Christmas pics part 2- Brownwood Christmas, NYE, and other January happenings

We then made our way over to Brownwood to see the Hilbuns and the Schulle clan.
First was Maylene's Christmas where we had our annual enchiladas that never disappoint! And gifts to open.

checking out what big brother got...

 

We usually have some sort of milestone birthday to celebrate and this year was no exception, we celebrated Pam's 60th birthday by wearing tacky Christmas sweaters and playing some games. It was so fun. The weather was nice so we celebrated outside and Joan had placed some sweaters hanging around the porch as directions. Well, halfway through the party a Hispanic family pulled up because they saw the clothes and all the carsand thought we were having a yard sale. Haha! We laughed and laughed it was true Schulle style. I said "you might be a redneck, if your birthday party gets mistaken for a yard sale!" We did have our dirty santa gift exchange which was always fun.

The "yard sale" party! haha!

 It was great to spend time with 2 of Trey's grandparents and his aunts, uncles and cousins and new baby cousin Gracie (Blair's baby).

JoJo and Brooks in their ugly Christmas sweaters

 Cousin Blair checking out Brooks new cars

Charlene (Trey's grandmother) and her sister Aunt Pam (birthday girl) wiggin' out!

Pam and all her gifts!

 

We played several games that we had found on Pinterest that were hilarious. One of them you had to put a christmas cookie on your head and try to get it to your mouth without using your hands. These pics are hysterical!!

Uncle Craige's was one of my favorites!

I think Rene was the only one who was actually successful!

 Uncle, Uncle Gene with Brooks and Kobe (Trey's cousins wife's grandson)

Leigh Anne and Uncle Gene with baby Gracie

Pam talking to her oldest son, I just love her expression!

Gene and Blair opening gifts

 

Trey taking the boys around the property

Our ugly Christmas attire:)

Sweet baby Gracie:)

Brooks loved having someone his own size to play with!

All the guys at pam's 60th bday party

Trey with his grandmother and lovely aunts

Everyone dressed up including Trey's grandad!

Grandad Schulle watching the boys open gifts

inseperable!

 

We then celebrated Christmas with my side of the family at my house and it was a great time as well. My mom and I went overboard on everything as usual and the boys were spoiled rotten. Mom stayed with us Christmas eve and got to be there Christmas morning to see the boys reaction to their gifts. This year was a struggle for Camden who really was more worried about how many gifts he received instead of what he got. He would have been happy just opening a million small packages than playing with his big toys. We are going to have to work on this.

My attempt at cool photography, I had to refer to an online tutorial to get this to work and it still didn't turn out like the pic online...

 

The boys Christmas morning checking out the Santa "loot"

Brooks loved his Ernie doll:)

some of the gifts I ordered alot of stuff from etsy this year to make everything a little more fancy :)

our tree and the massive amount of gifts the kids (and we) had to open...

Walker and Camden showing off their cameras they got from CeCe

 Also, Camden  thinks Santa is the end all be all and does not revere Jesus in the same light. Another thing Trey and I will have to work on with both boys and show them Jesus is the reason for the season and to garner the same amount of respect and love for Him that they have for the elusive Mr. Claus :) We then went over to James & Joans for their christmas celebration.

 We always have tamales and chili that is their tradition and again all of us were spoiled. We have a $10 gift limit for the adults, but of course most of us don't abide by that so it still gets out of hand! The boys got entirely too much and we were in a gift coma that evening when we left. This was the first year that I have been in the medical field that I did not have to work any holidays! My chiro job is closed on major holidays and the hospital jobs I got to pick and choose my orientation dates, so I dont expect to not work any in the future, but for this year works for me!

Mom and Dad kept the boys for us New Years and we went out to eat with some good friends at Mesquite Chophouse which was really fun! We had a great time and then went to his bosses party where they shot fireworks and celebrated the countdown.

My good friend Abby and our delicious dessert for New Years

Trey and I on our 12th New Years together:)

Other minor things in December, Trey, Tracy & her boyfriend Kyle and I got some tickets to the Grizzlies vs Mavericks game & even got to sit in a box! It was really fun. Before the game, Trey and I enjoyed a dinner given to us by my ER boss at Folk's Folly, we ordered the "tomahawk" steak that was a bone in ribeye out of this world!! It looked like something off the flintstones!!

Thank you Dr. Carr!

Tracy (my sister) and I at the Grizzlies suite

The other main events of the month have been the FLU.

