Monday, November 23, 2009

Slacker!!!

Just call me Slacker!! I cannot believe that it is almost Thanksgiving and my last post was about Halloween! Yikes! I guess it just shows how busy we've been with the daily stuff! Nothing much has really been going on here, hence the lack of posts! But don't worry, although I've not posted anything new, I have been keeping up with everyone else! We did have some awesome pics taken by Rachel a couple of weekends ago and I still have not decided which ones I will use for Christmas Cards so I will not be showing them yet, but trust me, we got some realllllly good ones! I was so shocked at how well they did (with a little incentive). I had to bribe them with going to have a picnic at the big horse show in town (yes, Anna was just as excited) and that they could wear whatever they wanted to AFTER the pictures! A huge thanks to Rachel and Karlley for the gorgeous pictures! I'm having a hard time choosing!


This past weekend officially commenced the busy holiday time of year! I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR, but it wears me out! Sam's sister and her family came in town Friday and we had a baby shower at my house for this younger sister. My SIL and nephew flew in yesterday, but we will not see them until tomorrow probably, but in the meantime, we have already eaten several wonderful family meals at the lake and will continue every night until the weekend is over! The rest of my family will be coming in on Thursday and staying through the weekend.


Saturday is also my Dad's 60th Birthday and while he insisted on NO PARTY!!!, we are still on a mission to celebrate this wonderful day (more to come on that later!).


Today was the girls' annual Thanksgiving Program at school. They were so cute, but it made me really sad for 2 reasons: 1) this is the last year that MM would be in it and 2) it is the only year that both girls would be in it together! A's class were little turkeys and they sang 3 songs. I video'd it because Sam had a meeting out of town and I will post it later. She was hard to see since she's so little, but she performed exactly like they practiced it (only sticking her fingers up her nose just once!). MM's class were the Pilgrim's and they had several speaking parts and some songs and she got to do a special part. As some of you know, she is not very fond of performing in front of crowds, but she did great!


That's all for now, but I just can't resist posting at least one great picture!


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Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Halloween!!!

Obviously, I am a little behind in announcing the winning pumpkin! Congratulations to my sweet husband (who thinks I am little nutty) for carving the best Alabama Elephant pumpkin this year. I have to admit that the last 2 years I have not been creative in my own sense and have used a template for my pumpkins (the easy way out), but stay tuned because next year I will create a masterpiece of my own creation! I better start working on ideas now!

We had a fabulous Halloween this year. It was so nice being on a Saturday because it gave us all day to prepare and slowly get ready for the night. The weekend started out with a date night for Sam and I. We went out to dinner, then shopped a little bit, and then went to see Couples Retreat. It was so nice and like the old days (before kiddos) to just walk around the stores, taking our time, without any meltdowns or whining to tend to. We stayed out until midnigh, but both agreed that we had the most fun that night and should take advantage of more nights like those. The next morning, Sam went to help his sister and her husband move while me and the girls just messed around the house. The horse barn was having a costume contest and party at 2:00, so I took MM to that while Sam let Anna finish her nap. MM got to dress up one of the horses she has riden (Jimmy) and then "show" him for the contest. Unfortunately we did not win, but she had a great time seeing all the other horses dressed up.

Halloween continued that night with our annual neighborhood parade and pizza party. This parade is infamous in our town and people come from all over town to participate in it and see it. We have a huge neighborhood so people also come here to get as much candy as possible in 1 neighborhood! We loaded our family on the golf cart in our costumes and blankets (it was COLD) and adult beverages and headed to the parade! All the kids have so much fun running around the streets with their friends and trying to figure out what everyone is dressed as. We then grouped up with some of neighbors/friends and began the trick-or-treating together. We managed to cover about 3 full streets before heading home with baskets overflowing with candy and all of our appendages frozen solid! This was the first year that both girls really "got it"! The funny thing about them at first was that MM and her little friends would run up to the door and start yelling "Trick-or-Treat" over and over again until we realized that they had not knocked on the door nor rang the doorbell. We died laughing! Thank goodness that Emily remembered glow sticks (I am usually loaded down with them, but that item slipped my mind this year) because we eventually had to tie different colored sticks to their baskets so that we could keep up with them and know who was who - they were running from door to door faster than we could keep up with them. And poor Anna and Ellen only got to about half the houses because they were having a hard time keeping up the pace of the older kids!

We finally made it back to the house, ran inside, put on our warmest fleece PJ's, started a fire, turned off the porch lights, turned on the football games, and ate soup and enjoyed the rest of the evening on the couch cuddling with everyone! It couldn't have been a better weekend! We normally have people over for soup after trick-or-tricking, but we opted not to do so this year and it was kind of nice for a change! So here come some pics from the week. . .

Anna - Flower Gnome

I was dressed up as a 60's housewife - curler, glasses, and wine!

MM and her cute little friends!


Sweet Sisters ready for the parade


MM with Carly and Jimmy


Silly Face


Hannah Montana Cowgirl!


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