It Was A Merry Christmas!

We returned home tonight from our Christmas holiday travels.  We left Wednesday morning and went to Abilene to get ready for the Christmas Eve festivities at Granny's house.  The weather gave us a nice suprise, a white Christmas Eve.  The snow did keep Jeff, Tami, and Cody from being able to come, but we did get to have Christmas with them this afternoon.

Caroling before opening presents.

Joey reliving his childhood.  It is a long story but a funny present!

Jaden and Jaxon got these from scooters for Christmas.  Since the ground was covered in snow, we decided to try them out on the kitchen floor.  I had to get in on the fun!

Thursday afternoon we scraped the snow off the car and headed to Snyder.  It did take us a little longer to get there because of the road conditions, but we made it safely!  Christmas morning we woke up and had Christmas with Mom and Dad.  I did not get any pictures of opening presents, but Joey and I did pose by the tree.

We also tried to pose in front of the snow covered tree at Gran's house, but the sun reflecting off the snow made it hard for us to keep our eyes open!

Christmas afternoon the gang all arrived!  Gran's house was full of fun and food!

By the end of the day, there were 19 adults and 2 cute little girls at Gran's house.  We had lots of fun opening presents, cooking, eating, cleaning and playing.  Abbye had her first lesson in playing 42.

Cade and Kyla arrived with some exciting news!  They are engaged!

There were lots of happy squeals with all the Crenshaw women in one room!  We are so glad that Kyla will be joining the family!

On Saturday, we went over to the West's house to see what Santa brought Jaden and Jaxon and to play with the Wii that the boys got from Jason and Jami. There was some serious Wii playing going on! Jami defended her title on Toy Story Mania against Joey, Jaden, and Jaxon.

We are so blessed with wonderful families and had a wonderful time with them this Christmas!  Now onto the Christmas de-decorating and checking off the "to-do" list to get ready for the new year!

Merry Christmas from Our House to Yours!

Hope this finds you enjoying the season!  We have had a fun and busy holiday so far and are looking forward to seeing family and friends.  Just wanted to share some Christmas cheer from our house.

The Dining Room Tree

Our New Living Room Tree

After much looking and much debate I am so glad I got this one!  It is so pretty! 

We have presents under our tree, and beside our tree...

Our New TV and Entertainment Center

We got the TV for Christmas from Mom and Dad early this year - the day after Thanksgiving.  Then we had to have something to set the new TV on, so Joey and I gave each other the entertainment center for early Christmas to each other!  Joey enjoyed watching football games and I have enjoyed watching all the great Christmas movies that have been on TV!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your family!

Becoming a Student Again!

The last 2 weeks have been busy as I have been researching different programs and filling out my application and paperwork for my master's degree.  I have officially been accepted to the Master's of Education in Leadership of Learning from Abilene Christian University!  I will begin courses in January and will take a course for 7 weeks followed by a week off for the next two years and will graduate in December 2011.  All of the courses are online, so I can do the coursework from home or from wherever our schedule takes me and my laptop! 

Cowboys' Stadium

While Joey was off in Washington with the Texan football team, I headed to Cowboy Stadium to see the other football team in town, the Stephenville Yellowjackets.  We usually do not go to the yellowjacket games because we get our football fill on Saturday.  Okay, so Joey can probably never get his fill of football, so all those "we"s should be "I"s. Although, I will admit I have really enjoyed football this year! 


Chris and Karen Cox and the fan full of jacket supporters met me after school and we headed to Jerry's World.  We were there before the gates opened at 6:00, so we had plenty of time to take it all in before kickoff at 7:30.  I took lots of pictures.  I had to make my photographer husband proud!  Plus, I did need proof that I had been there before him!  Who would have ever thought that would happen!  (Not that I would rub that in or anything!)

View from the 3rd row

Looking up from the 3rd row

The roof opening - It began to rain and it still kept going.  Then after a little bit they closed it back up.  I am convinced that it was Jerry and his people trying to show off. Why else would they open it up when it was cool and rainy?

I went up to the second level to get a picture of the whole field.  The 2nd level was as high as you could go.  I am thankful for that!  I really did not enjoy being up that high.  I can't imagine sitting up at the very top!

The Big Screen - Even though I could see everything on the field great, I still caught myself looking up to the big screen.  It was fun to watch on it!

It was fun to go to the game and to get to see the impressive Cowboys' Stadium.  At $10 a ticket, a high school playoff game is definitely the way to go see a game there.  I have no desire to go see a Cowboys' game with all those people.  I would get sick sitting as high up as I would have to for the price I would be willing to pay.  Stephenville and Aledo did a good job of filling up the sections that were available and made for a great game even though the Yellowjackets lost in overtime.  The atmosphere was fun, exciting, and very loud (my ears were still ringing when I woke up this morning!). 


PS - I posted this blog after updating the posting part of blogger.  It is much easier to post pictures.  The picture inserts where the cursor is instead of at the top.  It is so much easier!  The downside is that I do not see a spell checker, and we all know I am a terrible speller!  (Sorry Mom, I guess you will have to call me and tell me my mistakes!)  Anyway, some of you may have already known about the update, but just in case you haven't you might want to update yours.