A collage of our flu fighting efforts and Brooks "sick"

Thats right even though all but one of us (ahem Trey) got the vaccine Brooks came down with it first. He was sick for a litle bit, but I didn't think he had the flu I thought it was more about his ears again. But the school called me and he had a fever of 103 so I ran him to our pediatricians office where by that time the motrin had kicked in and he was cutting up as usual. The Dr. said well, lets test him for flu bc alot of kids have looked like this and have tested positive. I thought it was a longshot, but to my surprise he was positive for flu! So we started using precautions like lysoling everything, alcohol sanitizing like mad people, kept camden secluded to his room and washed every linen in the house as well as wore our homemade masks made from bandanas :) But 2 days later, trey got it. Chest congestion, fevers up to 104.8, fatigue, chills the whole nine. Brooks was bouncing around like normal the next day but Trey's been sick for over a week. I am theorizing that since he had the shot, maybe his immune system was better prepared where as Trey's was not. I think it has convinced him to get the shot from here on out! Other than that, we have been helping with Leigh Anne's wedding plans, I'm planning a shower for her in June and Brooks' birthday party in a few weeks. I'm very excited for all of it and have been working out quite a bit as well. Trey and I have been doing the Insanity workouts several times a week and I have been doing couch to 5k 3 times a week. Im not seeing any crazy results yet, but I have lost several pounds and my clothes are definitely looser. Trey of course looks awesome, more muscle definition and smaller clothes size. Work is going well for him. His team won the excellence sales cup 5 times in arow and his salesman Terry won Salesman of the Year and Trey won Manager of the Year at their last meeting. He was actually more excited about Terry than his own award. He talked about it for several weeks leading up and would have been really upset if he didn't win bc Terry specifically told Trey he wanted to win and Trey had been grooming and helping him to the victory. I'm so proud of Trey, he deserves it. He is truly the hardest working man I've ever seen. Love you!!

Brooks' 2nd Birthday Pancakes and Pajamas

A few weeks ago, we celebrated (hard to believe) Brooks' second birthday!! We did a morning party so people could just come in their PJs. We served the normal breakfast fare. The pancake bar was a hit with all the toppings you could think of. We had bacon wrapped eggs with spinach and cheese in some. Of course, donuts, muffins, juice, hashbrowns, coffee & breakfast casserole were all on the menu! I made a cardboard "bed" for the main table where the kids could sit and color on their placemats or work on their "build a breakfast" sticker book. We also made fruit loop necklaces which was fun for the adults as well. Overall, Brooks loved all the attention as you will see in his pictures when we sang to him. Mom made the most awesome pancake cake out of actual funfetti cake mix poured and cooked as pancakes with icing in between and drizzled on top to look like syrup. We had a great turn out and alot of little bitties which was fun  to watch them all interact in their footie pajamas. Hope you enjoy the pics!

Christmas and so forth..Pics are here! Part 1

I have been so busy lately with work, projects, planning parties/showers and half my household having the flu that I realized today that I haven't updated since Christmas! Where do I begin??

First I am now practicing as a Nurse Practitioner at several places. I work 2 days a week at a Chiropractors office where I basically see the patients and order their PT and xrays, etc. Its very nice, very low stress. We have a physical therapy room equiped with treadmills and bikes, etc. I work out at lunch bc the office closes from 12-2 so it gives me time to do my couch to 5 k (on week 6 now, whoo hoo!). They even have a shower so I can get all sweaty and then shower bf coming back to work after lunch. There is a massage therapist we can have massage us, the list goes on and on. Great job and people. My other job is in the Emergency Department in the hospital in Whitehaven and in Germantown. I do about 6 days a month there. Mostly 12 hour shifts. Now this job has its benefits as well, namely monetary (bonuses for x amount of patients, etc), and the experience is unparalleled. But, that is my stressful job. I see a TON of patients, ranging from common colds, to lacerations that I suture to broken bones. It's great because I will learn a ton and I only do it part time so I am not getting burned out...yet :)

Now, for the holidays..
two weeks bf Christmas, we made our annual trek to Brownwood, TX and San Angelo, TX. I will have to say the boys were troopers. Brooks, my little bundle of energy actually was an OK traveler. It's hard at this age bc he's not into games or movies too much like his brother so we tried to get up super early and hit the road to try and let them both sleep the majority of the trip.

Boys at daylight driving through Arkansas on the way to TX!

 We always stop at the Bass Pro in Fort Worth and let the boys see Santa. Brooks would not sit in santa's lap but Cam made sure to pass along Brooksie's list to the Big man!  


  We then made our way to San Angelo, Trey's hometown to see the Duncans (trey's best friend growing up) and their 3 kids. The boys had a ball playing with the Duncan kids and Brooks became especially smitten with Ava (who he kept calling Avie!) and followed her around playing on thier scooter toy. He even clutched their christmas card when it came in the mail to his chest and kept pointing at her and saying "that avie!". He has a thing for blondes I guess!

The whole Lunsford/Duncan crew!

Silly kids :)