Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for in our lives, just to name a few – Patrick and I have each other (I may be putting words in his mouth, but I am pretty sure he is thankful for me and I know I am thankful for him!), Our 3 wonderful daughters, Our families, Our health, Our home, Our jobs and all of our friends.  (I am also thankful for my sister and mother in law who bug me about updating my blog, otherwise the updates might be even less frequent!)  One day doesn’t seem to be enough to emphasize just how thankful we are. 

We celebrated Thanksgiving at our house this year and had a wonderful day.  My family came over early to make the ‘Franz Family Stuffing’, while Patrick’s mom made the turkey and the ‘Clerkin Family Stuffing’ – the girls think it is funny that we have 2 types, but they are each a big part of the family tradition, that it wouldn’t be right to not have either one, so we just have LOTS of stuffing at the table!  I now have to remember that it is the Mahfouz, Clerkin, Franz and Milam families at the table – check out these 13 beautiful people :)

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Nutcracker Ballet

Our good friend, Charlotte, auditioned and was selected to be a Snowflake in the Moscow Royal Ballet Nutcracker!  Several families attended the performance to see her dance.  She was a beautiful snowflake, and the girls had a great time seeing their friend dance.

Jenny and Mitch Get Married!!!

After the engagement on Memorial Day, 6 months later, they tied the knot! Please note that all of these pictures are from my camera, not the professional ones :)

The day started out with my aunt Sharri and Uncle George (yes, Anna got to meet another of her ‘great’ relatives this weekend!) coming to our house for breakfast. The girls had a blast playing with them, and my aunt went straight to teacher mode and let McKenna read a book to her :) Yes, the girls are still in PJs because they needed button up shirts for getting their hair done later, and it was just easier to leave them in the PJs until it was time to get into flower girl dresses!

McKenna with Uncle George

Aunt Sharri and Mom (sisters!)

Then we were off to get our hair done!

The girls would have stayed all day if we let them!

Then we were ready for the big event! Getting ready in the Johnson House at Chestnut Square:

After a very nice ceremony, performed by a friend of Mitch’s, it was party time! Here are some shots of the dancing and reception.

It was a perfect day – perfect weather, a great wedding and reception and the beginning of a beautiful marriage. Congratulations Jenny and Mitch – we love you!

School Performances

This year, both Anna and McKenna had school performances.  The 2nd graders had a Veteran’s Day program where they sang patriotic songs and had a very cool slideshow with service men and women from the school family.  Anna had a speaking role in the performance and had memorized it by the first day she received it!  She did a great job and loved getting to perform!

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The third photo above is Anna reciting her line.  I won’t say who is responsible for that picture (not me!), but I was using the video camera at the same time, so we do have her recorded in non-fuzzy fashion as well!

The Kindergarten class had a Thanksgiving program where they sang several turkey themed songs.  McKenna has since taught all the songs and hand movements to her sisters and they have been singing them ever since!  I didn’t get many shots of her.  I was also videoing and Ava was standing on my lap.  Decided it was best to not drop my 2 year old or 2 expensive cameras, so I just did my best!

Susan G. Komen 3-Day

I just completed an amazing 3 day journey!  I am feeling great and even though several of my walking buddies have blisters and banged up knees (there were LOTS of uneven sidewalks!), we all thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Day 1 started out early and cold!  We met at Collin Creek Mall for the opening ceremonies. 

We were able to write all of the names of those who have lost their battle with breast cancer on the white ribbons of remembrance.  I only brought a disposable camera with me, and unfortunately, it didn’t get the picture of the ribbons that I took, but this is where they raised all of those ribbons during the opening ceremonies.

We walked from Plano to Farmers Branch.  Our camp site was at Brookhaven College – 635 and Midway.  There were several people who came to cheer us on after school let out.  Jennifer brought all 4 of her kids down to Dallas to see us!

I also ran into my friend Brendy at a pit stop along day 1.  Yes, those are lovely port-a-potties in the background!

When we arrived at our campsite, we had to put up our tents, get some food and get a shower!  We were all pretty tired, but we managed to get everything done and do a little shopping at the 3-day tents :)  It was COLD on Friday night – 38 degrees!  That is my big complaint, the cold.  I had 2 pairs of socks and still my feet were freezing.  I learned that if you put hand warmers in your socks, it helps ALOT!

Day 2 was a big loop through Addison, Farmers Branch and Dallas. 

Our team Captain, Gayla, drove a sweeps van this year.  Here we are in front of the TaTa Towing van!

Patrick and the girls came out in the morning with Fritz and his girls to see Ashley and I (and the rest of the TaTa Towing team).  The girls made me signs!

My mom and sister also came out on Day 2, they were just a little bit ahead of me!  Jenny called to say they were right up front at the Valley View Mall cheering station.  I looked at my mileage card and figured it would be about 3 hours until I made it there!  So they climbed in the car and followed the walkers backwards until they found our lunch stop at Hockaday.  They found me there and stayed for awhile and I got some lunch!

The pit stops along the way had themes and here is part of our team at a Dr. Seuss themed stop.

Picked up a little diet coke before finishing up Day 2!

Day 3 – We packed up our gear and took down our tents the morning of day 3 and boarded busses to our starting point of the day.  We were walking to Fair Park for closing ceremonies, so we needed to get just a little bit closer!  We walked through the Park Cities and down through Turtle Creek before going through the West End, Downtown and Deep Ellum.  We stopped for a final private cheering station at Monica’s, had a drink to celebrate our great team, our sponsor, James at Innovations Salon (he bought us all the shirts we wore each day!), and to thank our family and friends for their support. 

Arriving at Fair Park for the closing ceremonies was wonderful.  We got our ‘victory’ shirts – white for walkers and pink for survivors.  It was amazing to see the number of survivor shirts and to see how young and old the survivors are.  It really hit home at that point why any of us participated in this walk. 

Our team linked arms to complete our final lap and to gather for the closing ceremonies.  It was an emotional end to a emotional weekend.  I don’t know if I will walk again, but I am so glad I did it this year, and I had an amazing experience!

I thank each of my contributors, my family and all my friends for making this an unforgettable weekend.