It is hard to believe that Sam and I have already been married for 13 years. So much has happened in that time. I am grateful every day for such a special man in my life. I could never ask for anyone more dedicated and loving towards me than Sam.

When Sam and I were first married, We promised each other that we would try our hardest to make every anniversary special. We would take time away just to spend it with each other. As we sat together this year and pondered what we had done in 13 years, we were amazed to find that we could remember almost every anniversary.

1st Year: We went back to the Hotel Inter-Continental

2nd Year: We went to the Double Tree Lincoln Center

3rd Year: We went to Abuelo's (Did not leave home this year due to Nate's arrival. We pushed him under the table during dinner, and he never made a peep.)

4th Year: We went see the Nutcracker at the Bass Performance Hall and "stayed" at the Hotel St. Germaine for all of 10 minutes. We had to rush home because Nate had pneumonia. The hotel was so--- kind to let us stay, at no extra charge, for Valentine's Day. It was great!

5th Year: Sam and I stayed in our brand new house together (Before we moved the kids in!)

6th Year: We went to a spectacular drive-thru light display in Arlington then stayed in the Sanford House Inn.

7th Year: We visited San Antonio. We strolled down the lit up Riverwalk, went on a carriage ride, where the driver talked our ears off the entire ride, and stayed in the ?

8th Year: Neither of us can remember

9th Year: We ate dinner at Mi Cocina, went to watch Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and stayed at the Gaylord Hotel in Grapevine.

10th Year: We were scheduled to take a hot air balloon ride, but the company kept canceling on us, and William kept getting sick.

11th Year: To make up for our failed 10th year attempt we took a cruise to the Yucatan and Cozumel. Wonderful!!!!!!!

12th Year: We went back to San Antonio. This has become one of our favorite quick trip spots! We stayed in the Beauregard House.

This year was Sam's turn to plan. I, for the first time, had no idea where we were going. He did a great job keeping it a surprise.

I had made several guesses, but when we headed on the freeway to go East I was stumped. We ended our drive in Jefferson, Texas, a little town with a huge history behind it. It was great! We stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast called the House of Seasons.

Our suite was the exact suite President Bush and his wife stayed in on their visit to Jefferson. It had lots of memorabilia from all kinds of presidential events. It was really neat. Our arrival day was very rainy so we decided to do indoor things like touring the antique shops and trying out their best restaurants. That night, we took a train ride through the bayou to see Christmas lights. The lights were great, but Sam and I will never forget our guide's singing. We much preferred the music piped through the sound system of the train. It was still really nice though. We then ate a romantic dinner at a little Italian restaurant in one of the historic hotels. It was a wonderful finish to a wonderful day!

When we woke up the next morning, we went down to breakfast in the main dinning hall. What a feast! I think we gained 10 pounds just from breakfast! After that, we ended our stay in Jefferson by visiting the Jefferson Museum. It was full of incredible artifacts from American History. My favorite was the lavish art gallery. It was breathtaking! They even had to have humidity controls on the walls to make sure the levels were just right to protect such old paintings.

I am so grateful for Sam! Our trip was wonderful, and I can't wait to add many more trips to our list as our years together continue. I could not be more blessed to be married to him! Happy 13th Anniversary Sam!

Don't ever tell your kids that it has been too hot for the newly falling snow to stick! (Especially if you live in Texas!) You'll end up eating your words!

It did end up sticking, even if it was only for a few hours. The kids had a blast in it! Then all was back as it was. The shining sun, and a fairly nice warm end to the day.

Got to love Texas weather!

Picking out our family Christmas tree is always a big deal for our family. The past several years we have had the best time actually visiting tree farms and cutting down the one of our choice ourselves. The kids really enjoy running through the many trees to find the "perfect" one. This year we decided to visit a new farm. We got information about it at the State Fair and thought it would be fun to try something new. This one boasted about their playground, train rides, Santa visits, and more. We were very excited, but quickly disappointed shortly after we arrived. The farm was fairly small in size, all the activities were provided for "an extra fee", and "to prevent law suits" they preferred to cut down the tree for us, would not bring it back to barn or tie it on our vehicle. I guess we had been pretty spoiled. Even though our past tree farm did not have a playground, it did have a friendlier atmosphere, one that we will choose to return to next year.

Poor Sam had to carry William on his shoulders, hauling our 10 foot tree back to the barn with Nate, while Brianna helped push Natalie in the umbrella stroller through tall grass and cracked earth. It was a great family effort, but a little more than we expected. It was hard for me to feel helpless watching them. I have to say that they are great kids though, and had a blast at the end riding the "horse" carousel. We even spent several extra dollars to get them ice cream. They deserved it!