Christmas card outtakes

We had about a 2 minute attempt tonight at getting a good Christmas card picture! Of course, getting a 4 year old and 2 year old to both look at the camera, smile and not kill each other is quite the task! :) We made it out with one where they actually were both smiling (not perfect, but both smiles - I'll take it!) ....but here are some outtakes from the rest of our session! :)

(I didn't get a picture of them falling into the tree after this one! Thank goodness no one got hurt! :))

This is my favorite outtake! :)



Love these two Christmas angels!

Trimming the tree!

We had fun decorating our Christmas tree in our pjs yesterday morning! I forgot how much fun it was to decorate with breakable ornaments with a 2 year old! :) Luckily, only a few didn't make it (so far) - we are interested to see how many more might become "toys" as Christmas season continues! :) Ali, on the other hand, is quite the little 4 year old elf! She is so into Christmas decorating! I am not sure if it is the fact that Christmas was so hard last year (with my mom in the hospital) or the excitement in my children's eyes or a little bit of both - but, I have a feeling this is going to be the best Christmas yet!

Five years later...

Yesterday Ryan and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary and it was perfect! Since this is Thanksgiving weekend (and the UGA/GT game) - we decided to have our official celebration last weekend, where Ryan took me here....

(Old Edwards Inn - Highlands, NC = AMAZING!!)

(Ryan packing the car....Our room was right above his head - the two middle patios were ours...with a perfect view of downtown Highlands!)

We had so much fun on our little weekend getaway! It truly was an amazing little place - our hotel was fabulous - I highly highly recommend it to anyone looking for a short getaway to get pampered and eat all the Dove bars you want! :) I felt bad b/c that was our gift to eachother - but Ryan did ALL of the planning and chose the place, room, etc - and I am soo thankful!

It is always so nice to get away...but also so nice to be excited to come home to too smiling face! These two were so happy to have us home...they got right to work helping rake the leaves...

And helping cook some dinner....

Yesterday, since we'd already celebrated and were recovering from Thanksgiving - we still had the perfect low key day. Ryan had to take Rhodes to the doctor so I could get some things done (and since he was off of work - I was so grateful that he took her!) - turns out she had a double ear infection. Poor thing, she was miserable! I feel for people who have children with constant ear infections, because (knock on wood) that is one thing our kids have not had and poor Rhodes has had a hard time with this - it has been so sad to see her in such pain! (I hope I didn't just jinx us!) We were relieved to find out that is what it was, though, and get her on some antibiotics (and back on the neb for her bad cough!) and hope she is on her road to recovery! We spent the rest of the day listening to Christmas music, filling our house with Christmas decorations, eating a family anniversary lunch at Longhorn (Ryan's favorite!) and picking out our Christmas tree! It was the perfect day! To top it off, we ended the night with the girls at Mimi and Papa's (they were SO excited to go over there to decorate too - they asked all day if it was time yet! :)) and Ryan and I went out to dinner with fun friends - two of whom stood by my side exactly 5 years ago from last night! (Kate and AM) It was such a treat to be with them and we had too much fun!

I am so thankful to have married Ryan five years ago and love him so much! He is such a great, patient, loving husband to me - even though I know I am not always that easy to live with :) -and the best dad to our girls! I can't wait for the next five (ten, fifteen, twenty....)! Happy anniversary Ryan!

Turkey time!

Yesterday was Ali's Thanksgiving Feast at school and I volunteered to go help! I always love going in their little classes and seeing them all in action.

My little Indian!
Three little Indians eating their Thanksgiving feast...

Ali and I made the dessert - turkey cupcakes! They were a hit! All I did was make cupcakes, frost them with chocolate icing, stick 5 candy corn in the back and a sideways hershey kiss for the head! They were quite cute (in my humble opinion! :)) and yummy!

Me and my little Indian!
We love Ms. Garrett
and Ms. Kelly
and Mary Mac!
Yesterday was also the last day of school until after Thanksgiving! We are looking forward to some fun time off to celebrate the Holidays - but, I know Ali is already missing her sweet friends and teachers! (and so is Rhodesy! I can't wait until her class has parties/feasts that I can help out in!)

FUSE Cheerleading 2010!

Yesterday was the end of the year practice, games and party for Ali's first year of Fuse cheerleading. She absolutely loved it! Sunday at 2:00 was kind of a hard time for us (especially b/c I have a lot of expecting friends right now and baby showers to throw!), but Ali looked forward to it every week! She had lots of friends there with her - Mary Mac, Libby, Caroline, Lauren, etc - all in one place - so I think that was a highlight - and I really think she just loved cheerleading. I can't find my Flip video camera right now, but I will have to add a video of her later! It starts every Sunday at 2 and they have 30 minutes of practice (with 2 MMS cheerleaders) and then 30 minutes of rotating around and cheering for all of the little flag football games...which were also so cute. There is only one set of cheerleaders, so when they go to a game - they do a couple cheers for one team and then a couple of cheers for the opposing team! Ha! Too cute! Here are some pictures from the season!

First practice... (Ali is front row mddle...holding her pom poms up)

Last practice....doing "Little Sally Walker" cheer...


Waiting to get their end of year trophies....Ali and Mary Mac...Cheerleading All-stars!
(this one makes me laugh - one of these days we are going to get our silly girl to look at the camera!)

Happy Halloween!

This was my favorite Halloween by far! We had fun...

...trunk or treating at our church...




....going to the 5th annual Tradition Halloween parade....




and the 3rd Annual Maple Avenue Halloween parade on Halloween afternoon...



And finally trick or treating...

This was Rhodes' first year trick or treating and she was an old pro - running up to doors saying "trickortreeeee" and "Tank u!" afterwards. It was adorable and she loved it! After the parade, we stopped by a couple of houses with Libby and the Holles in our neighborhood (on Maple Avenue) then headed over to do lots of trick or treating with the Lowerys. Ali, Caroline, Rhodes and Pres were too cute running around trick or treating together from house to house! It was such a "treat" to get to be with them! After this year, Halloween is quickly stepping up to be one of my favorite holidays - I love watching the kids all dressed up with their friends and all of the fun activities/traditions leading up to it! Now, the candy that lasts for weeks afterwards and begs for me to eat it - I could do without! Happy Halloween!