Christmas at Mom's

Sheri and I and George and Sharrian Lynell enjoyed Christmas at Mom's. We had fun and I had to wait till after breakfast to open my present. We had lots of good food and fun. We got a lot of gifts too! I got a pellet gun and a new knife to skin what ever I kill! Thanks Mom!

Kitz

Good Job Ashton

We all enjoyed Ashton's Dance, what a joy to see our grand kids participating and entertaining.

Zach's Christmas

Just a few of the 60 trees Zach got today. Homes for the needy fish this cold winter. He expects the rent be paid on tournament day.

Suprise

Zach and Avery left me to shop alone this evening and they had a suprise for me when I was done....

They decided to get her ears pierced! No tears! Zach said she sat there and asked questions and was all confident. Pretty cute.

-Jodi

Thanks!!!

Wow! I just received the family's house warming gift. Thank you so much! That will be so much fun to spend. Actually it is already spent in my mind...sush...don't tell Trey!

Get together eats

So I think the plan is to go to Ashton's ballet performance on Friday night and then to Pops and Nanas house for the night. What are the meal plans? I will bring a NO CHEESE casserole for Saturday morning; Granny, are you up to making us some monkey bread??? What is the lunch plan?

Sara

Closed!

We closed on our house Wednesday! Now all we have to do is move, and pack for Hawaii. What an exciting month! Oh and Trey said I can get a dog!

Christmas?

This link made me laugh out loud.

http://www.isitchristmas.com

-mat

26.2!

a few of my brave supporters weathering the wait at the finish line

see Kara cheering me on? Not the lady running, the lady behind the barrier

Here I come! Nearly there!

Little hands admire my finishers medal

the best looking marathoner on the course!

The Whiterock Marathon. I did it! 4 hrs 5 minutes. Such an amazing feeling. Someone was praying hard for the weather because we only got sprinkled on slightly and I hear that it was pouring as near by as 4 miles. I had a great race; some knee pain started to get me down early on, but I prayed and God decided to let me have my day. I am so blessed, let me tell you. The weather was quite cold and very windy and despite all of that 13 family members made the drive to watch me finish this exciting event. That made me feel so special. Like they did not have anything better to do on this cold winter day. Thank you guys for your support, you will never know what it meant to me. I have also gotten many phone calls from people who were thinking of me; Grandma Charlotte got a nice wintry mix on the road and could not make it but she was there in spirit...thank you!

Pete, my coach, and the best partner anyone could ask for, ran with me. He decided this last night. He ran to encourage me and video me! He would run ahead every few miles and record me passing by and ask how I was feeling. What an awesome guy! The sickening thing is that he is in such good shape that this was just a Sunday jog for him. He will probably still need to do a workout this afternoon. What a turd. I love him!

I consider today a great success. Thank you, Lord for blessing me with the ability to do such a fun thing in my life. I recommend everyone try one of these at least once in your life. If I can do it, anyone can!

Thank you, Pops for these pictures. If it wasn't for Pops, my faithful readers would not get a glimpse of most of these exciting races!

Christmas in Africa

Jerod and his family received Christmas from the Parker, Skinner family today. I had Bod Bentley send the money this morning as he has contacts with Jerod. The pictures are of Jerod's home and Church building, When we visited they were still without electricity. Jerod is a good man that completed school through the Nairobi school of preaching. When we visited he and his wife opened their home to us and gave us chips, fruit and drinks.

Thank you for Blessing this family.

Pops

zits

Reese kept putting her hands on my face and I said "stop putting your hands all over my face." Reese: "why?" Me:"because it gives me zits." She looks at her hands with her eye brows wrinkled and says "but I don't have zits on my hands?!"

Click over to see Pete being Santa at Pets Mart today

www.sorenandreese.blogspot.com

Merry Christmas

Seems as though Sheri and I have received our Christmas early but we had a problem. First I found a red leather chair which I've been looking for for several years. Impulse buy.....yes, but I love it. We were talking about the chair Sunday afternoon when arranging the furniture for the Christmas tree....well your Mother decided that she needed one too! It should be here Saturday.....Problem #1. Where are we going to put all of this furniture? I called Danna and she declined to buy the two chairs that we had made in 01, but, Sara took the bait and ran like a hooked bass. Well we reeled her in and took her money. She acted happy and so we are happy....Problem #2. We took granny with us to pick up the new chair, got it home, moved in, unpacked and I looked around and we could NOT get granny out of the chair. We had to called granddaddy to come get her. He did, OUR problem solved but I think maybe granddaddy may have a new problem now.

Thankgiving Day

We give God the highest glory and thanks for our family. What a wonderful day of food and felloweship. Thanks familt for coming over and bring food and fun.

Thanks granddaddy for a wonderful prayer of thanks!

We love you all!

Pops and Nana

Computer End Table

Well Danna and Trey here is the end table that Mom does not like because she has to turn her head to look at emails. I want to get a wireless keyboard and mouse and just use the TV for the monitor when we are just on the computer. I guess I will be looking to do something else.

Pops

I'm A Winner!

In case you have not travelled over to my blog recently, there is some exciting news there. Here is a picture that gives you a little hint.

http://www.matmusic.net/

-mat

breakfast

This morning at breakfast, sharks were the topic of conversation for some reason. Avery says "next time my dad catches a shark he won't let me have it." Soren: "why not?" Avery: "because it might taste me."

