Dallas Arboretum | 2015

Are you tired of seeing bloggers post Santa pictures yet? If you are, you came to the right place because we are way behind around here and talking pumpkins today. Let's just pretend our trip to the arboretum is fashionably late rather than a result of procrastination ;).  Early on in November, my sisters and I organized ourselves and picked out a day where all the husbands and kiddos could meet at the Dallas Arboretum.  It turned out that we picked a perfect day, the weather was cool, but not so cold that we had to bundle up and as an added bonus, the light was golden, they had the pumpkin patch + the 12 days of Christmas on display.

One day I am going to miss that 7 tooth smile :).

When I look back on her childhood, I want to always remember that she 'held all the things'.  Seriously though, she always has things/objects/stuffed animals in her hands at all times.

We headed straight for the pumpkin patch to catch the best moods/get it over with - we sat all the cousins down and attempted to capture magic :).

#nailedit ;).

I am always amazed that these two ended up looking so much alike.

Poor Theodore - he puts up with a lot from his girl cousins; once his sister arrives, this little guy is going to be even more outnumbered.

I am thinking that his parents secretly worked on the command 'please sit still, look at the camera and smile' at home.  My girls missed out on that memo :).

They make the perfect pair!!

Then, we attempted a family picture :).

At least I can say that I tried (any other Adele fans out there catch that reference?).

Her princess poses gets me every single time. As do those boots (I think those were single-handedly my best purchase this season).

The lighting is a little off here, but I love moments that truly capture their joy.

Oh my goodness, this guy is so cute! And has the prettiest blue eyes.

Then we got some sister pictures - I was amazed at how easy these were to choose from (and how few pictures there were); mom and dad- it is safe to say we have come a long way from our childhood days ;).

Love these girls :).

Emma, not one to be left out (hello spitting personality of her momma), jumped in for some photo fun.

I can not reiterate enough, how much I love these ballet dresses (second best purchase this season); their twirl factor is unreal.

Emma was especially feeling Ally and Travis this day and I love this silly picture I captured of the three of them- definitely one of my favorites from this excursion.

When she smiles like this, I feel like I have captured pure magic.

Daddy and his girl :).

I got to steal some kisses from my littlest girl.

In case you are wondering, I am still obsessed with kissing my girls on the lips ;).

Love this guy - there is no one else I would rather raise our two crazy girls with!

My favorite picture of Emma from the day- I think she looks so much like my mom here.

It is hard work that requires sticking out your tongue to carry around as many pumpkins as Everly did on this day :).

After the pumpkin patch, we headed towards the Christmas tree :); the newlyweds!

We attempted to get one more family picture, but we only had one willing participant - she's a keeper :).

Our missing child wanted her picture taken by herself.

Sister hugs on baby Yoga's level.

After asking for so many photos, when we got to this grassy patch- we just let them run free.  They adored running up and down the green grassy patch with their aunt and uncle.

And dancing their hearts out on this stage - not sure what this dance move is all about, but I like it :).

Our last stop of the day was at the coy pond where the girls decided to feed the fish some of their goldfish.

Tippy toe life.

Sister hugs that melt my momma heart.

Uncle Craig was attempting to teach them to catch some time of really tiny fish (possibly a minnow, I can't remember?).

I love to see my girls with my sisters and especially Ev's with my sisters.  She has come such a long way in warming up to people (other than Wes, Emma and myself) and I just adore seeing her build her own relationships.

This was such a fun family day and I am so happy we were able to coordinate all of our schedules to make this happen for the fifth year in a row :).

Kicking Off the Holiday Season

Happy Monday! I had a jam packed week, spending most of the week in California where I quite possibly had the best tasting lobster roll of my life :), so needless to say, after arriving back in Texas at about midnight at Friday, I was pretty happy to spend the weekend soaking up my family.

