Santa

Carly visited Santa on Saturday. We were at the mall at 9:15 am, and we had no wait at all. It was awesome!

We actually visited Santa twice. The first visit did not go well after Carly watched some other kid wail in Santa's lap. After we walked around a little, secured some bribes (cookies from the Nestle Toll House store), and told Carly that big girls sit in Santa's lap without crying, she was ready. This picture is from that second visit. Thank goodness it was still early and there was no line at all.

This Santa was great! He was very kind, very understanding, and he had real whiskers. I was impressed! He was at the Galleria in Dallas.

Christmas Songs

Carly has learned several Christmas songs at school for the school Christmas program. Here's We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

2 Year Old Words

Carly talks and sings all the time, so I finally captured some of her funny sayings.

Christmas Parade

We are big fans of the Adolphus Christmas Parade. It was bitterly cold, but well worth the time and chills!

Carly loved the balloons!

This year Nannie was in town!

That's Baby Colette under all those blankies. She was snug as a bug in a rug. Hopefully she'll enjoy the parade next year.

Brrr!

It's cold in Dallas! Thank goodness Carly has a cute hat, scarf and gloves. John bought these in Peru.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Arkansas this year, and we had a lot of fun. I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few. Be sure to see the video at the end!

Carly with great Aunt Ruth and Meemaw (great grandmother)


Carly (2.5), Aidan (10?) and Lyanna (4)

The men were sleeping, but Carly wanted to play! Grandaddy, Pop, and Carly.

Carly and her Pop

Halloween Part II

Here are the rest of my Halloween pictures. These are from Halloween night. We trick or treated with our neighbors and some of their friends. We had 7 or 8 kids in two wagons and two push cars. We all had lots of fun!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Carly's school hosted their 2nd annual fall festival yesterday. Carly had a lot of fun, and she loves her Strawberry Shortcake costume. Thanks to the Lintons for sharing it, and thanks to Grandma for making it!

John carved pumpkins. One for us, and one for Carly. Elmo!

The school's fall festival had lots of fun activities for the kids:

Face painting,


a bounce house,

a football throw,

and food!

They also had a pie throwing booth. I didn't get any pictures of it, but Carly had a great time smashing whipped cream pies into her teacher's faces.

We've had a lot of fun so far, and we're looking forward to trick or treating in our neighborhood tonight!

Arboretum

John and I took Carly and Aubrey Cate to the Arboretum last Saturday. AC's parents couldn't join us since they were frantically cleaning before AC's little sister arrived on Monday.

The girls had SOO much fun together. Oh my goodness. They ran and ran and ran, climbed up and down the hills and the hay bales, sat in the pumpkins, etc. I really enjoyed seeing them play together. Carly has asked about Aubrey Cate every single day since Saturday.

Pumpkin Patch - Flower Mound

One Sunday afternoon/evening we took Carly to the local pumpkin patch. I must admit that the local pumpkin patch does not measure up to my standards of a pumpkin patch. They don't grow pumpkins on this property. Instead they neatly set them in a field. Next year, I need to find a real pumpkin patch in Dallas.

Carly enjoyed playing king of the mountain on the giant pile of hay.

A few shots in the pumpkins . . .




Then we left because Carly refused to potty in the port-a-potties, and we didn't bring a pull-up. Our time was short, but we had fun anyway!