Christmas in Dripping Springs

After Christmas at Granny's, we went to GranDave and Mimi's house to have Christmas with the Sutherland side of the family.


Rachel had a blast playing with her cousin Taylor.

Here they are on top of the mulch pile.

She played with her new bike in the driveway.

After Ethan arrived, she had fun playing with him too.

Swinging is still one of her favorite activities.

We had a great lunch and enjoyed visiting with the Martins and Aunt Mandy.  It was great that almost everyone could be there this year.

This is the preparation for a shot of the whole family.

We tried to take a family photo but got limited cooperation from the youngest two.

This was about the best we could do - maybe we will try to photo shop out the stick Rachel is chewing on.

Wes and his siblings.

GranDave and Mimi with all of their grandkids.

Emily and Kirby

Present time!

Rachel was distracted by her cookie while her gifts piled up around her.

Uncle Travis helped Owen check out his new stuff - including his adorable new A&M cap.

Relaxing after the gift excitement.

Rachel's favorite part of the play set on this visit was the sand box.  She and Emily had a lot of fun.

It was great that Aunt Mandy could come in from Michigan for a visit.

Owen was very happy to meet his Aunt Mandy.

Owen with GranDave

Mandy and Wes

Christmas in Utopia - Part 2

We got to spend time with lots of family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at Granny's house.


Owen was happy to let Jordan hold him and feed him.

He was also all smiles for Whitney.

The kids got to open one present on Christmas Eve.  Rachel was pretty tired by this point.

There was so much stuff to see on Christmas morning!  The red bike, train set and red car (in the box) on the left are Rachel's pile.

Owen was all decked out in his Christmas finest on Christmas morning.

Merry Christmas Granny!

Merry Christmas (tired) Uncle Travis!

Grandkids ready to go see the loot.

So much fun stuff!!

Rachel tested out her new bike from Grammy Kathy right away.

More fun things in her stocking.

Owen enjoyed opening his stocking, too.

Everyone was looking a little tired.

Rachel, however, was full of energy.  She played outside in the cold weather on the zip line.

She also had fun swinging herself on the tire swing.

Back inside again, there were more presents to open.

A fun purse from Granny.

Almost as fun as all the presents was the bubble wrap that came with them.

Conner likes his new bike, too.

All the excitement was too much for Owen.  He took a nice, long nap.

After all that outside time, Rachel had to come and warm her hands by the fire.

Here is everyone showing off the new hats that Butch and Kathy gave us.  Rachel has one too but she did not want to wear it for the picture.

Christmas in Utopia - Part 1

A few days before Christmas, we drove out to Wes' mom's place in Utopia.

We selected a cedar tree to cut down and decorate for Christmas.

Rachel loved playing with "Stabby" (her new name for Abby apparently) but she did think the chain saw was a little bit too loud.

Uncle Travis arrived while we were working on the tree and Rachel had a lot of fun playing with him.

Wes triumphantly brought the tree back to the house.

Rachel had fun decorating the tree with Grammy Kathy.  After that, she played with Uncle Travis.

Owen had fun hanging out on the floor, too.  He especially enjoyed it when Stimpy came close enough to be grabbed.  Poor Stimpy.

On Christmas Eve, Rachel's cousin Jonathan came over to decorate cookies.  They had a great time!

Grammy Kathy and Wes helped a lot with the process.

Uncle Travis' friend Kyle came for Christmas.  It was great listening to him play the guitar - he is very talented.