6 Years

The past 6 years have gone by so fast. December 28, 2002 Eric and I got married at St. Paul Methodist here in Abilene. I was only 19 at the time and I was the first of my friends to get married. I met Eric during Welcome Week of my freshman year. Lauren and I followed a friend of ours (Brock) to Eric's house where Brock was doing his laundry. When Eric got home, Lauren and I were sitting on his couch. He had no clue who we were! After that we started hanging out - Lauren, Brock, Brian, Eric and I.

Eric and I went on our first date September 15, 2001. We went and raced go karts (and Eric's ran out of gas), went to eat at Outback (where he had just quit working to start the police academy), went to the movies to see Jeeper's Creepers (which we walked out of after about 10 minutes), and went back to his house and watched Tarzan. Then on January 1, 2002 Eric proposed in a gazebo in Dallas in a park covered in Christmas lights.

He has been a wonderful husband and an amazing father. I am so blessed to get to spend my life with him. He understands me (most of the time), takes care of me and loves me unconditionally. I could not have imagined someone better. I am so lucky. And I can't wait to see what our future holds!

Now for the good stuff. Here are some fun pictures of us in the early days!

This was one of our first dates and the first of many grubs we went to -

This is right after Eric proposed to me -

Our Wedding -

Our honeymoon -

A few Christmas pictures over the years -

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. It was so much more fun with the babies. They got about a million toys and wore themselves out playing with them. They were so cute though. They had so many toys that they didn't know which to play with! They got a couple of walkers - 2 cars and a wagon - and they were the most fun to watch them play with. Here is a video of it. Pretty much the cutest thing ever.







I got some pretty awesome presents. Eric got me an iPod touch with is awesome and Noah's mom gave me this camera that she made from clay. How cool is that?? I can't wait to have an office one of these days to put it in.



Friday we had an extended family Christmas and had Christmas all over again.





I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!

Ski Trip

We went skiing in Colorado right before Christmas. I had a wedding on Saturday, the 20th, so we left right after I was done at about 6 pm. When we were about 4 miles from the lodge at 6 am Sunday morning our tire caught a snow drift and we got stuck in a ditch. So in -11 weather Eric had to walk over 4 miles to the lodge with no snow boots. There was no cell service or anything. So the babies and I sat in the car for a little over an hour while Eric walked down to the lodge. They came and pulled us out and we unloaded around 7 am. It was a great trip though. It was very relaxing and a lot of fun. The food was great. We played games and most of the group went skiing. The babies got to see snow for the first time, which made the long drive worth while. And the drive wasn't near as bad as we were anticipating. Driving all night was great and even the ride back wasn't too bad.

Here are the photos:

Waunita Springs Lodge

Our Family

First Time in the Snow

Our 88 Table - we played every night

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

It is one week from Christmas and I am so excited. I love Christmas. It is my favorite holiday. I love to decorate, bake, listen to Christmas music, watch Christmas movies, wrap presents, all of it!! I haven't gotten to decorate this year like I usually do since I have felt so bad and been so busy though. I also haven't ever ordered Christmas cards! I designed some and haven't gotten around to ordering them.

Here are a few pictures of the babies in some of their Christmas outfits.
Sawyer has started taking her bows out as soon as I put them in...silly girl!!

She also takes hats off as soon as you put them on!









Here are some of the Christmas traditions that I want to start. I would also love to hear about other ideas that other people do!

1.Our church offers an Advent calendar with activities to do with the kids to teach them about Christmas. I want to start this next year.

2. I am going to read Christmas books with them every night starting at Thanksgiving.

3. I am going to make cookies with the kids for Santa on Christmas Eve and leave them out for Santa. Then on Christmas morning they will get presents in their stockings from Santa at home. Then they will get to open the rest of their presents with everyone else.

4. What God Wants for Christmas

5. They will each get their own ornament each year. This year I got one for both of them, but next year I will let them each get one. Here is the ornament that I got this year as their first ornament.