Halloween 2010

I decided to make the girls costumes again in much the same way I did last year. Most of it is no sew which was the best part. I decided I wanted to add a few things this year that had to be sewn. My friend Melanie let me borrow her sewing machine and helped me out, thanks Melanie! Kyia was a fairy princess...again. She was this same thing a couple years back and this year I tried to get her to be at least three different things but she had her mind made up. Maybe next year I can get her to try something different. Brooklyn was a scarecrow, it was a different take than the normal scarecrow but I thought it turned out to be really cute. At least people could tell what she was. She was not a fan of the costume at first but seemed to warm up to it quickly. The hat on the other hand was a fight to keep on. Once she started getting candy, she seemed to forget about the hat for a little while. She loved trick or treating and caught on really quickly. The girls got way to much candy but had so much fun this Halloween.

Party Time

August through September is a very busy time for us with some sort of special occasion every 2 weeks. With our anniversary and Brooklyn's, Kyia's, and Mike's birthdays all two weeks apart, I keep really busy. This year we decided to throw a birthday party into the mix. Kyia turned 5 back on September 5th. We went back and forth on the theme several times before eventually settling on a pirate theme. I think it turned out pretty well and the kids loved it! We decorated pirate hats, went on a treasure hunt, played a few games and made oceans in a bottle. We definitely stayed busy! Kyia and I had fun making the invitations and thinking of pirate themed games. I might just have to use this idea again for the future!

The invitations

The "crew" and the yummy cupcakes

Blueberries

We braved the heat and went to a blueberry farm this summer. There were rows and rows of all different types of blueberry bushes. I didn't know there were that many different types of blueberries. The girls had a lot of fun and the best part was you could eat the blueberries right of the bush since they don't use any pesticides or anything. So you could taste one from a bush to see if you liked it or if you wanted to change locations. After a little more than an hour at the farm, we decided we had enough. We ended up with around 8 lbs. of blueberries and that's after Kyia spilled the bucket...twice. I decided to freeze them all and we have slowly been using them. It was a fun experience and something we'll do again next year!

Mountains

During the summer, we were able to head back to Wyoming and Colorado for a couple of weeks. We are sure missing it there right now as Houston is still pretty warm. We miss the leaves changing, cooler weather, the mountains and just being able to go outside. As I was looking through pictures today I found these from this summer. We took the girls on a horseback ride which they both LOVED! Kyia seemed like a pro and knew just what to do. It was Brooklyn's first time and she thought it was the greatest thing in the world. She laughed the entire time. We went up to the top of the mountain and looked over Cokeville. It was so pretty up there and I was wishing I brought my camera. We try to take the girls every time we go back and it is something they really look forward to. Hopefully we'll be able to go back soon.

Bluebonnets

One thing I wanted to do once we moved to Texas was to see the bluebonnets. I took the girls up to Brenham, TX which is about 1.5 hours away from where we live. While we were up there, I thought it would be fun to tour the Bluebell Ice Cream Factory. I was a little worried how the girls would do on a tour but this one was quick, probably only 10 minutes long. It was my kind of tour! And the best part was you get free ice cream at the end. After the tour I took the girls to get some picture with the flowers, however by this point they were tired and hungry which meant uncooperative girls. They were more excited for the swings than sitting in some flowers, who wouldn't be? We'll have to go up again next year and try to hit the peak of the season.

Kyia picked these flowers and had to have them with her in every picture I took.

The only picture I got of her actually smiling. She was loving the swings!

The bluebonnets don't look that great in this picture but it was the only one I got with at least some smile and the wind not blowing the hair in their faces.

San Antonio

The Alamo

Back in April, (yes, April. I'm playing catch up again) we went to San Antonio. We have heard so many things about it and neither of us had been there so we decided to take a little trip up there. We stayed on the Riverwalk, right across from the Alamo. Mike said it reminded him of Venice a lot. We went to visit the Alamo and a couple other missions in the area. We also took the riverboat tour which was really interesting and gave a lot of history. It was a quick overnight trip but we will definitely have to go back again to see more of the area.

The Riverwalk

Brazo's Bend

We heard about a National Park near Houston where you could go and see wild alligators. We thought it would be fun to see and even though I was really nervous to go and take the girls, it turned out to be not so bad. There were several different trails you could take and it was so green and pretty to walk through the park. Kyia loved looking for the alligators. We actually saw quite a few and some of them were pretty big. If you're ever in Houston, I'd recommend it. It's pretty neat to see.

Make-up

I thought Kyia was mischievous when she was little but Brooklyn is ten times worse. Kyia was given some make-up for her birthday and she thinks she has to wear it wherever she goes. We've told her that the only time she can wear it is when she is playing dress up. I don't like the stuff. It has caused a few too many arguments in our home. Brooklyn has caught on to how fun it is and is always trying to get into Kyia's makeup as well. I need to just throw it away. Kyia was at preschool the other day and I was cleaning when I realized that Brooklyn was awfully quiet. I called her name a couple of times which usually brings her running but this time, there was no Brooklyn. I went looking for her, but like I mentioned in an earlier post, she hides when she is doing something she isn't supposed to. My looking in the door of each room wasn't enough so I went into each room and started looking around. I found Brooklyn in the corner of her room behind her dresser playing with Kyia's make-up. She climbed up onto the bathroom counter and got it down. (she is so strong and can get up onto the counter just by pulling herself up!) She had it all over and a big smile on her face to go with it. As I walked up to her she said "pretty".
All I could do was laugh. Yes Brooklyn, you are pretty, with your purple-glittery eye and all. :)

Finger paint

We have a blank wall (one of many in our house), in the girls playroom. I've been trying to think of something to do with it so I decided it would be fun to hang some of the girls art work in there. I had them finger paint some pictures for me and this is what we came up with.

