Dinner with The Snowden's

The Lumpkin & The Snowden cousins have finally decided to start our own tradition. We will meet a couple of times a month at each other's homes for dinner, drinks, and lots of great cousin bonding. We had our first gathering a week ago in Kingwood, at Michael & Amanda's house. It was a blast! And kudos to Mikey for the excellent grillin'. Scott & Brian played some Guitar Hero...I even got hooked, Noah & Maggie played very nicely together, and the adults got to catch up over some appes & beers. Good times!

Spring time

Wow, it has been a long time since we've blogged. There has been soooo much going on in our lives, but nothing exciting to blog about. My grandmother passed away almost 2 weeks ago from liver cancer. She was diagnosed mid January and passed the morning of Feb 18th...it all happened very very fast. Our lives were pretty much consumed with visits to New Ulm, TX to see her and my mom (who was giving her hospice care). I am and always will be thankful for those visits and the time I was able to spend with her. We miss her very much.
On a lighter note, Maggie just turned 9 months old and is such a big girl now. She babbles, crawls, has 2 bottom teeth, & is trying to learn to walk...oh boy, get out the safety locks!
Scott is giving the truck to Rusty (my brother) and taking my grandmother's car at no cost...pretty sweet deal. The car is a '98 Chevy Lumina and has a little over 55k mi on it, has been kept on a pretty regular maintenance schedule at the dealership, and looks like new. It will be a great family car. Thanks again Mom & Dad!
More later...and hopefully some pictures to go along.

DADA

She did it! And I even managed to catch her doing it...somewhat. She's still figuring it out.

More Holiday photos

Heather having a good time

Mom & Granny New Year's Eve

Mom, Maggie, & Sydney at the farm

Aweeee! New Year's Eve kiss

Uncle Rusty & Maggie having fun together

Dad, Papa, & Granny at the farm

Hello 2009!

New Year's group playing Yahtzee

Papa & Maggie 12-26-08

4 generations (Mom, Maw Maw, Maggie, & Me)

Maggie & Pablo (there's a story behind that name) on Christmas

Maggie opening her stocking

A New Year, a fresh start. 2008 was pretty tough for us, so we're hopeful that this year will go much smoother. Christmas '08 was great, a lot of friends and family around our home for the holidays. Nana, Papa, Maw Maw, and Rusty all drove in and stayed at our place for several days. Everyone of course enjoyed seeing Maggie and the excitement of her first Christmas. She even unstuffed her own stocking! : ) She got all kinds of neat toys and gadgets from her Grandparents. Uncle Rusty bought her a really cool red wagon, which Mommy put together...thanks Uncle Rusty! We can't wait to pull her around in that thing.

Heather, Chase, and the kids drove down from Kansas with a U-Haul in tow. They gave us one of the greatest Christmas gifts ever. We are now the proud owners of my Great Grandma & Grandpa Heinze's dinner table/chairs, purchased in 1919...WOW. It was passed to my parents in 1972 (so I ate on this table for 19 years), and then to Heather & Chase when they moved to Kansas, and now to us. The whole set needs some TLC, which it will definitely get, but we love it. Thanks again for bringing it Stewart Family!

Our New Year's celebration was fun. We spent our days at the farm as we do every year. All of the Yahtzee, food, & 4-wheelin' you can handle. I even joined in on a couple of rounds of Yahtzee & Blackjack, as I perpetually give into the pressure. The cousins had a great time playing together...there are always plenty of kiddos in the house. Pictures to follow...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New Car

Scott & I finally had a chance to do some car shopping this past weekend. We spent all day Saturday going from dealer to dealer, looking for the perfect vehicle...and we think we found it! We visited about 6 dealerships, and the last place we went to had an '08 Hyundai Veracruz Limited Edition fully loaded, with almost 28k mi on it. Apparently there was another one (identical to this one) in the back that hadn't even made it out on the lot yet, except this one was an '07 with 14k mi on it. Can you believe it?! We took a look at it and both agreed it was love at first sight. It's a beautiful crossover vehicle with seating for 7...something we can definitely grow into over the years to come. Needless to say, we are happy to have this big hurdle out of the way so we can focus on the holidays.
We hope that everyone is safe and warm over the holidays. Have a very Merry Christmas!

Totalling the VUE

Okay, I finally have photos from the adjuster. So it doesn't look totalled does it? Hard to believe, I know. It's the inner damage that was done. There's a picture with the front bumper taken off for better viewing, but the bumper didn't fall off during the accident...as you can see in this first photo.

Tuesday, December 9th I wrecked my car on the way to work. The roads were wet (rear tires a little bald) and I hydroplaned right into the back of a Nissan Titan. Luckily the Titan sustained no damage and the gentlemen driving was very friendly. It's a totally different story for my Saturn. The insurance company determined the VUE to be a total loss due to the inner rail being damaged...along with the radiator, air compressor, and of course the front end. Luckily no one was hurt, and Maggie wasn't in the car...thank God. I probably lost control around 20mph, so the sudden stop was pretty substantial (obviously).
Of course the Saturn was due to be paid off in January of '09...sniffle, sniffle. It sure would've been nice to not have a note for a while. That's life, right? As I always say...Everything happens for a reason.
Anywho, Scott and I have not even begun to car shop, but will need to do that this weekend. At least it's year-end and there are a lot of great offers out there.

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I know, but I HAD to do it okay? My little makeshift snowman. : )

We had our first snow since December of 2004! Only in Houston do people get this excited about a little snow...right? I personally L-O-V-E it! I took pictures all around the house last night of our light "dusting", as the northerners would call it. For us though, it's still a good snow. Maybe it'll come around again for Christmas....

Lunch with Grandma & Grandpa

We met with Mom & Bill for our weekly meal out this past Sunday. The decision was to go to Willy's Ice House...always a yummy choice! Scott & Bill (Grandpa) took plenty of photos while we were there of Grandma having fun with Maggie. Here they are! What a happy baby....

Thanksgiving

Maggie at Grandma & Grandpa's for Thanksgiving. Early Christmas photo of Maggie the Elf. Too cute!

Lots & lots to give thanks for this year......
Scott, Maggie, & I spent Thanksgiving with his Dad in Pasadena. Deborah (Dad's significant other) hosted the entire event at her home with her family and friends. We had such a great time! Scott's Aunt & Uncle came down from McKinney, and Ally came in from Austin...that made for an excellent mini reunion. Lots of laughs, food, drinks, and interesting converstation. I will post pictures from the big day soon. Thanks again to Dad & Deborah for inviting us out. The food was absolutely wonderful! Deborah had THE largest spread of desserts that I've ever seen. YUMMY! Two words: Chocolate Cheesecake.
Rusty drove down on his bike (in the rain) from Tyler to spend the weekend with us. Having him here is always a lot of fun. I know Maggie enjoyed the visit with Uncle Rusty. Thanks for coming Rusty!
We all went over to Scott's Mom & step-Dad's house Saturday afternoon for a little Thanksgiving grub and football. Pat took lots of pictures of Maggie in her "Christmas outfit" in front of the tree...I'll be posting those as soon as we get copies.