Nutcracker Tea

Claire's sweet friend Lila invited her over for a Nutcracker Tea. It was perfectly planned of course because Lila's mom, Randi, is one of the greatest hostesses I have ever known. I love the special memories that these two have made together over the last four years.

They started out painting their very own nutcrackers

The finished products

Then there was the making of sugar plum lollies (aka dipping marshmallows in melted chocolate and sprinkles).

The tea was held at a perfectly decorated table with the Nutcracker movie playing in the background. Claire LOVED watching all the dancing.

I can't wait to take her to a live show of The Nutcracker one day and who knows, maybe sweet Lila can join us.

Christmas Party #1

At the beginning of this month Allan and I got all dressed up and headed downtown to his office Christmas party. It is a fun night that we look forward to every year. I love when we get the opportunity to just be adults "out on the town" without kiddos in tow. Allan has great coworkers and it is great to get to chat with them every once in awhile.

The kiddos had to hop in a picture with us before we could head out the door. They are just too cute don't you think?!?

We were very metro this year and took the train into town. It was so fun! The rail line just opened somewhat close to our house so we decided to try it out.

Well yes I did wear my comfy shoes for the walk from the train to the party. The fancy shiny high heels that I wore at the party hurt way to badly to wear them any longer than I had to.

Theatrical Debut

The Pre K class at Claire's preschool puts on a play at Christmas telling the story of Jesus' birth. Claire was cast as a shepherd which she initially was not thrilled about until I assured her that there were girl shepherds and she would still get to wear a dress. She was the greatest shepherd I have ever seen, although I may be a little biased. I love that Claire and her cousin, Cooper, are at the same preschool. He was a fantastic wise man too! They got to perform twice, once for the preschool and once on Sunday morning at the church their preschool is held at. That worked out really well because Allan's parents were in town for the first performance and my parents were able to come for the second performance. I love having family that will come and celebrate little moments like this in my kid's lives. We are so blessed!

American Girl Day

Claire had her first girl's day out to the American Girl store while Allan's parents were in town and it was so fun! I was so happy that my sister and niece, Amy and Allie, could be with us as well. We had a yummy lunch at the cafe. Claire thought it was so cool that her doll "Baby Santa" received her very own plate and cup of princess lemonade and a real chef with her very own look alike doll came out to say hi. After we ate we headed downstairs to do a little shopping for Baby Santa who got a new Christmas dress and Claire added to her wish list. It really was a very special day with my girl and I love the memories that were made with some of the other special ladies in our lives. Thank you so much Gig for this wonderful day!!

ICE!

Allan's parents came to town a couple of weeks ago and we had so much fun with them! We stayed busy doing Christmasy things. One of the highlights was going to ICE! at The Gaylord Texan. I have always wanted to go to this exhibit and it did NOT disappoint. This year they had a Charlie Brown theme and the kids loved it. I was surprised that 9 degrees did not feel so bad with those awesome blue parkas. It probably helped that I was chasing two active kiddos the entire time. Claire and Jacob could not get enough of the ice slide and they were able to play on it for about twenty minutes since we went on a weeknight and it was not crowded. One of the things that Allan and I loved was that there was a HUGE nativity completely made of ice and the true Christmas story was being told right there in front of us at a very public place. Also, they openly used the words Merry Christmas. It is sad that these two things are becoming so rare.

Christmas Cheer

We decorated our Christmas tree as soon as Thanksgiving was over. I just LOVE the Christmas season and wish it lasted more than a month. This year we opted to put our tree in the office so it would be gated off from our littlest tornado. You will notice that Jacob is only in one picture from the decorating extravaganza since his first move was to throw a Christmas ball across the room. I think that decorating the tree was more fun than ever this year because Claire was so excited about it. She wanted to be told who each ornament belonged to and what the story was behind it.
We bought a new tree this year and our old star topper was too heavy for it so we got to make a new one with the supplies in the craft closet and it is just perfect.. Claire added rhinestones just to give it an extra sparkle. I am pretty sure this will be the star we use for a long time, it is so special to have something made by her little hands sitting on top of our tree.

Once the tree was decorated Allan got a great fire going and made some yummy hot chocolate. We all sat around the fire and talked about what we are excited about this holiday season and listened to Christmas music throwing in the occasional dance moves ;) It was really an almost perfect evening, it will be great when Jacob can join in on the fun without tearing down the tree...maybe next year. Can I just say that Claire's poses these days are cracking me up!

Christmas Ornaments

We have a tradition of getting a new ornament the night we put up the tree. I try to pick ornaments that remind them of a memory or favorite thing over the past year. One day when the kids are all grown up and have a place of their own they will take their ornaments with them and hang the memories on their own Christmas tree (sniff, sniff).

