A little bit of this, a little bit of that

*Phillip and I went on a date Saturday night. The girls went to Makenna and Brynlee's house. I'm pretty sure they didn't miss us at all, apparently they were too busy reenacting Tangled. On our date went to Crystal Bridges, then to dinner at Sushi King (oh man it was sooo good), then to our all time favorite- Kennedy's Coffee House.

*A couple weeks ago I planned a lot of new recipes for the week. I've been asked how they all turned out. A couple were good and a couple were not keepers, they were edible just not keepers. The Tuscan Garlic Chicken was good, and the crust from the Chicken Ranch pizza was awesome (the chicken ranch toppings wasn't the best, there was definitely something missing).

*I made Fish Tacos the other night and they were really really good. The name Fish Tacos sounds disgusting but trust me, they're good. I didn't fry the fish, instead I seasoned the filets heavily with S&P, garlic powder, and onion powder then baked them. A few less calories that way! ;)

*I also made Southwestern Stuffed Spaghetti Squash. It was good! I just love spaghetti squash though. It's a really good hearty, healthy, and filling meatless dish. The girls wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole though! Ha!

*I packed orange "smiles" in Ashlyn's lunch box Thursday. When I picked her up her white shirt was filthy. I said "goodness your shirt is a mess" and she said I know you forgot to pack me a napkin and the oranges made my hands messy. She's at the age where she thinks her clothing doubles as a napkin! Kids are so funny.

*I finished the girl's duvet covers. They turned out really cute! I'm anxious to see them ironed and on the beds.

*Aubrey's mattresses and headboard should be in two weeks from now. We're not sure what to expect out of her. A couple weeks ago we moved her crib into Ashlyn's room and turned her room into a play room. When Phillip was taking her crib apart to move it into the other room she started bawling saying "my bed, my bed". Poor girl thought she was being kicked out of the house! :(

*I was trying to get some cute pictures of the girls earlier this week. These two were not "keepers"! Haha!

(Disclaimer: Aubrey was not harmed in the making of these photos!)

*We have the best Small Group at church. We have made some some amazing friends! Out of our 10 years of marriage we have only had a handful of couple friends we were close to. Now there are six or seven couples in our group and we love all of them! I am so grateful God brought us to this church, we just "fit".

*My goal was to have most of my Christmas shopping done by December 1st. I've bought two gifts! TWO! It's ok though, the week after Thanksgiving my friend Beth and I are switching babysitting days to shop. It'll still be November.

*I'm having a hard time making decisions on the girl's Christmas gifts. Especially what Santa will be bringing. Aubrey likes toys that are older than her age range and Ashlyn likes everything she sees. It also doesn't help that I told Nana all my good ideas! I'll probably just stick to Princess everything and they'll both be thrilled! :) 

*Phillip changed the brakes and rotors on the van Sunday afternoon. I love how handy he is! He can fix most anything around the house! What a stud!

 *The girls thought he was pretty awesome too. They got the biggest kick out of him jacking the van up and removing the wheel. They also loved making a big fuss about how greasy and messy his hands were. 

*Phillip was laughing that changing your own brakes is a pretty manly job. But using an old Barbie box as a creeper is not quite so manly!

*I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving this week and getting our Christmas decorations out!! Let the festivities begin!

Time

 What a difference 2 years makes!

November 2009 

November 2011

Moments Frozen In Time

 Aubrey rubs her hair while she sucks her thumb, she always has. It makes for crazy nap time hair!!

We love going to the Library. The children's area has a giant plaster elephant. The girls think it's the best thing ever. 

Aubrey painted with "real" paint for the first time last week. She was a huge mess!!

Moments Frozen In Time

We had our carpets cleaned so we along with all of the toys from the play room were confined to the living room while we were waiting for the man to finish up. This is how Aubrey watched cartoons.

Makenna and her little sister Brynlee came over to play Saturday while their Daddy and Momma went on a date. These two princesses had the best time! Ashlyn kept asking if they could dress up little 10 month old Brynlee too.

The girls made a Thanksgiving craft. I traced their hands to make a turkey and they glued dried beans and pasta on them. Ashlyn loved carefully placing each item on her turkey. Aubrey mostly wanted to snack on the dried pasta.

Wednesday was "Bring a friend day" at Makenna's dance class. Ashlyn got to join her! They did ballet, a little tumbling, and tap. She had a blast!

First Friday

Every first Friday of the month our town has an event on the town square called First Friday. It is always in the evenings and has some type of family friendly theme. This Friday was Toy Land! My friend Beth invited us to meet up with her and her two girls for lunch and fun on the square. They started opening up the booths around 11:30 instead of later in the evening like they normally do, which was perfect! It wasn't crowded and the kids could play their hearts out. Most of the major toy vendors had a booth there and had their toys set out for kids to play with and experience hands on.
Since we live in the town where Walmart and Sam's Home Office's are located all of their vendors are in the area also. Which means great benefits for our little community!

The first booths we visited were Barbie and the Disney Princess'. The older girls loved looking at all the dolls and seeing their outfits and accessories!

The Disney Princess booth was not quite set up but they did have their cardboard cut outs up and were giving out free princess crowns!

Quite the site for a four year old girl, seeing a life size cut out of one of your favorite things in the entire world!

