Locks of Love and Pumpkin Carving

It was time to chop off all of my hair again.  I've grown out, chopped off, grown out my hair probably 4-5 times.  If my hair is long enough I alway try to donate it to Locks of Love.  I feel 5 lbs lighter.  Here is my ponytail.

We also carved pumpkins today.  In the past we've tried to go to a pumpkin patch and pick the perfect pumpkin.  This year, time got away from us.  So, I brought one home from the grocery store.  Must remember not to procrastinate next year.  Also, since I waited so long there were slim pickings on pumpkins.  Instead of one big family one I got two smaller ones.  Alyssa did not like the "guts," but she did keep a few "nuts" to plant.  No matter how many times I told her they were seeds she kept calling them nuts.  We have one jack-o-lantern and one kitty cat.

Alyssa's First Sleepover

Alyssa's best friend is Ian.  This is incredibly lucky for me since my best friend happens to be Ian's mom.  We watched Ian and Evan while their parents went to a wedding.  They were going to get back late so we would need to put them to bed at our house.  Instead of waking them up in the middle of the night to go home we decided that since everyone was sleeping peacefully they'd just stay the night.  James was in his crib.  Evan was in a pack and play in Alyssa's room.  Ian and Alyssa slept on the futon in the play room.  Don't worry, Jonny made sure there was no funny business.  Alyssa was so excited Ian and Evan slept over.    They played until I made them lay down and they woke up playing.  It was fun.  She wants to have 'another sleepover' every day!  My favorite part was when we took all of them to a birthday party and someone commented on how well behaved our 4 children were :)  While I loved having two 3 year olds, a 2 year old, and 1 year old for a little while I don't know if I could do it every day.

Eating pizza watching a cartoon.

Eating waffles in the morning.

James's Birthday Part III

On James's actual birthday we went to Chuck E Cheese and had cupcakes at home.  That weekend we went to the zoo.  Last weekend we went to the State Fair.  (We also had cake at Papa and Kiki's house, but those pictures are on Kiki's camera).  I was so excited to take the kids to the fair.  Growing up in the Dallas area we always got a free ticket and a day off of school.  It was a lot of fun.  Next year Alyssa is going to ride the big wheel.  She was so sad we didn't take her this year, but we just ran out of time!  We also went to the Dallas Arboretum during our visit.

In Cinderella's carriage

Goofy face with Uncle Tony and Aunt Devan

Standing by Big Tex

Driving the "bumpy car" with Kiki

Happy Birthday James Part II

We took the kiddos to the zoo on Saturday.  After such a hot summer, it was so nice to get out.  This was the first time James actually noticed the animals and he loved it.  We kinda slacked on the pictures because we each manned a kid since neither one wanted to be in the stroller.  I'm waiting for the day James tries to climb in the bear exhibit.  Also, he was wearing another super cute birthday shirt, but you can't tell because I never took the bib off.

James was having drum envy.

Don't worry, after this pic I let James out to drum with Alyssa.

Is there anything on my face?

Happy Birthday James Part I

1 year ago today my baby boy was born.  A year already, really?!?!?!  Today we went to Chuck E Cheese.  We promised Alyssa  CEC for no accidents a long time ago so, really we were killing two birds with one stone.  James is still fascinated by the lights and music (the very thing that makes me batty).  Most of the time I complain about Jonny's crazy work schedule, but on days like this I'm happy we could go to CEC for lunch on a Wednesday.  It wasn't crowded at all.  I could let the kids run around and get some energy out.  After CEC and some much needed naps we opened presents and ate dinner and had birthday cupcakes.  Happy Birthday, Little Man!

She was very proud of her two tickets.

He was a little upset I kept moving the candle away when he reached out for it.

Daddy and James crashed out after Chuck E Cheese.

First Day of Dance

I know what most people are going to think.  I signed Alyssa up for ballet to make her a mini me.  That's only half true.  She already is a mini me.  We promised her once she was potty trained she could take a class.  Any class she wanted.  I may have dropped a lot of hints. Mama used to take ballet.  Mama loves ballet.  Here you can play with Mama's ballet shoes.  Well, it just so happened, one day we were leaving the Y and there was a flyer for a ballet class.  I asked her if she wanted to take it and she said yes.  Today was her first day.  I was a little nervous because she is the youngest in her class and she's never really had classroom type instruction.  But she did great!  She lined up with the other girls and never looked back.  I'm so proud.

She would not stand still for a pic before we left.

Ready to go.

All lined up, ready to go to the classroom.

She's the smallest one!

My Poor Neglected Blog

I'm just going to put it out there, August was a rough month.

We had to explain death and dying to our precious little girl when Koda died.  We miss her dearly.

Our dishwasher went haywire.  Not exactly tragic, but it took almost two weeks for the ordered part to come in and I had to hand wash all of our dishes.  I hate dishes.  And our washing machine went a little psycho, but Jonny was able to fix it...Thank God!

After spending nearly 2 weeks in the hospital, Big Popa passed away.  We had to explain funerals to our baby girl.  She is so sweet.  At one point during the funeral she looked up at my crying mom and said, "It's okay Kiki.  I'll take care of you."  He is definitely missed.  Alyssa often talks about going to heaven with God and the angels and Big Popa. 

It was a very hot month, forcing babies inside and everyone to go crazy.

But, thankfully, it ended on a wonderful note.  My baby girl turned 3!

 

And she had a fabulous Christmas themed birthday party!