Grandad's Birthday!

A very special birthday was celebrated on January 29th. Grandad turned sixty and it happened to fall on the same day we closed on the new house(and moved in). Lucky for everyone, the girls chose to help Queenie make a cake rather than help mom/dad move.

Making the cake:

Chef Kate

Chef Lauren

Cooking Queens

Licking the frosting-everyone's favorite part

Ready to party

The birthday boy

Lauren and Kate are always on the ready to help unwrap gifts

Wedding Websites

Going to keep these on the blogs because both sites have tons of useful info for the upcoming events! Click on the names and you should be taken to their sites:

Eagle & Laura

Barrett & Samantha

More is coming

More pictures/life is coming-will try to get caught up by the end of the week ( :

Visit to the Farm

Continuing on with what happened while the blog was on vacation.

January flew by-we spent most of the month praying the new house would be ready and that the old house stayed in one piece while we rented it. We spent one weekend with Granny and family for her birthday-Jewett was the locale and Kate is still telling me about the wells we saw. Queenie had an unfortunate encouter with a police officer-Kate is still talking about that too.

Lakefront property at the farm

The girls finding all sorts of treasure on the beach

the girls and Aunt Julie

The fam(Dan had to miss the trip-January was not nice to us in terms of illness)

The Bula Lewis Heiress'

March Madness

Is it true-did I really not post ANYTHING since December?? I am terribly sorry-we have had a FEW too many things going on and the blog got put to the bottom of the list. Now that we are finally a little more settled, it should be better.

To catch up:
Christmas was so fun! The girls both "get" Santa and had a ball this year. The gift Lauren LOVED was a fishing pole from Grandad/Queenie and Kate's favorite was her new leap "pen". The great part about Christmas was that the girls finally got some toys...most of theirs were still in storage because of the move.

Christmas came early for Dan and I-we sold our house!! Closed at the end of the month and leased it back until the end of January.


December pics:

The gang(minus Dan, Queenie and Grandad...they know that there are only so many butts that can sit in front of the fire...)

Looking for Santa on radar



Kate checks her stuff out

Santa brought markers too(funny Santa-he ended up taking those away after the first one they opened hit the carpet of their soon to be sold house...)

Running to see what Santa left at Queenie and Grandad's house

Hit gift for Lauren

Lauren gets advice from the resident fisherperson

Loves her Uncle B


Loves her Uncle B

Vanna shows off her gift to Queenie/Grandad-a stone imprint of her hand

Best Christmas gift of the day-Eagle asks Laura to marry him!!

Decorating

The high in Austin is supposed to be 38 today but so far we haven't gotten above 31. Girls are inside because I don't want anyone sick for Santa. Luckily we had "activities" to keep us busy.

First a gingerbread house(much of the candy did not make it on the house!!)

Then to RRather's Pumpkin Muffins-where the girls added their own special touch at the end...

Sprinkle, sprinkle....

December

I think as the girls get more into Santa and Christmas, December becomes more wild(add to that illness, selling a house and building another one). I have not been the best at taking pictures this month but here are some updates/fun pics:

Lauren is potty trained!! Did it all by herself-three days and now she even wears panties to sleep...We are still doing a tour of every bathroom we pass but we are a diaper free house for the first time in almost 5 years!


We sold our house! We close on Dec 30th and will stay(lease back) until Jan 30...keep your fingers crossed that everything continues to go smoothly. The exterior of the house is pretty much done and they SHOULD start working on the inside this week...today's high temp of 38 might stall that a bit. We are supposed to close on the new house Jan 22nd.


Loved decorating gingerbread houses at the Walkers. Kate loved being with her friends(especially her boyfriend Brayden...should we be separating these two??)

The preschool had their Christmas show. Lauren practiced the old favorites all week. On the day of the performance, Lauren warmed up as we drove to school(over and over I heard Away in a Manger and Santa got stuck in the chimney). So funny how different the girls are! Kate did not even get through the doors of the sanctuary before she started crying and moving towards her dad. Lauren, however, sang her little heart out-loving every minute of the spotlight.

Santa

The developmental changes that happen between 1-3 years old are numerous. Take, for example, our visit with Santa. Last year there were tears-lots and lots of them. Lauren screamed and fought me with every breath as big, fat tears rolled down Kate's cheeks.

Last year:

This year:

Both girls were all smiles the entire time. As it came to be our turn, Lauren walks right up to Santa and says "Hi Santa, I want a puppy". Ho Ho Ho!

Thanksgiving Performance

For us, the songs began about a week before the performance. Lauren calling out to me "put your turkey wings on mom" and proceeding to sing about Tom Turkey(in typical Lauren fashion, whenever I would try to join in the song she would either scream"no don't sing" or put her hand over my mouth).

Despite the early singing, we had no idea what to expect from the girls on the day of the show. Last year, Kate did not sing one word and we were hopeful a year later she would.

Sadly, she does not like crowd scenes.

But her sister is ready to go on tour.........

Meeting her adoring fans

Windows and Roof

Do they seem to be moving REALLY quickly or is it just me?

Happy Halloween!!

Finally a year when the girls aren't sick for Halloween!! They made it to the school party(a first) and then trick or treating last night. Here are pics of the costumes. (and yes Kate really did want to be Dale Earnhardt Junior).

Kate before school with some friends...she is a BIT taller than the rest

Ready to go Trick or Treating with Dad and Grandad!

Inspecting the candy(Junior is already in her post-race uniform)

Her Grandad and chocolate-Lauren's two favorite things