I Must Have Been Good This Year...

...Because my family (I mean Santa) came bearing great gifts!

More important than gifts, I got to go home this year and it was so good to see my whole family. I will let the pictures show the madness : )

Before heading to OK, Jesse and I celebrated our own little Christmas. We never got a good picture together, thus the matching individual pictures.

Chickasha Festival of Lights
Time to open presents!

My niece and nephews.

The nephews hang out with uncle J...

...quite literally.

Hope all of your Christmas celebrations were merry and bright.

Brightened My Day

I have been very busy lately with little sleep and lots of crankiness. However, my husband knew just what I needed to make me smile.



Flowers are my weakness. My husband knows me well, love him.

Oh Christmas Tree, 2011

This years Christmas tree experience was different.

In year's past, we went to a tree farm, pick out a big tree and cut it down.

We are living in a smaller place than last year and we live in a big city where it's not very convenient to go cut down your own Christmas tree, but we did the best with what we had and it was still a lot of fun.

This year was a quick trip to Home depot to find the perfect tree and we did.

I apologize in advance for the blurry pictures. My camera was struggling.

Jesse bringing in our tree.

Before.
After.
Another After.

Poll: real or fake tree, which do you prefer? Take my poll in the top, right corner.

A Tennessee Thanksgiving, 2011

Nashville, TN was were Jesse and I spent our time for Thanksgiving this year. Technically we stayed in Gallatin, but we did spend a few nights in Nashville with my SIL and BIL, the Martins.

Although I had been through and in the general area of Nashville several times before, I had never really toured it, so the trip started off with an insiders tour from my SIL, Molly.

In this picture: cool, old buildings/churches, Batman looking building, our pretty tour guide.

A few of the McKee women.
Jesse's Grandmama and I matched, so a picture was an absolute must.

A walk to the creek. The weather was beautiful.

It never fails. Jesse is always climbing on things.

A few of the cousins.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving from the McKee's.

November Family Visitors

I officially have to add the month in the title when we have family visitors because we have had so many lately, but I am not complaining, we have so enjoyed family coming to visit us.

And now for our featured November visiotrs: Mike and Kim McKee (aka Jesse's parents).

Wednesday was Mike's birthday, so we ventured out to the Mason Jar for dinner.

Opening a few presents.

Mike created a beautiful painting of our friends dog, Norman. I call this picture "Stormin' Norman." There of course is a story behind it : )

Althought I didn't post a picture, Saturday Kim and I attended the International Quilt show. Wow, there are some pretty talented quilters in the world. I like to sew, but I'll stick to my curtains for now.

Sunday afternnon we went to Galveston. It was a cool by the water, but still only around 70 degrees.

Mike and Kim seeing Galveston for the first time.

Now for a silly picture...
We even saw the cutest little mermaid.

Thanks Mike and Kim for the great visit!

Trick or Treaters Welcome

We hung our little "Welcome" sign for trick or treaters expecting floods of cute children in their cute costumes to come to the door. Unfortunately all we got was a 13 year old with no costume and a Wal-Mart sack. She didn't even say "Trick or treat" or "Thank you."

What is this world coming to? You can bet my children will say "trick or treat" AND "thank you."

Fortunately this cute trick or treater showed up and made my day.

He is such a good sport.

Hope everyone else had great trick or treaters come to their door.

Blogger Help: Spacing Issues

I know I don't usually have many people comment on my blog posts, but if you can help me, please don't be silent!

The Issue: I create my posts in edit mode and format wise they look fine, but then as soon as I post the blog and review it live there are all of the crazy spaces and sometimes my font color changes. What is going on?

Just take a look at several past blogs and you will see what I am talking about.

I don't know much about HTML code, but is the issue occuring there?

If you can help, please leave a comment. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment. OR if you just feel sorry for me, please leave a comment :)

In advance, thank you for the help!

Family Visitors

Last weekend my sister, brother-in-law, neice and nephew came to visit Jesse and I in Houston and we were so thrilled to have them!

