Chloe's First Dance Lesson

Chloe has been begging for some sort of outlet. Okay, maybe not in those words, but she has wanted to be involved in some sort of activity:)

I had planned to enroll her in dance classes at her daycare in the fall, but with Chris committing himself to being a stay-at-home dad and full-time student, my plans changed.

Since our visits to the park and pool have lessened due to the cold weather, I thought that it might be nice to go ahead and enroll her in dance class. This past Tuesday was her first class.

Daddy was kind enough to snap a shot of my tiny dancer before class. (Thank you, Meghan, for the dance wear!)

She was all smiles when I picked her up that evening.

I love the reflection in this picture. Maybe one day we'll see more than the top of her head in that mirror.

After class, I asked Chloe if she learned a new dance. She said that she couldn't remember the dance, but she knew that it was beautiful. Awe:)

Chloe and Evan each found a little surprise in our mailbox when we got home.

 
Thank you for the sweet treats, Aunt Dana!

Thankful for Thanksgiving: A Visit with Auntie Tina

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we had an excellent Thanksgiving!

We made a road trip to Texas to visit my Aunt and Dad!

The last time we made a road trip to visit relatives was when Chloe was 2-months-old and my aunt lived in Kentucky, so this trip was long overdue! The only out-of-state relatives Evan had met before this trip were my dad, A.K.A. Grandpa, his girlfriend, Sandra, and Chris' grandfather and wife.

Our first stop was Pasadena, TX to visit my Auntie Tina. She has 7 children, so when I say I visited my aunt, it really means I visited a whole lot of cousins, their children, and friends:) We were really cherishing this family time and socializing, so picture taking was sparse at my aunt's house.

Nevaeh, my cousin's daughter, was visiting all the way from Nashville, TN and Chloe loved playing with an older girl. If you know Chloe's personality, this was a dream come true for her. "She is too grown for her britches!"

We arrived the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and decided to drive to the Kemah Boardwalk. Here are a few photos from our outing!



Alex (my youngest cousin), Chloe & Nevaeh



It was so neat to see the marine and wild life under the boardwalk!

The boardwalk also had a street, or should I say "boardwalk," performer. In this photo, he is balancing on a board on a barrel while balancing a tire on his head and juggling fire! Wow!

Afterwards, the kids enjoyed the small amusement park.

Check out this awesome 2-tier carousel! I handed the camera over to Chris so I could help Evan on it. As he was taking pictures, he made a comment about the the littles riding on the bottom of the carousel for better pictures. But, I figured that this may be our one opportunity to ride on the second level of a carousel, so we took advantage:)

 Bye-bye Kemah.

The following day was Thanksgiving. And, oh my! Did we have some food?! Auntie Tina had 3 turkeys, 2 fried and one baked, not to mention, all the delicious sides! My cousin Cristina by far is the BEST baker! This is a photo I stole from her Facebook page of the desserts that she prepared. I can't even begin to explain the yumminess!

I also managed to get a few photos.


 One thing that I really was looking forward to during this trip was meeting all the new babies!

 

Chloe with my cousin Silvia and her daughter, Rebecca

 

 

Evan with my cousin Cristina and Rebecca 





 

Jayla and Auntie Tina 



 

Cutie pie Addyson, my cousin Melissa's daughter 





 

Sandra and Chloe 

 

 

I was so glad that Chloe and Evan were finally exposed to some of my roots. I was truly thankful for this Thanksgiving with my family and all the great food!

 

(There is more to come of our visit to Texas with my Dad in Kyle!)

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town!

We had a Thanksgiving for the books! Chloe and Evan met some of their relatives for the first time ever and we had some great food while we were at it...I've already revealed too much because that post is being saved for later when I'm not so tired exhausted and have time to go through my photos:)

Since Thanksgiving is officially over, I thought it would be fun to share a few photos that the littles took with Santa at the My Kids Attic Holiday Open House earlier this month.

As you can see, Evan still hasn't gotten over his fear of costumed characters or people. (And he was so excited about meeting Santa this year! Ugh!) However, smiley-faced...or not, I must have a photo of the littles and Santa every year. One day, when the kids are older, we'll look at these photos and laugh, right?! 

 

Of course, Chloe couldn't wait to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas:)... Shhh, I think that she may want a new baby doll stroller;) Her last one had seen better days before we had to put it by the side of the road.

 

 
Big hug from Santa!

Evan muttered "phone" from the safety of Daddy's arms when asked what he wanted for Christmas by Santa. That boy loves his phones and keys!  

