Nice to Finally Meet You!!

As some of you know I have been doing some research on my family. I got on Ancesrty.com and started my family tree. I have talked to family members and gotten pictures, stories and names to help me in my quest. But we never really could find much on my dad's father's side of the family. His name was Horace Jewell Nevels. Horace and my grandmother divorced when my dad was very young. My grandmother doesn't / won't talk about him so information has been few and far between. My dad remembers when his dad left and he remembers his grandfather and seeing his dad once when he was around 13.

I found out after I was married that my Sunday School Teacher was in fact a cousin and knew my grandfather well. Before she passed away she did give me some photos of my grandfather and his parents. For that I am grateful!!!!!

Now here is where my story gets interesting...Last month I received an email from a lady saying that she thought her mom and my dad were brother and sister. WOW!!!! She and I started talking and I connected her with my mom on Facebook. Now we have all been visiting and sure enough it's true! My dad has a sister that he never knew about. Her name is Gloria. She is older than my dad and she never knew her father either. In fact my grandfather went to the pen and her mother divorced him and never told him she was prego. So Gloria and dad have both grown up not knowing their father. However I must say both of them did grow up with wonderful men in their lives that were a father figure.

So last weekend my dad and Gloria finally met!! It was just my mom and dad with her and her husband and daughter. The meeting went well and they had lots to talk about. My mom said there so many similarities between the two of them. I can't wait till next month when she comes down so I can meet her!!!! And she will get to meet my dad's other sisters and brother by his mom. It's nice to finally meet you!!!

my get away

Have you ever wished you had a place to escape to after a long day? Well I made my place. Before Christmas I got to redo my bedroom. I found this cream & white comforter at Target and it was on sale! Yea!!! Then my friend Leah helped me choose the wall color. We went with Lakeshore by Sherman Williams. I love it!!! I wanted black furniture but after looking a the prices of new furniture, not only was it not honing to happen. I wouldn't let it happen. So I got crafty and painted my furniture black and to give it some pop I painted the hardware Nickle. I have to say it definitely looks better than anything I found at the store. Now the only thing that needs to be done is the crown molding. And who knows when I'll get that finished with the way Blake works.... anyway hope you love my bedroom as much as I do.

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Sugar Bowl 2011 ~ Arkansas Vs. Ohio State

We were so excited about the Arkansas Razorbacks, making it to a BCS Bowl Game!!! WPS!!! And that it was in New Orleans!!! Our road hog group was going to go and rock NOLA like never before, but then we looked at the calendar! That's right they scheduled the game on a Tues. night! WTH??? Who does that? So anyway our plans got shot, but we did something even better....

Our best friends Matt & Leah Lovelis had just bough a new place and we decided to break it in right.... (they hadn't even moved in yet). The place even came with a name...."The Pondarosa" however we rename it as the "Hawgarosa". So we all brought some food and drinks and pitched a big blow up screen and projected the game onto it. It was so awesome... Here are a few pics of the night....



This is Leah, Debra, Me, Rachelle & Karen.


The food table!! HA HA HA!!!

Awesome TV!!!!

Me & Leah!!

We had such a good time. Matt and Leah and my parents and us all tailgate at the game and now we tailgate for the away games too!!!

Christmas Wonder....

What is Christmas to you and your family??? Is it a time that we GET THINGS? Or maybe it's a time to GET with FAMILY??? Or maybe its a time that you GET DEPRESSED?? Well Christmas means a lot of different things to different people but for me and my family Christmas mean that we GOT the best GIFT Ever!!! JESUS!!!!! That's right it's that simple... Christmas is about the birth of Christ. Now a days everyone gets so caught up in the decorating and the gifts that we sometimes forget what the true meaning of Christmas is all about. Now I'm not saying that we don't decorate and exchange gifts because we do and it was great this year...however I just wanted to take time and remind everyone about the true meaning of Christmas.



Now on to our Christmas..... Just before Christmas my dad decided to dye his hair and beard white so he would look like Santa Clause. The kids loved it. I also found a cute elf pajama set for Taylor. So Santa and his little elf were all ready for Christmas.

We start off every year on Christmas Eve at my parents house... we grill steaks and bake potatoes for dinner as the kids are constantly looking under the tree for their presents and wondering what was in them. Once our bellies are full and we clean up the kitchen it's time to start our gift exchange. The boys love handing the presents out but it never fails that Taylor stops in the middle and starts opening up his gifts. Typical Tay-Tay!! The boys got some clothes and board games and Blake got two batteries for his drill and a new ladder. I got a bean pot and a Shark two in on vacuum / Steamer, that I might add works great!!! I LOVE IT!!! In fact I used it Christmas day and cleaned my whole house... Blake said next year he hopes I get a couch for Christmas so maybe I'll use it all day and just sit down and rest with him and the kids!! HA HA!!!





After we get the kids settled down after such an exciting time at me-me's and in to bed we Blake and I hope into bed shortly after, because we know that it won't be long before someone is up looking for what Santa brought them. Sure enough this year was not different.... Tyler was up at 3:30 am... of course I made him get in bed with me and go back to sleep so he wouldn't wake Taylor up. Taylor got up around 8 and woke the rest of us up... he was so excited!! I think Santa was pretty good to them... Don't you think? We spent the Christmas morning with all the family at our house having breakfast together and watching the kids play with there new things. I of course cleaned all day and got ready for Christmas with friends and family the next day.

On Sunday we all loaded up and went back to my mom's for Christmas with friends and family... I so enjoyed spending time with Aunts and Uncles and cousins and friends... We played Dirty Santa and ate way too much... And needless to say I still have one more Christmas to come and we are doing it in January!!! I Love this time of Year!!