After putting our princess crowns on we headed over to The Station Cafe for lunch. They have great burger and diner food. The weather was so pretty that we ate outside, so fun!

It was nap time but we couldn't help but visit a couple more booths. We stopped at the Little People booth, and the Hasbro booths. They all loved the Hasbro booths! They had Fur Real pets out and Aubrey went nuts! She loves animals! (She pretends to be a cat all the time. She even meowed at her MDO teachers and rubbed on their legs like she was a cat a couple weeks ago. No lie!) I couldn't stop laughing at her playing with the puppies. She would be busy playing and one of the toy animals would walk away from her and she would get a stern look on her face and drag them back to her. She then raided the baby doll dishes so she could feed her dogs. One of these might end up on her Christmas list, that's how much she loved them.

The girls were tired afterwards, Aubrey was exhausted since it was way past nap time but it was worth the melt down at the end. ;) What a fun morning!

Moments Frozen In Time

After going to the Pumpkin Patch last Saturday we stopped at a little cafe for lunch. Aubrey thinks she is too big for a high chair so she sits in a booster seat. The problem is not every place has a booster seat which leaves her sitting on her knees in a booth. Nothing can make a grown adult huddle on the edge of a bench in fear like a two year old with greasy fries and ketchup!

 Ashlyn got an ice cream bar with her lunch and was more than happy to share with Aubrey!

Ashlyn and Daddy taking a much needed nap!

Ashlyn and Aubrey love to color. After breakfast Wednesday the girls asked to color while I cleaned up the kitchen. Ashlyn stayed at the table and colored until lunch! I'm not exaggerating, I had to ask her to stop coloring and clear her stuff so we could eat lunch at the table! 

During MDO Thursday I splurged and got a Salted Caramel Mocha at the Starbucks in Target. I never buy coffee when I'm out and about, the $4 a cup adds up quick, but it's been a stressful week and I needed a treat. When I was getting in the car I dropped by cup and coffee spilled up on my boots. Thankfully I already drank 3/4 of it and it wasn't a total loss. It just pretty much sums up my week though!

Trick or Treat

Ashlyn had the best day Monday! Her day started off with a party at school. All the kids wore their costumes and they ate pizza for lunch and had inflatables set up in the gym. I over heard two boys talking to each other and they were referring to each other by what they were dressed up as. Kids are at the peak of role play at this age so I'm sure it was awesome to be in character all day and all your classmates called you what you were pretending to be!

Ashlyn chose to be Jessie from Toy Story this year. It really surprised me that she didn't choose some type of princess. She was so cute and her teachers at school kept commenting on how she actually looked like Jessie. 

 (She hated having her shirt tucked in, so she wore it like this all day :) )

Poor Aubrey on the other hand didn't have the best day. She woke up with fever, a nasty nose, and cough so she had to stay home with me. I had plans of switching the girls rooms while they were in school. We moved Aubrey's crib to the bedroom Saturday so I just needed to put all the toys in the now play room. She was quite the helper...

After dinner Ashlyn got back into her costume so we could go to Trunk or Treat at our church. Phillip volunteered to stay home with Aubrey since we didn't want her out in the night air. She didn't know exactly what she was missing out on but she knew she wasn't going with Ashlyn and Mommy. 

Aubrey looks like Linus with her blanket by her side! :)

 

As we were trying to leave Aubrey was crying and so upset. Ashlyn ran into the kitchen and wanted to give Aubrey a piece of her candy from school so she wouldn't be so sad. She picked smarties because "Aubrey likes smarties". She is so sweet to Aubrey!

We saw our friends, the Roberts, at Trunk or Treat and Ashlyn was so happy to have her best buddy to hang out with! Ashlyn and Makenna always have the best time together! Her momma, Beth, and I always giggle at their little conversations, they are so cute!

Aubrey is still sick and waking up several times a night. And now I have a scratchy throat. :( Hopefully it stops at us, having sickies in the house is no fun!

Pumpkin Patch

 Saturday we went to the Pumpkin Patch. The weather was absolutely beautiful! 

The girls loved going through and looking at the pumpkins. They especially loved the little ones. They would pick each one up and ooh and goo over them and comment on how cute they were. They are such girly girls!

After looking through the pumpkins and making notes on which ones they wanted to take home they wanted to ride a ride. They were little wagons hooked together like a train and pulled by a tractor. Aubrey was so brave and Ashlyn was thrilled to be responsible for Aubrey while they were "gone". (Notice the tight grip she has on Aubrey's jacket)

 They got about 1/3 of the way around the field when the tractor stopped then shortly after the lady at the ticket desk called out for "Ashlyn's parents to go out to the tractor". When we walked over to the tractor the driver was holding a screaming and crying Aubrey. Poor girl was not digging the ride! Afterwards Ashlyn proudly told us that she was a big sister and told the driver her name when he asked so they could call us. (Which is quite abnormal, Ashlyn does NOT talk to people she doesn't know!)

After Ashlyn finished the ride Aubrey was settled down and ready to go on another adventure. We went on a hay ride then headed out to the field in search of more pumpkins. 

 I tried my darndest to get the girls to sit on the pumpkins together so I could get a picture in their matching pumpkin shirts, but they were too busy! Sweet girls!