Haun Girls' Day

I love getting together with Kaye, Holly and Morgan! Usually, sometime around Christmas we take a Girls' night at the Westin Galleria and shop until we drop (literally). For those of you who know my low tolerance for shopping, the fact that I would eagerly subject myself to such an activity makes my love and appreciation for my MIL and SsIL become immediately obvious. I just love spending time with them. And if I can get 10,000 steps on my pedometer while walking back and forth through 3 floors of the same mall in 2 days with those 3 women, by golly, I'm going to do it! Love you, girls. Thanks for being my family.

Sorry I didn't take any photos. I had to use all available energy to keep myself from keeling over in Bath & Body Works and Rhuel.

Nicholas Family Christmas

I don't think my family can have a gathering without dogs. Really... It was so great to have Cami back in town with us. Allan and his mom joined us for a little bit, too. Steve and Jordan (Carrie's significant other and son) also joined us. We sort of had stages of Christmas at mom's house: kids' presents before meal, meal, adults' presents, dessert, White elephant. It was full and fun.

Andrew was a wonderful photographer for our family picture - very patient! Can you tell that we got Season 3 of The Dog Whisperer for Christmas? Alas, Salomon was not able to be present for this photo... It seems like all we need is a little Jett to make the picture perfect :)

These beautiful girls are Lilli and Lexi - Austin & Carlee's new puppies. Their chihuahua, Layla, had to stay home, because she needs alone time now that she has puppies at her house.

Austin is 11 and looks very much like his dad, James, did at his age. I remember!

Kaleb - also 11 - and Casey. Thick as thieves, aren't they?

Carlee's 15!! I can't help but think of her as the curly headed 2-yr-old that counted to 10 in her toddler, Beaumont, TX accent. She's awesome... That's Steve taking her picture.

Nick had to take a quick nap after our delicious dinner.

Cami and Allan wore matching purple. Aren't they cute?

David PICKED this jewel in our White Elephant gift exchange! He was impressed by the craftsmanship and plans to wear it - sans underpants - while mowing his lawn. I've got a creative family! Sock puppets (and the script to their love story), Depends and prune juice, and men's lingerie have all made an appearance since we began our tradition a few years ago. But this little framed poster from last year wins, hands down. Thanks, Nick...

Christmas Eve at Nanny's

Our annual tradition on Christmas Eve is to go to Casey's grandmother's (Nanny) house for dinner, stockings, gifts, food and family fun. She did not disappoint us this year! We had a great time - especially those little boys with their noisy swords :)

Honey and sleepy Betsy...

Holly and I got matching robes from Nanny!

Brady's jam packed stocking.

Beau's happy face. You think he's reached the forced camera smile stage?

Christmas Prom Pictures

We got to go to a fun, beautiful Christmas wedding - Charlie and Odille's - right before Christmas. Sadly, I didn't get any shots of the wedding, so you'll just have to take my word for it. But we did take some great prom shots. Enjoy!

You can't see them, but we have sultry eyes in this one...

Ronna and me.

Jen and me.

If I had sent a Christmas picture this year, this would have been it! What the heck is Casey Haun doing?!? Does he really land like that when he jumps? If I had known that when I married him, I don't know... I must say, I'm pretty impressed with my ups. Yikes!

Girls' Christmas Party

Our bible study had a great little get together to celebrate the season.

Beth, Ronna and myself - totally unposed, I swear.

Sweet Jen, sweet Mary and little Ginger "Chihuahua" pants.

Rachel really wore her red prom dress, long fur coat, gloves and sparkles on her eyes. She knows how to dress for a Christmas party!

Ronna opening her surprise ornaments from her girls :) Love you, RK!

Reflections on Peppermint Hot Chocolate

I just finished my first Starbucks peppermint hot chocolate of the season. Generally, I choose not to use my allocated funds and calories for such a treat, but when I do, I really appreciate it. I was just reflecting the other day on the mark Starbucks has made on history as we know it. I mean, they've done an amazing job! And, according to logic, I should not like Starbucks for the following reasons: 1) I don't like their coffee. Even the decaf gives me a headache; 2) I really dislike their treats because they normally won't heat them up - and who wants a cold scone or refrigerated cookie? 3) You never know how your drink will turn out, as it all depends on the barista. And if they're new or mad at the world, you might just get a Chai Tea Latte that tastes like warm milk with something in it too faint to identify; and 4) They're outrageously overpriced and they seem dangerously close to ruling the world. But, when I smell the smell and see the signs, I have an automatic Pavlov's dogs drooling reaction (no drool actually comes out of my mouth) - I'm whisked away to a snowy day in Colorado with rainbows landing on my face through the Starbucks window and I have to make a concerted effort to steer clear. But when it's offered to me as a gift - as it was today from Pastor Hugh - just 10 days before Christmas, I cannot refuse. And whoever was at the bar today did not let me down. Yum.

