Let the Christmas Season Begin

We went to breakfast with Santa Claus this morning.

I've been working on some visiting teaching snowballs for my ladies. I found the idea and directions here, but I changed it up a little bit and one of my changes is I used a balloon filled with candy for the center. You can see my visiting teaching ideas for this month here. Sandy and Abby have been helping me make them and they absolutely LOVE the balloons filled with candy. In fact, Sandy's quote was: "This is my favoritest kind of balloon ever!!"

November

How does time go by so fast? I just realized I haven’t posted a single blog entry for November. So here’s a recap of our month.

My sister, Kelsie, got married in the Houston, Texas temple and we were able to be there for that. My parents, siblings, and families were all there – the first time in 5 years that we have all been in one place.

Here is the bride and groom with their nieces and nephews.

I’ll have to post more pictures when I get them.

We also went to the Houston Space Center.

Abby in the ball pit:

 

We took a 90 minute tour of the space center – we rode on a tram, stopped at several different spots, and got to see everything from mission control to the Saturn V rocket to the grove of trees planted to honor fallen astronauts. Sandy was really interested in learning about the astronauts. 

 

We also made it to the beach just as it was getting dark. Here’s a picture of Sandy with my dad on the beach.

 

Bill turned 35. Here is our traditional birthday breakfast and presents:

 

His  parents hosted a birthday dinner for the family to celebrate the birthdays of Bill and his brother Eric. Here is Bill with his orange cake with chocolate ganache frosting. I made it using this recipe. It tasted good, but it was so moist it was falling apart when I tried to frost it.

Here is Eric with his cake.

 

Playing grandma’s piano:

 

Also, Bill finished the projector project he has been working on for the past 3 years. Here he is building a mount – and letting Sandy run a drill press.

Between daylight savings time, traveling to a different time zone, and kids being sick with croup, our sleep schedule has been very off this month. Here’s some random pictures of the girls jumping on the couch one morning in their pajamas. And, yes, Sandy did wear a skirt over her pajamas to bed. She loves skirts.

Ward Trunk or Treat

Tonight was our ward trunk or treat.

 

Before I forget, here are a few funny Sandyisms.

She loves to go to Old McDonald’s. (that is what she calls the fast food place).

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I carry bags like this one in my car and sometimes stop to give one to someone with a sign asking for help. Every time I do this, she asks about it and we talk about how the person has a sign that says that they are hungry and we are so blessed to have food to eat and so Jesus would want us to share our food.

We were on the way home from the park and Sandy wanted a snack and I told her we’d get one at home. Then I saw someone with a sign and decided to hand out one of my homeless bags. After I gave it away, Sandy said, “I’m hungry just like that man is hungry!”

We had a very nice discussion about how we could go right home and have a snack, but this man couldn’t do that and how she is such a lucky little girl to have a nice house to live in, good food to eat, warm clothes to wear, and a mommy and daddy that love her so, so much.

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Speaking of being hungry, this morning Sandy came in and asked for breakfast. She said, “I’m so hungry my whole mouth is hungry!”

Fall Fun

It doesn’t take much to entertain us:

 

I promise Sandy (usually) starts the day in clothes that match. This was, oh, I don’t know, maybe her fifth outfit of the day. I care less and less as the day goes on.

 

 

It was a beautiful fall day:

 

The weather was gorgeous – the girls wanted to wear hats, but they took off their shoes.

 

Sandy showing off some rocks she collected:

 

Contemplative Abby:

Clothes for Pictures

We are taking family pictures next month when we’ll be in Houston with my parents, siblings and their families. The colors are black, white, gray, and red. I’ve been trying to figure out outfits and I think I’ve found something for each of the girls.

I love Abby’s gray sweater with a white onesie and jeans. She also has a red shirt, but I don’t think I like red on her as well.

I was thinking of this outfit for Sandy. She really likes it. Do you think the pattern is too busy, though?

They both have black boots. Then, I was thinking it would be fun to add an accessory with just a pop of red for each of them. Something like this headband for Sandy and this bow for Abby.

For me, I looked to see what I have in my closet.

I think the gray shirt in the bottom right corner is my favorite, but the sleeves are a bit sheer so I’d need to find a shirt to go underneath that doesn’t disrupt the neckline too much. Also, I’m not sure if I want to wear short sleeves? My second favorite is the button up, striped shirt. I don’t like either of the cardigans at all – maybe if I untucked the white shirt they’d be a little better. I usually wear them with dresses and I think they hang a bit better.

I love this cardigan (and the way it looks on her!):

I also love this necklace. I think it would work with the gray shirt, but not with the button up one. I have a simple strand of black pearls, though, that would work with the button up shirt.

 

I’m not sure what Bill will wear. He wants to wear black pants but the only shirt I can find that is even remotely in the color scheme is a gray sweater with a blue argyle pattern. I’ll have to go look for something. He has a set of swatches his sister put together for him of colors that look good on him. These are the reds – they are more burgandy and magenta than red, though, so maybe I should stick with plain gray.

I would love any comments or suggestions. And, for those that are taking the pictures with us, I’d love to see how this matches up to what you are planning to wear.

A few pictures

Sandy showing off her pumpkin picture – and the outfit she picked out today.

 

Abby loves to brush her teeth.

 

The girls got these fun blankets in the mail from Grandma Sherri. Check out this crown.

 

Here I am with the girls and their blankets.

 

Also, I’ve had a couple of people ask about my craft blog. You can find it here.