Christmas Dresses

A Not so Traditional Thanksgiving Tradition

For the much more humorous version of our trip please visit my sister's blog. I will give the facts because for some reason she was blessed with the writing skills in our family. A few years ago we started the tradition of going to Shreveport on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to spend the night and go shopping on the Boardwalk. We were really excited about our trip this year because we would be getting to see Kherington. I even had the privilege of keeping her that night along with my mom. Lets just say that Tuesday night pretty much confirmed me being satisfied with two kids. Kherington was a doll and only cried when she was hungry, but being in a room alone with a 2 month old, a 2 year old and a 4 year old was all I needed to make me sure I was done having kids. There are only so many things you can do to entertain children while staying in a hotel. We watched movies, built tents, colored and ate snacks and for some reason the girls were still wide awake at midnight. I knew that was going to make for an interesting day of shopping. We got up Wednesday morning and ordered room service for breakfast. You can't beat getting to wake up, stay in your pj's and eat a fabulous breakfast. While mom was checking out the girls had to ride the escalator several times. I think next summer for vacation we will just stay in a hotel that has one and depend on that for entertainment. Just as we were getting into the car to leave we got both girls buckled in their car seats and they BOTH announce that they need to go to the bathroom. Are you kidding me? We just stood in the lobby right by the bathroom for 15 minutes and you wait until we have gone down the elevator, walked through the hotel, through the parking garage and get buckled in before you tell me that. After a quick bathroom break we are ready to go. We had a great day shopping at the Boardwalk. I found a huge sale at the Osh Kosh store and got both of the girls' Christmas dresses. I also found a pair of black boots that I had been looking for. To top it all off we got to have lunch at Saltgrass and the girls got to ride the Merry go Round. I'm glad that we have started a new tradition that we can look forward to each year.

Sleeping while listening to "Big Green Tractor"

Special time with Nanny

Maybe a sign we consumed way too much caffeine

Oh Christmas Tree!

The girls had so much fun this year putting up the Christmas tree. We usually put it up on Thursday night when we get home from Thanksgiving dinner, but they had been begging all weekend so we decided to do in Monday. The Aggies were also playing Thursday night this year so another good reason we should go ahead and get the tree finished. Since last Monday the ornaments have probably been rearranged about 1,000 times, and most of them are on the lowest branches so they are almost touching the ground. I have never been the best decorator and don't pretend to be so my tree is not one of the color coordinated ones with all matching ornaments. Since I was born my mom and dad bought us a new ornament each year, and when I got married my mom gave me the ornaments to take with me. I have each of them on my tree and have started the same tradition with my girls. It may not look as fancy as most trees, but I love getting the ornaments out each year and going through them. Most of them I remember picking out and have certain memories that go with them. This year Avery and Addison chose matching ornaments. They are the letter "A" that looks like a cookie. Here are a few pictures of us putting up the tree.

Yes, I still have the color coded tree that you have to put together piece by piece. It is a pain, but I think the girls had more fun sorting the colors than they did putting the ornaments on the tree.

This was an ornament from my 1st Christmas.

Pictures

Here are a few pictures we had taken a couple weeks ago. I though they turned out pretty good considering the fact that we were working with 3 kids under the age of 5.

My Sister's Blog

If you haven't started reading my sister's blog you must. She is a talented and humorous writer and documents reality very well. I am sad for her because she is having to leave Kherington at daycare for the first time tomorrow and go back to work. I remember how hard that was. Kara, I hope you have a great day tomorrow. I know there will be 20 smiling faces at school ready to see you tomorrow.

Weekend Wrap Up

We had a very busy weekend as usual. Saturday morning when we got up Megan and I took the girls to Paris. We went to watch our Pee Wee football team play in the Super Bowl. They won 18-6! Way to go Rebels! Afterwards we enjoyed lunch at TaMolly's and then went to get haircuts. I asked Megan to come along to help in the process because I knew that I probably couldn't keep Addison from running away while I got my haircut. (Thanks Megan) We got finished just in time to go to a house warming party for one of my best friends, Haley. She and her husband just built a house, and have been moving for the past couple weeks. We are so excited for them. I have some pictures of the house and will try to post them later although I didn't take any at the party. Sunday we went to church and took our two nieces that were in town visiting. They were so excited to see Nauntie when we got there.


After church the girls were dying to see Nanny. My mom had been in Austin for a week for work and you would have thought she had been gone for two years. They begged all weekend to see her. We had lunch at Chili's and visited with my Grandmother afterwards. We just have 3 more days of school this week, and then I will be off for 9 days. I can't wait to get started on my Christmas shopping and celebrate Thanksgiving with my family.

You Belong to Me

This is the girls' version of "You Belong to Me" by Taylor Swift. Hope you enjoy.

Trick or Treat

We had a great Halloween weekend. On Friday night we went to a hayride and stew supper. It was the girls' first hayride, and they had so much fun. Saturday night we went to a party at our church. We had hot dogs followed by a costume contest and trunk of treats. We got more candy than you can imagine. When we left the church we went to my dad's house to sit by the fire and have snacks. The girls entertained on their guitars while we all sat willing to listen to what they thought was great music. Avery dressed as Taylor Swift and Addison was a biker chick. I had to somewhat mislead her because she said she wanted to be Taylor Swift too. I reused Avery's biker chick costume from two years ago and told her it was Taylor Swift. (Sorry Addison, but you didn't have cowboy boots and I hated to pass up a chance to get the use the costume again.) She will probably be very angry with me one day when she realizes she wasn't Taylor Swift like Avery. She sure looked cute though.