Santa

I took the girls to the mall today to see the big man in red. Nana & Papa came with us as well see Santa and watch the girls tell him what they wanted. Paige told him that she wanted a pink computer and a plastic candy cane filled with Hersey kisses. Claire told him that she wants a Ken doll and a new car for Barbie a Pink Volkswagen Bug. They were so excited especially Paige and did great!

My Latest Addiction

A few weeks ago I was at Target looking for a new book to read and stumbled upon Cassandra Clare's series Mortal Instruments. So far three of the six books in the series have been published and she is currently writing the fourth. There is nothing better on a cold winter's night then having a good book to either sit by the fire or get all snuggled up in bed and read while taken to another world. If you are looking for an easy read and like the world of vampires, werewolves, warlocks and fairies then you should definitely give these books a try. I also read that the first book City of Bones has been picked up for a movie, hope they don't ruin it like they did with Twilight!





I haven't read this one yet, it isn't part of the main series but it is recommended by the author that you read this one before you continue on with the last 3 books in the series.

Pics from Thanksgiving

Here is my table all set and ready for the family to arrive!

I love this picture of the girls, just might be on our Christmas card you will have to wait and see!

I was so hot from "hosting" and I am sure that sitting in front of the fire and drinking wine didn't help. :)
Still hot, check out my red checks.

I love these next two pictures of Cory with the girls, they turned out great!

The finished product! It was delicious I basted every 45 minutes so it was really juicy too!

Cory and my dad ready to get cutting
Paige took this picture of me and Claire, not a fan of myself in the picture but Claire looks adorable.
Paige took this one too, hence my head about to get chopped off. Who knows I might have a future photographer on my hands.
The girls with Great Grandma and Nana Pope
Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving

So this is the first Thanksgiving that I am having at my house. Always in the past years my mom and mother in law have rotated houses and all we have to do is show up and eat. :) This year I asked if my mom would mind me having Thanksgiving at my new house (it was her year to have it). So wish me luck as I tackle the turkey and all the fixings. My mom is going to come over Thursday morning to help me get the bird all cleaned out and stuffed so we should be fine, keep your fingers crossed for me. I am also doing the appetizers, salad and bread stuffing all of which I have done before plenty of times except the stuffing. As long as I follow the directions on the stuffing and keep the turkey moist we should be good to go! My mom is bringing the green bean casserole a rice stuffing that she and my dad like and a pecan pie. Connie, my mother in law, is bringing home-made rolls, gravy (I don't have a clue how to make her gravy as it is more of a watch and learn recipe more than a written down one)and a pumpkin pie. Wow, I think we will have plenty to eat don't you? What are all of you doing this year, do you have the big day at your house or a relatives?

Also, need some ideas/suggestions for my new canisters that I bought for my kitchen. What should I put in them? My sister has some similar to these and has candy in the smallest one and then pretzels and cheese its in the other two. My friend Carol said to put rice, beans or other colorful food in them. What are some of your thoughts?

Thanksgiving Feast

Today at Paige's preschool they put on a little concert for us and then had us back to their classroom for a little feast. All the kids looked adorable. They each had been assigned an Indian name, Paige's was "Happy Heart". They had made headdresses and necklaces too. For the feast they served us pumpkin bread and popcorn. Here are a few pictures I took. She did a great job singing, she has been practicing all week when she came home from school. I videotaped her last night here at home here are a couple of the songs she sang. Please excuse the background and white walls, the office is the one room I still have to tackle and paint.
"When I was 2 years old"

"10 Little Indians"- please forgive my voice

"Thank you"- she couldn't remember the last verse, look how sad she is.

Not sure who had more fun!