 
Later, Chloe remembered that she had drawn a picture and written a letter to Santa that she had left in the car, so we made another visit to see Santa. The letter consisted of random letters of the alphabet, but Santa was so sweet as Chloe proudly showed it to him. He stuck it in his boot for safekeeping on his ride back to the North Pole!

 
I just wanted to spread a little Holiday cheer in hopes that this post might inspire me and give me a little "holiday" boost for our North Pole Breakfast this weekend...

Playgroup Thanksgiving Party

I took a little time off earlier today so that the littles could participate in a Thanksgiving themed playgroup and lunch.

Laura was gracious enough to open up her home and the littles had a great time playing.

Chloe loves pushing the "younger" kids on the swing!

Then, we ate lunch!  It was the cutest party spread, which included turkey and ham sandwiches, sweet potato fries, turkey apples, and cookie/hershey kiss acorns, just to name a few things.

Evan's plate!

Party animals!!;)

My contribution to the party was Gigi's cupcakes. They had the cutest "gobble" boxes. ("Cute" seems to be my word this post, but I can't think of a better word to describe this party.)

Afterwards, the kids did some arts and crafts!

Chloe chose to decorate a pumpkin.

And, I chose a turkey head dress for Evan.

 I'm glad that we attended because the littles were so "thankful" as they told me about all the fun that they had!

Sunday Morning Pictures

Most of our time over the last week or so has been devoted to planning and carrying out a service project with our Life Group, and a lot of out extracurricular activities have been put on the back burner because of it.

However, I did want to post a few couple of pictures from this morning.

Try as we might, we didn't succeed in getting a good photo of the littles and I before church this morning. I guess the front steps aren't always the best place for our little "photo shoots," especially at this time of the day when the sun rays cause harsh shadows. This was the only decent photo that we managed to get this morning.

I also got a "little" performance after Sunday school with the guitar and tambourine that Chloe and Evan made during class. Sadly, we accidentally left our instruments on the steps (pictured) and could not find them later when we returned:(

 

We should have plenty of more pictures to post next week from our Thanksgiving festivities and visits with family!

Enjoying November

October was fun, but hectic, so this month has been pretty low-key. We've all needed a little rest. I've tried to cut back on our activities, including blogging, just to give us some time to recharge, especially since it looks like we'll be pretty busy at the end of this month. Here is a recap of our month so far.

We started the first weekend of November by celebrating pretty Emma's 8th birthday!!!

The birthday party was at a local park and here are a few of my favorite pictures from the party

Pretty Girls!!!

 

Silly Girls!!!

 

 

Baby Ace, Emma's little brother, is getting so big!

 

 

A few random shots of the littles playing in the park....

 

 

Chloe and her cousins (2nd, 3rd, who's counting?:))

 

 

The birthday girl doing a quick taste test!

 

 

We all had a fun time! Happy Birthday, Emma!!!

 

The following Wednesday was Chloe's snack day at her Rainbows meeting! I decided to try out a "recipe" that I found on pinterest {here} for Pumpkin Muffins!

 

I was curious to see how the muffins would turn out more than anything. I use the term "recipe" loosely. You take a box of yellow cake mix and add 15 oz. of pumpkin puree. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes and voila! Really, you don't add eggs, oil, etc., and they turned out great! I was surprised to say the least. I'm definitely going to try this with chocolate cake mix next time:)

 

To give the muffins a personal touch, I frosted them with cream cheese frosting and added candy pumpkins to the top (Brach's Fall Mix). I think they turned out pretty cute! Although, because of time constraints, I didn't wait for the muffins to cool and the frosting melted a little.

 

 

Chloe and I woke up a little earlier this morning (and we still arrived late, ugh...story of my life)! We headed over to Nancy's Italian Ice to paint a turkey with Barb and enjoy an ice. You'll remember Barb from an earlier post of Chloe's birthday party.

 

My artist at work:)

 

 

Chloe enjoying her "ice" after painting!

 

 

This isn't the best picture (phone camera), but here was the finished product. I love my children's artwork. This is sitting on our mantle alongside Chloe's and Evan's pumpkin paintings.

 



 

Chloe really enjoys painting. We've already reserved our spot to paint Baby Jesus in December. Barb has these painting events almost every week this fall/winter. To check out more dates for the canvas and ice, visit Barb's on Mulberry's facebook event page {here}.

 

This really doesn't have anything to do with my Mommy land adventures, but Chris and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this past week. We've had our ups and downs, but I love being married to my best friend and my partner in every sense of the word! I was pleasantly surprised to receive a beautiful floral arrangement at the office earlier this week. I brought them home on Friday for the whole family to enjoy and I'm posting a photo of them now for every one else to enjoy.

 

 

He asked for an autumn floral arrangement. He knows me so well! I thought that they were beautiful!