Christmas Time and 2 Half Marathon's

Christmas was in Lubbock with the Stunkard Family.  We had a fabulous time celebrating the birth of Jesus. We went to church at Granny and Papaw's church and enjoyed lots of family time. It snowed the tiniest bit but we saw some pretty ice on the way home. Cason received tickets to the Mavericks game with Toby and Molly received a day date with me to Painting With A Twist. We celebrated Christmas with the Brown family on New Years Day. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera. I had an excuse though. I ran a half marathon on New Years Eve and then another half marathon on New Years Day. Not only did I run them back to back, but it was the coldest day the DFW has had in a long time. It snowed/iced on New Year's Eve and then the temperatures were in the single digits during my run on New Years Day. To say it was cold was an understatement. So that's my excuse. My brain was frozen!

Thanksgiving

This was our year to spend Thanksgiving with the Brown Family. For some reason I didn't take very many pictures. We had an excellent dinner and the kids had their annual Gingerbread House Decorating Contest. Plenty of sugar was consumed! Molly and Camille also treated us to a play that they wrote and built a set for.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

The Dallas Arboretum changed it's theme this year to the Wizard of Oz. There still were a ton of pumpkins and it was a beautiful! We went with Grandad and BeBe and had a wonderful time!

9 Year Old Cason

HOLY MOLY! Cason is 9 years old! I am not sure how he has gone from a tiny baby boy to a 9 year old. Cason continues to amaze us daily. He is passionate, caring and loving. He is extremely smart and has become my personal calculator. I don't need to do math problems when he is around!
He loves learning about new things and is creative. I thank God every day for this special boy.

This year Cason wanted to take his 2 best buddies (Wade and Max) to Whataburger and Dave and Busters. They had a sleep over then helped ring in his actual birthday. The birthday requested donuts for breakfast. Later that afternoon Bebe, Grandad, Reid and Camille came over for a family birthday party. We had brownies and ice cream to celebrate. Our big gift for Cason was to redecorate his room. We bought him new furniture, painted his room, added some cool shark decorations and Toby made some shelves.

Cason's 9 year interview:
 What is your favorite color? yellow
2. What is your favorite toy? Nerf Gun Ellite 
3. What is your favorite fruit? apples
4. What is your favorite tv show? Marvel Movies
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? grilled cheese
6. What is your favorite outfit? shorts and a shirt
7. What is your favorite game? Crash Royale
8. What is your favorite snack? cheese its
9. What is your favorite animal? dog 
10. What is your favorite song?  God's Not Dead
11. What is your favorite book? Percy Jackson
12. Who is your best friend? Wade
13. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Chocolate Chip Pancakes
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play with Raider
15. What is your favorite drink? Dr. Pepper 
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas 
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  Texas Tech Pillow Pet
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? crock-pot ravioli
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? pizza
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? not sure right now 

Halloween

Cason and Molly had a great Halloween! We went over to BeBe and Grandad's house for pre Halloween dinner then we went trick-or-treating. Of course the McFarland clan was there too! It was a little cold this year but fun!

Cason was a Half-Blood Hammer Head Shark. ???? and Molly was Wonder Woman. 

Welcome to the Family Raider!

So we did something this summer. We got ANOTHER dog! That makes 4 humans and 3 dogs living in our house. Yes, I know. We are 100 percent crazy. Here is the story:

I went to the dentist in July and my dentist told me he got a puppy from the vet next door. I asked him what kind of puppy and he said it was a Great Pyrenees/German Shepard mix. That peaked my interest because I have always wanted a big dog. My dentist convinced me to go next door after my appointment to take a look at the puppies. I walked in and started talking to the vet tech that the puppies belonged too. She told me there were 12 puppies and brought out 2 to show me. One was all white (Great Pyrenees coloring) and the other was brown, black and white (German Shepard coloring). They were only 2-3 weeks old at that point and had just opened their eyes. I cuddled with them and sent a video to Toby telling him we needed one in our life. I didn't think Toby would take me seriously. BUT HE DID. And then we brought the kids to look at them. I knew once the kids saw them there would be no going back. We learned that these dogs would probably be between 70-90 lbs., they would probably be vocal and could be kind of stubborn at times. Apparently we were not in our right mind because we said, "SURE! We want one!". The other crazy part of this story is that we knew the puppies wouldn't be weened from their mom until the first part of August. 1 week before I went back to school. WHAT WERE WE THINKING!!!???? So fast forward to the first week of August and we now have Raider!

Summer 2017

We had a busy but fun summer. Besides going to Mexico and Florida the kids had Vacation Bible School, sport camps, music camp, and swim lessons. We also spent a lot of time at Hawaiian Falls. I wish summer could last all year long!

Molly attended our Church Music Spectacular. She took art and hip hop classes as well as learned songs for the musical. This is her performing her hip hop moves. 

Grandad and BeBe came to watch.

It just so happened that Granny, Aunt Tory, Starla, Travis and Jake were all in town to visit and they came to watch Molly too. 

This is Cason and his Pine Cove counselor "Bites"

We hosted 3 Pine Cove counselors for the week. It was a great opportunity to minister to these sweet college girls while they ministered to our children. I would definitely do it again! 

Molly and her counselor "Breaks"

Toby and I started off the summer the right way by seeing U2 in concert! It was the last day of school and was so much fun! I might have enjoyed it a tad more than Toby!  

Cason participated in Track Camp and loved every minute of it!  

He also took a golf camp which he thought was fun. 

While Cason was at a sleepover Molly, Toby and I took at walk in the rain. She got to splash in the puddles. 

Hawaiian Falls Fun 

Cason conquored his fear of the tallest slides at HF. It took him about 30 min to go down but he finally did it! 

Zoo time with the cousins

Cason and I went to six flags with Travis and Starla. This was us on the Texas Swings. Cason loved it but I was about to pass out! 

Toby took the kids fishing a couple of times over the summer.