Ft. Worth!

David and I will celebrate 8 years on January 11. However, we won't have a babysitter during that time - so we asked Jamie to watch the boys for 1 night, 2 days for us so we could have a little time together.

We decided to go to Downtown Ft. Worth and just have a little time to rest and relax. We stayed at the Omni Hotel in Downtown. Which was super nice. We really enjoyed it. We went to a few great restaurants and went golfing as well at Fossil Creek. We had a great time and really cherished the time we were able to get away. Thank you Jamie!

This was outside our hotel. There was a football game going on so there was alot of security, police around. It was SMU vs. Army. Which I thought was odd, but apparently that happens.

The Water Gardens were right across the street from our hotel. If you have never been - it's definitely something to see. I wouldn't take small kids, but it's really magnificent.

We went to the Flying Saucer for a a little Guiness!

Outside the window of The Flying Saucer. They looked cool, so I took a picture : )

The view from our hotel room. It's the Water Gardens.

Golf at Fossil Creek. The weather was kinda cold. The sun came out when we were on hole 14 for like 10 minutes. It was still a nice day and David enjoyed golfing this course.

He's in the bright yellow shirt and jeans. He's putting in this picture : )

We had a great time and are thankful for this time to celebrate before our anniversary. Our alone time is rare - so when we get the opportunity, we definitely take it : )

Christmas Day!

Will woke up first, and we actually had to wake up Ben and Andy. They actually all slept till 8:30, which was great for David and I.

Ben was OUT!!!!

Andy and Will checking things out while we wait on Ben.

Ben and Andy opening up some special gifts : )

Will got his Nerf Longshot CS-6. YEA!

I think Ben was still asleep. He was opening slowly. Taking his time : )
It was a Nerf Christmas for Ben and Will.

YEA, Buzzlightyear Jet pack! Exactly what he wanted : )
It was a Buzz Christmas for Andy : )

And Ben's special gift.... a basketball goal.

Andy got an Art table. Which he LOVES..... He loves to draw and color and write and paint.

So it's perfect for him.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO DAVID! : )

We were cooking lunch (my family came over) and our garbage disposal broke. Put us a little behind, but we were able to put it aside so we could have lunch together and worry about it later.

My parents, Christopher, Stephen, Linda, Tiffany, Courtney, and Nevaeh came over. We had a great time and had a wonderful meal : )

Christopher and Stephen putting the net on Ben's basketball goal : )

My daddy : )

My Christmas Card Wall. We got so many great cards. Thank you all. I love them : )

My sweet Mommy : )

My niece Tiffany and one of her daughters (Nevaeh).

Christopher playing a little basketball w/Ben.

Christopher, Me, Mom and Dad

Unfortunately Stephen, Linda, Tiffany and her two girls left before we could snap a big photo.

Dad, Mom, Will, Andy and Ben

Will got a Airhog remote control airplane for Christmas. He and Papa were playing w/it and having fun.

Unfortunately, it broke w/in 3 hours. I have to return it. Total bummer!

Andy's art table is awesome, b/c you can slide out center piece and it can be a table for two....

or three.....

We ended the day fixing the garbage disposal. Kuma is supervising : )

We had a great Christmas and a great day! It was great to be at home and spend time with family.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I wish you Happiness and Joy always.

May God Bless you this Christmas Season and Always!

Front of Card

Back of Card

From our family, to yours.

Even Kuma got her own Christmas Card this year. I'll deliver them to her vet and her groomer.

Christmas Eve and preparing for Santa ...

The boys have been excited for months, weeks about Christmas and what that meant. For them - it meant our Elf, Frosty, would come back to watch over them. And it also meant Santa would come to visit us and bring the boys lots of toys and goodies.

I am sad to say, we did not go to Church at all this year. It just seemed for one reason or another - we never made it. Andy does go to a Christian school and he learns about God in school. And Ben and Will do know about God. But it's not really spoken of too much in our house and we didn't put a huge emphasis on the true meaning of Christmas this year. And for that I'm sad. I vow to change things next year. We will go back to Church and come Christmas - the boys will know why we celebrate this special day and instead of preparing for Santa, we will be preparing for Jesus.

Lots of things happen in the Wilke Home on Christmas Eve.

(1) David gets out his huge mixer and makes cookies from scratch. He really makes them well. They are always so yummy. The boys love to help.

 lots of mixing of colors to make the colors just right.

the boys making their own cookies with coloring and sprinkles

 they finally get to eat ther cookies they designed themselves. yummy!!!!!

they got to open one gift tonight (from david and I). they got the fun pj's they are wearing. Normally, on Christmas morning - I have kids all in their undies (just look at Christmas last year) and I have to do

alot of photoshop to put the photos on here. I didn't want to have to do that this year. So pj's

seemed like a great gift to open early.

(2) We go out and leave food for the reindeer and sprinkle 'special dust' on the lawn so it's easier for Santa and his reindeer to see.

(3) We say good-bye to our elf, Frosty. (look up)

(4) We track Santa on noradsanta.org. We get one more look before bed to see where he is.

(5) We leave our notes for Santa. Ben and Will wrote their own, and I had to write Andy's. It was so cute though. When I was done, he said "Let me sign my name." And he wrote an "A". I had no idea he could do that. Yea, Andy : )

(6) One last attempt at a photo in front of the tree. As you can see, not real successful. But we tried.

(7) Leaving our notes, cookies and special beverage for Santa. This year we left Santa something special. We figured he would be pretty tired and need a little extra something : ) The boys didn't think that ..... Daddy did : )

Don't you love our fireplace burning in the background. Ha! It's some kind of special thing on direct tv, i think. Pretty cool, huh?

The boys were really excited and had a hard time going to sleep, but finally did fall asleep. Ben said "I can't sleep mom, it's a big night." Sweet boy!

Kuma trying to eat Santas cookies! : )

And Finally ...... Santa Came!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!