Kyia was a little more careful with the paint than Brooklyn was.

The finished product. I took the pictures they painted, cut them out into animals and framed them. I think they turned out pretty cute!

Easter egg hunt: 2010

I'm sure I'm the very last person to blog about Easter. I'm such a procrastinator. We had a community Easter egg hunt which the girls loved. Neither were quite sure what to do at first but once they got the hang of it, there was no stopping them. Kyia was a little intimidated by all the people there. Brooklyn didn't care about getting anymore eggs once she found out what was in them, she shoveled that candy in her mouth as fast as she could.

Kyia moving as fast as she can to get to the eggs first

Brooklyn figuring out what to do.

We were also invited over to a friends house where they did a little Easter egg hunt for the kids. They had spread them all around the upstairs so when we got there, we ate dinner and tried to keep the kids from going upstairs. While we were talking, I noticed Brooklyn was not around and was being very quiet so we went looking. It took us a minute since she was being so quiet but Mike ended up finding her hiding behind one of the doors with an armful of easter eggs, half of them opened and a mouthful of candy. She's been hiding latley when she knows she's doing something wrong. Sneaky girl but it was pretty funny.

Visitors

I have had several people tell me over the past couple weeks that I need to update our blog. I don't know why I haven't, nothing blog worthy I guess. We haven't had much going on. Mike started work about 3 months ago and he is really liking the work. We are still adjusting to the hours he works. They're so inconsistent that it makes it hard. There have been some nights when he has been at work until 5:00 a.m. and then up the next day to be back at work by 8:00 a.m. I don't think we can ever really adjust to that but he is liking the work he is doing which helps. My parents came to visit last week and it was so good to see them. They had never been to Houston before so we showed them the area, went to the park, the children's museum and just had a great time while they were here. Hopefully we will get to see them again soon!

My dad painted Kyia's face. She wanted to look like a cat. She loved how it turned out.

Shoes

This girl loves her shoes, any shoes for that matter. It is more of an obsession actually. She tries on shoes all day long and I find them all over the house. I have pretty much given up keeping our shoes neat in the closet because it only lasts about 10 minutes before she gets to them. We were at the mall the other day and she kept trying to take the shoes off the mannequin and would start saying "Shoes, shoes, shoes" when we passed a shoe store and would actually cry when we didn't go into the store. The toy store on the other hand, she could care less about. She's gotten pretty good at walking around in heels. Hopefully we can cure her obsession before she gets older.

Disney World: 2010

Mike decided he wanted to go on a trip before he started work. We had talked about going to Disney for some time now so we packed up our car and made the 15 hour drive to Orlando. The girls did great in the car. Brooklyn, who hates her car seat and is known to scream when she doesn't like something, didn't scream once in the car which is a miracle. Florida was much colder than we thought it would be. We wore tons of layers and tried to bundle up as much as we could. Brooklyn loved all the rides and wasn't afraid of the characters at all, which we were a little nervous about after the Santa experience. Kyia's favorite ride was Thunder Mountin Railroad which we went on 5 times. People kept giving us there tickets because she would scream and hold up her hands the whole time. It was pretty funny. We're so glad we went and even though they had record cold temperatures while we were there, it was a great trip!

We went right after Christmas so the decorations were still up and it was beautiful. I've never seen the castle like this.

Brooklyn's not too sure of Cinderella's ugly step-sisters

Brooklyn's favorite. She cried when we left Minnie.

Kyia wanted to see Thumper and the girl bunny. We didn't see them last time we came.

Kyia's hair was sooo staticy! Goofy had fun playing with her hair

Pirate Brooklyn

One of Kyia's favorites, Beauty and the Beast

Trying her hardest to pull the sword out of the stone.

Tinkerbell's fairy friend

Mike had the great idea to go swimming with the girls in the freezing cold weather. Some how he ended up with a phone call from work so I got to take the girls swimming instead. We chose to swim in the hot tub where it was a little warmer and the girls loved it.

Santa came to our house

I know I'm probably the last person to blog about Christmas. I'm a little behind. We had a great Christmas this year. This was our first Christmas we've spent on our own since Mike and I have been married. Although we missed family, it was fun to start our own traditions. Christmas Eve was spent making a gingerbread house and spending time with friends. This year I pretty much let Kyia take charge of the gingerbread house. She did most of it on her own with a little bit of Brooklyn's help.

Kyia wasn't to sure of the help Brooklyn was giving.

Brooklyn was more interested in eating the gingerbread.

And here is the finished product. It came out quite well I think.

We also visited Santa. Brooklyn was not a fan of Santa this year as you can tell.

We spent that night with friends eating, playing games, making cookies for Santa, reading the Christmas story, had a pinata for the kids, and just enjoying the company.

Opening Christmas pajamas

All the kids in their new pajamas

The pinata. This was the hardest pinata to break. We finally had to cut it open. They now make them out of cardboard which didn't work well with kids.

We spent Christmas at our house and just had a relaxing day. The girls got spoiled and loved all their gifts. Brooklyn had more fun unwrapping gifts and didn't care what was inside. We had a great holiday and we're looking forward to 2010!