Thanksgiving 2010

We decided to make the trek out to Abilene this Thanksgiving. My Grandma, who is in assisted living these days, suffers from Alzheimer's and it seems to worsen slightly each time we see her. I know these visits are so important, and I do think the kids will remember her. She is such a dear, sweet grandma, and I know I am so fortunate to have her still alive! She is my only living grandparent and each visit with her is very special.

Also, this Fall, my Aunt Charlsa was

diagnosedwith breast cancer. She underwent a double mastectomy, which, Praise God, left her cancer-free. But I was wanting to spend some extra time with her too.

The menu was extra-fabulous this year! Michele hosted and dinner consisted of turkey (of

course), fingerling potatoes and sweet potato casserole (w/pecans on top), bacon wrapped green beans (my first try on those), dressing, pies, and more. As always we were stuffed to the brim!

After lunch, Michele, Aunt Charlsa and I all

worked on a craft where you take a 6x6 inch tile, glue on a picture and some scrapbook paper, modge-podge over it then add a bow or some cute decoration.

We actually only stayed one night so it was quite a quick trip, but well-worth it and a blessing to spend that time with extended family.

Pajama day at school

November 11, 2010 was pajama day at school. The kids love these special dress up days (especially because every other day they have to wear a "uniform" T-shirt with choice of jeans, khakis, or navy pants, shorts or skirt). They got to pick out their own outfits, and Price's came complete with bed head!

Our 3rd grown-up trip to Austin!

Going back for my 2nd annual Educators Conference in Austin (11/6/2010), we decided to make it into another mommy and daddy getaway! I drove down to Austin on Thursday and the conference started Friday. Chris flew in Friday night and stayed at the conference hotel with me. We got to enjoy a low-key night out, complete with romantic steak dinner! Then on Saturday, the conference wrapped up around noon and we headed back to Mecca Spa for an afternoon of relaxation! We enjoyed a sushi dinner that night and drinks and music at Maggie Mae's on 6th Street. Heading home Sunday we felt so excited to get home and see the kids (this was the first time to have 2 nights away, with us both gone). It was a good weekend away, but always good to be home!!

Some of the funny things we do...

Charis and Price are best of friends, virtually inseparable. I am so lucky. We have hit the stage (for quite some time now) that most of the time it is easier having twins than having just one. I mean, there is a built-in playmate.

Some of the games they play though are so funny. One is "boys and girls". In this game, they get out ALL of their "Little People". They have tons of them and just play pretend going to school, or going to gymnastics or mommy/daddy/babies. Sometimes (and I guess I need to take a pic of this) we will come downstairs and all of the Little People will be in one big line. It's almost a little strange! Thankfully they were not doling out pretend kool-aid to the people...

They are really big on lining things up though. In this pic, they have gotten all of their books out and put them in this pattern.

Another more recent game is doing pretend cooking, wherein any small toy can act as an ingredient. So they will gather all their ingredients and put them in a bowl, mix, and then serve up something yummy. This, by far, is the messiest of all the games, and hence my least favorite!

They, of course, love reading, drawing, coloring, painting, cooking/baking, riding bikes (or anything outside). They are still in to Dora and now Diego too. They love Scooby Doo. Charis regularly pretends to be a dog or cat. And Price loves to play catch (especially with a balloon) or shoot baskets in his little all-purpose sports center.

Swim lessons at Lifetime Fitness

We finally bit the bullet and joined Lifetime Fitness back in the summer. While I am fairly certain that the amount we pay is not even close to justified by the number of times we go, when we do go it's fun, and there are a lot of amenities there. One of these amenities is the indoor pool, which we took advantage of for some swim lessons. The kids seemed to enjoy it once they got comfortable with Mr. Brady and I think they showed some improvement over the month.

I want to document a conversation about Mr. Brady from one day when we were on our way to the gym:

Price: I wonder where Mr. Brady lives

Charis: I think he lives at Lifetime

me: I am pretty sure he does not live at Lifetime; he just works there

Price: Maybe he lives in the sky

me: hmmm...maybe so buddy.

Another conversation on the way to the gym:

Price: Mommy, I don't want to go to Lifetime today.

me: why, buddy? It will be fun!

Price: no, Mommy, I don't want to go. I just want you to get fat. I really, really just want you to get fat.

Note to self here, do not use the word "fat" in front of three year olds. I am better now about saying that I go to the gym to be healthy or to get stronger. Three year olds will use the word "fat" when you do not want them to though.

Halloween 2010

We had a very eventful Halloween this year. The kids got to wear their costumes 4 different times! We had Spiderman and "Spidergirl". Spidergirl was made up because of the costume Ifound for her at my MCMOM's garage sale. She loved the outfit and since Price was Spiderman, the idea was born.

The first Halloween celebration was my work chili cook-off. This is always a fun event. I mean what could be more fun that chili and halloween costumes? The kids "won" their age bracket coloring contest and got to take home the Shrek memory game. This was a hit! I had two tired babies after that outing!

Next the kids got to wear their costumes to school. This was extra cute because Jax was Spiderman too! So I got to take 2 Spidermen and 1 Spidergirl to school that day. All three kids thought this was very neat too!

The next event was the Church celebration. This was a ton of fun. Complete with pony rides, small petting zoo, puppet show, bounce houses and good friends!! When this was over we headed home for their FIRST ever TRICK-OR-TREATING! We got a relatively late start and only went to about 3 houses, but this was very exciting for them. It was sooo cute! They did really good and spoke up and said "Trick-or-Treat" and more importantly, "Thank you!" They were beyond excited to get a bag-full of candy!

The final fun event was a carnival at the park with the Athans. We had been scheduled to go to a grown-up Halloween party that night, wherein we'd have been a part of a group of 6 dressed as the Village People. Unfortunately I came down with a flu-like illness. It was short-lived but no fun! So Chris took the kids to the carnival, and that was much more fun for them anyway!

Snow White! (mid-October, 2010)

The kids are very into all of the Disney books. Their books are actually my books from when I was little. I took better care of my books than they do... Anyway, so needless to say we were very excited when Snow White came to the Artisan. We made a day of it going to the show with Miss Nicole and Adley then to Central Market for a fun lunch! After the show the kids are allowed to go down on stage anddance with the characters. It is an all-kid cast and is very neat for the kids! I definitely recommend going to see shows at the Artisan!