Santa 2009

Surprisingly both girls were excited to see Santa this year. Grace was very excited and even told Santa she wanted some new paints for Christmas. Specifically watercolor paints. Hopefully she will be a good girl the next month and maybe Santa can afford a $3 set of watercolors. :)

Emma wasn't too sure what to think. She wasn't upset and that is what I was most happy about. I was expecting how Grace felt about Santa in 2006 & 2007. But we couldn't get a smile out of her either. Maybe next year? (Sorry for the poor picture quality - I had to scan in all these pictures b/c I'm too cheap to purchase the disk.)

Santa 2009

Santa 2008

Santa 2007

Santa 2006

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm most thankful for my two little turkeys!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Christmas dresses

I was having a hard time finding dresses I really liked for Christmas. Really I was having a hard time finding one that I would spend the money on.

Emma has THREE hand-me-down dresses from Grace and a couple other little girls so I couldn't go out and buy one when I had THREE. Plus I bought the girls dresses a little big last year so they still fit! But of course I wanted something new :)

I decided to make the girls some pillowcase dresses. Really it doesn't get much easier than this. I basically just followed this video a friend found on youtube (thanks Tiffany!) and 2 hours later I had 2 dresses!

Oh and the best part is that they BOTH only cost me $12 bucks! I even have about half a yard of fabric left over. I just love this fabric. Still Christmasy (totally not a word) yet not red and green.

The fabric up close -

Visitors!

The Lada ladies came to visit us last minute. They are getting new flooring in their house and as you can imagine 3 little kids and a big mess don't mix well. So they decided to head to Dallas for a few days. Grace and Emma were so excited! Surprisingly the girls played very well together with only a few disagreements.

Emma, Avery, Grace and Molly - all watching a little tv before bedtime.

We even ventured out for one morning with all 5 girls. We even saw Santa - well sort of - no one wanted to get any closer than this. So we waved!
And everyone got haircuts. Hailey paid for her room and board by cutting Grace's and I hair and she even convinced me to trim a little off Emma's hair! She did great and sat very still! Hailey we will be due for haircuts again in another 2 months :)
And sweet Miss Presley. Somehow this was the only picture I snapped of her. She is such a laid back 3rd child. She never cries unless she is hungry and falls asleep wherever, as you can see in the picture below.
Thanks for visiting Ladas! We hope to see you again soon.

Grace's Thanksgiving feast

Grace had her Thanksgiving feast at her school last week. They prepared a special lunch and even got dressed up. Her class were little Indians and the other 3 year old class were Pilgrims. It was super cute. But I think the cutest was seeing all the kiddos say their prayers of Thanks before lunch. I just had to snap a picture.

My little turkey!

yum!

Prayers before eating.


My little Indian.

3 - 0

I officially turned the BIG 3-0 this past weekend. Do I look older? Don't answer that!

It was the best birthday I think I've ever had. We had some friends over for fajitas and margartias and it couldn't have been more perfect.

Even the weather was perfect - which in November in Texas is totally unpredictable. It was maybe in the 60's and clear. We ate and drank and really just hung out and caught up. The best part was is that all my friends came childless. If you have kids you know how big it is to have a night out without your little ones. It's huge! My girls went to my parents house (THANK YOU) and everyone else got babysitters. Thank you everyone for booking those babysitters to come and help me celebrate my birthday. It was so wonderful to chat and hang out and not have little children running and screaming and pulling at my pant leg. :)

So here are a few of the pictures from the night. Enjoy.

Ashley and I - one of my college roomies and my maid-of-honor! Love this girl!

Notice my awesome "30" glass! So cool. Thanks Melissa!

All my mommy friends plus a more!

Some of my sweet neighbors and friends. A few of the girls had already left to rescue their sitters.

And even Lola our neighbors sweet lab joined the party for some lovings. :)

Thanks again everyone for the sweet birthday wishes. It was a birthday to remember!!

My 12 Aggies

If you have a few minutes or 9 to be exact watch this video. I was a sophomore at Texas A&M when Bonfire fell. I wont ever forget that day or the days that followed. It fell in the middle of the night - 2:42 to be exact - and I was there looking at it at 6:30am. Standing and praying with 3 of my friends. I wont ever forget. 12 Aggies lost.

It's November

It's nearly halfway through November... how did it get to be the end of the year already.

It makes me happy because I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the friend, family and festivities that surround this time of year.

In the same breath it makes me sad because it means just after the Holidays my girls have a birthday.