Name reference list:
Amy = sister
Brent = brother-in-law
L1 = neice
L2 = nephew

They got in Thursday late afternoon and the kids wasted no time and went swimming. Of course the water was a little chilly.

We also went to the Galleria mall and went ice skating. Let me just say that was quite an adventure. Neither Amy or I had ice skated in years and L1 and L2 had never ice skated. L1 picked it up real quick. L2's attempt was not as successful, however even though he fell several times, he never cried and he wanted to keep going. And my sister and I, well let's just say it's not like riding a bike. Jesse and Brent decided to sit back and laugh as we fumble around on the ice.

A good picture on the left since we weren't moving. We pretty much laughed the whole time we had L2 on the ice. He wanted to do it on his own so bad, but he could only go a few steps before falling. I'm sure it doesn't help to have two adults helping you when they can't even ice skate themselves.

The next day we went to NASA. We have gone before with Jesse's parents, but this time we were able to do more kid things. I know the kids had a great time, but I think Brent enjoyed it even more :)

Jesse and I being kids again.

On the trolley for a tour.

Left: Amy, Brent, L1, L2, me. Right: We told them to give us a thumbs up, but for L2 that meant giving the "go pokes" sign.
We got to see a science show and L1 got called on stage to be an assistant. There was no hesitation, she hopped right up there.

At our favorite Mexican resturant in Houston (thus far), Chuys. The kids got some pretty cool balloon characters made for them.

Saturday we watched the first half of the OSU game together before everyone had to pack up and head back to Oklahoma.

Thanks for coming to visit us!

The McKEY WEST Vacation

First of all, I need to point out that Jesse created this title, he is proud of it and I am proud of him for at least being somewhat interested in my blog.

Second of all, I have to warn you that there will be picture overload on this post and a few of them I played around with in Photoshop, so they may look disjointed, hmmm not sure if "disjointed" is the word I want to use.

Third of all, I need to get to the point of this post, so here we go.

Attending the "wedding of the year" allowed Jesse and I to take a mini vacation, which was a nice treat considering we typically don't travel in the Fall.

The trip started in Miami, FL, where we met up with our friends Dustin and Robyn.

Our hotel.

From the rooftop of our hotel. The view was amazing!

At the rehearsal dinner.

Jesse wore pants the color of the ocean.

A better shot without my hair in my face.

The Nerd Herd- definition: a group of engineering friends.

I just love this application/filter I used, I think it is called "seventies"

Reception pictures.

At the southernmost point in the United States.

Sunset.

A before and after shot. Our last night in Key West having dinner with friends: Robyn, Dustin, Clay, Jesse, Heather, Lauren, Aaron.

Jesse and I decided to make a quick stop in Everglades National Park before heading home.

I love how the clouds reflected in the water.

Not sure if you can tell, but there is a gator down there. Look past our reflections in the water...do you see its tail?

As we left the park we saw a rainbow in the clouds, not a bad scene to see before hoping on a plane and heading home.

And that my friends was the McKEY WEST Vacation.

Wedding of the Year

You are probably thinking I am going to do some kind of recap of Prince William and Kate's wedding or Kim Kardashians wedding to Kris, but no.

Some people recall those weddings as being labeled "the wedding of the year," but not for me.

There is only one "wedding of the year" in my book for 2011 and that title belongs to James and Brittany Nickles.

Last weekend Jesse and I traveled to Key West, FL for the "wedding of the year."

Just a few snapshots of the bride and groom...

Five things that made this wedding great (well, there's more than just five):
1) Beautiful couple
2) Wedding on a beach
3) Reception on a boat
4) Vacation, vacation, vacation
5) And do I even have to say it? Key Lime pie!

I will post more pictures later on our vacation segment of the trip and just as a heads up, Jesse created the title for that blog all by himself, so get ready.

For now all I have to say is, Congratulations James and Brittany!