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!