Beau's Dance Moves

Please check out our nephew. He is truly amazing...
I haven't figured out how to post the video from YouTube onto my page. Sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co4cFqGl8bY

Cheryl + Casey + Baby Boy

Hey friends,

As you may know, we are planning to adopt a baby due on May 1! We are very excited about how God has opened the doors for us to expand our family. I got to be in the sonogram yesterday and I got to see our little boy moving and kicking and being modest. I would post the proof that he really is a boy, but considering the father he will have, I think it's best to delay his exhibitionism as long as possible! We are planning to have an open adoption and know the birth mother and her parents. God has really weaved together some amazing details and we know this little guy has an amazing destiny and we're so excited to be his mommy and daddy. Here he is:

Profile - head on right facing up. I love that blurry little nose! And that tummy (middle) and those scrunched up legs (left).One foot on right, two feets on left!

He's laying on his side and staring right at you. I admit, this one's a little alienish, but we did see a brain where that black void is, so don't worry. He does have one. He had his arms crossed in front of his chest... Can you see his little fingers under his right cheek? It looks like he has my pointy chin, too! :)

Thank you for all your prayers. Keep them up - we've got a lot of things to work out logistically before May... and definitely after. But every bit is worth it; we are so extremely happy!

Christmas Cookies

We got to have a Christmas cookie making party while watching The Dark Knight with Ashley and Jeremy. Casey got a huge kick out of Ashley at the end of the movie when we turned the lights on and she started talking about what a brilliant job Heath did in portraying the Joker. He thought she could have done a pretty good job with her Christmas icing makeup job :) (notice her blue lips below...)

Jeremy's favorite work - pictured above - is titled "Spirit of Cookie"... Well, it was. We ate it.

Our friend Ashley O

We were so so so happy to get to visit with our sweet Ashley, who now lives in Kansas City, when she flew in for less than 24 hours to surprise her Dad for his 50th birthday. We ate, visited, shopped and rested for a bit before we surprised Mike. He called her when we were on our way back from the airport and she lied like a pro. But he swears he knew she was close by - father's intuition.

Coscto

Yes, we are shameless Costco fans. Casey tries to sell Costco wherever we go. We've taken a few of our friends on "Costco Dates" now... You just can't beat a Hebrew National and a coke for $1.50. And the people watching is fabulous. I've had to enforce the no-cart rule on myself, however. And I still never manage to get out of there under budget. The last time I went in, I carried a dog bed, butter, Christmas gifts and decongestants throughout the store. I'm sure people were thinking, "That lady really doesn't want a cart." Below is our friend, Jen, who took a liking to the life-sized, tall, dark and handsome toy soldier. We shut the place down that night...

Griffin Girls' Visit

We are so glad we got to spend some time with Tara and Adelaide! They came for their first visit back to Texas since they moved to Australia... We miss them so much and can't believe how grown up Adelaide is - I was there when she was born, you know!? We got to have lots of fun talks, good food and laughs together.

Here's Adelaide making faces while sucking on a lemon - always so funny.

Casey and Adel have been good buddies from the get-go. Here they are swinging "apside" - which is where Miss Curly Q prefers to be at all times.

Love you girls and miss you already. Give Randy a hug for us!

