Family New Years Eve

I think that this was a first too - normally the kids get shipped to the grandparents for New Years Eve, but this year we started a new family tradition of going to the beach house.  It was a bit chilly, but we had a nice long stay.

 Very low tide, no waves, gorgeous winter day at the beach.  Hard to believe this is the same place that was covered with sea weed a few months earlier.

 Notice the sand on Ella's back side?  Yeah, it was all over her pants and all in her boots.

 This would be the reason for the sand everywhere - although we tried to clarify that you don't sit in the sand in your clothes, she might as well have been in a swimsuit.  

Another first for the girls - fireworks! It is always fun to visit the fine folks at the fireworks stand.  Nothing too fancy, just some sparklers and Roman candles.  We also got some spinning ladybug things that the fireworks lady said were fun for kids.  The darn things spun around making this loud noise, sparks flying everywhere and then it shot off into the air.  No clue where they ended up.  I was pretty sure that Addy would like the sparklers, but figured she'd drop the Roman candle and run when it shot off at first.  But she was a fireworks pro.  Closely supervised of course!

Ella and I spent most of the time inside watching through the window.  Too loud apparently, not so much of a fan...

Christmas 2012

Everyone was healthy, everyone was happy, overall a great Christmas.  Christmas Eve started with a family trip to church, which was a first.  We went to the family service mid-afternoon and it was short and very much geared towards kids.  I knew Addy would be fine, wasn't sure what Ella would do, but she was great.  Maybe a little talking during the prayer, but no worse than any other 2 year old in the sanctuary. 

Finished off Christmas Eve with a yummy dinner at the Wolfs.  Thanks again to Bob and Mary for sending such a yummy brisket!  As usual ate, ate until we were stuffed and then headed home to get ready for Santa. 

Not only did Santa get some fancy sugar cookies, but Addy left some carrots for the reindeer, which were gobbled up by morning.  She also did a little art for Santa to take to remember his stop at the Wolf house!  Ella is missing from the pic below because the day's activities were in the middle of nap time, so she basically came home, put on pjs and went straight to bed.  Even tried to get her up to come help with the cookies and milk and would have nothing to do with it!

 Santa didn't go overboard this year, he was nice and took into consideration the fact that our house is already busting at the seams with toys, but the girls both got what they asked for.

 The only thing on Addy's wish list was skates and she got her skates. 

 Ella's wish list was a bit vague, but Santa knew she'd love a kitten pillow pet. 

 Ella was not 100% into opening the packages yet, but big sister came to help.

 Crafts anyone?

 Doc McStuffins arrived on Yarwell.  Doc and her friends were definitely a highlight of the day.

 Christmas day and Addy is in a skirt and short sleeve shirt.  Our friends and family in Dallas were getting snow on Christmas day, but it worked out well that we got 70 degree weather so that Addy could practice.  

 "Cheese"

  The only real thing on Ella's wish list was "a Dora present".  She left it pretty open for interpretation.  So, she got a Dora doll, a Dora trike and a Dora kiddie size patio set for outside.  Santa and the grandparents did great deciphering her wish.

Christmas Day wrapped up with a yummy dinner at Jean and Tom's.  As always, great times with the family.  I went to dinner with intentions of taking a lot of family pics.  I wasn't completely successful, but did manage to get one great one of the four of us with Granny!

Family College Station Visit

For six years now, we've been talking about needing to make a family trip to College Station to see my friend Rachel and her family.  We've seen Rachel and Elaine at least once a football season, but they'd never met the girls.  We finally made it!  Had a super fun time, got to spend some time with Rachel and then got to run around campus with the girls.  I think that the girls had a great time - I've never looked at campus from the parent perspective, but there is a lot for the kids to see and on a random December weekend, there was plenty of free space to run around.  That being said, there wasn't a lot of sitting still for picture purposes, but I got a few.

 I didn't spend a lot of time on main campus and maybe saw this fountain a few times during my time at A&M.  The girls could have spent the entire afternoon there.  

 Pretty flowers attract butterflies and little girls.

I guess maybe the corp uses these monkey bars during drills or something.  They were crazy tall, but Ella really wanted to hang from them.  Michael was just barely able to get her up there.  

Thanksgiving 2012

Another great Thanksgiving.  Pretty much the same routine as every other year.  Great time with family and yummy food. 

 This year Ella was big enough to help with the green bean casserole.

 Very focused green bean stirring. 

 The annual turkey dunk.

 Cute family pic minus Addison.  She had a big slumber party with Aunt Jean, Uncle Tom, Betsy and Granny and they hadn't made it to the party yet.

We kind of wondered why all of the guys volunteered to sit with the kids and then before we know it, the TV was unpaused and they were watching the Texans. 

Silly Ella

She always keeps us laughing...

For a couple of days, I'd go in to get Ella up from her nap and she 'd be sleeping on Big Dog.  One day he was more of a pillow, the next a full mattress.  

