Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Here's a picture of our Christmas tree at home. I love having a Christmas tree!



Don't you love Jordan's shirt?

Prego picture of Mel and me


Once again, Jordan and I enjoy posing for pictures with kids who are not our own. - I'm glad we have one on the way!!!

One incredibly cute thing that Kyle says is, "Oh, wow!" He always says it with such a sense of wonder, too. It's awesome. I think this was one of those moments!

The Cooper's have a tradition where everyone draws a name and then buys things for that person's stocking. Here are a few glimpses of the stockings tonight.











Jordan and Kyle having fun

Mel and Kyle with the cookies and milk for Santa!

December Fun!

Both of Jordan's brothers and their families are in Houston now, (and his sister and her husband are on the way). So we've been having some fun with the family. It's always fun playing with Kyle. Doesn't he have the cutest smile?



He loved trying to reach the Christmas tree!
Rebecca and Chris

Mel and Stephen
Last night we went to Discovery Green, which is a park in downtown Houston with a little ice skating rink. Mel, Rebecca, and I braved the ice and had a great time skating!

Is this really happening?

So, I know this is completely normal in some parts of the world, but this is NOT normal for Houston, Texas!! - It's snowing!!! And it's been snowing for a number of hours now! To illustrate my point that this is not normal here, when I pulled into the parking lot at school this morning, there were about 40 kids outside yelling and jumping up and down in excitement that it was, as one person said, "slushing!"

It's supposed to freeze tonight, so we got to leave school early! (Admittedly, I, too, was very excited! - Who doesn't want a chance to leave school early? And we won't have to make it up because we went for a good portion of the day!)

Here are some pictures at our apartment.



I saw this truck at our apartment, too. - I'm just glad we aren't in the middle of moving!!

Wrap Up November

The end of November went something like this:

I spent a Saturday at Uncle Don's house. The kids had a great time playing together.



Aunt Sylvia and Jo looked through some pictures.
What a beautiful sunset!

Fast forward to Thanksgiving! We're dishing up a feast! I'm so thankful for my family, friends, freedom, and for fun, too! I love laughing!

I'm also grateful for family recipes that have been passed down. Here are the ingredients (add water, too) for Jordan's Grandma Polly's pie crust. I have benefited from Grandma Polly making it a number of times, but this year I got to make it myself! I must say it was quite simple; I was anticipating something that might be difficult, but it was not!

I forgot to take a picture of the balls of dough lined up on the wax paper, but here they are in bags. This recipe makes a lot, and it's great to freeze!

My Grandmother Hervey made a fantastic apple pie!!! I absolutely LOVE it! (And so do the rest of the Hervey's!!) I'm so happy that I got to make it this year! Here are some of the ingredients for the apple pie.

Now it's ready to go in the oven.
Doesn't that look good?!!
Dishing up the pie...
...and now let's chow down!
The whole clan!
Jordan and me
Jordan being silly - and me laughing (What's new?!)


Laura and me
Some Hervey's supporting the Aggies on Thanksgiving day. (Thanks to his brother, Chris, Jordan was able to go to this game! Too bad the Aggies lost).
Here's a field goal in action!
Moving on to Saturday: My birthday! I turned 28 on the 28th! We went out for lunch and had Mexican food! YUM!

Then we came home and had cake. YUM! YUM! (See the 28 in the candles?)
Taylor being a silly guy
The birthday card Taylor made for meMarcus enjoying his cake, (after his nap)

Marcus really going for his ice cream. (Who needs a spoon, anyway?)

Marcus writing with one huge pen
That sums up November! I'm so grateful for every day I have on this earth. I'm grateful for Jordan and that he loves me so much. I'm also grateful for this little girl inside of me. - I feel her kick and move around every day now!