Christmas with the Halfords

Today we went out to my parents house (about 25 miles outside of Lubbock). Things were a little different than they were in years past, but it was still a very good time. My 2 brothers, Hunter and Jared were here. They came in to town from Canyon, where they both go to West Texas A & M.

We had my dad's "world famous" enchiladas for dinner rather than the traditional turkey, etc.

My dad must make better enchiladas than any gringo on earth.

They were sooooooooooooo good.

It is not all that often that he makes them and Hilary and I both look forward to anytime he does.

I have a STACK of Lowe's gift cards that I got from several people for Christmas and I can't wait to raid the store tomorrow.

I want to buy a new air compressor and it comes with 3 more tools.

Here are all the particulars: http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=236551-354-CPACK3&lpage=none

Here is a picture:

I will use the finish nailer that comes with the compressor to put down our new baseboards.

So that was a BIG part of my Christmas from everyone, so I wanted to say thanks to all of you.

On to the rest of our Christmas with my parents...

My mom got some new clothes and a new digital camera:

Hilary got some new stuff for her Willow Tree Angel Nativity Scene:

Jared, my middle brother, got what every college student with a big brother that works at United should, United Gift Cards. My parents also got him a new stereo for his car and some new clothes.

Hunter, my youngest brother got an Ipod Nano, although this picture of him is with some of the new clothes that he got:

My dad got a new GPS/Navigation gadget...my mom told me that was what she was getting him and I snickered at her a little bit. I told her that would be like me buying my dad some golf clubs for Christmas (my dad doesn't play golf). Anywho, I have not been this wrong in quite some time. My dad LOVED it, good thing my mom didn't listen to me. He must have played with it for an hour and when he opened he looked like a little kid he was so excited.

I got some new tools =), 3 different Lowe's gift certificates, a new wallet, some clothes, and the coolest remote control helicopter.

We had a great time with my parents and it was great to see my brothers, as always.

More Later....

Heath

Christmas in Plano

We went to Plano for a few days, left Saturday and came back Monday, to celebrate Christmas with Hilary’s parents and sister. We always have a blast going to visit, especially when Lindsay(Hilary’s younger sister) and Vince(Lindsay’s husband) are able to make it. Haylee(Vince’s daughter) was there too, she is 6 years old and it is fun to watch her open all her gifts, etc. Some pics below so you feel like you know/remember everybody that we saw while we were there.

Here is Haylee (she is so cute):

She is helping Hilary make some dessert here.

Bandit, of course, went with us and had a blast trying to keep up with ALL the dogs that were there. There were 5 total. Lindsay and Vince have 2 dogs, Binger and Dixie. Rick(Hilary’s dad) and Sheryl(Hilary’s mom) have 2 golden retrievers, Lucky and CJ.

A pic of Bandit trying to keep CJ(on the left, more blonde) and Lucky entertained:

Dixie doing her best Princess Laya impersonation:

Binger, he reminds me a lot of a little old man.
He is only 4 or 5 years old, though.

Hilary and I are BIG nerds and took pictures of Rick & Sheryl’s fence, it is very similar to what we would like to install at our house sometime soon.

Hilary and I got Haylee some pink boots and a little stuffed horse that sang “Crazy” when you squeeze it.

On the way back from Dallas, Hilary and I also stopped through Alvarado for just a short visit with Gail(the Rottweiler breeder we got Bruce from and the same lady we are getting the new puppy from) and her husband, Ray.

While were at Gail’s we got to see Zussy and Dakota, the new puppy's Mom & Dad. We had met them once before, when we went to pick up Bruce.

They were slightly less than cooperative for picture taking, but that bothered Gail a whole lot more than it bothered Hilary and I.
(I suppose that is a good thing, because if she wasn’t such a stickler she wouldn’t be able to get all the insanely cute puppy pictures like she sent us before we got Bruce.)

Anywho, I felt like we got several pretty good pictures of the 2 of them and got to see all the other dogs there. They are all just so sweet and loving, Hilary and I could have stayed for 2 weeks, but we were heading back to Lubbock to do Christmas with my family.

Some pics of Zussy and Dakota:

When we first got there all Dakota would do is drink out of his bucket of water.
I suppose he thought that was his best side maybe.

Gail’s dogs have one trick that they ALL know:

Zussy
This is a request for a belly rub at Ray and Gail’s house.

Ray says every time we are there (very sarcastically) how vicious they are.
This is a pretty traditional greeting there, although they have to warm up to you a bit before they ask.

Here is another pretty decent profile of Zussy.

As you can see, both mom and dad were looking very festive.
Gail does so much to make this experience and every experience with them memorable.
Here is Dakota sporting his Christmas best:

Hilary and I did not realize after looking at pictures on Gail’s website that he was SO big.
He is a teddy bear, though.

We made several attempts at taking pictures of both Zussy and Dakota:
The first attempts went something like this:

Now if you notice, there are some very unique things at work in this picture: not a single person(or dog) is looking at the camera, each person and each dog is looking in a different direction, and also if you look very closely you can see that everything the 2 humans want is very close to the opposite of what the 2 dogs are doing.

Gail is going to email us some pictures she took with her camera, when we get those, I’ll add them to the blog.

Sweet Children

Olive & Gus

Our dear friends Jannie and Justin just moved to Lubbock and we are so excited about it! The best part is that they live only 5 minutes away. We got to baby-sit for them on Friday night while they went to a Christmas party and we had the best time.

Happy Birthday Hunter

Congrats

Last Monday Heath's dad Howard was awarded Lubbock's Realtor of the Year.

We are very proud of him. Of course we already thought he was pretty good at his job, since he found us a great house!

Man, we need a truck

Heath and I spend basically every week-end making several trips to Lowe's. We always find something to laugh about in the parking lot. It's been entertaining for us to watch people try to shove HUGE things into a small car. Recently we actually saw a guy with a battery powered saw cutting a piece of ply wood so that it would fit into his small car.....well we are one of those people!

Those are base boards.....pretty funny!

Oh and there's a bedroom door in the Camry also....really there is you just can't see it=)

Pictures from the week

Did someone say "kitty cat."

Painting and prepping doors is so much fun. At least it is warm this weekend!

Here's Bandit and his Bo Bo. This is what we do at night to keep ourselves entertained!