Hibachi restaurant for the boys. We went to Jinbeh for Allen's b-day. The boys had never been to a Japanese restaurant, much less a Hibachi restaurant. They were fascinated by it all. Tristen learned how to use chopsticks, and learned he liked ginger salad dressing. Colby attempted the chopsticks, but is like me....can't do it! Here are some pictures from our evening w/friends...
The vendor I used for our wedding invitations recently redid her website - Velvet Rabbit Studios. If you look under Real Brides - you will see our wedding featured! Yes, this lady is located in Australia, and as crazy as it sounds, I did order my wedding invitations from her. Crazy, eh? She did an amazing job and I'll post a picture soon of her amazing work! Just wanted to share. :)
...Ready for the toast...
....Jason's rockstar hair...
...Jason demonstrating him and Allen on the golf course...
Here are some random pictures from Christmas. I'll try and take more pictures sometime soon!
My Texas Tech gnome from Marty.
Well, Christmas has come and gone. I'm a horrible mommy and didn't take pictures Christmas morning. I had every intention of doing so, but completely forgot. I'll take pictures of the boys new stuff sometime soon. I was more excited about them opening their presents then receiving mine.
We ended up at the last minute getting the boys cell phones. We have told them time and time again that they could not have a cell phone until they had a job so they could pay for one. Well, we contradicted ourselves (kinda). They will still have to pay for their cell phones through doing chores. At the end of each month, they will be paid so much per chore that was completed. The cost of their cell phone is $10/month, so anything they make over $10, they get to keep. Here our reasoning behind getting them cell phones. We do not have a house phone. We thought about getting a house phone, but it was cheaper and more cost effective (since we will be moving in 4-6 months) to get a cell phone for the house. Well, it is $10/month per phone line to add to our current plan, so we ended up w/2 cell phones. With my sister-in-law watching the boys after school now, there are days when she needs to leave 30 minutes early to get to her evening classes. The boys need to be able to reach one of us in case of an emergency, so this is how we ended up where we are w/the cell phones. There are rules and restrictions w/the phones, but the boys are on cloud 9. I'd like to hope that we are teaching them how to manage money and the value of a dollar through this new cell phone thing. They both received money for Christmas and immediately asked me to put it in their savings account, so I think we've got a good start on managing money. They also got new wheeled baseball bags w/their names embroidered on them. They got scooters, clothes, movies, game boy games, board games, and cases for their iPods.
Jason got a new iPod nano, case for his iPod, RoadId, clothes, The Love of Baseball book, Texas Rangers Nike pullover, and lots of other little things.
We all had a very nice Christmas and are very thankful for everything that we have. Next year we are starting a new tradition w/the boys. They will both be picking an angel from the Salvation Army Christmas tree and buying gifts for a needy child.
Christmas is finally here. I'm sitting at work trying to waste away the day. It is 1:48pm and I'm seriously contemplating sneaking out of here in about 30 minutes. I'm excited for Christmas to be here as I can't wait to not only give some great gifts but also receive some great gifts. I think the boys will be surprised by a few of their gifts, and I know Jason will be surprised by a few a of his gifts. We are staying here in town for Christmas. We will be exchanging gifts with Jason's family on Tuesday evening and having dinner at our house.
Kiddo Update - Boys are done w/their 2nd 6 weeks of school. Time is flying by! Colby made all A's!!!! :-) Tristen had all A's and B's! We are very proud of both of the boys! We hope the trend continues. Colby had a charity baseball tournament this past weekend. Although his team didn't fair too well, it was all for a great cause - Toys for Tots. Colby has been getting some experience catching and we hope to see him play catcher more when the Spring season starts back up.
We've slowly started the house search. We are currently toying with the idea of building. We've looked at a couple of communities online, but we haven't physcially gone out to the communities yet. To try and time it right, we would need to start building in March. Right now, we are looking in the Frisco area.
Christmas is finally upon us and we've had our house decorated since before Thanksgiving. I cannot wait to be in a house and have more room to spread out all of my decorations. I told my sister-in-law that I was going to have to start a 'Christmas decoration' savings account so I can go all out! I'm hoping to find a few good deals this year after the holidays. I have most of the boys' shopping done, but have not had much luck buying for Jason. I've purchased one thing and have a few other things I plan to purchase for him, but I cannot figure out his 'big' gift. So frustrating!