Sweet Potato Souffle

Someone should make this for your Thanksgiving dinner. I make it every year and it's DEE-licious!!

Sweet Potato Souffle


4 medium sweet potatoes
1 cup miniature marshmallows
½ stick margarine
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
½ cup milk
¼ tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. nutmeg

Topping
½ stick margarine, melted
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup crushed graham crackers

Cook the sweet potatoes. While potatoes are still hot (do not use the skins) combine with all ingredients. Whip it good. Put in baking dish. Bake at 350 about 15 mins. or till set.

Make topping by combining the 3 ingredients. Spread on top of the soufflé and bake at 375 about 5 minutes or till brown.

Under Contract

This is the house we have under contract! The inspection was today and it went well. The house is older, so we have some painting to do, but it has all new light fixtures, newer windows and the upstairs has new carpet. It is in one of Colorado’s best school districts with an elementary school one block away and a park right down the street. There is ton of room so you will have to visit soon. It has 4 bedrooms, 2 ½ baths, and a large open basement.

Another Picture for Pops...

Some dude posted this picture of a sign in a town in Denmark.

(giggle)

-mat

Happy Birthday Danna! and other stuff

Danna, I hope you had a great day! Good luck with your offer on this next house; keep us posted!

There is a 5k at 8:00 am Thanksgiving morning in Forest Ridge. It is FREE and close by and should be fun (no, really!) There is also a 1 1/2 mile walk course if anyone does not want to "go the distance"

I hope you will all be there bright and early with your running/walking shoes. I will be there and I will drag the rest of the Underwood clan with me.

sara

We didn't get the house

Well, our bid wasn't the highest bid and we didn't get the house. We will keep you posted as we continue to look.

Danna

Hey! We found a house that we are going to make an offer on! It is on a large lot that backs up to a park, has 3 bed rooms, 2 1/2 baths, and a double sided fire place that looks into the living room and dinning room. The basement isn't finished, but it is already framed for another bedroom, bathroom, and laundry room! This is exciting!

Thanksgiving

I thought I posted this already, but it is not showing up on the blog, so here we go again.

The Turkey Trot plans have changed. We are not going to drive to Dallas, but will do a 5k in Denton. I think that is a great idea. We need Nana to get us the info so we can sign up.

Kara and I have a tentative Thanksgiving menu. This just covers all of the basics; feel free to change/add anything.

Turkey and dressing - Nana
Ham and relish tray - Granny
Mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and rolls - Sara
Broccoli cheese casserole and a dessert - Kara
Jodi - any favorite recipe, dessert, or appetizer that you think we need!

Halloween

We had some spooks tonight and one stayed. Reese is here with us for the evening, something about Pete needing to take more cold medicine......I didn't get the whole story, but Sara said that she was going to give him more of the same medicine tonight that he had last night.... Oh well! Reese and Avery and Nana and Jodi had a good time trick or treating.

As usual we had lots of kids and ADULTS trucked in. Gave away at lease $100.00 worth of candy. If you see a zit on my nose tomorrow you will know that I had a Snickers bar.


Muffins were good too!

indecent proposal

I am throwing this out for discussion. Many of us have talked about it in the past, but we have never actually done it. The proposal is to have Christmas gifts only for the children this year and take all money that would be spent otherwise and bless another family. Here are my arguments in favor of the idea...
*we have had 30+ years of HUGE Christmases and many people have never even had one small one
*I am only proposing this for this year. We are not getting together on Christmas Day or I would not propose it. We can still have our get together (food!) and let the kids open gifts
*The way I figure it, with the money we usually spend, we could buy gifts for any kids in the family and then give the parents a sizable amount of cash at a time of year that is so hard financially.
*this would cut a break for anyone in our family that is experiencing tight finances; there is no pressure to contribute.
*Kara already has a family in mind. It is an elderly couple who are raising their 3 grand kids. It has eaten up their retirement to do this because they were not planning on raising a second family.

*****The most important part of this whole idea is COMPLETE COOPERATION! If we agree to do this and someone (Pops and Nana) decides to contribute but still buys gifts, then it ruins the whole thing. I vote for a trial year of this. I get so excited at Christmas and always want to give to others, but I spend so much that I end up only being able to do an angel tree or something. We could do so much altogether!

Cast your votes.

Sara

4 years old!

I can't believe Avery is 4! Thanks to all the family and friends who made Avery's day so special. Here are some pictures from the party. Love you guys!

Jodi

Thanks for the cleanup!

A many thanks to Pete, Sara and Jodi for cleaning the boat. It looks great and the pictures are on the web for sale. Initially my ad selling price was $900,000! I figured that was a good price, there were no takers so I lowered it a little. Zach and I put a tarp on the thing so maybe it won't get dirty. Christmas is just around the corner so if you want a present, pray that the boat sells soon!

Nana and I really enjoyed our trip to Danna and Trey's. They took us to a comedy dinner theater that was really funny. Danna took off Friday and we visited Pikes Peak, very cold up there. We went to Golden and to Denver played a lot! Lots of good food and laughter. Trey made a fire and we played games Sunday evening.

We woke up to snow Sunday and got to take the old beater 4x4 to church. It's good to be home where it is warm. I don't like cold but Danna and Trey are having a ball!