Marisa's Confirmation

Yesterday Marisa received the sacrament of Confirmation. It was such a beautiful and moving ceremony. We were very blessed to have so many family members come down from Dallas. My sweet sisters, Rosemary and Camille drove down with my parents. My cousin Adam and his girlfriend Liz came and my uncle Kerry and Aunt Linda came up from Austin with my other cousin, Packy. And Frances, my MIL came too.
I didn't take a ton of pictures, but here are some from our day...


Our family

Marisa with uncle Kerry, her sponsor

Marisa and the boys!

Marisa with Nana and Pop

Marisa with Doug, her youth minister. Our church is very blessed to have him and his beautiful family!!

Marisa, Dad and I are so proud of you!! You are an amazing person and your faith in the Lord is a beautiful thing to witness. We love you so much!!!!

Busy Busy Busy!!

OK, it's been forever since my last post. I have had so much going on and I've been a little overwhelmed.
I want to start off by saying how sad we are that our Longhorns lost the National Championship. We were heartbroken that Colt was hurt. And I'm not going to lie, there were some tears. OK, many tears were shed. I have a very passionate boy who takes these things to heart. I love him for that. :)

Now that Reyno has gone back to work, there is so much going on at Ft. Hood. Lots of award ceremonies and many Changes of Command. So I have been down there so much lately.
Both kids are playing basketball, so that takes up a lot of our evenings. Last Saturday Jackson tried out for a select baseball team. Well he made the team and I am very proud of him, but there is a huge time commitment for the players as well as the parents. Lots of traveling!! All I can say is that I am so thankful that Reyno is home. I could not do it without him.

Camille, Gianna, mom and I along with some sweet friends of Rosemary's, are planning her baby shower. We have waited a long to for this, so we are super excited. I can't share any details now, because we want it to be a surprise for her. I know it's killing her, and I love it!!! :)

We have a very special weekend coming up. Marisa is being confirmed. I am so excited for her!!
That's all for now!! Much more to come!!

Go Longhorns

The day is finally here. Our Longhorns are playing Alabama for the National Championship. To say that we are excited is an understatement.
Even the kids at Jackson's school got in the spirit...

The kids had a "dress down" day and of course J and his best buddies had to wear their jerseys.

I really wanted to make it fun tonight, so I decorated a little.

Everybody needs Longhorn shaped rice krispie treats!! :)

H.E.B even had burnt orange and white roses!!! I heart H.E.B!!

I think Jackson was very happy to come home to all the decorations.

Me and my little boy.

We are ready to cheer on our Longhorns to victory!!

HOOK 'EM HORNS!!!!!!!!!

Locks of Love

A little over a year ago, Marisa decided to grow her hair out to donate to Locks of Love. On Thursday we went to see if she finally had the ten inches that they require. She did!!! She was a little nervous to cut it all off!!

Getting ready...

Here we go...

And it's off!!!!

Marisa with Sara Beth and her donation!!

I am a very proud mama!!! I Love you Mo!!!!

Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We headed to Dallas on Christmas Eve and went straight over to Reyno's brother's house. We spent the day with all his family. The best part of the day was when the snow came. Yes, we had a white Christmas. First ever in my life!!


All the Arredondo cousins

Frances with her kids.

The whole group!

After we left, we went back to my parents house. Isn't the snow beautiful??

Loving the snow!!!

We let the kids open one present on Christmas Eve.

New pajamas!!!!

Opening presents on Christmas morning!!!

Papa and Tio overseeing everything!!

Reyno is thrilled with his new Longhorn Snuggie!!

Very happy kids!!!

All my brothers and sisters and their families come over to my parents house for breakfast.

Here are all the sons-in law!! Reyno, Anthony, Byron and Corey!

Marisa and Zach

All the Weir cousins!!!

After breakfast, we open presents. We always do a "white elephant"gift exchange. We have such a good time. There are 21 of us, so it gets a little loud!

Here are all the white elephant gifts.

Mo and Jackson in front of Nana's tree.

The next morning, Camille, Rosemary and I hit the stores for some bargain shopping.

Me and Camille

Rosemary and I with our much needed caffeine treats!!

After shopping we enjoyed a lovely lunch at PF Chang's!! Yummy!!!

Sweet sisters!! We are missing Gianna...again!!

Our trip was quick, but very wonderful. I love being with our families. There is nothing better in the world!!!
I hope everyone's Christmas was a special as ours !!

Christmas Baking Part 2

Last night was family night. We watched It's a Wonderful Life ( which I have never seen) and finished our baking.

Jackson decorating is gingerbread Jack.

Reyno and Mo having fun.

We each decorated ourselves as gingerbread people. I am the happy homemaker, Reyno is muscle man, Marisa has her signature flower in her hair and Jackson is representing the Horns. If you can't read it , it say AL 0 Texas 100 and then Horns under that. The boy loves his longhorns!!!

We also made fudge wreaths, gingersnap cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies.

We had a great night. I absolutely love night like these. All of us together having fun!!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!

Mary Madeline

Austin

Saturday we headed down to Austin for the day. We didn't have any set plans, we just wanted to be around campus and hang out.
Our first stop was to the CO-OP.

I think it's Jackson's favorite place in Austin, other than the stadium. :) We shopped and stocked up on more longhorn gear(like we really needed it)!
As we were driving, we came across this...

I sure do wish we had come early because this might have been our Christmas card picture.

Now the real reason I love going to Austin is to eat. I know that there are TONS of great restaurants in Austin, but when we asked the kids where they wanted to eat, this is what they said...

And when you eat at Double Dave's this is what you eat...

Yummy pepperoni rolls!!! And yes, there where only four of us eating!!! They were so tasting!

And there is only one place for dessert

I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy eating yummy cinnamon ice cream!!

We had a great day just being together. I hope we can get a few more visits to Austin before we have to move!

Mary Madeline