Seeing the Lights

It has been a fun tradition since we moved here to every year travel to a neighborhood in Plano to see their spectacular light displays.  It is especially fun when it's warm enough to ride in the back of the truck.  We had a great time and finished off the night at a great Chinese buffet.

Welcoming our newest addition... Gracie Luna Brandvold

Yes we got a second dog.  We may be crazy.  It all started when I was casually perusing facebook and came across a post from the breeder that we got Dallas from.  I showed Kevin just because they were cute and he went a bit crazy- showing all the kids and noticing that these puppies had the same birthdate as Dallas and Makenna.  So they all felt it was fate and over time they talked me into it.  I'd always wanted a bernedoodle with the three colors so I figured this cutie was close enough.  On the way to the Thomases for Thanksgiving, we stopped to check out the puppies and of course that pretty much sealed the deal.  So a couple weeks later, when our puppy was ready to go, Makenna and I drove the 7 hours there to pick up our new puppy.  We spent the night in a sketchy hotel because that's all there really is in Harrisonville Missouri and then left early to get our new puppy and make the long drive home.  Here's a bunch  of pics...

Pictures from the breeders website

When we went to "check out the puppies"

Here is Makenna puppy sitting for our long 7 hour drive home- with many puppy potty breaks ;)

Gracie has been a huge success.  She is so much fun and so very loved.  Yes she has been a lot of work and there have been messes to clean up.  But overall we just are all so in love with her- it is working out great.  Okay- Dallas may have been a bit slow to warm up.  She immediately would try to climb all over him and cuddle up with him and he would look at her like she was crazy and then move to the other side of the room.  But now they are cuddle buddies and they play like wild and crazy animals.   At first when they played we were always nervous Dallas would hurt Gracie- but a few days in we were always more worried about Gracie hurting Dallas.  She may be little but she is fiesty!  As for her name, we narrowed it down to our two favorites- Gracie and Luna.  Gracie won but we are keeping Luna as a middle name  Sometimes we call her Gracie Lu ;)

Sewing Up a Storm

I've been on a sewing kick lately.  It started with a rag quilt and then matching pillows and then some fleece blankets too.  Oh and a table runner with the leftovers.  Its been fun.

ICE! At the Gaylord

This is the second time since we have lived here that we took a trip to the ICE exhibit at the Gaylord hotel.  Its a pretty cool (literally) thing to behold.   It was a fun family night.

Thanksgiving with the Thomases

We made the trek to Omaha this year for Thanksgiving.  We wanted to spend some time with our friends, the Thomases and we had a terrific visit.  In addition to a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, we were able to visit our some of our favorite Omaha joints- namely The Pizza Machine, Culvers, Ted and Wallys, the temple and visitor center with Gingerbread display and the slides downtown.  We also had some fun playing football and lots of games at their house and Laurie and I even got to do our beloved black friday shop together.  Oh and Brayden and Kevin toured a college in Lincoln (Wesleyan) which had invited Brayden after seeing him wrestle at a tournament earlier this year.  That was pretty cool.  The only bad part was getting stuck in a snowstorm on the way home.  That was terrible.  We had to pull over into a gas station for three hours since we had zero visibility and the roads were made of ice.  But we made it and it was a great trip. 

This was from our hotel stop on the drive there.  Braydens Winnie the Pooh onesie was quite a hit there and I thought I ought to preserve that memory ;)  

Special Friends Day at Folsom Elementary

Im always honored to be the special friend guest of my kids each year.  I join them for lunch and a few fun photo ops ;)

Emmitt's Baptism

Emmitt's baptism was a wonderful experience.  He was baptized on Saturday November 10, 2018.  Brayden was able to baptize him, making it an extra special day.  They are such good buddies.  Also, he got to be baptized alongside his good friend Taeya.  Emmitt was so happy.  You couldnt get him to stop smiling if you tried.  What a great day.