11/25

Friday was Ron's birthday. We gave him a personalized turkey shirt with the kids' handprints for it's feathers. He shocked me and wore it all day...in public. He's a serious dad to do something like that. Love it!

He requested that we eat breakfast at "Another Broken Egg". Laney was posing for pictures.

Yesterday was also the first day that she has ever let me paint her nails. She chose OPI's "You Don't Know Jaques" as her first color. 5 minutes later she wanted hot pink. So she has hot pink on top of brown; it's lovely.

None of the kids napped yesterday. And they were tired of being in the condo. So I ventured off alone with them and we found "Baytowne Wharf". It was a quaint little area with a carousel, zip line, playground, shops, restaurants, and more. We're hoping to go back tonight after the Iron Bowl.

black friday shopping

christine and i went out about 10:30 thanksgiving night to hit wal mart before heading to kohl's for their midnight opening. here we are with our cups of coffee to keep us awake.

we didn't get pictures at wal mart. it was crazy. we got to kohl's around 11:40 and saw the line across the front of the store.

here we are taking a picture from where the line ended. after we turned the corner from the front of the store, the line continued down the side of the store then winded into the parking lot. crazy!
but, it was worth it. we got some awesome deals! i think i had enough fun to last me for a few years. so i'll probably avoid the next few black fridays.

vacation time

we made our way down to the beach this morning. it was luke and laney's first time to ever see a beach. shortly after we stepped on to the beach, laney was bending down to touch the sand.

it was so fun watching them experience it for the first time. it's pretty amazing! i'm not a beach person, but i appreciate the vastness of it.

i got a great picture of ron and the kids. a sweet lady took my camera and was about to take a family picture for us...

...but instead she took a picture of luke right after he fell into the water

laney has the most dainty little hands. i got a kick out of how she carried the sand in her hand so that she could throw it in the water.

we went back to the beach this afternoon and came across a gentleman finishing up an extravagant sandcastle.

laney fell in the water this afternoon. i guess that means tomorrow will be sam's turn. so after we stripped her down she enjoyed playing in the sand with only a diaper on.

sam dressed for the water, so he didn't mind getting a little wet.

we made it back to the resort, got baths, and laney got a little bit of snuggle time with pappy.

then the kids watched some of "america's funniest videos" before going to bed and cracked up! good stuff...

family pictures

My sister-in-law took some pics of us this past weekend for our Christmas cards. She just got her business license and is doing photography part-time. Check out her website if you need a good photographer but don't want to pay an enormous amount...

She took some great photos. After looking through close to 300, I decided which ones to use for our cards this year.

I just liked these pics enough to add them on to this post. This little girl cracks me up...

...and melts my heart.

making bird feeders

on our way over to the neighbor's house, laney decided to practice her balancing skills. i don't know why, i guess she was in the mood...

cannon and luke were on one side of the table

sam and ian were on the other

and laney had the end all to herself

we have three nice pinecone birdfeeders hanging outside our kitchen window. unfortunately they haven't attracted any birds yet. maybe soon...

Laney: attending her first party

Laney went to her friend, Mariemma's 2nd birthday party this past weekend. It was her first. She appeared to be such a big girl as she walked in carrying her gift.

Although she had fun, she was very clingy. She wanted me right there with her the whole time.

Here's the birthday girl...

Laney ate the icing off of the top of her cupcake and she was done.

a second lost tooth...

11/11/11...Sam lost his second tooth. He decided to let me have a tug at it while we were sitting down for lunch. It didn't take much pulling and it was out. He was giddy. And then he immediately instructed me as to what the "tooth fairy" needed to bring him. "Not money, Mom, but another toy..." I told him the tooth fairy doesn't take orders like Santa and he would probably get money...which he did. ☺

my musicians

luke has all of a sudden become extremely attached to ron. he wants to do everything with him. they run together, ride bikes together, and play music together. it makes my heart so happy!

if you'll notice, he even has a capo on the neck of his guitar so he can be just like his daddy.

he has discovered that the cranks on our old windows serve as great microphones!

laney watched while he got all the attention and decided she wanted some of that attention for herself.