H Town with Friends

Before Christmas the crew and I spent a few days cramming in some friends that we miss so much. Since Houston is "home" for us it was extremely surreal visiting with our best Doha friends that have moved there in the last few months. We got some special time with old friends and Doha friends!
First off we spent the night with the Michaelis fam and hooked up with the Livesays and Hopkins kids the next day.

The boys


The Girls

For another night we shacked up with the LaRovere's in their new house and the following day Jackie hosted an awesome brunch for friends to stop by for a visit/playdate.

Aunt Donna and Georgia

Red Rover, Red Rover


Big kids of the bunch. So much has happened in 5 years between these families!

Jackie made the kids this cute lunch which was gobbled up!


Katie, Shannon, Me and Jenise

Katie's youngest, Lissie. Could eat her up!!

More craziness in front of Jackie's house
Throughout the day we played with 25 kids and 9 mamas!

Kim, Aubrey and Georgia

My Doha buddies, Linsday and Donna (now a Houstonian, boo)

Our favorite Doha girls, Emery and Macie

My sweet friend Jill and her precious, Kinley stopped by

Doha kids
(Duncans, LaRoveres and Junods)

There aren't enough words to describe this precious friend. I miss her so much but I was SO blessed by her and our time together! Thank you sister Jackie for being so selfless and thoughtful. So glad you're mine!

Saturday we got a chance to hang with the Tuleys, best friends and neighbors from Houston that could never be replaced.

Sunday we spent the afternoon at a park with a brown bag lunch and few of our favorite families! Nick was fresh off the Doha flight, some came from church and the Livesays drove up from Victoria!
Aunt Shani and Major

The Hall girls were Georgia's keepers!

Me, Kim, Shannon, Jenise


Stephen, Mike, Derek, Georgia and Daddy


Lily


Thank you Houston friends for hanging in there with the Junods as we do this Doha thing. Your faithfulness and consistency gives us strength and keeps us coming back for more!!
Love you! XOXO!

Honey and Papa

My sweet friend, Tracy recently named my parents house "The Land of Milk and Honey". How appropriate! Papa gets to be the Milk and well, Honey is of course the Honey. When we come to stay in the Land of Milk and Honey its definitely plentiful. There's plenty of cooking, helping, feeding, serving, holding, rocking, hugging, playing, teaching, changing, bathing and mostly lovin!! They are such an awesome example I hope to always be to my own family! Thank you Honey and Papa - We love you!!

Just before we left for Houston we took a few pictures in an attempt to get a picture for the Watkins Christmas card. Here's a few...

Merry Merry Christmas from the Junods!

Christmas Program at Preschool

While we were spending time in Dallas Brooks had the opportunity to be at student at Honey's school, Parkway Hills in Plano. It was such a blessing for so many reasons. For one thing, he got to participate in their Christmas program.

A few of Brooks' biggest fans (Ash and Graham were there too)

Honey aka Mrs. Jerry doin' her thing!


At this moment in time I had a little heart-opening experience. I witnessed a side of Brooks' I thought would never be. I have assumed Brooks would always be "the shy little boy". He always takes some time to warm up but the Christmas program proved me completely wrong. I'm convinced his last few months at ASD and his phenomenal teacher have given him confidence that just needed to be developed. Needless to say I was so proud! And so grateful Honey let Brooks be a guest student at Parkway Hills.

Mr. C is Brooks and Mr. R is his buddy Stacey who we've known for many years!


Brooks and Stacey after the program having some cookies

Stacey, Wyatt and Brooks

Stacey and Wyatt's mama, Caryn and me. Plus her additional twin boys cooked and ready!

Mrs. Carol and Brooks
Thank you Mrs. Carol for so generously welcoming Brooks to your class. What a special experience!

Hanging out in Honey's office

Lou Lou and Barrett

Took a train to see trains!

One very fun thing we did last weekend was get a big dose of train! We rode the DART rail to Northpark Mall to see the Train Exhibit. Both were so much fun. Thanks to one of my best friends, Jen for the awesome idea. We'll put this little activity on our list every time we're home in Dallas. The boys LOVED it.