Birthday ToDo's

 Last Saturday evening we celebrated Auntie Jen's 23rd birthday. We had a great time at G'ma's with the family! Happy birthday to the sweetest sister, sister-in-law and auntie in the whole wide world!

On Sunday we joined our little buddy Will at Bouncing Bears to celebrate his 2nd birthday...

A good time was had by all!

Preoccupied with Many Merriments!

We have been so busy enjoying the Christmas season that I am terribly behind at posting on the blog! We recently decorated gingerbread houses with our playgroup (pics to come). We went to a super-cute cookie exchange at our neighbor's home and came home with a lot of sweet goodies! Cute idea Allisons! Sadly, I didn't take any pics. Last week Ryan and I had a date night at our church's Christmas Celebration. The annual Pajama breakfast was this weekend.
And a couple of days ago we attended the M&M social for our Bible study which was a Happy Birthday Jesus! party (pics to come). Very sadly, our laptop has been having trouble. We had to take it to the "doc." Needless to say, we have limited computer access these days.

Santa's Wonderland

A couple of weekends ago, we made a trip to Col Sta to view Santa's Wonderland. The weather was chilly, perfect for such an event! Santa's Village has many yummy foods and a cozy campfire for dining. There was also a Christmas movie playing and live music!

 How cute is this?!

 Driving through the entrance of beautiful lights!

 The displays were wonderful and seemingly endless. There were entire villages and homes and animal and trains of lights. I didn't include too many pictures because we didn't want to give away the sights. But our favorite was the final scene... make sure that you go to check it out!

"Walking in a Winter Wonderland"

Sleigh-bells ring, are you listening? In the lane snow is glistening. OR so the song says! In Houston, when summer finally ends during November, the weather stays a balmy 75 degrees for what seems like many weeks thereafter. During this "pleasant" weather a couple of weeks ago, we planned an afternoon out in The Woodlands Winter Wonderland. There were many festivities including a parade and ice skating. But the fun for us was the walking tour around the lights!

Thanks and Giving

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Dallas with family. We had a great time visiting with everyone! We even successfully completed a bulk of Christmas shopping during the Black Friday madness. This year was so much fun because we were able to talk in a few more family members into joining the tradition! What a blast!

 The wearing one of their many sets of matching Christmas jammies. We are so excited to begin this season's Christmas celebration!

G'ma's Party

We celebrated G'ma's birthday this weekend! There was plenty of yummy food and presents and... singing! Cade loved singing "Happy Birthday, Dear G'ma!" Wishing the whole family a wonderful year filled with much love and laughter!

Above, Caden unwrapping all of G'ma's gifts.

Below, Charlotte kissing the framed picture that she gave to G'ma.

"Falling Backward"

Last Saturday we attended two very special birthdays. The first was "A Bluebell Extravaganza" at the Strong's home. Such a cute and creative theme! The second was a fun McDonald's birthday party with the Molina family.

 That evening we cuddled up in the game room with s'mores and hot cocoa to celebrate the fall time change the next morning. The kids loved their s'mores. Even though Cade didn't like how the chocolate got on his hands, Charli Kate was in heaven eating a messy food!

Happy Birthday to Sasa!

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Aunt Sasa's 23rd birthday with dinner and cake! We wish you a wonderful year with many positive and growing experiences! The best is yet to come!

For Kids of All Ages!

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Children's Museum with Auntie Jen and Cousin Carrie. We had SO much fun playing with the kids! Can't wait to go back again!

Treat? Or Treat?!

During the week, our Playgroup Halloween Party kicked off the Halloween celebration. Beki did such a great job! We had so much fun decorating pumpkins and cookies. The kids lasted in their costumes for all of about 15 minutes, which I thought was pretty good ;)

We had planned to attend church on Halloween morning and the Fall Festival in the afternoon, but Caden woke up early, early that morning with a fever and sinus infection. He and Charlotte both have had colds so we decided to rest up for the evening.

We are trying to build up the kids holiday reading sets, so they both received Halloween books and a few other small goodies.

 

We made special Halloween treats for dinner including Spooky Eyeball tacos, Jack-o-lantern Dip and chips, Boo-tiful Jello salad and Dirt Cups with Worms!

Pictured above, our sweet Charlotte as a pig and Caden, a fluffy rooster. Ryan and I are farmers :)

Trick or Treating went well and the kids received too much candy! We saw many cute costumes. Caden loved seeing so many Spiderman costumes and made a couple of new friends. Charlotte called out, "Isla," every time she heard a neighborhood dog bark. The hilarity ensued for two whole streets!

Needless to say, Ryan and I had more fun together this Halloween than on any other Halloween before!

"It's a Wonderful Life!"

 A special birthday moment with G'ma and Charli Kate.

 The kids are relaxing and singing "Rock-a-bye Baby" in their rocking chairs after Charlotte's birthday party.

 Celebrating Cousin Carrie's birthday before she flies home to WA State.

We love and miss you, Cousin!

Snuggling with Mimi and Granddaddy before they leave for CO. Thanks for Daisy and Bolt!

A Little Hostess Turning One!

Charlotte's first birthday was a wonderful blur! Literally 60% of the pictures taken at her party are blurry because of all the fun activity. Her theme was pink giraffes! The party was a success and we greatly appreciated sharing this event with our family and family-friends. Love to all!

G'ma, thanks for letting us borrow this cute cupcake holder!

The food spread included chicken salad sandwiches (Thanks, Granddaddy!), sausage rolls, green salad, orange fluff salad, artichoke dip, pink giraffe cookies (Thanks, Aunt Sasa!), pink cupcakes (Thanks, Mimi!) and pink punch (Thanks, Court!).

 Pictured above is a monthly age map of Charlotte. Pictured below are her birthday roses from Daddy.

Our family pictured below, before we opened the many thoughtful gifts for Charlotte (Thanks, Auntie Jen for writing everything down!). I cannot believe our perfect baby girl is no longer an infant but a toddler. I have been so emotional knowing that the countdown to the end of babyhood has begun. Our time with the children seems to VERY quickly be slipping through our fingers. It is such a short time to imprint the love your feel for them. These are such happy days for our family.