Danica's Birthday Wrap Up

Danica's third birthday was a success.

She started the morning with our traditional  birthday pancakes.

When I asked her what kind of birthday she wanted she said "I want a pink party."  That made life easy for me.

For her birthday dinner she chose corn dogs and pizza... she's not health nut to say the least.

Of course there were presents.

Every time we would hand her a gift she would shut her eyes really tight and stick out her arms.

She got one big gift from us and my parents.

A new kitchen!  She loves to play house & tea party, so this was perfect.  

Josh & I spent an entire evening putting this thing together, while watching a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie.  When I was young I never would have thought that's how I would be spending my Saturday nights.

Of course we had cake.

Now we have a three year old in our house.  And she won't let us forget that she's "big"... and a princess.

Happy 3rd Birthday Danica

Today Danica turns three!

I can't believe our baby is already this old!

She is such a joy.

She makes us laugh often.

And her fiery spirit keeps us on our toes.

She's a tomboy

And such a girly girl at the same time

She changes her clothes at least six times a day and requires me to come to her beauty shop each morning.

She's independent (here she took it upon herself to paint her own nails...in secret.  Polish got on other things besides her nails.)

Sometimes she's too independent

She is the dang toughest kid I know.  Any child that can live with a broken arm for 3 days and not complain about it is pretty tough in my book.

She loves her "Gussers" with a passion.  When she's hurt she would rather cuddle the dog than her Mom or Dad.

That pup never had a prayer.

She's always had a great disposition.

And her smile is infectious!

She is smart... sometimes too smart.

And so loving and caring.

And although we loved having this sweet little peanut around...

...we're so enjoying watching her grow into such an amazing little girl.  Happy Birthday Danica!  (What'd I tell ya, infectious smile.)

Thanksgiving Day

I'm a little behind in posting, so I'm going to try to catch y'all up to date this weekend.  Let's start with Thanksgiving.  Ours was wonderful, I hope yours was too!  We spent Thanksgiving with my parents at our family's ranch.  Here's a new little visitor on the ranch.

The kids call him "Mini".  He's not a permanent addition, although the twins would like him to be.  We are selling him for a family friend.

Maddie and Gracie love catching and riding him.

They do this with big horses, but it's so much easier with a mini horse.  You can get a good scale of his size with our big Tennessee Walker "Ike" in the background.

While the girls were out horse wrangling, JoJo and my Dad "watched" the Macy's parade.

Jo was actually taking it all in while he cuddled his treasured blanket.

Meanwhile my Mom & I spent most of the afternoon cooking.  But I did manage to still squeeze in a hunt or two.

Here's my Mom with the infamous jello mold.  It's a family tradition.

All in all it was a relaxing and perfect Thanksgiving... and we had a ton of food!

Life with a Right Brainer

Gracie is probably our most creative child.  She is constantly thinking outside of the box, building things, making up games and plays, and creating art projects.

Here's a good example.  All the kids made Thanksgiving cards for my brother who is a solider and cannot come home for the holiday.  This was Gracie's card.  The turkey is on a platter amongst a Thanksgiving dinner.  He is exclaiming in a shocked voice "What!!!" and the fox and other animals are ready to have some turkey dinner.  The fox is saying "yum".

Life with a right brainer also comes with some different ways of communication.  Meet George.  Gracie found this cardboard roll somewhere, I have no idea where.  But my guess is church or school.  I had noticed she had been dragging it around and had created a face on it using Bendaroos (If you don't have this & have a creative child get them!  They are wonderful for their artsy minds and do not make a mess.)  I didn't pay much attention because Gracie is constantly making little projects.

Until one night she was upset with me for some reason.  I probably did something drastic like tell her to pick up her shoes or do her homework.  When I tucked her into bed that night the cardboard roll face was on her night stand... and he was not looking too happy.  It was then I realized that George, as I would later find out was his name, was a reflection of Gracie's current feelings.

When Gracie's worried, George is worried.

Here's George scared.

And happy.

Here George is telling Gracie a secret.

And goofy George.  Here's to my little right brainer.  Thanks for keeping us on our toes and making life fun and interesting!

Happy Halloween

Sorry, I'm a bit behind on my Halloween posting.  But I know everyone wanted to see the kids in their cute costumes, so, better late than never.

This year we had a penguin

Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz

the Blue Power Ranger

and a snow queen

It was an extraordinarily busy Halloween this year.  We did our normal trick-or-treating with our friends the Barnes'.

We only do about 1 1/2 blocks total, it's the perfect amount of houses.

Yet, every year I'm amazed at how that little block and a half provides SO much candy!

This year Halloween fell on Wednesday, which also happens to be the day we have our children's program at our church.  We always have a big party.  

So after a rushed trick or treating episode we zoomed over to church for yet more sugar and activities.

They have a lot of different activities and games for the kiddos.  They had a ball!  My baby was the only one who stuck by my side, therefore, she is the only one I got pictures of at the party.

I'd say the highlight of the festivities was when Josh got pied.  They pie a few of the leaders if enough kids attend the party.  It seems that it is always women pieing the men.  I just try to stay out of it, looks like a messy business.

Hope you all had a great Halloween!