Sea World Surprise

So we're back from our Thanksgiving trip to Corpus and man, it was a doozy. Super fun and a good time visiting our family, but Ammon is not a lover of his carseat(or not being held for that matter) so the drive was torturous...but we survived....barely:) Joey and I decided to take the kids to Sea World in San Antonio on our way there. It was a total surprise-the looks on their faces when they realized where we were was priceless! My mom met us there too, which was a double surprise. It was such a fun day!!!

Here we are ready for the day. I loved how the place was all decked out for Christmas.

Grandma and her grandkiddos. She was a HUGE help that day-thanks for coming Mom!

Lots of characters were there to meet and greet

Here is Cali about to ride her very first roller coaster. I wasn't sure if she'd like it(especially since the little boy that went in front of us was crying when he got off...) but as you can see...

She loved it! Look at her smiling face:) And look at the car behind us with Aubrey & Ella smiling too. The Shamu Express is a fun little kiddie coaster.

Heres a pic of a whale. Gotta take a whale pic or two when you go to this place.

Just a cute picture of my mom chillin with Ella and Aubrey

Trying to pet some dolphins. . .while they never were able to pet one we did buy them some fish to feed them. One dolphin jumped up really close to Ella's face trying to get a fish! She was looking the other way and didn't even notice it--it was so funny. She was practically nose to nose with that guy!

Baby Beluga
We went to the Sesame Street Christmas show while we were there. It was really cute.

Towards the end, a bunch of kids went up to the stage(so Ella & Cali did too). They got high fives and hand shakes from lots of characters. Here is Rosita grabbing Cali's hand. Cali was thrilled.
The highlight of the day for the older girls was this ride-Journey to Atlantis. Yep, thats them on it with Joey. I was so proud of them! Ella swore she wanted to ride it, so Joey said he'd take her. Ella has never even been on a log ride, much less a huge one like this, so I wasn't sure how she'd like it and if she'd freak at the top. Then Aubrey(she must've felt the pressure) decided she'd do it too. I don't think she wanted to be outdone by her lil sis. Aubrey was soooo nervous. I thought she might puke from nervousness. The look on her face when she waved goodbye to me made me nervous even! But she did it, they both did! And they were both smiling at the bottom. Phew. Mommy was nervous for them:)
Joey and his girls after conquering Atlantis!

Faces of relief/happiness afterwards...

And last but not least was the Polar Express 4D show. Very cool. Pretty loud but Ammon did fine, even when we got squirted with water:) It was fun getting in the Christmas spirit and feeling like we were on the train. And its always fun to look super stylish in those ultra cool glasses. We rocked them. I am so glad we did this Sea World stop. We didn't get to go on a big family vacation this year since I was very prego during the summer and then we had a new baby so everything's been a little crazy. It was nice to go and do something fun together as a family. Ammon was great. The kids tickets were only five bucks. The weather was awesome. No crowds. My mom was there to share in the memories. It was perfect!

Butterfly kiss

Ella's Dance Class 2010

Just finally picked up Ella's class picture from the Spring recital and had to share it! Ella is such a natural poser:) Doesn't the camera just love this girl? So cute. My lil diva. She had a fun year dancing. Now she and Aubrey are doing a hip hop class together at a different studio. I love it when they come home and show us their new cool moves:) Dancing is something I have always loved(even though I never did classes growing up). I just love music and dancing, even though I don't claim to be a good dancer at all! But I do enjoy it:) Some of my fondest memories are of my mom, sis and I jamming in the living room many evenings. And the tradition continues at my house! We love to just turn on music and dance. And laugh. And sing. I think we are a fun bunch. :)

The many faces of Ammon

All pictures were taken within maybe 5 seconds of each other. . .an example of about how long this boy stays happy when Mommy's not holding him. . .

Happy boy.

Sad boy.

In between.