Ella LOVES White Kitten.  Here Meow, Meow White Kitten is giving Ella a hug.  She totally comes up with this stuff, not us!

Ella's First Haircut

I was fully expecting this outing to be a huge mistake - taking both kids to the haircut place on a Saturday and Ella had never been before. Therefore, it was the exact opposite of what I expected and it was a wonderful experience, Ella did great.  I expected fighting when we put her up in the chair, none of that.  I expected she'd hate having the drape thing on her, she didn't even notice it was there.  I figured she'd pull the clips out when the lady was putting the sections of her hair up, not at all.  The end result was a super cute trimmed hairstyle and a super happy mommy and Ella.

 So, maybe the lollipop, sparkly thing and tv show helped the situation! 

San Antonio

We took a break from Feast with the Beast this year and decided to head out of town for the weekend with Mark and Melissa to celebrate Melissa and my 21st birthdays!  When we arrived in the city the only thing we knew we wanted to do was watch the Aggie game.  We ended up doing dinner and drinks of the Riverwalk on Friday.  Then a casual breakfast at a local dive on Saturday, followed by some shopping at El Mercado.  Even managed a trip to the Alamo before planting ourselves on bar stools for the game.

Zoo Time With Friends

An official Ella play date!  No Addy friends, no Addy, just Ella and another 2 year old.  Poor second child only gets play dates with Addy's friends and their siblings, mainly because we don't know a lot of kids her age that aren't in school on the days we have off.  But E's school was closed today, so her friends were out and about and we met with a friend for a play date at the zoo.  Granted, I'm not really sure they were close friends until today.  Our play date was with the little brother of one of Addy's good friends.  Just happen to be talking to their mom at a party this weekend and she mentioned a trip to the zoo, so we tagged along.  I know Ella and Ian see each other in the breakfast room at school, but they are in separate class rooms most of the day.  They are good buddies now though!

And randomly, as we were walking through the African forest, we ran into the parents of my friend Dan.  They had Dan's little one out for a day at the zoo.  So it was Ella and the boys hanging out in the African forest.  Here they are posing with the rhino cut out.  They were all balanced on a step behind the rhino and I think Jake is holding on to Ella to keep from falling off.  Pretty sure the step is for adults to stand on, but Ella doesn't seem to accept that theory and she always jumps up on it. 

The Circus

Here is just more proof that our house is a circus...

Addy seems to really enjoy the gym class she is taking after school on Fridays and she came home demonstrating "the tripod" the other day.  Ella wasn't quite able to do the tripod, but she apparently enjoys doing head stands, which aren't exactly headstands because her legs are flipped up on the ottoman, but it is close.

And unrelated to gymnastics, but in case you are wondering, we'd gone out for Mexican for dinner and Ella was especially messy with the queso, plus she had spilled juice from a fruit cup on the shirt at lunch.  So yeah, she was out in public looking like that, but I only had 1 dirty shirt to clean and not 2, so that is all I care about!

Halloween Festivities

 We have gotten our money's worth of Halloween costumes this year!  1st we had Addy's birthday party, then the carnival in Jean and Tom's neighborhood, Zoo Boo and then the official night.  And fortunately everyone was super excited to put on their costume each time!

Pumpkin Carving Time - Both girls were willing to put their hands in the goo this year.  Now, we did most of the cleaning out, but their hands went on the inside the pumpkin so that is pretty impressive.

Carnival Time:  I actually got double booked thanks to poor calendar management, so I didn't get to go to the carnival this time, but I hear that it was a fun time again.  No Sesame Street booth, but both girls came home with candy, so they were happy.  And we learned that Whoppers are Ella's favorite candy.  Or they were that night at least.  I'm not sure what Addy is doing in this picture, but it is a fun one of Ella and Jean!

Zoo Boo:  There were not as many booths passing out candy, so Zoo Boo was a good time, but didn't seem to be the hit it was in the past.  The focus was on finding the pumpkin patch to decorate pumpkins. 

 We ran into one of Addy's friends and they had fun pumpkin decorating together.

 Can you tell Ella is saying "cheese"??  Because she loves to say cheese and not look at the camera.  She was rockin' her bumblebee fairy though!  She left the wings on the whole time which was super impressive.

Addy has officially decided that the train is no longer scary (no clue why it was scary to begin with) and we went on a family ride. 

Halloween Night: The big night finally arrived.  We ran home from work and school and grabbed some pizza for dinner then hit the street.  We went to about 5 houses on the block and then they were done.  Addy did a much better job this year when it came to ringing the door bell and saying "trick-or-treat".  Ella wasn't completely sure about the whole gig, but got into it more at the last couple of houses.  Both girls were super excited about candy and I think that they were done  going to different houses because they just wanted to come inside and eat candy! 

 The official Halloween picture of Cherry Jam and Ms. Bumblebee Fairy

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa's