Santa Baby

This year I did a family photo session at the Gaylord Texan. It is an awesome place! So we decided to go see Santa there. The decorations are amazing and they have some fun activities for the kids! We visited with Santa, Grey got to go tubing down a snow hill, and we turned ourselves into elves to visit the North Pole!













Ella wasn't really sure about Santa so we had to take a family picture with Old Saint Nick.


















We had a blast and I would highly recommend going to the Gaylord for some Christmas cheer!



Someone was exhausted after we were done!

Oh Christmas Tree

Thanksgiving weekend we had a wonderful time with family. Grey and Ella love spending time with their cousins. Billy and I were able to get almost all of our Christmas shopping done AND wrapped on black Friday! I feel so ahead of the game! :)

So after we (I) wrapped our packages with care they needed a place to rest the next few weeks.



Grey is really into Christmas this year. He helped with the tree from the beginning to the end. Ella was not so interested! The kids each picked out a special ornament this year. Grey got a Tron motorcycle and Ella picked a ballerina that plays The Nutcracker. We had a great time getting in the Christmas spirit!

Thankful Thursdays

For the month of November, each week we had a little special meal on Thursday nights. We spent extra time at the dinner table and discussed Thanksgiving, what it means, the pilgrims, our blessings, etc. I tried to incorporate some type of authentic food item at our meals. One Thursday we made home made bread and home made butter. But one Thursday we were thankful for Chinese delivery! Lol! We all enjoyed learning a little more and being more mindful of our abundant blessings!



Kids making home made bread.










Making butter. Shake shake shake.





Finished project.

Ella Turns 2!

I can't believe my baby turned 2!! How did this happen so fast? We celebrated on her birthday with a fun evening at Chuck E Cheese. This was Ellas first time to go and really enjoy all they had to offer.

















A few things about Ella at two. She is extremely and fiercely independent. I think we hear "I do it!" more than any other phrase. She is a daddies girl. He can get her to cooperate better than anyone else. It makes my heart melt to watch their bond grow. She loves shoes! This girl absolutely adores shoes! What's funny is that both Grey and I are barefoot people around the house and this drives Ella nuts. She wants us to all wear shoes all the time.



See what I mean! Lol! Also she is a dancer. She loves pop music and tends to be quite demanding to hear certain songs. And any time she hears a song with a beat she just can't hold still!

I hope the video works. It's really too cute for words!

So the next day, we celebrated Ella at home with our dear friends. My BFF made this amazing cake for Els.






Ella loved being the center of attention! We are so blessed to have Ella in our family. Her sweet personality really just brings us so much joy. Two years has gone so fast but at the same time it feels as if she has always been with us! We love our Ella Bella!

1st Grade

Grey is doing great in first grade! He loves his teacher, Mrs Palmer. His favorite part of the day is recess! He has spelling tests every Friday and has gotten 100% on every test except one. He really works hard for that sticker Mrs Palmer puts on his tests!!! He is very social and has a lot of friends. He seems to really enjoy school, except that he has to wake up so early! Grey is not a happy morning boy!!! So far it has been a great year and we look forward to watching Grey grow in his education.

Halloween Week

This week was Say No To Drugs week at school. Each day the kids had some sort of theme. In addition to that, I thought it would be fun to have a Halloween themed dinner each night.


Monday was red ribbon day and he was supposed to wear all red. For dinner we had "bloody brains and witches fingers".



Tuesday was Team up against drugs so he wore his favorite team jersey. Go Chiefs!!!



And we had eyeball tacos for dinner.


Wednesday was silly hat day. We used his Woody hat from Halloween a few years ago. Grey was really unsure about wearing a silly hat to school but afterwards he said he was glad he did! We also had monster claws for dinner that night!





On Thursday Grey had "Hugs Not Drugs" day and was suppose to bring his favorite stuffed animal. This night we did not have a Halloween meal because we did pumpkin carving instead!






And Friday was Greys party at school! He had a great time! Both Billy and I got to come up and be there for him. It was fun seeing Grey with his little friends, and all the cute costumes!









I ran out of meal ideas so Papa Murphys had a Jack-O-Lantern pizza.

Finally Halloween arrived! We made "witches brew" (chili) and used fun plates and cups then hit the neighborhood for candy. It was really a great week! I hope I can remember to do this again next year!









Hope you all had a very Happy Halloween!!!

Java

For 13 years, Billy and I have had a faithful companion. We got Java as our gift to each other on our first Valentines day as a married couple.



We loved him and treated him as one of the family. He went on vacations with us, shopping with us (Home Depot and Canton were some favorites). He was a great addition to our little family and we were so blessed to have him.



So, after 13 years we lost our Java. He will be greatly missed in our family. He was a wonderful companion to Billy and me and eventually to Grey. He slept in Grey's room for a few years and gave Grey comfort when he didn't want to be alone in the dark. We know Java is sleeping on a sunny cloud up in doggy heaven keeping a watchful eye over us.