Back in Knoxville (with lots to blog about)

I got back to Knoxville last night after what felt like a very short trip home. It included a trip to Austin to visit friends, a trip to Houston for Christmas with my dad's family, lots of fun at home, and then a trip to Raleigh to see my best friend from childhood, Natalie, get married! So, there's a lot to catch up on. I will post chronologically and include pictures as I go.

My mom, sister, and I went to the ICE! Exhibit at the Gaylord Texan. It's a whole exhibit filled with sculptures made of ice and it's really neat. My favorites were a massive gingerbread house made of ice, a huge nativity scene, and an ice slide (which goes incredibly fast and freezes your butt if you don't sit on your parka!). It is nine degrees inside, thus the massive blue parkas that they supply before you enter. We had a great time.

We celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family the Saturday before Christmas day. That was hectic as usual, with tons of little kids running around and a very full house. It was good to see everyone and we had a great time. Here are all the girl cousins in age order, excluding Noel, who lives in Singapore. Usually Grandma's included in the leg-kick picture (and we usually have to do a dance and song as well) but I'm not really sure where she was when we took this.

This is Brie and Cade. Cade is one of four boys, but that did not deter him from carrying around Brie's babydoll all night. It was cute!

Kallie and Laura see who's hair is longer.


I went to visit some of my good friends, the Hales, in Austin for one night. I used to babysit their four kids, Faith, Will, Grace, and Hope, and now am really good friends with their family. We had a great time!

Me and the girls played lots of games.

Me and Mrs. Hale listen to the piano and recorder concert.

We also celebrated Christmas with my dad's family in Houston, and it was the first time in almost ten years that everyone (excluding my Aunt, who got stuck out west due to snow) was together. It was good to reconnect and we finally got the full family photo that Maw-maw has been wanting us to get.

We celebrated Christmas again with the immediate family when we got home on Christmas day and had a really fun time spending time with just us. Here are a few pictures from that.

Laura and I made "We Love Conner" shirts and wore them to one of his basketball games. He was embarassed, but still liked them. Dakota also got in on the school spirit.

After I came back from Knoxville, Anne and I drove to Raleigh for Natalie's wedding. It was so fun to be in her wedding and watch her get married! We had a great time hanging out for a few days before the big day and ran around crazily trying to get all of the last-minute details worked out. She looked absolutely gorgeous in her dress! I didn't take one single picture because I was just running around too much, but here is a picture of her and Matt taken by her brother Joel. It's still weird to think that Nattie, who I met when I was 5, is now married! I mean, when did we get old enough for this??