Simply Stated

We had a great Christmas break! Colby had 2 weeks off of school and I was off of school the same time, so it was great to be able to spend time together and go visit family. Colby left to go fishing down in Del Rio the first weekend for his annual guys trip. They stopped through and picked up my little brother Benji and had a great time. I stayed here and worked that weekend and then met them on the Tuesday before Christmas.

Benji with his keeper

We went to Andrews to stay with Colby's family and for Christmas Eve went to Midland to eat at Paige and Jarod's and also went to church with them.
Look how cute they all look in their red!
I made a Chocolate Eggnog birthday cake!Paige and I enjoying the spicy bean dip...yummo!!The whole Brownlee/Thomas familyChristmas Day Family Photo

We woke up to snow!! But sadly it didn't stay long.

Austin and Kaylan on Christmas morning

Kirsten and Mitzi in the new sweater Rocky gave her

Gran Patti with Callyn Joy

The boys grilling the "Christmas Cow" The steaks were great!She was pooped after her first Christmas!

That night we played our favorite Settlers of Catan

And the next night the Yarbroughs came over and we played "Things" That game was hilarious and we had a great time seeing these friends!

Sunday after church, we went out to shoot Reos new gun. It's an AR 15? 47? yah, something like that, clearly I have no clue but it is a mean looking gun and shot so smoothlyI squealed everytime I shot it!

We stopped through Abilene for one more night on the way back and then Breckenridge to the lakehouse. I got to practice casting my new fishing pole that Colb gave me for my birthday. And when we were leaving, snow! It was beautiful!A great Christmas break!

We celebrated both my 27th birthday and the end of another semester for Colby on the 17th. We went out to dinner and then had a bunch of people over to the house to hang out. My sweet girls surprised me with a yummy carrot birthday cake, my favorite! and even fun party hats to celebrate. It was great to be with friends and have all the guys done with yet another semester of medical school. We are so proud of ya'll, 2 1/2 years left! Whohoo!

Then the boys with their party hats on

This is me saying..."Gosh, that's a lot of candles!"
Then blowing them all out!I made Rocky wear his Christmas collar for the party, he looked so cute, but wasn't thrilled.

I wanted to take pictures by our Christmas tree, and Daniel did a bit of a photo session. There were several fun ones, but I loved these few. I think they capture our relationship pretty well.Always laughing about something

Colby's school hosted the annual Casino Night and it was a lot of fun. It was at the Stockyards this year and so much warmer. We didn't win any prizes this year, but actually did quite well at Texas Hold 'Em. We did come home with 2 poinsettias which have looked fabulous on our fireplace this Christmas season.

Callyn Joy, your Uncle Colby and Auntie Jo love you so much! We went to Gloria's beforehand, yum!I love this picture of us!
Daniel and Claire

Clint and WhitneyUs with Sarah and Hans, love these two!

Carefully placing our bets

Our small group bible study did a Murder Mystery night at the beginning of December and it was so fun! Everyone got dressed up for their characters and had backgrounds with secrets and the object was to play your role and find out who the murderer was. The scene was our high school reunion (80s style). We were Johnny and Jenny the prom king and queen, quarterback & cheerleader, now currently rich and Johnny was the mayor of the town about to run for governor. Funniest quote of the night was, "Colby, is your hair different?" We had a great time playing our parts and I was voted "best performer" for the night...ha! Turns out, Colby was the murderer...shame, shame, in attempts to cover up info against him toward his political campaign.

Everyone mingling and gathering info about othersPaige and I in our fantastic blue dressesAshleigh, Paige, and KeriAll the husbandsAnd the wivesYikes!!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and have so much to be thankful for. We were blessed to be able to head to Abilene to spend time with my family and got a little relaxing time in and enjoyed yummy food!

Mom and Emily

Our delicious buffet! Dean and Aunt Kack dishing up!Family Time!

Lizzie and her friend Tori joined in on the fun

My HUGE little brothers Benji and Matthew! Can't believe they're in High School!
Of course they had to start up the go-kart for after lunch ridesThankful for my 2 boys!

What's Thanksgiving without family game night? This was Pictionary, preceded by Apples to Apples, and then of course Settlers of Catan!

Colby always "ends up" gaming with my brothers!

Was a great weekend! So thankful for all of my family! Colby and I headed back to Ft. Worth on Saturday to go to the BU vs. Tech game at Cowboys Stadium with the Brownlees! It was so great to be able to spend time with them during the Thanksgiving weeked too! Baylor suprisingly played a great game and we had lots of fun seeing the ginormous stadium and running into friends as well.

Go Bears!

The man that tried to take our picture cut Austin off... :(

Loved seeing my good friends Laura and Celeste!!Us with Mace and Celeste! Yes they were famous on the Jumbo-tron! :)