And these two were pretty happy to start their Saturday morning off with donuts :).  We don't get donuts very often in our house, so I think they definitely knew it was a special treat- when I said "give each other a hug, we are getting donuts!", they happily obliged warming my momma heart.

The donut shop by us has the cutest donuts and their Christmas ones did not disappoint- the girls had so much fun picking out their own donuts and telling the lady which ones they wanted :).

I think they had equal amounts of fun eating the donuts :).

I took a close up of Ev's donuts while she was eating the extra one they put on her plate :).

When she reached into grab another one- the sweet little reindeer (and her chubby fingers) might have been my favorite :).

We spent the rest of the morning making a quick trip to Target and then going over to my parents house to see them and baby Seodore for some cheek smashing :).

That night, we headed to Arlington parade and tree lighting where Ev's favorite part was definitely running through the 'snow' prior to the parade :).

More pictures to come of that fun evening once I get them downloaded from my camera :).

Spoiler alert: Ev's was still not that impressed by Santa ;).

Soccer Wrap Up

Our soccer season has now come and gone and it was truly a roller coaster; it was one of the best, most exciting, most frustrating, most confusing activities that we have been a part of.  At the beginning on the season, Emma showed interest in playing and "getting it" (as much as three year old's can) and a week later she immediately went to standing on the field and spent more of her time waving at the sidelines than even attempting to go to the ball and she ended the season participating again.  Reflecting on this now, this shouldn't at all surprise me- she is three after all, but I cannot adequately describe the frustration of watching her just stand there not participating in any way, shape or form.  Glad we ended the season on a (relatively) high note.

Emmy Lou's number one fan :).

During her second to last game, I pulled out our camera again once our girl was participating - p.s. throw in's might be my second favorite part of soccer (next to stretching).

My favorite soccer picture of Emma :).

Running towards the ball ;).

And my favorite action shot :).

Her team had a challenging season (read: they were not that good. at all ;).), but they hung in there and overall it was a fun experience. Especially the snacks.  Emma (and Everly) lived for the snacks.  And I lived for all the cute moments between the two after the game while Emma would tend to her 'baby yoga'.

Goodness gracious, we love our baby Yoga. And as a side note, my family has been calling her this on the regular. And when you ask her to say her name, when she is in a joking mood she will actually respond with 'baby Yoga'.  I am afraid this

And the last game, we froze our royal rostiferian (sp?) ninnies off (any other Cool Runnings fans out there?).

I really hope that soccer sticks and we get to watch Emma play for a long time.

Holiday To Do List

Happy December 1st! The 1st day of my favorite month of the year (combine the Christmas season with little ones plus my birthday and truly nothing makes me happier!) is finally here!  To celebrate, here is a list of a few things I am hoping to do this year:

... have a North Pole breakfast and introduce the girls to our Elf (we won’t do this until Saturday, December 12^th so I am thinking our Elf will be able to keep up with this for the remaining 12 days ;)).  We have never done an Elf before so I will let the girls name her (I am almost positive we have a girl elf :).  Inspiration for this from here (mine will look nowhere near this good ;))

... matching Christmas jammies (because duh!)

... send out family Christmas cards

... attend the City of Grapevine Christmas light show (they use RGB lights that my husband is dying to see :))

... wear our jammies to grab hot chocolate and coffee at Starbucks and venture to see the lights in Interlachen (grab hot chocolate and coffee at Starbucks)

... decorate a Gingerbread House

... attend Light Up Arlington Christmas Parade and hopefully stay long enough to see Santa!

... cookies with Santa at our church

... watch the girls Christmas program (where we will get to see Santa again ;))

... bake Christmas cookies with the girls and deliver them to a nursing home (as part of learning to give back)

... attend Holiday in the Park

... host a hot chocolate party complete with the viewing of Wes’s light show

... host a cozy pizza dinner with my immediate family (like last year)

Whew. I think we will be busy this month- good thing I am 95% done with my Christmas shopping :).