Boosterthon

Last week was the kids Boosterthon fundraiser. The school had them run their little booties off to make money:) Both girls did so good and ran lots and lots of laps! A special thank you to Nana & Tata & Grandma & Grandpa for your pledges! They earned a lot of $ for their school and had a really fun time.

Ella's group ran first. She ran, ran, ran!

Ella even smiled as she ran. :) She really enjoys running and has lots of endurance.

Cali giving the Glen Oaks tiger a five. She LOVES this guy and calls him "Tigerthon" because he was at this event last year(when it was still called Tigerthon).

Check out that stride!

Aubrey's turn. I've never seen Aubrey run so much. She tried really hard to get a high number of laps and she did!
Cali taking a playground break to come and dance to the music and cheer Aubrey on. She would run to the playground and play, then come back when a song came on she liked. It was so cute.

And for a while she was a high-fiver. Lots of kids came up to Cali and gave her fives. She loved it.

Water break time

Aubrey & one of her besties, Courtney, after the race. I think I've taken a picture of them every year after this fundraiser.

Ok, after typing that I had to dig through old pics and I found this one from 3 years ago at their very first Tigerthon. They've grown up so much!

Great job girls!!

Two Months

Ammon turned two months old a few days ago! He is such a sweetie. This month his smiles have gotten bigger and he tries to talk more and more every day. I love his happy sounds, seriously angelic. His hands are opening up more and it seems like he'll be trying to grab for things pretty soon. I've seen him concentrating pretty hard on his hand-I can tell he has "found" them and realizes he can control them now. Now he just has to master that:) He started sleeping through the night about 2-3 weeks ago, 10-11 hour stretches(woohoo). We've been blessed with all of our babies sleeping through the night early. So nighttime is set. Daytime has been tough for him(and me!)though. He is just wanting to take teensy cat naps so he wakes up not rested enough and a bit cranky at times. We call him Mr. Crankypants-lol. I also think he just wants to cuddle all the time, he is super duper cuddly. He has a hard time when I put him down or in a little bouncy chair. Even the swing he doesn't want to have anything to do with some days. So, there are some hard moments sometimes(especially since I have 3 other kiddos to take care of too). I can't hold him every second so he gets very unhappy sometimes. Hopefully its a phase that will pass soon. Once he can grab toys, I think he will be more content and more easily entertained. We are also working on trying to get him to love his pacifier-he hasn't been a pacifier lover which I think is part of the problem too. He seems to need something to help soothe him- he really loves his fist in his mouth but can't find it half the time:) The girls all used a pacifier for the first few months of their lives and it helped so much. Hopefully by month three, we'll have figured him out better and he'll be happier more often! Cuz when hes happy, he is SO happy and SO sweet. We love this little guy!

Kids Council

We are so proud of Miss Aubrey! Her class had "elections" last week for mayor of her class. It was optional to run for the office and Aubrey chose to run. She had to give a speech(which made her VERY nervous) but she did great and...won! She then had to compete against the other class' mayors to become the entire 3rd grade mayor. She came in second(still, wow Aubrey, so proud of you!) Because she made it that far, she was part of the Kids Council. She and a few other kids from her grade had the privilege to sit in the official City Council room as part of a mock council meeting with the mayor of the city- in front of her entire grade and lots of parents! I was able to attend and watch. It was so neat!

Here she is with the other Kids Council members and the Mayor

Here she is smiling when she saw I was there(before they called the Council up to the stand)

The Mayor handing her her award as she goes to take her seat up front

Giggling after she was seated. She got to sit right by the Mayor! She thought that was very cool.

A firefighter pleading his case to the Council. The meeting was concerning whether or not the city should put in a Fire Safety Town or give the police force more horses for our downtown mounted officers. Safety Town won:) Probably because the firefighter told them they would put a skatepark inside-lol. It was so funny the stuff the firefighter and the police officer were making up to get the kids to vote for them. The police officer even said he would give them Baskin Robbins icecream:)
Aubrey very deep in thought:) It was a tough choice...
I was a proud mama watching my girl up there. She had to ask the police officer a question into the microphone too:) She did so good! It was an awesome experience for the kids to be a part of. What a great way to learn about our local government.

