Saturday, December 20, 2008

Northpark at Christmas

Last Friday we kept Emory home from school and took Trinity out of school extremely early and all us girls met Greg at Northpark mall in Dallas to take in all the wonderful Christmas activities and spirit that take over the mall this time of year.

We started out by watching their two wonderful puppet shows,
Trinity and Addison waiting for Scrooge to begin

The girls practicing protecting themselves from the Christmas gift Scrooge so generously shares with all the children in the audience...a squirt bottle of water

Scrooge picked Trinity out of the crowd for his target of the show

we then enjoyed a snack in the food court (took so many pictures in the beautiful and natural light that I will have to make a post from those alone) before heading over to the trains


and closing the day by sliding down the planter boxes...

and finally to throw penies in the fountain.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Cookies and Crafts with Nana and Pops

Greg's Dad and Step-mom started a tradition a few years ago of a "Cookies and Crafts" day with all the kiddos. We were so excited when the day had arrived! We spent all day with them on Saturday doing lots of Christmas crafts!

We started the day with each grandkid opening a special gift from Nana and Pops


They each received a carefully and thoughtfully chosen collectible tree ornament

My precious nephew, Clark, hid under the kitchen table to escape the chaos

Clark was told he could no longer climb on the table...he wasn't too happy with his Mommy!

I think he'd had 7 or so cookies by this point...

Greg was extremely proud of his work of art!

Our brother-in-law is a total goof ball!

At the end of the day, after dinner and baths, Nana played Christmas carols while we all sang along, then read a story to the kids.

Emory was getting really lovey on her cousin, Aiden. In case you can't tell, he wasn't too pleased with the affection :)

Night, Night Nana! Thanks for the fun day and wonderful memories!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Emory

Now it's Emory's turn for a catch-up post. She has adjusted well to living in Fort Worth and made some really sweet friends. She is going to day school at our church two days a week and taking a class at The Little Gym. Several of the children that are in these classes she also knows from the other, or from church or from being the sibling of one of Trinity's school friends, so she is getting to know some of the children through multiple avenues. She has a serious crush on one of her Little Gym teachers and it's adorable! She always sits or stands as close to him as humanly possible, even if that means she's literally in his lap! He is extremely sweet and wonderful with the kids, at least she has good taste:)

Emory is STILL obsessed with clothes, shoes, makeup, purses...all the girly girl stuff. She changes clothes at least five times a day for one reason or another. I will do as much laundry for her as I do for the rest of the family combined! We're working on putting things back in their clean places instead of the hamper if they're not dirty...not there yet though:)

Emory has always been the sweetest and most snugly of my girls. On her first day of school when I went to pick her up she gave one of her teachers a giant hug and her teacher said, "She has got to be the most yummy child I've ever had!" I agree...she's wonderful! Don't get me wrong though, she does have her challenging times, but if she didn't then I would worry. We've decided that she's going to be a night owl...she stays awake (laying in her bed) half the night and still gets up at the crack of dawn! It's amazing, she was such a great sleeper as a baby and now she doesn't sleep at all!

She is doing so well with learning her letters and their sounds, and she is starting to want to learn how to spell things and write her letters.

I can't believe she's almost 4! Then again there's times I forget she's not already a teenager:)

Oh, and don't worry, she still has her daddy's dry wit.

Friday, December 5, 2008

sunset

As I was making dinner the other night I noticed the incredible colors of the sky. I couldn't help but take some pictures.

GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Raking leaves

We are so excited to have huge, gorgeous trees at our new house, just like we did at our old house! Of course you know what trees mean this time of year...leaves. Lots and lots of leaves! Greg and the girls decided they would rake them up last weekend. Actually Greg wanted to rake and bag, the girls wanted to rake in a pile and jump into the piles. They all got their way and I got some cute pictures.

Lilypie 4th Birthday Ticker
Lilypie 2nd Birthday Ticker