Well the holidays are just about over. It will be nice to get back to normal, but I'll miss the extra days off work. We had some nice times just being with friends and playing games. Ken got a camera that she so wanted. If you have fb, I'm sure you'll be seeing the evidence of that camera soon. She and her friends love to take pictures of themselves. I guess that's pretty normal for a teenager. Now we gear up for a 16 birthday. No sweet 16 birthday party though.......I'm not good at putting those together. We'll just do a nice dinner somewhere with close friends to celebrate our girl turning 16.

I hope my family, near and far, had a nice holiday. I miss you all and look forward to see you sometime in 2011.

Happy New Year EVERYONE!!! Lots of love!

XOXO ♥ Lisa

Blessed

Sitting here this morning enjoying the quiet of my home with a cup of coffee and toast w/pumpkin butter, just thinking how blessed I am for my family......those near and far. Yesterday we hung out with family here. You know those friends that are so close they become family somewhere along the way. What fun it was, tons of food, games, and laughter. Today that same family is coming to our house for some traditional Puerto Rican food. Hope it comes out. I've never done it with out my mama. She's not her, but she's just a phone call away.

Thank you Lord for so richly blessing us. We are not worthy but you loved us so much to send your Son to live and die so that we may have eternal life.

I'm so greatful for the parents that I have, my siblings, my husband, in-laws, and daughter. That's just for starters. I have the greatest extended family there is. I don't get to see them often because distance keeps us a part, but Aunt Glady, Uncle Joe, Cesca, Jason, Joseph, Uncle Bob, Aunt Michele, Lizette ~ I love and miss you guys so much

PR family ~ Titi Sonia, Tio Wilson, Titi Lua ~ Te quiero mucho!! Espero que algún día traer a mi familia a Puerto Rico. Gracias por la comida de Puerto Rico que nos envíe. (thank you spanish translator. Hope this makes sense!)

I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas day. Relax, enjoy your loved ones.

♥ Lisa

Merry Christmas

Wow, this year has gone so fast! Here in the Thompson house hold we don't typically do Christmas up real big. We really have always told Ken that this day and this season isn't about her. For us it's about the birth of Jesus and even though she does get some gifts we don't spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on gifts, nor do we buy gifts for each other. It's just how it's always been. It's simple, and I love that we don't stress about who we have or haven't bought for and we don't go into major debt to get things for people. This Christmas will be a quiet day much like Thanksgiving was. We'll be home celebrating with just our little family and maybe a friend. We'll eat and remember the story of the birth of Jesus and be thankful that God sent his son to live and die for us.

We do, however, put up a tree.......but this year we didn't get to it until today. My beautiful daughter decided she would decorate it with just the red and silver balls this year. It's beautiful and I love it! I took a few pictures of the process, but I couldn't get Ken to be very enthusiastic about having her picture taken today.

Stocking are hung by the staircase cause we don't have a fireplace.....Thanks Rodney!

It's a little bit of a Charlie Brown tree, but it's cute!

Trying to get the brown dog to cooperate was difficult!

The black dog was a little better

Here they are together!

What a great time I had yesterday in downtown Fort Worth. I love living here. Fort Worth is such a pretty place and was made even prettier with the twinkling of the lights. Things started out a little rocky as we had to talk the train conductor into waiting a few minutes for my late friend, but all was well and Amy was sure to thank him once we hit downtown. We just spent the last few day light hours walking around browsing through stores until it was time for the parade. I got to take some pictures of the girls. They were really hard to get because some of these girlies can't stay still for very long.

Isn't she just gorgeous!!! She's the hardest one to get.

This baby is just a supa star!

And of course my beautiful baby! Who will not smile with her teeth to safe her life!

I love them all! They are great kids and so much fun to be around. The pictures of the parade are on FB. They were all taken by Katie. She's little and was able to sit right in front. She did a great job as photographer!

Painting Fun

All around my house this morning there was evidence of the fun that was had last night painting......

Really, it was fun.....there was a paint war between 2 sisters. It went a little like this......

Once they were done, they looked a lot like this....

The youngest sister seems to have gotten the best of the older sister, but all turned out ok. Look

and now my living room is painted. See

I know you can't really tell, but its really like having chocolate milk on the walls.

Paint ended up in only a few places it shouldn't have.......

Once the night was done the little one found a cozy spot to rest in......

Pssst, she not really sleeping, just pretending. lol

Today as I was getting things ready to paint I thought about friendship. Don't ask me why, but that's what was on my mind a lot today. How I miss those friends that just know everything! Those that were there in the midst of my darkest time. Those people that just loved me through the craziness. Sometimes it was just quiet time in their company, reading a book or working a cross word puzzle together. Sometimes it was just standing by my side when I had to hear some hard things. Sometimes it was just giving me a place to lay my head. It's in those quiet times and hard times that friendship is deepened. I miss them.......

