For those that don’t know, this is my sister Lindsey and brother-in-law Grayson.  Last weekend, we took this special photograph at the end of our family photo shoot.  We didn’t explain anything.  Shelby just handed them the picture frames and I snapped away.  I’m not sure who realized what this meant first but there were a lot of excited screams in my ears.

That’s right!  I’m going to be an Aunt!!!

Aren’t the next two pictures precious?

Congratulations, Lindsey & Grayson!  I can’t wait to meet Baby Taylor in March 2012!

Each year, we spend Christmas Eve with my mom’s side of the family and then Christmas with my dad’s mom.  This year was no exception.

This year I was off work on Christmas Eve since Christmas was on Saturday.  That meant I got to go to my grandparents’ house early to hang out (and, this year, help cook).  This year we decided to have Mexican food.  My uncle made chicken enchiladas and I made beef.  Yum!  (I got one of Trisha Yearwood’s cookbooks for my birthday and decided to give her jalapeno bites a try too.  I’m still partial to the bacon wrapped cream cheese stuffed jalapenos but these did go over pretty well and were easy to fix.)

This year we decided to make sure we took lots of pictures of the family and make sure there were several with my grandmother & grandfather included.  I’m pretty sure we spent a good 30 minutes taking all of the pictures.  We even managed to get multiple pictures this year of some that practically refuse to have their picture taken.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Me, my younger sister Lindsey, Mom, & my youngest sister Shelby

Lindsey & her husband (my bro-in-law) Grayson

Me, my sisters, & my grandmother “Nana Pat”

Me, my sisters, & my grandfather “Papa Jay”

The Grandkids (minus Jeff, who lives in Scotland)

Nana & Papa Kissing under the Mistletoe – I’m just gonna say that I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed my grandparents kissing.  Expect for the occasional adorable hand holding that we witness, they just aren’t into PDA.  Evidently, earlier in the day Christmas Eve before anyone was there to witness it, they did this.  Nana had him reenact in front of all of us.  It was hilarious but so adorable!  I’m glad I got the photo to remember it.

Shelby & Papa “Dancing” – We call this dancing.  It lasts only about a minute but Papa gets into it and, as you can see by the smile, has a blast.  It’s moments like this one that I so enjoy witnessing.

Unfortunately, we didn’t take a single photo Christmas Day.  It was a great day, though.  We also have the traditional Christmas dinner – turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes & gravy, etc, etc.  Mom made a lemon pie this year, which was yummy!

I hope you each had a great Christmas holiday.  Thanksgiving & Christmas are the best times of the year for me.  It’s just a festive time and I love getting together with family and friends.

If you want to see all of the pictures we took on Christmas Eve, check out my Christmas photo album.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that rain is causing weekend plan problems right now.  It is after all April.  Rain just seems to be throwing kinks in the weekend plans constantly right now.  Yesterday was supposed to start with the Race for the Cure and then heading up to Missouri to Lindsey & Grayson’s to help with their flower beds.  Instead, we had pouring rain that lasted off and on all day.  We did end up going up to MO for supper so the day wasn’t a total loss but it is still disappointing, nonetheless.

Last weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series was at Texas Motor Speedway.  The forecast was showing a small chance of rain all weekend.  Our hope was that 30-40% wasn’t going to hurt the race on Sunday.

We went down to DFW on Friday.  We stay in Frisco right next to IKEA and Dr Pepper Ballpark, which is home of the double-A Texas Rangers team the Frisco RoughRiders.  Our hotel room had a great view down into the ballpark.  It’s too bad they aren’t ever at home the weekend of the NASCAR race.

We spent Friday evening at my uncle’s house in Dallas.  It was a great visit with him & Rod and a great home cooked meal!  I took tons of pictures of their flowers & plants while I was there (of course).

On Saturday, we got up early and went to the Dallas Farmers Market.  We left there with several fresh vegetables & some berries.  We also left seeing all of the great flowers blooming and wishing we could go home and plant them all in our yards.  Saturday night, our group of 13 met at Babe’s Chicken House in Frisco for dinner.  For those unfamiliar with Babe’s, it is a restaurant where you pick your meat you want to eat (fried chicken, chicken strips, pot roast, chicken fried steak, etc) and then all of the vegetables are served family style.  (NWA Peeps:  Think Monte Ne Inn here in Rogers, except there are other meats to choose from besides fried chicken.)  This is our second year in a row to eat there.  It’s very good!

Sunday was race day (or at least it was supposed to be).  That 30-40% chance was pretty well 100% at the track.  We headed out there hoping the rain would stop and the track would get dry.  No such luck.  The race was postponed til Monday.  (Shelby, Mom, & I headed on home Monday so Shelby & I didn’t get to see the race.)

While we were at the track on Sunday, NASCAR 4-time champion Jimmie Johnson held a Q&A session at the Chevrolet stage.  The major topic of the questions was that he & his wife Chandra are expecting a baby girl in July.  His words…”I hope she comes during the off-weekend in mid-July.”

I went to North Carolina Memorial Day weekend.  The weekend before that we all went up to Grayson & Lindsey’s place in Missouri.  Mom & Dad helped Lindsey plant some flowers.

Lindsey & Grayson have a female cat that has had more than one litter of kittens.  They still have a kitten left from the last litter.  It isn’t real friendly but it did let me get relatively close to it so I just shot several pictures in a row.

Shelby & I drove around the farm a little bit and I took some pictures.

We were sitting around the yard enjoying the nice day and I caught Dad whittling a stick.

I’m not really sure how this picture came to be.  I can pose Shelby but there’s no way we can pose Bo so it is cute that it worked out that we got them posing for the camera.

Speaking of Bo, isn’t he the cutest dog?  (He actually is full-grown and not just a puppy.  He’s a mix of something that makes him smaller than what you’d expect.)

Speaking of our visit to Lindsey & Grayson’s house…I, of course, took my camera with me up there last night and took some pictures of the Christmas tree & decorations and also of the family.  Here are some of the best ones.

Thank you Lindsey & Grayson for having us up.  It was fun!  Your house looks great all decorated for Christmas!