This year Allan got a Santa holding up his catch of the day since he had a fun guys fishing trip a few months ago. Claire received a sparkly carousel horse because she loves to ride any carousel we see and the "diamonds" fit her personality. Jacob got a Santa flying a plane because he is already totally in love with all things airplane, just like his daddy.
Allan was a little late remembering our tradition so I didn't get one this night ;) He did surprise me a couple of weeks later with a Snoopy ornament to commemorate our trip to see ICE at the Gaylord Texan which has a Charlie Brown Christmas theme this year and it is very cute.

Thanksgiving 2010

We spent Thanksgiving back up in OK this year with my parents, Sara's family, and Beau's family. It was so laid back and really enjoyable. Everyone pitched in with the food and every bit of it was delicious. The kids got a little stir crazy when there was freezing rain outside, but other than that it was great. There were fun memories made in our kind of nontraditional Thanksgiving celebration, but I wouldn't have had it any other way this year.

Allan, Claire, and Jacob loved meeting Lexi for the first time. It was really cute seeing their excitement (well Allan didn't actually show a lot of excitement, but we know he was feeling it inside). Claire was just about beside herself with excitement to hold her and feel her skin. Jacob was surprisingly calm and even got to hold her as well. There were only a couple of times we had to intervene before he loved her too hard.

Zoo Trips

I have loved having a membership to the zoo this last year. We have used it a couple of times recently. Allan and I took the kids on a Sunday morning and it was such a perfect family outing. The weather was great, the kids were happy, it wasn't too crowded, and the animals were frisky (thankfully we were able to avoid the birds and bees conversation at the lion exhibit, Claire was happy thinking they were just hugging). I hope we can make a few more trips soon.

One of our other recent trips to the zoo was with Claire's friend Lila. It was our first time to take a buddy for Claire all by ourselves. I LOVED watching these two little friends play and discuss the animals. They had so much fun together! I think their highlights were feeding the birds and riding the carousel. Jacob was with us too, he was just preoccupied in the stroller most of the time ;)

Most Exciting Part of November

I became an aunt for the thirteenth time on November 19th and immediately fell in love with my newest niece, Lexi Reese Waters.

Sara called at 4:33am on the 19th to say that she had been admitted to the hospital and that Lexi would arrive some time that day. After trying to figure out what to do with my kids (Allan was able to work from home) I headed to OK for the big event. I am so thankful I could head up there all by myself, especially since it turned out to be a very long day of waiting for Miss Lexi. Sara went up a few rungs on my hero ladder. It is so true that childbirth is one of the greatest miracles ever. I loved getting a couple of days to cuddle with my newest niece and play with her big brother and bit sister, Asher and Ainsley. She is the tiniest little beauty!!

Lexi Reese Waters

7lbs 6oz

It's Been A While

We have been busy playing in the backyard eating lollipops

Laughing

Sneaking on top of tables

And a lot of other stuff which I will update you on soon...get ready for a lot of posts over the next few days (your welcome Jenni F.)

Trick or Treat

We started out celebrating my niece on Halloween, she turned 14. I am not really sure how time has flown by so quickly and that little squishy baby girl born my senior year of high school has turned into one of the most beautiful and kind girls I have ever known.

My beautiful peacock princess wanted a little photo shoot before heading out for some candy. She was so proud to be wearing real make up.

Jacob's gnome costume didn't make it to Halloween night, so he wore this crazy cute tiger costume. I loved how he waddled and roared in it throughout the night.

The Powells ventured out to do a little trick or treating on our block before heading back to their neighborhood. It was fun to be with them for a while.

Love these babies! I am so glad they are mine. I have so much fun being their mom.

Sweet baby tiger with a paci to help after he had his finger smashed.

The big kids were kind enough to show Jacob the ropes of trick or treating

It took awhile for him to understand that there was more than one house offering candy so initially he had to be wrangled away from the candy buckets

Me and my little loves

So glad we thought to get the wagon out to make it around the block, it held a tired tiger and a lot of Claire's candy

Jacob enjoying the spoils of the night

Claire and I spent the last part of the night handing out candy

Claire was actually almost as excited to hand out candy as she was to go house to house and pick out her own

Such a great Halloween with two of my favorite people in the whole world!!

Halloween Parties

Claire had her Halloween party at school on the Thursday before Halloween. She was a peacock princess and looked so pretty. I love that her cousin, Cooper, goes to the same MDO program as she does so they can make these little memories together.

Friday we headed over to Allan's office. It is tradition to party with the Southwest Airlines employees every year when they basically shut down headquarters and each department performs shows and sets up games and snacks. It is always such a fun few hours. This year our little gnome and poodle had fun eating a ton of candy and showing off for all of Allan's coworkers once they were on a sugar high. Allan was dressed as The Most Interesting Man In The World (from the Dos XX beer commercials).