Thanksgiving in Dallas - Part 1

First, I have to explain my acorns that were posted Thanksgiving Day. I made these little guys with velvet and actual acorn tops. Very easy project - a little hand sewing and glue. It ended up being my one and only "fall" craft. I'm quickly moving onto Christmas crafts.

We all went to my brother's for Thanksgiving. We had a good time and ate a lot of good food. Sydney did great on both plane rides. Here we all are at the Dallas Zoo. I can't believe how cold it was in Texas. It actually snowed on Thanksgiving for about 2 minutes! I'm very glad to be back in Florida with a high of 80 degrees.

Yep, Kevin is pretty tall these days!

She's sitting on an armadillo in the picture below.

Kisses.

Hugs.

She absolutely loved playing with Karalyn. They were so cute together too. Here they are at the otter tank.

I was only able to see my best-friend & college roomie Jenn. We went out for the morning and basically ran errands. When you have young kids, going to the store and lunch without them is the best treat of all! Jenn took me to Sprinkles. We both have an affection for cupcakes.

Sidenote: When I came home and browsed through my new Williams Sonoma catalog, I saw they sell the Sprinkles mixes there. Cupcake destiny! Jenn says the mixes taste just like the real thing. I think I might have to try it.

Part 2 of Thanksgiving will come later when I get everyone elses pictures. I'll be sure to share.

Can you believe those Aggies!? Two years in a row. I'm speechless! : )

Happy Thanksgiving

Like mother, like daughter

It was just a matter of time...

Friends are fun.

Sydney's best friend, Emily, came over the other day for a play date. They are just too cute.

High fives.

Snacking & chatting. They are probably discussing Elmo.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes too!

28 things for 28 years.

Today is my birthday. So this post is all me. 28 things about me for 28 years.

1. I love to play tennis and I get to play once a week.

2. I can't leave the house without wearing earrings.

3. My favorite band: Shane & Shane.

4. I have to eat cereal every morning for breakfast.

5. I bake so I can eat the batter.

(my birthday cupcakes: you can see one is already missing!)

6. My pj top and pj bottom never match at night.

7. I love to watch football.

8. Best childhood memory: getting slurpees with my dad every weekend.

9. I often rewash clothes in the washer because I leave them in too long - like days.

10. I always have my toenails painted.

(Martha Stewart Recipe - these cupcakes are good!)

11. I hate heights.

12. My favorite color is red.

13. I watch Bill O'Reilly when I'm at the gym.

14. I love to clean anything but the shower.

15. My best wedding gift: Kitchen-Aid mixer from my grandma. (I use it all the time.)

(my new shoes. I figured I won't be able to pull these off in a couple years so I might as well wear them now!)

16. My favorite food is a toss up between pizza and watermelon.

17. I like to play Pictionary.

18. My tangible gift ever received: My mom started a quilt and never was able to finish it before she passed away. I didn't know that her best friend took it and was going to finish it. It is beautifully hand-quilted. So that means it took a long time. We received it after our wedding. I cried when I opened it.

19. My favorite thing is to hear Sydney laugh.

20. My favorite TV show: Martha (of course!)

(flowers Matt's parents sent me)

21. One of the worst movies I have (unfortunately) ever seen: Dusk til Dawn. It's so bad I'm not even going to provide a link!

22. A goal of mine is to be able to speak another language fluently.

23. Biggest pet peeve: People spitting their gum on the sidewalk/street. I always step in it and it disgusts me when I have to peel it off my shoe.

24. I like to work crosswords and sudoko puzzles.

25. I don't drink soda. Ninety-nine percent of the time it's skim milk or water.

(Syd's new baby doll stroller. She loves it.)

26. Last book I read: Elmo's Colors! : )

27. I like to take naps.
28. I am truly blessed and grateful.

Mmmm. That was delicious!

Week of Pictures - Friday

Whew! It's finally Friday. I'll tell ya, it's been hard to keep up with this everyday thing! Our weather has been perfect here. It gets down to the mid-50s and warms up to the mid-70s. If we are not sleeping or eating, we're outside. Literally!

Here's Sydney all decked out in purple. My neighbor said purple is her color. After she said that, I agree. It makes her bright blue eyes pop. The hat wasn't doing it for me so I had to "Beckyify" it. The bottom picture shows the new addition.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Week of Pictures - Thursday

This is Sydney's new favorite toy. The laundry basket. I'm pretty sure I've posted pictures of her in one before but this time is different. She gets in by herself rather than us doing it for her.

The toys go in and out. The laundry goes in and out. She goes in and out. She even puts all of her toys in and then gets in on top of them. It doesn't look comfortable sitting on wooden blocks but maybe the diaper has the extra cushion she needs!

