Tree Tour

One of my favorite blogs is hosting a Tree Tour today. It's at www.kellykornerblog.com (Tadd and I actually ran into her and her husband in Fayetteville recently, she is so sweet.) Anyway, I love to decorate my trees for Christmas and have had them up for about 3 weeks now, a little earlier than usual. This year we have three trees and two small ones in Sophie's room. I was looking at her blog and decided to join in since Sophie (the teething monster!) is taking a good nap! Go visit her blog and get some cute ideas from others, Kelly is pretty creative and makes some of her ornaments. I just like to buy my ornaments after Christmas on sale or at one of my favorite finds, Paul Michael.

Here is our Big Tree. We started putting it in the Dining Room last year when Sophie became more mobile!

I bet it would probably look better at night but the colors are purple, red, and gold.


Here are a few shots of our other tree. This year it is in red and lime green. I added red to it this year when we moved the red sectional in there.

Here is Ella's tree. I let her help decorate it and she loves it and uses it for her night lite every night.

Here are Sophie's two little trees.

Dancing Days

Ella goes to Dance class on Mondays. She really likes to dance and be the center of attention. She takes at the same place where I took for almost 10 years when I was younger. It's fun to watch her (when Sophie lets me!)dance and do tap and ballet. She will have a big Recital with a costume in May where ours used to be. Each time I tell her she has dance class she asks me if it is time for her recital where she gets to dance on stage yet. I think that she thinks she will get to dance on the stage by herself. My Mom used to tell me at my first dance recital we rocked our babies and did a little dance and then pretended to go to sleep on stage and half of my family stood up on the front row and cheered and clapped. (Seems a little over the top, but I'm sure we will be doing the same thing at her Recital!) I even found a cute picture frame last week at TJ Maxx that says "My Recital" and I went ahead and bought it for her Recital picture. I hope she makes it through dance class for the Recital-ha!

Sophie's Spike

My sweet Sophie now has hair that I enjoy styling lately (when she lets me!) She is also sporting a not so stylish black eye this week from a small fall. (I will not be taking any pictures of this.) Ella said this morning at breakfast that Sophie's eye now has pretty make up on it. She is such a fearless little thing and loves to climb up on things such as tables and counters, thank goodness she didn't fall off of anything that high! She is talking a lot more lately and loves to give hugs and kisses and being rocked to sleep. One of her funniest new sayings is, Oh man, Oh man! She can say it over and over and we just laugh and Tadd calls her our little rapper. She has brought such sweet joy and blessings to our family and we love her so much!

Look at those Big Blue eyes!




She loves to read books and put on any shoes that she finds!

Fall Fun

Here are a few shots of our outdoor Fall Decorations. I started putting up some Christmas decorations this week so I thought I would post a few of our Fall things before it's too late.

My friend Lindsey makes great canvases and other items. Check out her business blog at www.personalpizazz.blogspot.com to get cute things for your house!

Sophie shot

Princess Pumpkins

Here are some more pictures from Halloween activities. Ella made a Princess pumpkin (of course!) with Tadd. She loved it and was super sad when it collapsed after a week. The next pictures were from Sophie in her Trick or Treat costume-a pumpkin. She was so cute passing out candy to ALL the Trick or treaters and we passed out 8 bags of candy before turning out the lights. The girls were pretty generous with their handfuls and there were lots of kids to give candy to this year. We had a house full with Coach and Gram and Uncle Josh and Aunt Sarah all here for the excitement. (With all of the trick or treaters I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of the whole group!)Coach and Gram took the girls out for a bit while I stayed back to pass out candy. Some of the things that Sophie said during the night were: Tick Teat (Trick or Treat), Canny (Candy), Tatu (Thank you). They said that she said these things at almost every house they went to, so cute!

Pumpkin poses!

Hard at work on that Pumpkin-it was easier than carving a Princess Pumpkin!


Precious Pumpkin!!

She LOVED all the candy!

Halloween Dress-up Party

Last Friday night we had a Sunday School Halloween Dress-up Party at our House. The plan was to have a bonfire and hayride with other outdoor activities for the kids but ALL of the rain changed those plans! We had a great turn out with over 60 people in costume and lots of kids everywhere. We had a great time and the rain stopped long enough for us to be outside and roast marshmellows for smores over the fire pit. We had lots of creative and funny costumes for a costume contest. The kids decorated mini cakes and had a fun time doing that. Here are some of the pictures from the night.

Tadd and I dressed up as "Farmers" how creative Ha Ha! (And, yes he went shirtless and barefoot for the first part of the night-ha!)

Silly Sophie



Some of the guys in their costumes!

The kids decorating their cute cakes that Renee made them all.

Brad and Lacey both dressed up as Pink Ladies from Grease!

Preschool Pumpkins

Here are some pictures from Ella's Preschool Halloween party. They all come dressed up and then trick or treat around the Church offices and down the street to other school offices. They have a good time and all look so cute in their costumes. Ella of course had to be a Princess and she chose Ariel from The Little Mermaid. (Her favorite movie of the month.)

Pumpkin Patch

Ella's Preschool class went to the Pumpkin Patch on Monday. It was really fun with lots of activities such as a hay ride, tree house, wooden maze, jumping house, swing set, animal petting area, and more. (It was Mary's Place in Bryant.) Ella wanted Sophie to go too, so she tagged along for the fun!

Ella's 4 year old Preschool class


Since Ella was the snack leader she got to say the prayer before their snack, it was so cute!

Sophie likes to say CHEEEEESE when she sees the camera now-ha!

Ella feeding the goats.

Sophie likes to run away from the camera.


Ella loved this big swing!

Mandy and Brooks down in the wooden maze, you could see where they were from the big tree house up above.

Making Memories

Ginger always says when we are together that we are "making memories." Gabby and Ginger were here Wednesday through Sunday. They came to be with us for the Race for the Cure weekend but we were unable to walk with some of their health issues they are having. So we stayed in and made some good memories at home. We watched the tough Hog Game and even Gabby was pretty worked up about it-ha! She is a big Hog Fan and cheers and yells with the best of them!

The girls in their Race for Me Me shirts!


We worked on Ella's Preschool snack for tomorrow. Ella has told everyone that Gabby made her Pumpkin Rice Krispie treats. As Gabby and I made them together we talked about how Mom is smiling down on us doing these things for my girls. She would have had good snack and party ideas from her years of teaching Preschool!

Here is the finished product-Ella has snack day tomorrow for the Pumpkin Patch. It should be a fun field trip!