Whimsical Photography

My good friends, Katie & Sarah, have started up a new business, Whimsical Photography. They specialize in beautiful custom heirloom portraiture. You have to check out their website to see the amazing work they do! I just booked a family photo session myself!

Right now they are running a special discount on photos sessions this week (Just in time for Christmas Cards!). The first 5 people that book a session get $150 off a family session fee or $75 off a kids session fee (this excludes mini-sessions). Also this Saturday, Nov 6th, there are two mini sessions still available ($100 for a 20 minute session, and 5-10 images on a cd). These will book fast so call soon! Take a look at their website for more info: www.whimsicalphotography.com To book a session email info@whimsicalphotography.com or call 972.646.1425.

If you or anyone you know is looking for a professional photographer in the Dallas area, these are your gals!

Halloween Fun

We made lots of fun Halloween memories this year! A couple of days before Halloween, we carved our family pumpkin. Correction: Joey and the girls did:) I was at IHOP. . .I'll get to that story in a minute. . .Anyways, the pumpkin turned out so cute! Joey wanted to do a scary face, but with a wife and three girls' opinions, they ended up doing a cute one. Thanks Joey for giving in! hehehe. I think this is our cutest yet.

Earlier that evening I took the girls to IHOP for free scary pancake night. We tried to go as a family, but Ammon was suuuuper cranky that day and we knew it would be a disaster so Joey just told me to take them. So it was a GNO! Anyways, as I go up to the cashier to pay I realized I didn't have my wallet in my bag(theres a long explanation for that-I'll spare you)! I embarassingly told the guy up front and he was cool about it. I told him I'd run home and come back with the mulah. So I went home, dropped the kids off(and told Joey to just do the pumpkin with them because it was getting late), and then went back. I've never done that before! Luckily, they didn't make me and the girls wash dishes(as Joey said:)

The kids were thrilled to have this sweet dinner.

It came as a pancake with whip cream eyes and mouth, and a strawberry nose. There were two little cups with oreos for the eyes and candy corn for the mouth. So the kids got to create their own lil scary faces. Pretty fun! And yum!

Then Saturday came and I was pretty much taking kids from one party to the next. It was a long day, but fun:) Here are a couple of party pics from our friend Susans house. It was lots of fun! They ate witches brew and eyeballs. They got to smack the crud outta a pinata. Play games. Run around. Be kids. And have a blast.


And that night was also our church's Halloween carnival/Trunk or Treat. And of course, we took more pics. . .whats funny about this picture of Cali is that we were standing in line for a game and Cali saw this empty chair and just sat down and got her face painted. She didn't say a word. She just saw what she wanted and got it:)
Me and my cuties. I look tired. I was:)

Fun activities. . .

Ella and her friend Addey comparing costumes

A tired monkey. And a cranky monkey. Who cried during half of the carnival. He had a tough week. I guess he doesn't like Halloween? :)

Cali about to go down a huge slide-she is our most fearless. I don't think Aub or Ella would've gone down this at age 3.

After the Trunk or Treat, we came home and let the kids dig into some candy. Cali organized hers and Joey had to take a picture. Whats funny is I totally remember doing the same thing with my Halloween loot when I was a kid. I loved to dump it all out, organize it all, and admire my work:)

Then Halloween night came and it was time to hit the neighborhood to beg for more candy. As you can see, Ammon wasn't very happy. Probably because he knew he couldn't eat any. . .poor monkey:) We ended up going all six of us to just a couple of houses and then Joey and I took turns with the older three the rest of the night.

A picture of my five favorite people ready to beg for candy. These kids made out like bandits that night and had a fun time! I can't believe Halloween has come and gone. And Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner! I love this time of year. It gets a little crazy, but I love all of the fun stuff we get to do and all of the memories we get to create for our children.