i hope everyone had a very merry christmas! once again, i ran out of time to send out christmas cards. thank you to everyone who sent such lovely cards to us!

penny gifts

kyla and avery will be passing out these little "penny gifts" to all their classmates at their parties tomorrow. we had fun putting them together this afternoon. cute idea and printable tag found here.

i can't believe that Christmas is in just 4 short days! this whole year has passed by too fast!

a great read!

this book is the amazing true story about Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who were running the Warsaw zoo during WWII, where they helped hide hundreds of Jews from the Nazis. this was one of the most fascinating books i've read all year!

avery's pet worm

a few weeks ago, avery brought home an earthworm from school. she had been talking about it the whole week leading up to the day she got to bring it home. she was so excited for her new "pet" she even gave it a name.

avery had a near meltdown when she dumped out the bag into the garden and discovered that her worm was not moving! big sister came to the rescue and revived it with some fresh water :)

crazy hair

batman

evan recently acquired a big tupperware full of dress up clothes for boys. he pretty much wears this mask all day. as you can see, he is very serious about it!

pumpkin chocolate chip bread

one of my favorite things about fall is pumpkins. i love pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pie, anything with pumpkin in it. i found this new recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip bread. it is so good! and the best part is it makes TWO loaves!

recent read

after reading Catherine the Great, i decided to read Nicholas and Alexandra, which was also written by Robert Massie. Massie does an excellent job of bringing russian history to life in a way that reads like a novel. i normally do not read a lot of history but this was a page-turner and a very fascinating read.

halloween

the three older girls dressed up as characters from alice in wonderland. kyla was the queen of hearts.

avery was alice

elayna was the mad hatter

evan was a pirate. he refused to put on his pants and boots for the picture. (he also had a pirate mustache and gotee that night for trick-or-treating)

and baby sister was a pumpkin. the only way i could get her to sit still for the photo was to give her a lollipop.

south toledo bend 2012

it has become a fun annual tradition to spend a weekend at toledo bend with my sister's family. the past two years we went during the hottest part of the summer, but this year we decided to go in october. the weather was absolutely gorgeous- lows in the 60's, highs in the 80's and clear, blue, sunny skies. i love october in texas!

we went on a fun nature walk the first morning after breakfast. one of the paths near the cabin led to the lake. the kids had fun throwing rocks into the water. evan decided to strip down to his undies so he could wade in it.

later in the afternoon we all put on our swimsuits to swim in the lake. the water was a little chilly but the kids loved it!

on the last night, we gathered around the campfire to make smores, and finished the night with hocus pocus, a dance party, and some "snipe hunting." i am so thankful that our kids have cousins that live so close and that they get to see each other often. they have so much fun together.

DIY birthday hat

i made this little hat for lorelei to wear on her birthday (october 4th). tutorial found here. mine is not as pretty as the ones pictured, but i still thought it turned out pretty cute. the only thing i did different was i loosely hand stitched the crepe paper, instead of using a sewing machine. this was pretty easy to make and didn't take much time at all.

she kept ripping the hat off her head, so i had kyla sneak it on her head for a few photos while she was digging into her cake. there was no way she was going to let me tie the ribbon under her chin!

and a few without the hat. she sure loved her cake!

cake beard!

Lorelei is one!

little lolo turned a year old at the beginning of october. the year went by so fast! i had big plans for a one year photo shoot at the park, but she was not into it at all. she wanted to be held the whole time and cried when we tried to put her down, so i joined her for a quick impromptu photoshoot. i love the photos that dan captured of me and my baby girl. i am rarely on this side of the camera.

waving bye-bye

and a few with daddy. she is always taking off her headbands.

we sure do love this sweet baby girl

superhero evan

yesterday evan wanted me to take a picture of him wearing his superhero mask. he told me "this is my superhero smile"

i convinced him to take his mask off for a few

love this sweet, silly boy of mine