Far too quiet around here...

My sister, Anna, and her fun husband, Justin, left Monday afternoon to head back home.  My house is SO quiet and it is making me a little nuts.  I am sure that most would be excited to have their house back to themselves after five days of hosting guests, 5 days of doing dishes quite a bit, listening to my grandmother and mom talk about how my husband MUST be a patient soul to be married to me, (which for the record, they are right but only because I am perfect in every way and so he must be patient with himself...not me  :)), 5 days of not being able to control myself in regard to the left overs in my fridge, etc. But I, for one, am not excited about my guests being gone at all. My house is so quiet that it is almost hurting my ears, if possible, and I miss having my sister right around the corner any time I want to tell her about something.  We had a WONDERFUL time, played super hard, worked a little bit, ate lots of fabulous food and truly enjoyed our time.  Coby and I really hope that Anna and Justin decide to move here :)  Hint hint...

 

I have been busy blogging about what I am thankful for lately, and failed to blog about current events.  First and foremost, I got a new camera, FINALLY, and I LOVE her!  It is possible that Coby has pure hatred for the camera, but that's okay.  That just means he won't try to use my precious gem of a camera.

Below are some recent pictures of what the Russell Crew has been up to....

PLANO HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAME

The Plano High School Football Game at Texas Stadium.  Let me put it this way....the most fun part was waving my paper paw around.  We went with Lacy and Jason Plano, Plano '98 and '95, and Lesly and Jason Goodwyn....Goodwyn is a Plano '95 as well. 

THANKSGIVING 2008

Anna and I begin cooking...why are aprons so unflattering?!?

Mike, Dad and Coby watching football while we cook.  I love it that the Russell Men wave for the camera.

Janice, Coby's mom, myself, Coby, Mike and Aunt Juanita at the end of the day.

It was such a fun day and the food turned out great.  Janice, my mom, Anna and I worked our little tails off but everything was wonderful and I am slowly getting over my refusal to set foot in my kitchen :)  Doing a Thanksgiving dinner sucks the life out of my desire to cook for a week or so...but I am quickly healing!

 

ITS BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS!!!!

I cannot begin to describe what I ninny I become when I start seeing Christmas around me.  Coby told me that I need to put the camera down and stop acting like a tourist.  

Perhaps he was a little embarrassed when I whipped out my camera in the parking lot of Highland Park Village and started snapping pictures of the trees that are so fabulously, gloriously and amazingly lit up every year.   

I turned onto our street the evening before Thanksgiving after spending the previous hour at the grocery store in the most horrifying grocery shopping experience of my life to find THIS!  BE STILL MY HEART!  Coby got his good buddy, Tim "Tank" Stallings who owns Lawn Ranger to come over and get our house all sparkly for the holiday, and I can't describe how excited I was to see it!  Thank you, Tank and Lawn Ranger!  Thank you, Coby!

I finally figured out what to do with the broach that I wore in my hair on our wedding day.  I have always wanted something to do with it that I didn't see every day, so I just pinned that bad boy to the front of my super plain stocking that needed some dressing up.  Stocking clearly still needs some more sparkles around the broach, if you ask me, but I think I am going to enjoy pulling this out each year...what's better than Christmas AND wedding?!?

 

FUN WITH ANNA AND JUSTIN - some pictures of our 5 days together this holiday season...