Thankful

It's often times we forget to be thankful for the things in our lives on a daily basis. Most of us remember right at Thanksgiving how blessed we are. I'm guilty of just that. I need to learn to thank God daily for the people I have in my life. I'm blessed to have both parent around to spend time with. I beautiful daughter that is amazing. A husband that loves me and has been around for 20 years. 2 brothers that are caring and loving and can make me laugh. Extended family, friends that are there to love and support me in good times and in bad. God is so good, in ALL things, even when things are at their hardest, God is STILL GOOD!!! I'm lucky to be a part of His family!!!

Where are you from

I was born in NY, my dad joined the military when I was 5 or 6 and we left NY when I was 7. I've not lived there since, but when I'm asked "where are you from?" I almost always answer "I'm a military brat from NY." It's true but..... I was only born there, don't have a lot of memories of living there. I've always cheered for the NY teams, Mets (then Yankee's)......Giants (never Jets)........until this year. I totally jumped on the Ranger band wagon. I've lived in Texas longer than I've lived anywhere. Can I now claim to be a military brat from Texas? I'll always be a military brat, and am proud of that up bringing, but is it time to embrace the Texan in me and get a pair of boots???

Boots courtesy of my friend Amy

Lol, I'll probably embrace the Texan......but I don't think I'm ready for the boots.....

Pumpkin patch

Yesterday evening we spent a little time at small pumpkin patch in Grapevine. It was nice and relaxing, something I'm in need of. It was great to pick up my camera. I haven't taken a lot of pictures lately, I've just been busy. I love the colors of fall!!! Pumpkin orange is so beautiful during the late hours of the afternoon. The kids had fun going through the corn maze and Kainer ran, and ran, and ran!!!!

Kascy and Keni

They don't get to spend a lot of time together, but they really love each other!!!

Crazy Life

School start and life just took off. Seems I've barely had time to breath since the end of August. Every day there's something. I try to nap when I can just to keep myself going, but I must say I went from seeing some people every other day, sometimes every day to never seeing them at all. I miss their faces terribly!!!! I miss my parents too! I'm looking forward to a planned mom, daughter, grand daughter road trip.

Look at this face! I can't believe I didn't get to see one soccer game! SO sad! I heard he was a supa star!

I miss you Kasc and Amy!!! Can't wait to see you this weekend!

This was such a great day!!! Love you mom, dad, and David!

Just Tired

I've been burning the candle at both ends and I think it's finally catching up to me. Today I'm feeling all of my 40 years. Working weird hours and coaching 2 team is wearing me down. I've got to focus on the end of the season. This weekend are the last regular season games with playoffs beginning the following week. The girls have 10 practices left before they have cheerfest and I haven't begun to figure out how to put it all together. I know what elements I want, but can't figure out the flow or what music to use. I know what I want, but don't know how to blend the 2 songs. I guess I'll be looking for tutorials on mashing songs and adding sound effects. The entire thing just makes me exhausted. With all that said, I know when the season ends I'll miss it terribly and look forward to doing it again next fall.

Ok, enough complaining. Life is good.

A couple of weekends ago we went to Delaney and Savanah's birthday party. This was our first meeting with Delaney since Debi brought her home. She is a pretty amazing kid! Little bitty, but full of spunk. She loves her momma and her sister. Once I go through the pictures I'll post some. It's so cute to see the two sisters together. One so dark and exotic and the other so light and blonde. Both so beautiful. Perfect opposites.

We're settling right into our new church. I love it so much and find myself looking forward to Wednsdays and Sundays.

Lis

Chalky hands

The theme over at I ♥ faces is chalk. Here's a sweet girl showing her chalk covered hands after creating a chalk master piece. PS. The master piece picture is also attached. lol

Rain, mud, and Homecoming

I woke up this morning to a loud crash of thunder. My first thought was "Sweet, cheering in the rain!" Rain games are always the most fun. We're very relaxed with the girls. They don't have to wear their uniforms.

Longhorns

Cowboys

We get to play with babies.....

Longhorn

Cowboy

they don't wear their shoe's and they squish in MUD

It's just plain fun.

Ken left the field early today so she could come home and get pretty for homecoming. Her she is, so pretty!

Here's she is with her dad.....I look at this and I remember when she was little and said she would one day marry her dad. She cried when we tried to explain to her that she couldn't. Now, it seems, she's on the verge of adult hood......

And I thought I'd try to sneak in one real quick before she started to get annoyed

Busy Saturday, now over....church tomorrow.