Determination

Emily had learned to ride her little bike.  When she got a bigger bike for Christmas last year, she pretty much stopped riding.  The bike was just a bit too big...I think a bit intimidating to her.  She would ride as long as daddy helped her get started and she could (literally) run into him to stop.  Even then, she did it because we bugged her about it, not because she wanted to.  A few days ago she came running in telling me I had to come watch her!  She had been practicing, on her own, in the driveway and good take off and ride her bike!!  She was so excited!  Of course I grabbed my camera and snapped a few.

Not as innocent as they look!

Actually they have had me wondering if the tree will make it til Christmas day!  We came home the other night to ornaments all over the floor.  Needless to say, I keep a spray bottle close by!  I thought this was a good picture to post though.

Pictures from the Christmas parade

Again this year, we had a good time!  It was a bit different though.  We pulled the float Santa was riding!  There were parts of the float that caught on some of the trees heading up to the parade route.  Because of this, I ended up riding on the back of the float to make sure we didn't lose anything.  Mrs. Claus and I had our hands full at times, holding on to a couple of the towers that were loose.  We made it to the end with everything still intact.

This was one of the buildings in downtown.  I thought it was neat the way they had it lit up.

Backseat conversation

While I heard the kids talking this morning on the way to school, I wasn't paying attention to the conversation.  Until I was brought into it....
Suddenly Emily says, "Right Momma"?
Ummm, right what, I ask.
"The moon, it only fills up once a year, right?  Cause I remember you saying that one time".
Huh?
"You said the moon only gets full once a year"!
Oh, well actually, we have a full moon once a month kiddo.
"Oh, yeah, that's right...once a month, Bubba"! 
I thought the way she was thinking was cute, but wondered what had led them to such a conversation.  We had clouds last night so there was no moon to view.  On my way back home after dropping them off, I realized what had brought about the moon talk....it was still very big, even in the daylight sky!!

Maybe a stylist?

Sara let Emily "fix" her hair!  As far as Em is concerned, more is better!!!

Sara came for a visit....

and Momma snapped a few pictures!!

Some pictures from our camping trip last weekend

We had a good time.  We didn't take the kids trick or treating, but we had plenty of candy and we had a great time decorating our campsite.

 The kids played.

  And jumped in the leaves.

 And of course I took some random pictures.

Daddy is much better at brushing than Momma! 

Even in Texas you can find some pretty colors in the trees this time of year.

 The lake was REALLY high after all the rain we've had!  We saw lots of this....picnic tables under water.

Cool kids and pumpkins

So I got lazy this year and decided NOT to carve pumpkins.  Instead we went with the "Mr. Pumpkin Head" decorations....that's not really what they are called, but what I have been calling them.  Emily was thrilled, Wyatt not so much.  He thought HE should get to carve his own.  When he finally realized that I would not put a knife in his hands and that he could choose the face to put on his if he took my approach, he gave in pretty willingly.  This is the end result....I thought they looked pretty cute!
  

This is Red Ribbon (drug awareness) week at school.  They play it up by doing/wearing something special each day.  Tuesday they could wear their sunglasses.  It was also the day for the pumpkin parade.  They kids could bring their carved/decorated pumpkins and join the parade at the end of the day.  I snapped a few pictures of my cool kids with their pumpkins before I took them to school!

Just having some fun.....

Decorating cookies....YUM!!

Playing in a bounce house.

Emily danced again this weekend

She is absolutely loving her dance classes!  She seems to have plenty of confidence in herself until she goes on stage and then she feels the need to keep an eye on the other girls to make sure she is doing what she should be....I guess it will all come together in time. She did one dance this weekend that she did a couple of weeks ago and Jeff and I could see a real improvement in what she was doing.  Practice makes perfect, huh?  Here are some pictures from her latest performance....

 

 

 

 

 

Emily in costume for her first performance this year

Hmmm, this doesn't happen often.  Usually the camera is in MY hands!

She might be a bit prissy!!

Puppy sitting

A couple of weeks ago some friends of ours ask if

we could keep their puppy for the weekend.  Of course we took advantage of that opportunity!!  We had such fun with this little guy.  Romeo is a miniature Yorkie with a HUGE personality!  He loves to be held and loved on, but he also loved playing with the kids....and the cats! :)

Busy Times!

I know, not really a good excuse...but that's all I've got!  We really have had a lot going on in the last few weeks though!  Let's see.....the kids went to a birthday party, we've had lots of school stuff going on, Emily has had a dance performance, the kids and I made a trip south to see Mom and Dad and Brandie got engaged!!! (OK, well maybe I shouldn't claim that last thing as an excuse for not blogging, but in my defense we have been dress hunting.)  That's just a bit of what we've been up too.  We have that much and more coming up in the next few weeks!
So the birthday party the kids went to was at Build A Bear.  They had such a great time!  Emily picked a kitty to stuff and then dressed her in a ballerina outfit....very appropriate!  Wyatt stuffed a dog and found a NASCAR outfit....he was thrilled!   

