Christmas Festivities

Yesterday we attended St. John's family Christmas party. The kids enjoyed the food, games and a visit from Santa who brought gifts for all the kids.





My handsome boys and me below. Devin decided to grow a beard for the holidays! I think it looks good but he'll probably never do it again.

The kids and I made Christmas cookies. The really enjoyed decorating them! It was fun but what a mess! :)





Here are some pictures of the decorations and the tree with all the gifts underneath. I prefer to wait to put them all out on Christmas Eve but I have no room in the house to hide them!

Christmas is coming

The boys had a great time putting ornaments on the tree. They wanted them all in the same spot.

Here's Austin dressed as a shepherd for his school Nativity play.

Recent Pictures

Here are some recent family photos taken at Blenheim Palace during the Christmas craft fair. It was really cold that day, so we were all bundled up and trying to stay warm!



Here are the boys with their carved pumpkins for Halloween.

Oxford in the Fall

Sunday after church we took a picnic lunch to University Parks. We had a wonderful day walking around and enjoying the fall weather and the changing leaves.

Berry Picking

Who knew you could pick strawberries in October?! Saturday, we went to a local farm to find pumpkins and ended up picking strawberries and raspberries too. There were plenty to pick and the boys had a great time finding them and filling their containers to the brim.

Fun in Texas

The boys and I have returned from a 3 week trip to HOT north Dallas where we visited my sister and her family. While there Grandma and Grandpa and my other sister came for a visit! The boys had a blast playing with their cousins and going to fun places like Chuck E Cheese, The Children's museum and a pumpkin farm just to name a few. As well as some American restaurants like Chick-Fil-A!! Below are a few pictures from the trip including a proud Grandma with her four adorable grandsons!!

Home away from home.

We've just returned from one of our triannual (sometimes more) trips to RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall. These bases have become our home away from home while living in Oxford. It's about a 3 hour drive but worth it when you consider living on the economy in England can be tough for Americans. This is where being military is a HUGE advantage for us! We can stock up on American grocery items you can't find here like peanut butter, maple syrup, chocolate chips, USDA approved beef! :) etc. and pay U.S. prices. We usually stay overnight and catch a movie or go bowling and take advantage of the fantastic playgrounds we don't seem to have in the Oxford area. A big favorite is the American fast food. Taco Bell and Baskin Robbins especially. Living here without so many of our chain restaurants back home leaves us craving whatever we can get that tastes like it does back in the U.S. It's also hard when we're used to the community life on Air Force base to adjust to living in a different country, culture, and way of life, especially in Oxford. Some would say we should dive in to the culture here and live as the British do and for the most part we do (British home and car and tiny washer and dryer) but it's nice to find what we can here of those familiar comforts of home in the U.S. For anyone who thinks Americans and British aren't too different and speak the same language should check out the website www.english2american.com

My Birthday

Last week we celebrated my 28th birthday and instead of doing something for me we took the kids to Drayton Manor. An amusement park with an area called Thomas Land with rides made to look like all the characters from the Island of Sodor. A dream come true for my boys! :)






The park was packed and we waited in lines most of the day just to ride about 8 rides. Since I couldn't go on most of the rides, Daddy was feeling a bit queasy by the end of the day! :)

We had a great time in Ireland last week. We spent a week in Sligo with my parents enjoying the coast and sights and even an O'Dowd castle.