Week of Pictures - Wednesday

I don't know what I was thinking this day! I let her play with stacking cups in a big bowl full of water. The downside: a huge mess and a soaking wet child. The upside: she loved it and my floors got mopped!

I know she's wearing the same shirt as in Monday's "marker face" picture. Let me assure you that it was different days. I can only take one mess a day!

Week of Pictures - Tuesday

Along with watching our neighbor's dog, the portable dog kennel comes too. Sydney thought is was her own personal tent to play in. She brought toys inside. She brought toys outside. I swear she almost took a nap in there. She had the best time. Fortunately, she didn't cry over it when it went away.

What is it about kids and dog kennels anyway? I have the same type of picture with my niece in a dog carrier too. I have to think Syd had it a little better. My niece, who was older and therefore bigger, went into a hard dog carrier meant for a small yorkshire terrier! : ) I'll see if I can't dig that one out! It's a good one.

Week of Pictures - Monday

I have so many pictures to share! I am going to try to put some new pictures everyday this week. The first picture I call "Marker Face." hahaha. Yea...

I let her play with the crayons by herself. With the markers and paint, I'm usually there with her. The one time I let her play with the markers and go switch the laundry over is the one time, well, you can see what happened. So what does any good mom do? She runs to get her camera! : )

Happy Halloween Part 2

She's a butterfly! I loved making this costume. The wings are my favorite part. I was hesitant to make her a monarch because it's mostly black. A little morbid for a toddler. I overcame that as you can see. : ) We took these pictures this weekend which was a good thing since it's been raining here today. I'm not planning on taking her trick-or-treating. We might just walk around the neighborhood so she can see the other kids though. She's a real people watcher.

Looking at this year's picture versus last is a huge change! I can't believe it. If you missed last year's costume. Here's the link. Hope everyone has a good day.

Happy Halloween.

Happy Halloween Part 1

This is her foot as a ghost. A little craft we did together. Sorry the scan is bad. The eyes made it funky. I'm excited about the big reveal of her costume tomorrow! : )

The Big Helper

Here's Sydney helping Matt wash the car. She loved to stick her hands in the bubbles and then flap her arms to make the bubbles fly through the air. Needless to say, she had a great time.

Wishing we had cooler weather for fall.

We went to our local library and decorated a mini pumpkin. Our libraries here are phenomenal. They have activities all the time. For me, the best part is going online and putting books on hold(from all of the county libraries) and they will deliver them to my library. Then, they call and let me know they are in and I pick them up. I have read many crafting books and watched many classic movies. Ah, classic movies, that could be a whole other post because I've watched some really great ones! Anyway, here's the little crafter.

Here's some pictures from this afternoon. She loves to play peek-a-boo.

The funky shot of the day. She looks at herself in the drain thing on the bathtub. So I thought it would be neat and maybe even artistic to take a picture of it. So here it is!

The nature preserve and a few side notes

We went to this nature preserve near our house today. It was the first time we have been to it. It was fantastic. It's a bummer we didn't know about it earlier. It was the perfect day to go too. It's been a little bit cooler here lately without the humidity. Perfect to be outside. There's a boardwalk for the most part. I like places with boardwalks because I can let Sydney run around and she is still contained!

A little Florida scenery for you. There is a creek that runs through the preserve and out to the boat ramp that we use. Hopefully, we will be able to find the time to kayak or canoe down it.

A few side notes.
Sydney and I have been doing art together lately. I bought her some jumbo crayons, markers just for toddlers, and some paints. Crayola has been loving me! She loves it all. Once she is awake, the first place she goes is to the kitchen table to color with crayons. She also really loves the paint. "More please." That is what I hear the whole time because her favorite part is to put more paint on the paintbrush. Here's one of the pictures she drew today.

Matt and I went to this business dinner thing last week. Here's the picture we took on our way out the door. I'm really not much for business dinners but this one was surprisingly pleasant. It was nice to replace the lounge pants and sneakers for a dress and heels - even if it was just for an evening! : )

Miami Children's Museum

We went down to Miami this past week/weekend. We hadn't taken a trip in awhile so we were due. We had a really great time. Here's our pictures from the Miami Children's Museum. I think Matt and I had more fun there than Sydney!

And yes, Matt did find the siren button on the police motorcycle!

They had all sorts of exhibits - teeth & exercise grocery store & food, Dr. Seuss, under the sea - just to name a few.

This girl loves to climb stairs.

I thought this was funny but she didn't like the tail too much.

We were able to drive around Coral Gables. It's like a suburb of Miami. Oh my, was it beautiful. They had incredible houses and the neighborhoods were lined with the big, unusual trees. I would have loved to taken a picture but they was no way of getting a whole tree in one picture! Either way, I really enjoyed it.