Having a blast on our Texas Christmas trip!

We have had such a great trip so far! Brandon and I arrived in Texas last Friday night, Dec. 23rd. We landed around 7:30 pm. We didn't realize it until we were laying over in Phoenix that Candice and Todd were ALSO landing in Houston at 7:30!!! So, we coordinated meeting at Pappasito's in Humble. We ate dinner and laughed our heads off. It was AWESOME!!!! We didn't take any pictures, but we got some good quality time. My BF is going to have a BABY in July!!!!!! I'm so happy!!!


Brandon & I spent all day on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my mom & dad. We really had a good time. My mom and dad LLLLLLLOVEEEEEEE Brandon!!! They really adore him. It makes me so happy! My dad & Brandon have spent some time together in the office (extra room in the house), installing stuff on the computer, etc. I liked passing by and seeing them together, talking & laughing. :-)


Monday morning, we left early for Little Rock to see Granny, Angie, Jeff & Jessica. We had a great visit with the fam from Mon-Wed! We got to see Granny's new apartment. It's beautiful!!!



We drove back to Texas Wednesday evening and had a nice night together. Today (Thursday), Brandon & I woke up and got ready to go to Southwest Houston. Three of Brandon's good friends live in the Bellaire area. We had lunch at noon with Jon & Tiffany. Their little girl is sooo precious!



Then, we met Michael at The Chocolate Bar. This is the most DEE-VINE dessert place in the world!!! After we left Michael, we drove to Meyerland to meet up with David & Monica. We really had a wonderful day!!!




Tomorrow, it's breakfast with Debbie & Carter. Then we are driving to Roundtop, TX to be with Brandon's aunt & uncle. On Saturday, we will head to San Antonio for 2 days!!!

I hope you are all enjoying your holiday week!

Christmas at The Grotto~ Portland, OR

Here are some pictures from last week in Portland, OR. Brandon took me to The Festival of Lights at The Grotto in Portland, OR. It was soooo BEAUTIFUL!!! Click on the link below!

Christmas at The Grotto

Christmas Day~2011

Christmas 2011


Last year~Christmas 2010 (I didn't fly up for Christmas until Dec. 28th. :-)



It's my first Christmas with a husband! :-) We have had a great week! We had family Christmas with the Ray family on Thursday night. Brandon's mom fixed an enormous meal and we had a good visit. Then, Friday morning, B & I flew to Texas. We are having a fun visit with my parents. We will also be going to Arkansas to visit my Granny this week.

I thank God for answering my prayers for a wonderful, Christian husband!!! All my dreams have come true. :-)

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Love,
Brandon & Kim Ray :-)

Our Christmas 2011

If you need a laugh...

... take a look at THIS!


I subbed in 3rd grade today. The teacher left this fun assignment for the class. Their reindeer tell a story. The body is made by tracing their closed hands on brown paper. The nose is red if you are a girl and green if you are a boy. Their antler points show how old they are. Their eyes go to the right if they LOVE to ...read, to the left if they LIKE to read, and in the middle if they don't. They put a bell around the neck if they are going out of town for the holidays and a ribbon if they are staying local. The legs are as follows: 1 bent leg if you are the youngest, 2 bent legs if you are the middle child, 3 bent legs if you are the oldest and 4 bent legs if you are an only child. Isn't this cute??? There was a paper with the legend/guidelines on it.

Just thought I would share! Merry Christmas!

Brandon got his master's degree today!

Today was Brandon's graduation from Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon. I am so proud of him! His hard work definitely paid off. I love my husband!




I love this picture of Brandon and his parents! :-)

Click on the picture below to see the whole album! :-)

Brandon's Graduation

Our first Christmas tree!!!

I have a new respect for my dad. Every year of my life, my dad put up the Christmas tree. He assembled it and fluffed the branches. Then, usually my mom and I would decorate it. I have discovered that fluffing the tree branches is the worst part of decorating a Christmas tree!

So... Brandon put the tree up for me last night and I was in charge of decorating. I made 8 bows to start with, which took some time. I THOUGHT I was going to decorate the tree last night, but I spent over an hour fluffing the branches and only made it around HALF of the tree. With the time I spent on the bows and fluffing the tree, it was time for bed!

So, tonight Brandon & I ate dinner and started watching "It's a Wonderful Life." Then I resumed my branch-fluffing and fluffed for probably 30-45 more minutes. Then I got to do the fun part...tree-decorating!

We haven't found a tree topper we like yet, so we're going to wait and hope for an after-Christmas sale. For now, I have a big red & gold bow at the top. The tree isn't exactly how i want it yet, but I know I have some more stuff to use in my Texas Christmas boxes in the garage. I haven't dug in those yet. I don't want to buy anything else this year.

We opted for the multi-color tree since we have (2)trees in the living room with white lights that we plug in year-round.


P.S. We got our 7.5 foot, pre-lit tree at Walmart for $98 bucks! Can't beat that with a stick! :-)

I added the tree pictures to my Christmas 2011 album. So, click on the link below and the pictures will be at the front. Enjoy!

Christmas 2011

Christmas season!

I can't believe how fast December is already passing. There are so many things going on. We are going to put our tree up tonight! We wanted to put it up the weekend after Thanksgiving, but I flew to Texas for a funeral. And we've been busy ever since I got back. So, tonight's the night! :-)


I was very excited to buy our first Christmas ornaments together. I bought 6 personalized ornaments! I am very pleased with them. I have more pictures of all 6 in the album below.


I got back to Washington last Thursday. Sunday night, Brandon and I went to the Annual Marriage Team Christmas Social. There was a dessert buffet and fellowship. Mr. & Mrs. Ray honored all their volunteers who give so much of their time. It was a nice night.

Last night, Brandon & I drove to a couple's home in Camas to watch their annual Christmas light & music presentation. It is amazing! They sync their Christmas lights to music on an FM radio channel. You can sit in the car and listen to the music that the lights are dancing to! It's amazing! I have pictures in the album at the bottom of this post. There are short videos, too! Watch them!


After we watched the Christmas lights (the show lasts an hour exactly), we went to eat dinner at our fav Mexican restaurant. It was a fun night! ;-)

Click on this Christmas picture album to see a variety of pics I've taken already in December. Enjoy!

Christmas 2011

Go buy this magazine soon!

There's an article about Brandon's parents in the December 12th issue of FIRST for women on page 102-103. It's been out for a couple of weeks already and I don't know how much longer it will be on the newsstands. If you don't want to buy it, at least read it while you're standing in line at the checkout! :-)

There's a picture of Brandon's parents' book cover and it mentions their names... Al & Autumn Ray. Really neat!!!