Reindeer Cookies!

Found a recipe for some super cute and easy reindeer cookies in one of my parenting magazines so Alli and I tried it out while TJ was at Bass Pro with daddy one night...

Store bought peanut butter cookie dough in the shape of triangles. Flipz pretzels for antlers while the cookies are still hot. Mini M&M's for eyes and a regular red M&M for the nose stuck on with white icing squeezed out of a ziplock bag with a small hole cut in the corner. Easy as that!

Alli wanted to take a pic of me with my favorite one too. Can't believe I'm actually posting this.

Then she wrote this story:

Mi COOCE iS NAMD DASR AND HE iS FRUM SANTCLOS iS LAY HE WUS A RANDER THEAT IS YUME

Translation: My cookie is named dancer and he is from Santa Claus's sleigh. He was a reindeer that is yummy.

I am loving this phonetic spelling stage and the fact that she loves to write- so cute!

TJ's Thanksgiving Feast

TJ's Thanksgiving Feast at school...

Saying the prayer before the meal- so cute! His class was dressed as indians and the younger class was pilgrims. I should have taken a pic of him with one of the little pilgrims. They were all adorable.

Mommy and "running deer." That was his Indian name. Very fitting.
That's his new camera smile.



Daddy even got to be there!

TJ with his buddy, Benjamin.

Another one of his best buds, Ashton.

I loved the face paintings! He accidentally smeared his when he scratched his face and when he realized it, his lip started to quiver and he started to tear up. He was so upset that it got messed up. Thankfully I was able to calm him down so he could enjoy his feast.

Love Notes

Just found a post-it on my kitchen cabinet:

"MOM I WIL MIS YOU TOMOROW FRUM ALLISON"

How awesome is that- made my day!

Like Brother, Like Sister

Found the kids like this one night. Isn't that crazy? I thought it was picture worthy.

What's really weird is that TJ ALWAYS sleeps on his stomach.

God Provides

When asked about the Bible story he learned about at church one day, TJ said:

"God sent a bird for them so they could have chicken and then he made bread fall from the sky. I wish God would make ice cream fall from the sky. I like ice cream!"

A Penny for your Thoughts

After looking in a fountain that people had thrown pennies in, Alli came running over to me and said:

"Momma, I just learned something!

The more pennies you throw in the water...

the less money you have."

Now that's a Dement for you! As a matter of fact, I assumed Dwaine had told her that, but she said she just thought of it. And sure enough, Dwaine was surprised and very amused when I told him.

Our Halloween

This year we had a Batman and a black cat- so cute together! And really nice because we already had the costumes. The only thing I had to buy was the skirt and leggings for Alli. She decided what she was going to be on Halloween night last year when she was given those ears and tail by a friend. To my surprise, she stuck with it.

I attempted black hair spray on Alli only to find out that it is literally hairspray. It made her hair sticky and hard (think Aqua Net) and it rubbed off on your hand every time you touched her hair. I ended up brushing it out as best I could, but it still kept rubbing off on our hands. We won't be doing that again!

Striking their best Batman and cat poses.

We made an early visit to Nana Pam before driving to Boerne to have dinner and trick-r-treat with friends.

Nana Pam with her babies. They always look forward to this visit.

Then it was off to Boerne...

Feline friends. Are they not the cutest?

The whole gang before we loaded up to go trick-r-treating. Let's see- in the top row we have Ava as Dorothy, Alli the cat, and Lydia as the cowardly lion. On the bottom is Matthew as Thomas, Grant as a very unhappy Iron Man (no worries, he cheers up come trick-r-treat time), Jake as a "fighter fighter" (aka fire fighter), and of course Batman!

Yes, that would be my daughter striking a pose back there (again). I absolutely love the way Jake has his arm around TJ and TJ is holding his hand. So sweet. They are all so darn cute!

Cat scratch coming at ya!

We had so much fun trick-r-treating with our best buds. Costumes, candy and friends- what's not to love about that?

Pumpkin Patch #2 - Love Creek Orchards

On Columbus day (school holidays have a whole new meaning now), I took the kids out to the Pumpkin Patch at Love Creek Orchards and we had an awesome time. There was so much to do...

A hay maze and hay bales to jump off of and pose on.
A hay fight with a buddy from TJ's school. They were having so much fun!

Swinging by the picturesque pond. There was a black lab that kept jumping in the water and swimming. The kids thought that was funny.

A petting zoo. This was by far Alli's favorite part. They sat in a circle and waited patiently for the bunnies, guinea pig and baby chicks to be passed to them over and over again. Alli said "I feel like I could do this for hours!" And I believe it. We stayed there for a good half hour if not more and I think she would have been more than happy to stay longer, but there were other fun things to do too.

Like decorating scarecrows for instance...

Posing by her very fashionable scarecrow.


Scarecrow #2!

I think TJ must have been taking notes from Alli on posing, so I had to instruct him to pose a little more like a boy. I think he even joked about "wooking wike a wady!" That's my silly boy!

Doing his best to look more like a boy, but still trying to be cool.

Face painting!! We had to wait in line quite a while for this one, but they were so patient.

Barrel train rides- I think they did this 3 times. Alli didn't care too much about it, but TJ really liked it and he didn't want to go alone, so she kept him company all 3 times (with a little coaxing from mom). Such a sweet big sis!


A cute photo op!

Showing off those adorable face paintings! Alli was so proud of hers. She said "I feel like a big kid!" I think she felt like she had real make-up on.

We also did pumpkin painting, hay rides through the apple orchard, and played bean bag toss. We really had a great day. They are at such a perfect age to enjoy this kind of thing.


Later that night...

One last shot of those super cool faces before they get washed away!

Pumpkin Patch #1

Okay, so I'm a little (no...a lot) behind on blogging so just pretend it's still October...

We love to go to pumpkin patches and festivals this time of year, so here are some pics from the first pumpkin patch we visited this fall...

Traditionally the kids each pick out a painting pumpkin and a carving pumpkin. Truth be told, Daddy actually has more say in the carving pumpkins that anyone else- he is the one that will be doing most of the carving after all and he really enjoys picking out unique pumpkins.



My little model.





We picked a super tall pumpkin and a super warty pumpkin. Apparently the wart pumpkin didn't make it in the pics.

Oh yeah- daddy carries them too :-)

The Little Joys

I just love it when I find stuff like this...

Cracked me up. I don't even know which one of my children did this.
Sometimes it's the little things that make parenting so much fun.

Fun at Brackenridge Park with Friends

Headed out to Brackenridge Park awhile back with some good friends and the kids had an absolute blast riding the zoo train, picnicking in the park and splashing in the water...

We started out just telling them they could take their shoes off and walk through the water. Well, that led to them being soaking wet from head to toe, but having way too much fun for us to tell them to stop.
You really can't say no to this...

On the zoo train before the water...


That's Lydia in the pink- we were celebrating her 5th birthday. Super sweet girl.

I feel bad that Alli missed all this fun while she was staying at grandma's, but I'm certain she was having plenty of fun too.

My Little Artist

Alli's latest masterpiece- a bird looking for food to feed her babies that will be hatching soon...

The bird and the sun are actually a fluorescent yellow, but that didn't show up when I scanned it.

I was really impressed when she brought this to me. I think it's really good for a 5 1/2 yr old, but it could be that I'm just an overly proud mom. Either way, I wanted to share it.

Oh and while I'm bragging- she read the words "giggly, happy, and sleepy" without any assistance the other day. Again, I was super proud and so was she. It's amazing the progress she is making so quickly.