Grapevine Lights

We spent last evening on Main Street in Grapevine, just enjoying the lights and having a ball!

Addie poses with one of the displays. Look closely, she's in the picture!

Here she is watching the light display at the gazeebo. It

was amazing! Dancing lights to music, and free to enjoy!

After the first light show viewing, we did some strolling, and then grabbed some dinner at Tolbert's Restaurant, which was awesome. They are famous for their chili, but we played it safe with scrumpty fried chicken and Tacos del Carbon. Yum! Addie did eat a specialty- Donkey Tail. Don't be alarmed, it's actually a hot dog with cheese, wrapped in tortillas and deep fried. Yep. Texas food.

More strolling,

shopping, and we enjoyed the local Christian bookstore/ coffee shop where they were playing Randy Travis music. Yes please!

We had to catch the light show one more time before heading home. By now those of us without gloves were pretty cold! It was in the 40's! Scotty was so bundled that he was rendered immobile and he did not like it one bit.

Yet still, there's nothing like a talking Christmas tree singing the Grinch song.

And one last shot while we shiver!

We had such a great night!

This is Where We Live

I wanted to show all of you (or "all ya'll" as we're learning to say) what it looks like in our new town. So I've been trying to take some pictures of our favorite spots.

Here is a shot down Main Street, complete with a pick-up coming down the road.

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Another spot just off Main Street.

This was the place I had intended to take our family Christmas picture, because I just love this wagon! We did take some pictures here, but the picture we liked the best was taken on the other side of this building, which just happens to be the shop of a working blacksmith.

Cute shot of Addie, in the spot where we ended up getting our winning family picture.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent our Thanksgiving this year with several families from our new church family! We were at the home of the Kiningham's, but joined by Figliozzi's, Griffiths, Jarmulack's, and more! There were about 14 adults and even more children! We especially appreciated hearing what our friends were thankful for, and singing hymns together! The food was great and the fellowship was even better! We were so busy eating and talking that we forgot to take many pictures. The only thing we got pictures of was the kids playing "pin the feathers on the turkey." Here is Addie taking her turn.

The next day we all got some rest. Greg sprawled on the floor for a minute, and Addie decided he made a good spot for a little read. Scotty wanted to copy Addie, toddled over with his book, and flopped down on Dad too. Hilarious.

This shot of Scotty just owns me.

Misc.

Just some random pictures from the last few weeks.

Timmy and I chillin' on the couch.

The turkey we made for our TEACH Thanksgiving day.

It was so pretty I HAD to take a picture!

Addie and the 10 different apple varieties we bought during our "Apple" unit in school. We compared and contrasted and sampled each and then made pie!

Scotty put this bucket on his head and ran around the house. Funny kid!

GW Boutique

Something else I love in Dallas? GW Boutique! It's a Goodwill Thrift store but filled with only the best of the clothes and shoes. It's small (the size of a boutique) and organized like a regular store- so you can go to the skirts, locate your size, and browse. Nice brands only- I found tons of Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Gap, and more.

The only downside is that it is just women's clothes, so no shopping for Greg and the kids, but I may not ever shop elsewhere again!

We went several weeks ago and I bought a LOT of new clothes. Here is one of the best outfits- a lined, tweed Gap skirt, brown sweater, and leather boots. TOTAL COST- under $30- including boots!

Here is the pile of price tags from my finds. :)

Scotty's First Haircut

Well, after 15 months, Scotty finally managed to grow enough hair for his first cut. It really only needed a little trim on top, so I thought I could handle it myself. We plopped him down in front of the TV and I went to work.

I didn't realize the Scotty's cowlicks were ready to take me on, however. My word, the top of this boy's head goes in every different direction!

Here is the end product...

Scotty doesn't really look that different after his cut, since I only trimmed the hair at the crown of his head.

But here's a picture of him after the cut for ya'll to see anyway.

*sigh*

I love this boy.

Bakery Field Trip

Another fun field trip with our TEACH group! This time we visited a local bakery, the Great Harvest Bread Baking Co.

"Baker Craig" gave us an entertaining tour of the kitchen. I especially liked meeting the big Hobart, since it brought back memories of my past work days in industrial kitchens. Notice I didn't say fond memories....

We enjoyed watching the bread go around in the huge oven.














We also loved sampling the delicious bread! Yum!

Costumes and the Kropfs

After our Harvest Party we stopped by the Kropfs house to say hello. Since we hadn't gotten any pictures of the kids in the costumes yet, we borrowed their house for a photo shoot.

Here they are- a butterfly and a bee!

You didn't know that bees and butterflies got along so well, did you?

Scotty really enjoys Loyal, and I think it may just go both ways. :)

Since the kids "lived" in the Kropf's house for the first week of our arrival in Dallas, they made themselves right at home again. I'm sure the silly behavior had nothing to do with all that Halloween candy....

Harvest Party

We spent the evening of Halloween at a Harvest party, hosted by a family from our church, the Alexanders. It was a great night!

As you can see, there were a few children there.

(You can find our kids by looking in the front for Addie's orange butterfly wings, and Scotty is the little round ball of a bee on the right)

Mr. Alexander taught the kids about the Reformation and Martin Luther.


We also had a big potluck dinner and other fun games.





Scotty and Benton- the bees. We decided Brenton was a zippy little honey bee and Scotty was those big, slow bees you sometimes see.







Mike Channell and John Kiningham with their little girlie-girls.

India Day

Yet another awesome day with our TEACH homeschool group. The ladies planned a day to learn all about the coutry of India!

We were especially helped along by several families from the church: two who have visited and are planning to return there as missionaries, and another family who met in India- he is a native of India and she was a short-term missionary there. A HUGE extra bonus for we Spanglers? Our dear friends Karen & TJ live in India as missionaries but are in the States on furlough right now, and they just happened to be visiting the Dallas area during this time, so Karen and their daughter, Chaya, came to join us too. Addie was especially happy to be with Chaya, who was a good friend back in California.

Heather Worsley, planner extroidenaire, shows Karen some of the plans for the day.

Hather taught the kids all about the basics of the country, including neat maps and posters. Then another Heather- Heather Zeller, read the kids a great book about India and showed them some neat toys and things.

Addie and the other girls make bangle bracelets (the boys made tiger masks).

Natalie Kotak teaches the kids some words in Hindi.

Karen teaches the kids a children's song about a fish.

India Day Part 2

Thanks to contributions from several families, there was enough "Authentic Indian Garb" for each kid to dress up. They loved it! Addie sported a bright pink outfit and got mommy's rare approval to show her belly button (when in Rome, ya know?). Chaya brought her own clothes, obviously.

Karen taught the kids some Bollywood dance moves, great fun!

(notice in the background the mantel had been decorated with huge maps and posters of sights from India)

Natalie made Indian food for lunch and the kids crowded around to see and sample. It was delish!

There were so many neat new things to see and do and learn about. What a cool day!