Exciting Times

The buzz at our house...Tarleton football's impressive double overtime playoff game win against TAMUK! I won't write the details out for you. Joey has done a wonderful job of that in more than one place. If you're interested in the game story click here - http://www.tarletonsports.com/news/2009/11/14/FB_1114092633.aspx or you can watch the video highlights from the Corpus TV station http://www.kiiitv.com/sports/local/70154002.html

The excitement has put Tarleton on the national radar with references in the USA Today and on ESPN. The sportscaster on ESPN even referred to the game as "one of the greatest college football games". To watch the clip from ESPN - http://www.tarletonsports.com/news/2009/11/16/FB_1116094620.aspx
or you can come on over because of course it is saved on our TiVo and probably will be for years to come.

So now on to Ellensburg, WA to play Central Washington University this Saturday. Tonight I helped Joey look through his closet for warm clothes. The high is only supposed to be 41 degrees with a chance of rain or snow. A little different from the almost 90 degrees and sunburn from this past Saturday in Kingsville. The weather may be different, but hopefully the outcome the same!

Found the Camera, But Didn't Use It!

So one reason for the lack of blogging lately is because I was not sure where the camera was. It usually stays in my purse and I knew it wasn't there but didn't really think it was lost just did not know where it was. Now I do! We went to the State Fair at the end of September and yesterday, a month later, the bag that we took with us came out of the car. There inside it was the camera!

I should have used it the last 2 weekends as we have had fun with family the last 2 weekends!

Last weekend we headed to the Lubbock/Muleshoe/Portales area. As you all know, most of our weekend travel is arranged around Tarleton Athletic events. Tarleton played football in Portales, so we also got to go to Lubbock and Muleshoe. We went to Lubbock Friday night and had a great time visiting and playing with Charlie, Amy and Abbye. Then Saturday morning we all went to Muleshoe to Gary and Hollye's. It was Joey's first visit to the farm. We also got to see their almost finished new house. Sunday morning we went to church and Leal's (a Muleshoe after church tradition). Then we began our trip home with stops back in Lubbock and Snyder. It was all fun times!

This weekend, Bill and Donna and Jason, Jami, Jaden, and Jaxon came for the weekend and to watch the Tarleton vs ACU football game. We had a great time! We had fun playing Wii and watching the Wii players! Jaxon and I made a pumpkin cake and he helped cook lunch. We did have toys at our house this time too, so they did not have to play with the laundry baskets and a ball like the first time they came to our house. However, the boys did have a great time playing with the flyswatters! Jami did use her camera, so maybe when she post her blog about the weekend I can still some pictures!

Sorry for the longs post without pictures! If you read it all, thanks I'm impressed! The camera is now back in my purse, so I will hopefully have some pictures next time!

And now on to more important things...

Well, I noticed my lovely wife has left the "Recognition" post up for a while, and I do thank everyone for their kind words. I will say it is nice to be recognized, but my job is to recognize and bring attention to our student-athletes and our University - that is what I enjoy doing. But thanks!

Now, on to the more important thing:

Leslye and I just wanted to say congratulations to our brother-in-law, Jason West. He was installed as a deacon on Sunday at the 37th Street congregation in Snyder. We were not there to witness the event, but I do know that we wish we could have been there.

Several years ago, my sister started dating this guy, and although I was younger, I still wanted to be protective of my sisters - still am to a degree. I believe the story I remember is this guy kept hounding her to go out with him, and she finally said, "yes." And I guess, after a bit, the rest is history.

I remember still being in junior high and high school, and I would spend the summers at Granny and Grandad's. Jason also lived in Abilene and was playing baseball at ACU, even in the summer. I remember one instance where I was there watching him play, and in between games (or after, I can't remember) he took me in his yellow, convertible bug to Sonic. I also spent some time at his apartment during the summer just "hanging" out. I thought that it was pretty cool that he liked me enough to spend time with me, even though I was the "little brother." Or maybe it was because Jami asked him to do it. Little did he know, I was checking him out just as much as he probably was me.

The thing was, I always wanted to a) be a big brother, and b) have a big brother. Well, I guess the closest to being a big brother I got growing up was being protective of my older sisters, but Jason was my first big brother (and now I have Jeff, too), and I could never thank him enough for being a great one!

We have spent a lot of fun times over the years, playing sports, playing games, traveling, Rangers' games, singing, etc. But most importantly, I have watched him be a great husband to my sister and a wonderful dad to my nephews. He is a great Christian role model to a lot of people, including me.

I thank God for bringing Him to my family. I have no doubt in my heart that Jason lives for the Greatest One of All each and every day, and that he displays his love for God in the way he lives his life.

People can be chosen to represent the church by being selected as an elder or a deacon, but I truly believe that we should all live our lives as if we have that "title." One shouldn't change because the church asks them to serve. One should be asked because he has served. It's not a change of life when called upon, but it's because you have changed lives that you have called upon.

I truly believe one of the greatest things a man is called to do is serve as an elder or deacon in the church. I have watched my grandfather serve as an elder, my father serve as both an elder and a deacon, my father-in-law serve as an elder, and now I am blessed to watch Jason serve as a deacon. I have longed to be able to do just that, and one day, Lord willing, He will call me to that service, too.

Although this post ended up being longer than what I intended (but then again, who's surprised?) I just want Jason and the rest of the world to know that we are proud of him.

Jason, Leslye and I love you, and I am so very proud to call you much more than my brother-in-law. You're my brother in Christ.

And if it's OK with you, let's just drop the in-law part.