Two and Four. Funny because when I see them like this I just think of them as babies. My babies forever!

Yes I'm totally that mom that starts thinking about their birthdays way in advance. Not sure why because I really don't do anything about it till after the Holidays. But I guess I just love thinking about and planning their special days.

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This weekend I will celebrate my 30th birthday. Normally I dread birthdays. It's not that I don't like getting older. In fact I'm glad I'm getting old. So much to look forward to. I think I just build it up to this amazing day and for some reason always feel let down. Again, I'm just weird around my birthday. Ask Adam, he knows what I am talking about.

SO.... for my 30th birthday I was determined to have a good day. So we are having a few friends over and having my favorite - fajitas and ritas. What else could make a birthday better? :)

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Lately we have been busy enjoying the beautiful weather. We have had some BEAUTIFUL weather here - highs in the 70's and clear sunny skies. It makes up for the very wet October we had. But really I'm ready for some sweater and scarf weather. I have so many cute scarfs that I'm dying to pull out!

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We have also been trying out some new hair styles for Grace. I've said it before but her hair is CRAZY. While I love her little ringlets, they are hard to manage.

So lately we have been doing lots of pig tails. Today Grace asked for braids. Well I can't do french braids (please someone help me, but I just can't get it tight enough), so I came up with next best solution - piggies with braids. Hard to see it in the picture, but she is so cute.

This is definitely my new favorite picture of Grace.

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And lastly, my littlest girl is so funny. She had just eaten some yogurt (that was red) and got it all over her face. I just thought it was cute and then she did this little head tilt thing. Grace has been doing it a lot for pictures so I'm pretty sure she thought it was the cool thing to do! HA! Already trying to be like her big sis.

Halloween 2009

Breaking news:

Our great friends, Meagan and Matt, are pregnant with TWINS!!!! I think I've talked about them a time or two, but we are thrilled for them! After all they have been through to get here, God has blessed them twice! Go tell them congrats here!

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Our Halloween was a blast.

We got our ballerina (per request) and our Aggie cheerleader ready and we were off for some fun!

First we headed to dinner at a neighbors 2nd Annual Halloween party. We ate yummy chili dogs and lots of other fixings and took lots of pictures.

Here are some of the kiddos. Maybe half? Have I said before that I love our neighborhood? :)



After some chit chatting and a full belly we were off to trick or treat.

First stop was back at our house to put out candy. Yup we just put out the whole bowl. But it was nice b/c we all got to go.




Grace knew just what to do. The funniest thing though is that when she went to each house she would say "Trick or treating" instead of "trick or treat". It was really cute b/c she kept doing it.

And Emma learned VERY quickly. Seriously what 19 month old baby knows what to do. Emma was happiest once she got a sucker. I was surprised b/c she walked the entire time. Turning into such a big girl. :(

And we ended the night at another neighbors house. They turned their garage into a fun Halloween tiki bar. With adult beverages and all - the witches brew was super yummy.

How was your Halloween?

signed up

I officially signed up for the half marathon.

I paid my money ($75!) - so its done.

Now that the easy part is done. I only have the hard part left... to run it!

6 weeks from today - December 13th!

Happy Halloween!

Click below to see pictures from past years...

Halloween 2008

Halloween 2007

Halloween 2006

I will post pictures of them in their costumes tomorrow!! Have a wonderful evening trick or treating with your little ones or giving out candy to ones that visit your house!

October

October... so far

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We have had a LOT of rain. I mean a LOT!

In between the rain we were able to get out a bit and enjoy some slightly cooler weather.

Emma loves her little car. Actually loves still loves it too - so we are learning to share. It's going okay...

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We had 3 different trips to the pumpkin patch cancelled b/c of the silly rain. But finally early last week we were able to go. It was a bit chilly and super windy, but we still had fun!

The girls....

Me with the girls...
Waiting for our turn at the hayride - its it beautiful looking out onto the patch.

Enjoying the ride.

Enjoying the pumpkins. Emma had to carry her own - at least there were several that were her size!

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We also made it down to Austin again this month to hang out with the Dugan clan. Christee is doing great! It's kind of a day by day thing, but really she is very inspiring and very prayerful that she will beat it! If you want to keep up with her - here is her caring bridge page.

It also happened to be Kaitlynn's Homecoming. Here she is posing with her fabulous mum before school. A fun southern tradition!

Here Kaitlynn is again ready to perform at half-time!