Jeff's 30th Birthday

We love Jeffrey. We've really enjoyed getting to know him over these past 9 years that he's been in our lives. To celebrate his milestone birthday, he and Casey (and Matt and Kent - who Jeff doesn't know, but Casey invited because he likes them...) went golfing. Jeff came over and had some pancakes and bacon and we took pictures of him because we were so impressed with his wave-of-a-do.After golf, we headed to the Sr. Hauns house to celebrate together as a family. Here's a picture of the Haun kids and their significant others. Good thing Barron made it in the picture - we were thinking Kaye might make him sit one out, since he's not official yet. In the spirit of celebration, we got to wear temporary tattoos - compliments of Beau. My options were a blue octopus on my chest, which unfortunately was defective, or an anchor on the nape of my neck. Sorry you can't see it in the picture, but it is there! I even wore it to a wedding I attended the next day :)
We headed to Babe's fried chicken, waiting in the freezing cold, ate way too much home cookin' and had a great time. They even sang to Jeff and tried to make him dance, but he would have none of it. Isn't cowgirl Jeff cute?
We had a cute waitress who sang on a microphone throughout the restaurant while she wasn't serving us. She brought Beau & Brady the wrong drink, and apologized, calling Beau sir. He was very impressed that she thought he was a sir. I think they forgave her for the mistake because she had a magic coloring book trick that they were pretty impressed by.
Love you, Jeffrey. Hope your day was memorable and your year is full of lots of unexpected happiness. And we hope the gray hairs don't take over that full head of hair too soon!

Happy Birthday, Mom

Today is my mom's 66th birthday. She is one amazing person and I love her so much. She is uniquely made and graciously accepts and celebrates other people's differences. Since my dad died, she has begun an organic grass-fed beef operation at our farm. She has 7 cows now and hopes to have two calves in the spring. She LOVES her cows. She loves raising them and feeding them in an environmentally and physically healthy way. (Did you know that grass fed beef is closer in fatty omega-3 acid levels to salmon than to grain-fed beef?) She is such a woman of faith and prayer and for that I am eternally grateful. I'm so thankful for her spunky, funny self. I think I'll keep her...

Murder Mystery Dinner

Ashley and Jeremy hosted a Murder Mystery Dinner. I was Shania Vain - a country singer - and Casey was Peter Jenkins - an exotic animal / game hunter and dealer. A fun time was had by all in the whodunit dinner and Casey played such a believable character that no one even suspected that he was the killer, not even me!! Conveniently, his Nacho stache transitioned well into his killer role.

Ignacio y Encarnacion

We went to a costume party at Kyle and Michelle's house. Of course, Casey had to be Nacho Libre! He went to the fabric store with his Nanny, picked out fabric for both of our costumes and the rest is history. He made his very own Nacho tights, bloomers and shoes. He aslo grew his very own Nacho stache. Nanny was kind enough to make my outfit for me - it was a bit more complicated (and covering) than Casey's. We had a great time and Nacho was a BIG HIT. Strangers asked if he could take a picture with their baby. Sadly, I didn't have my camera at the time...

The Wichita Extravaganza

We recently went on a weekend vacation with Morgan and Walter. We talked about going to the Caribbean or somewhere exotic, but decided our dollars were better saved than spent, so we rented a cabin in the Wichita Mountains in beautiful Oklahoma :) Casey informed us that they are one of only two mountain ranges in the US that extend from east to west. We explored, relaxed, hiked, napped, read, visited and laughed. We had some great steak - thanks to my husband, who has recently decided to conquer the perfect steak - and s'mores around the fire. It was so fun! Stokeses, I think we need to have another long weekend together soon... Maybe Alabama? z
Morgan was pretty disappointed that she wasn't allowed to have martinis while she was hiking.

October in Dallas

I love this time of year! The weather is beautiful - temperate, breezy and sunny. After a special breakfast out, I spent 4 hours outside on our porch swing talking with my friend Jen today. It was perfect. Then we shared a burger on the patio at Cafe R&D, followed by Sprinkles cupcakes (for the second day in a row) and a movie at home with dogs sacked out all around us. It was so wonderfully refreshing. I know every day can't be like today, but I'm thankful when I get to have these days. And for some reason, I usually have more of them in October than any other time :)

The Extended Nicholas Fam

My dad was the middle of three brothers: Ronny, Kenny and Larry. Uncle Ronny has lived in Mexico City almost all my life. He came in town for Texas/OU weekend and to visit his son, my cousin Eliot. He had a party and it was so fun to see all my extended family together. I love my family so much.

Here's Uncle Ron:

Uncle Larry and his daughter, my favorite girl cousin Brooke:

My brother David, my cousin Wade and Uncle Ron again:
My sister Cathie, my cousin Eliot and my Aunt Ginger.
My brother David's girlfriend Renee and my sister Cathie's boyfriend George:It was a great party and the Longhorns won, so it was a good weekend. Hook 'em horns!