What a gorgeous night we had for trick or treating! We had no rain, temps in the 50's and were ready to go. We headed out the door a little after 6pm and went over to my sister's neighborhood to go with them. We decided not to stay in our new neighborhood due to the fact that the houses are all on good size lots and are pretty spread out, the girls would have pooped a lot faster.
Once we got to my sister's we took the usually pictures and then were out the door by 6:30pm. I didn't count the total houses the girls made it to but I would say a good 50. Claire was on a mission, she was in the front of the pack running from house to house and was NOT running out of steam! She out lasted all the kids, yes she out did Lauren who is 8 (almost 9) and Adam who is 6 (almost 7). Paige did well too, she came in third as far as the energy level, Adam pooped out quickest (playing football in the front yard with his dad and Papa before we went trick or treating probably didn't help any). Claire made her daddy proud for sure, Halloween was Cory's favorite holiday and he would go full speed all night until everyone's lights were turned off. My mom, sister and I were laughing as we were walking from house to house with the kids, they both turned to me and said "that is the Cory in her for sure"! We all had SO much fun, this was the best Halloween that Cory and I have had with the girls, they are old enough to understand the concept and how fun it is. We only had to hold Paige for a little while towards the end while we walked from house to house and then she was off and running again! :) We left my sister's a little before 8pm and as we were heading out of the neighborhood we stopped the car at 3 houses we missed toward the front of her neighborhood for the girls to jump out and hit real quick. Then Cory asked the girls if they wanted to go to a few houses in our neighborhood once we got home, they both said "Yeah"!

We went to 7 more houses in our neighborhood and I had to finally say "enough". Cory was having just as much fun as the girls if not more! I would say "Ok we are good it's getting late let's head home" and he would say "no, look they still have their light on let's go there too". Next time I said "enough Claire has school tomorrow" I would hear "It's Halloween night she can be a little tired for school tomorrow she will be fine". Or my favorite response from him was "oh, look how that house is decorated they are gonna have GOOD candy!" Like I said who had more fun I am not sure. On our way back to our house we saw a police officer which Claire thought was the coolest. He stopped and gave us glow necklaces and candy! The week of Halloween they had a police officer come into their classroom at school and tell the class that if they saw them out trick or treating they would stop and give out glow sticks and candy, sure enough right as we were calling it a night down the street came a policeman with his lights flashing and said over the speakers "I have glow necklaces"!

Here they are: My Cheerleader & Monkey

Can you tell how excited she is?

The whole gang: Football Player, his Cheerleader, Monkey and the Witch! Now that I think of it Paige and Lauren's costumes go well together too. The witch in the Wizard of Oz had all those flying monkeys. :) How tiny do my girls look compared to their cousins? Believe it or not there is only 15 months of an age gap between Claire and Adam.

Going through the stash before we head to bed.

Happy Halloween

For some reason the layout of my blog is cutting part of this off, but you all will still get the idea! :)

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Fall Photos

It has been so long since I have taken pictures of the girls so I decided to load them up in the car and head to a local park for some pics last week. The weather has been absolutely beautiful here the last few weeks. Temperatures have been in the middle to upper 70's and today it is suppose to be in the low 80's! Needless to say we have had an awesome fall here in the Midwest. Claire did an awesome job with the pictures as I expected her too and Paige did good for not having a nap that day. I know I am her mom and everything so it doesn't really count, but I am going to say it anyway, Claire could be a model! She is super cute and is even starting to get to that age/stage that I call her pretty, yes I know I am bias but moms can be right!




Then there is my sweet sweet Paige! She could be a model too if she would just cooperate more with the camera. She is either in the mood or she isn't, however, she always does better with a stranger behind the camera instead of mommy! She is getting cuter and cuter everyday too and she has the personality to back it all up!



Here are a few of my favorites of them together!





Just for fun I have to throw this in here too. Over the last week I have had at least a handful of people telling me how much Claire looks like me. I don't know about all of you but it is hard for me to look at the girls and see myself or Cory in either of them probably because they are mine and I see them daily and don't see us side by side. Now I can look at my niece and nephew and say Lauren looks like Jeff and Adam looks like my sister or when it comes to my friends and their kids I can see it then too, just not on my own kids. Anyway, I decided to get out my baby/toddler/elementary age pictures of myself and see if I can see the resemblance between myself and Claire. Ok, now I see what everyone is talking about, take a look. What do you think?
Here is a picture of me from when I was in 1st Grade.

That Face!

How can anything as cute as this


go to this?



There for a while Paige was giving us this face when she was upset with us. Sometimes it was because she was mad others because she was being sassy and then other times she would give it just to give it. I have started calling it her mean face and when ever she gives it I tell her "that is your mean face, let's use your nice face". She has gotten much better about not giving us the "mean face" anymore I am just glad I captured it in pictures when I did.

Now we see much more of this sweet face!