"

He says, just as serious as can be, "Look I need some money ok!"

I just died laughing. Well all day yesterday he kept saying my front teeth hurt. I think he messed with them checking if they were loose so much that now they are sore! I just thought it was funny that he thinks the tooth fairy is going to make him rich!

Oh Christmas Tree.... oh Christmas Tree!

I put my tree up the day after Thanksgiving. The boys were insistent.... I didn't really want to tackle the MESS! But we got it done. Since then we've blown some fusses and had to get more extension cords and restring some lights but all and all it's working. I probably put too many lights on the tree, but I like it packed!
I learned to set the timer on my camera, so now I can set it then run and get in the picture! The boys thought that was way cool! I can't believe I haven't figured it out before now!

The boys thought they knew where to put all the ornaments. I tried to explain to them that we want the pretty ornaments in the front and the not so cute ones in the back. But I figured out the ornaments they thought were cool were NOT the ones I wanted on the front!


They had fun on the ladder... maybe scared me alittle but had fun... the bow is still crooked on the top and I haven't taken the time to get the ladder back in there so I can fix it!



This is the living room when we started and the MESS we had before we got everything up! I enjoy Christmas... sometimes I think it's more work than it's worth, but it is a special time of year. I hope the boys will look back and have good memories of their childhood!

Now what I'm dealing with everyday is the BIG question! "Mom when do we get to open our presents?" Tate said yesterday, "I can't help it, I just can't wait! "

I thought this was cute..... The boys earn bucks at school for good behavior and grades, etc.... so I guess they've been saving them up. Then, they can spend them in the store at school. Well the other day, Pake got Tate a gift and wrapped it all by himself.... So yesterday Tate bought Pake something and brought it home all hidden in his backpack and wanted me to help him wrap it.... I think they've both used all their points up! But I thought it was sweet that they were thinking of one another.

Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!

Pheasant Hunt and Supper 2008

We had another big pheasant hunt this year! Kerry Don was really worried that weren't going to be many birds this year. They weren't as plentiful as they have been in previous years, but they still had a good day. Jim Bob brought a group of his friends so they stayed with us. I was happy to have company, and to finally fill up all the bedrooms in my house! The WHOLE crew: Dan, Greg, Justin, Chris, Cade, Chuck, Jarrod, Jim Bob, Randy B, Carlos, Bryan, Pake, KD (with a quail in his MOUTH... don't expect a kiss from me), Deon, Bray, Hunter, Meghan, Maxie and Tate. A few guys had already gone home so there are about 4 missing. I hope you enjoy my blog about the Pheasant Hunt and Dinner.Kerry Don, gun in hand, ready to take the guys out to shoot some birds! Everyone was bright eyed and bushy tailed Saturday morning. They cooked sausage and egg burritos before they headed out at sunrise!


Hunter, Pake, Uncle Cracker (Dex) and Tate.... the boys wouldn't have missed it for the world. They stayed out with the guys all day! I don't think they got to shoot, but they sure didn't want to miss any action! I need to add a special thanks to Chuck for hauling the kids!

This is a shot of just our local crew: Greg Davis, Justin and Deon Byrd, Chuck Thornton, Cade Lange and KD.. and of course all the kids Hunter O, Pake, Tate, Bray and Meghan... she's not afraid to hang out with the guys.


This is Randy B and his son Jarrod. Randy has been here several years and is lots of fun. He's a referee in south east Texas. I told him he reminded me of Robert Duvall.... and I think that went straight to his head! LOL

Marry Ann wanted to see them clean the birds, and she wanted one to cook! I told she could have it! I'm not much on cooking wild birds... I'll leave that to someone that knows what they're doing.

We cut up two ribeye rolls.... it made 32 steaks! They sure were pretty, FAT steaks! I had fun seasoning them all up!

I never have done the rolls that you have to let rise! But they turned out pretty good! I also made sopapilla cheesecake... actually I think I should have made two. That recipe came from my cousin Judy from New Braunfels.

Kerry Don and Jim Bob... getting the fire ready for the steaks on KD's tractor tire rim. He cut some stars around the rim so the coals can breath. It works great!

Chuck and Wade Byrd filling their plates with some fat steaks! Wade made a vegetable dish that they cooked on the grill that was delish!

The girls had to pick on Wade Byrd: Tami, Me, Leslie and Megan. He had that whistle around his neck which was really for his hunting dogs... he kept blowing it at us! Wade and Kennedy's hunting crews joined us for supper as well; we had quite a few lawyers.

The guys kept a pool game going all night! I'm glad someone uses my pool table because I sure don't know how to play. I just like it because it's an antique ;)

Some more of my girls: Marry, Me, Julie and Carol. I was sure glad they came out so I wasn't the only girl!

I'm not sure who had more fun the big kids or the little kids! Meg, Pake, Bailey, Brenden, and Conchur!

The little girls: Rayli, Ashton, Meghan and Jerzi. Cute, cute girls... I'm so glad I have girls that live next door!


The weekend was quite entertaining! I love having people over and cooking! We watched college football (Ok we won't talk about OU winning again), boxing (well we watched Dela Hoyo get whooped), and the National Finals Rodeo. I thought that was quite a mixture of sports... hopefully everyone got to see something that was interesting to them. They also played Texas Hold Em, pool and shuffle board! I hope everyone had a LARGE time! We are truly blessed with wonderful family and friends!

Texas TECH Football - GUNS UP!!!

Pake and Tate at the game against Baylor last Saturday! They love the Red Raiders!
The whole family at the game! It was chillly brrrr!

First play of the game!


Pake with his guns! Waiting to hear the announcer say "RED RAIDERS first DOWN!"



Tater, my freckle face man, with his guns up cheering for TECH!




KD and I... I just love our double chins.... guess we getting old and fat!



Final Score was actually 35 -28.... I snapped this picture before the field goal. I was just excited that we scored.... they should have spanked Baylor! But at one time they were down 2 touchdowns! We were sweatin' but it made for an exciting game!

And the sunsets over Jones Stadium! We had a great day! The game was at 2:30... we met our friends, Kennedy and Megan at the game. We saw several other friends there: Jory and Callie, Garret and Shay, Wesely, the Painters, just to name a few! Right after the game, we got OUT of Lubbock! So, we went back to Plainview and ate a steak at the Rockin R Steakhouse... pretty good!