The other kiddos at the football game. It was the first football we have taken the girls to and they did great! We stayed until after half-time!

Grace, Kaleb and Kameron

And just hangin' out. This is the island or really the table that we all hang out around most the day! I just love that Emma has to pose when I pull the camera out!

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And then last night we went to our church's trunk or treat. So fun!

Grace was a princess for the night.

And after the Aggies win on Saturday over Tech, Emma had to be an Aggie cheerleader!! Here she is enjoying everyone bouncing her!

And finally a little sisterly love. I told Grace to hold onto her sister to make sure she didn't fall out and she wrapped her arm around her and shockingly Emma let her!

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OH and we can't forget the baby news. My parents were the ones to send Emma the baby. Thank you gigi and papa! Emma loves it. Here she is with another one of her many babies. Such a sweet mommy to rock and 'shhhh' her baby!

Tune in this weekend for Halloween pictures!!

who did it?

We got a sweet little package in the mail on Tuesday.

Someone sent Emma a new baby.

SO SWEET!!!

The only problem is we have no clue who to thank.

There was no packing slip or anything.

So if you sent Emma a new baby doll (the same one she has except with perfect little arms) please let us know. She is so happy, but now she wants both babies. At least now I have one I can wash and one she can have.

Thank you Thank you! xoxo

emma's baby

We try to keep "baby" in Emma's crib.

But sometimes the baby escapes the crib and comes along with us.

Emma has become pretty attached to baby. If she could have her way baby would come everywhere us. You know the nasty grocery store carts, church, Grace's school, speech, etc. Thankfully I can usually persuade my 19 month old that baby would rather stay in the car. And in those cases she usually asks to bring her lovey in. (Which I usually let her - oh and yes you caught me - she has a baby AND a lovey she has to carry around everywhere we go - as if I don't have anything else to carry-thankfully we do have 6 loveys in case one goes missing or is in the wash!)

The problem - baby was on the verge of loosing an arm. So naturally I headed to Toys R Us where baby came from and of course no babies like the baby we have. They only have the boy bear that is the same kind/brand, but of course its blue and a bear so it wouldn't work.

So today I decided to repair baby. I though it would easy. WAY wrong. You see the arms are made of ribbon that has frayed a bit. So sewing it back was no fun. I could hardly squeeze it under the foot to sew it. But for now baby is repaired.

And I'm on a mission to go to every Toys R Us and look everywhere online and buy us another baby - or two. You know just in case it happens again.

And so everyone can make fun of my sewing job - here is the beloved baby. I was able to bribe Emma with another baby while her baby was being washed and repaired.

Run Lisa Run

Last October I began running. No goal more than just to run a few 5K's, burn a few calories and just be in shape. I was pretty good at keeping at it. I would run some weeks several times a week, then Adam would be out of town or it would raining and that pretty much threw running out the window.

I've been thinking for quite a while that I really wanted to making running apart of my lifestyle. You know every week run 15 miles give or take a few. Then a little over a month ago I decided to take the plunge with encouragement from a couple friends, my brother and my aunt to train for a half marathon.

13.1 miles is a long distance.

WAY longer than I had ever run before.

But I thought that training for a half marathon doesn't mean I have to run it. Well now that I've been 'training' for a month, there is no turning back.

I still haven't signed up yet, maybe this week, but I'm planning to run my first half marathon on December 13th.

Less than a month after I turn the BIG 3-0.

Perfect.

I'm only up to 6 miles for my long runs on the weekends. But it hasn't been too bad.

So that's the plan.

My only goal is to finish.

No timing myself.

No trying to beat someone else.

I just want to finish and I want to run the whole thing.

Simple right?

I heart hooded towels

I have more pictures that I can possibly count of my girls after bath in their hooded towels. We got maybe 3 or 4 when Grace was born that have now been passed down to Emma and I love them. I know Emma is getting taller and is almost in need of a bigger towel but until then you get to see more shots of her all wrapped up. My little bug!

cousin Jackson

My big brother and his little boy Jackson were in town this past weekend. Becky came into town too, but was only able to stay for a day because of work. So I didn't get a lot pictures and the ones I did get weren't fabulous. Hopefully we can get a cute cousin picture at Christmas when they come for a week!!

All 3 Brooks' cousins - Grace not being cooporative.

Jackson and Emma busy chatting away

Jackson not sure about Grace's bear hug

And busy playing doctor!

(For anyone who knew Todd, my little brother, as a little boy -doesn't Jackson look so much like him?)