School has been good for both kids so far.  We haven't had any absences yet (knock on wood!).  Wyatt is signed up to do safety patrol.  They do six week rotations and he can't wait till his turn comes around.  Emily is on the student council this year.  They had their planning meeting last week to discuss the projects they will be working on this year.  Between that and dance, she is going to be one busy little girl this year!  Along with her tap and ballet, she added a jazz class to her schedule.  She is also in a performance class on Wednesday afternoons.  In that class they are learning short routines that can be performed on fairly short notice.  She had one such performance a couple of weeks ago and has another next week.  They will then spend November learning a new set of dances to do for Christmas performances in and around the community.  She is really enjoying her dance!  As if she doesn't keep us busy enough, Wyatt will start basketball in about a month.
We've had lots and lots of rain to deal with in the last few weeks!  The temps have cooled off nicely too, but with all the rain, the kids have been stuck inside more than they like to be.  

In the next few weeks we have the fall carnival at school, the kick off for the canned food drive for student council, 2 planned camping trips, Jeff's birthday and Wyatt is going to the NASCAR race with Sissy (shhhh, he doesn't know about this!!)

A future Leader?

We had a family night at school this week.  Actually, we've had them the last two weeks....each grade level is having them on different nights.  It's nice, they are taking an opportunity to give parents information about report cards, testing, curriculum....and basically what the students will be working on this year to be promoted to the next grade level. Anyway, this week was for the 1st grade parents.  So Emily's teacher catches up to me and says she has the cutest story about Emily she has to share with me.

To start the story off, you should know that the kids school has a student council.  I believe in kindergarten each teacher selects a student from their class to participate (at least that's how it was when Wyatt was in kinder...as he was a member), but I was under the assumption that in the other grade levels the selection is a bit different.  At any rate, Emily and I have had discussions about the student council and she decided she would like to be a member too.  I told her she would need to ask her teacher about it. Apparently she has done just that!  It's my guess that maybe she is driving her teacher a little nuts about it.  Okay, knowing that, here is how the conversation with her teacher started......"So Emily has been asking me about being on student council and I think she would be perfect, I'm going to put her name in"!  Then she goes on to tell me about their discussion in class....they are learning about their leaders.  In this discussion, she ask the kids if they could tell her who one of their leaders are.  She was calling on students who had their hands raised to answer.  She said she got to Emily, who was being very patient, and Emily's response was...."I know TWO leaders, YOU and ME"!!  She laughed and said that was a story she went home and told her husband about!  Something tells me that Em will make a pretty good little leader with that kind of confidence!!  Should we be thinking future Congresswoman, Senator or even President??? :)

Miss Independent

Yep, that's my girl!  She doesn't want my help with much anymore....especially doing her hair!  "I can do it myself" is what I hear when I try to help.  This is one of those things where I've decided to "pick my battles", so to speak.....on the weekend, when we are just hanging out at home, I let her do her own thing.  On school days, as long as it doesn't look too bad, I let her do her own thing then too.  On days when she decides that more is better....as in pony tails AND clips AND head bands AND anything else she can get in her hair....yeah, Momma takes over on those kind of days.  For the most part, she does pretty good though.  Here are a couple of pictures I took last week while she was pulling it back into a pony tail. 


 

How would you make Freckle Juice?

Last week the third graders were reading "Freckle Juice" by Judy Blume.  Wyatt came home with a note from the teachers inviting the students to make their own freckle juice and bring it to school to share.  He was determined that whatever he made, it had to have grape juice in it!  So I pulled out a cookbook and we found a punch recipe that sounded yummy.  It didn't need many ingredients, but grape juice was included.  He measured and poured and we mixed and sampled.  He was satisfied with the results so he eagerly took it to share!  He was so excited when I picked him up the next day.  He had sampled several other concoctions and his had been sampled by others....he was a happy camper!

So again, how would YOU make freckle juice?  This
is what Wyatt used....

Do you have/use Tupperware?

Or maybe you need some new stuff?  If you have not seen a catalog lately, you should find one!  They have some really nice stuff in fun new colors.  I know exactly where you can get your hands on one....and where to place an order too!!  Brandie has recently become a consultant.  So, if you would like to see a catalog and/or place an order, just let me know and I'll get you in touch with her!

I have beautiful kids!!

I love this picture....I don't get many of these! I took this at Sea World last month, but didn't post it with the others.

You might be wondering who the extra one is. That's Davy, let's just say he is with Brandie....