We almost forgot the chair!!

Just before bedtime, we had one last photo shoot in your bear chair.  We've slacked off the past few months, so I was adamant that we capture your chair picture ON your actual birthday... even if you were in your jammies!

Here you are working hard on your "two":

You got it!!

I cannot believe this was you just one short year ago...

Sniff, sniff.

TWO!

Happy 2nd Birthday to my sweet baby girl today!!  

We started the day with daddy's famous birthday pancakes, followed by a visit to Santa Claus. You were so not a fan:

We had a long pep talk and watched lots of kids sit in Santa's lap, but when the time came, you wanted no part of it! After you recovered from Santa, we headed to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch and then to the Disney store with daddy. You emerged with a smile on your face and a brand new Minnie Mouse doll! She's quickly becoming your new favorite! Poor Dora and Elmo...

You are so much fun right now - you bring so much joy, even to the little things. I love just watching you walk - you have always had a little extra bounce in your step since you took your first one. You love music - "Frosty Snowman", "the jingle one" ("All I Want for Christmas is You"), "Baby", "Low, Low, Low", and you enjoy making the rest of us dance ("Go Da-eee! Go Mommy! Go Ah-vry") right along with you!

You constantly amaze me with all you say and do - you know your ABC's and you are recognizing all of your letters. You are talking in full sentences, counting to 13 and you know all of your colors too! You love reading books, coloring with your sister, and demanding to pretend paint everyone's hand "Come ON Mommy, paint your hand!!!". 

What a blessing you are to all of us.  Happy Birthday Anna Banana - We love you!

(Party pics coming soon!)

Turkey Tango

This is the first year that Avery is taking tap, and she loves it! It’s no surprise that I love to watch her dance, and it is absolutely impossible for me to NOT tear up when I’m watching her. It brings back so many memories for me and it makes me realize how far my shy little girl has come! 

Just before Thanksgiving each year, we all gather to watch her class perform. Ryan and I were both able to go this year, and even though Avery specifically asked me NOT to bring Anna (“because her is going to trip me while I’m dancing”) – I brought her anyway.  Thankfully, Anna behaved.  Well, for the most part...

Here she is - ready to tap!

Now onto ballet for the “Turkey Tango”… 

Haha – check out that face.  We heard lots of “stop LOOOOOOKING at me!”, but we didn’t listen. :)

Check out that arabesque...

Stellar first position:

Avery and her buddy, Eliza.  So fun that they are in the same dance class this year!

Proof that Anna was there, and for the record, she did not trip Avery.  Or anyone else.

After dance, we headed to Market Street for the Annual Tree Lighting.  It was a chilly night – perfect for sipping hot cocoa!

We had a picnic dinner, danced along with the band and decorated luminaries. This pic was taken just before the tree lights came on and the snow started falling!  Such a great night with such great friends…

(Isabelle, Kate, Avery & Eliza) 

Children's Festival

Ryan’s company sponsors the Children’s Festival each year in The Woodlands, and this was the first year that we were able to go.  It was a great event!  We saw Thomas the Train as well as lots of dancing, singing, face painting, hat making… you name it, they had it!

Avery sporting the hat that she made:

Anna enjoyed watching the dancers, but both girls enjoyed being ON the stage more than in the audience:

After jumping in various bounce houses, Avery decided that she wanted to do the giant, inflatable, human hamster ball that floats on water thingy.  She hates loud noises, so I did not expect this to go well:

Almost there (notice hands firmly over ears)…

And she’s off!

You could not wipe the smile off of her face!  Guess she’s growing up… sniff.

We were quickly approaching nap time, and Anna was starting to hit her wall when Daddy the Hero showed up with some popcorn! Thankfully that bought us a little time so that Avery could see the gymnasts perform...

Very fun day!

Still talking turkey...

This year was the first year we headed to the coast for Thanksgiving, and Jannie & Pops rented an awesome house right on the water!  We arrived late Tuesday night, and the girls were so excited that they hardly slept that night! 

Wednesday we headed into Corpus to hit the aquarium, and the girls loved it.  It was such a great aquarium, complete with a dolphin show outside! 

Anna repeated “Come on dolphin, jump HIGH!” 842 times – she apparently had high expectations! 

Not a great picture, but the girls had to see the dolphins under water too!  Notice Anna with her baby that comes almost everywhere with us – she’s recently named her “Isabella” – after her best little buddy from school:

The birds were actually a big hit – we spent lots of time looking at the the owl. He was holding a mouse, which Anna was convinced it was a kitty cat. Thankfully she was not disturbed that it was his dinner!

The bald eagle and the parrot were also a big hit along with the alligator and Dori (Nemo must have been sleeping).

Thanksgiving Day was spent enjoying lots of family that Anna, Avery and I haven’t really been around too much and that Ryan hasn’t seen in a long time!  My girls were especially enamored with Uncle Matt (Ryan’s brother):

 ...and the “other Uncle Matt” (Ryan’s brother, Jeff):

I got suckered into the “cousins” picture since Anna would not go without me:

Avery, Meme & Ali (who was a big hit with my girls, and with me!):

This one spent lots of time eating…

And making messes:

At night we would enjoy the sunset (and fight the stickers in the grass), roast s'mores and play games.  This particular night, we just focused on forgetting the outcome of the Aggie game.

Friday we headed out on Blaine's boat, and the girls were eager to go for a ride.  It was Anna’s first!!

We figured we might as well enjoy the photo-op, while Jeff & Blaine were working hard to get the boat in the water:

The boat was small, but super fast!  Sad that Blaine got cut out of the pic!

Off we went!  The girls enjoyed the ride and pointing out all of the birds. Avery just wanted to go fast!  Anytime Blaine would slow down, Avery would ask if we just ran out of gas.

We had a terrifying ride back.  Wind + small boat = Near death experience.

Avery was really excited to learn how to fish, and Jannie had a Dora fishing pole ready to go!  Here she is checking out the bait – I can’t believe she touched it!  That quality is definitely not in the gene pool...

And there she goes!

And this one was just sweet…

Pops helped Avery collect and clean some sea shells. Pops – she hasn’t forgotten about that necklace you promised her! ;)

Uncle Matt caught some bait, so Avery wanted to check it out…

And she touched it too. She couldn’t believe that it was “real”! 

Anna decided that she needed to fish too, but ultimately she enjoyed watching Jannie fish with her pole more. 

This one of Meme and Anna is one of my favorites!  And let me tell you something about Meme... she does not mess around when it’s time to play games! I wasn't brave enough to play against her this year! 

Thank you Jannie & Pops for such a memorable Thanksgiving.  We have lots to be thankful for!!

Trick-or-Treat

 This year the Mr. and I took the day off to attend all of the festivities – next year, I will be taking the day AFTER off because We. Were. Exhausted.

The girls were super excited about all of the Halloween festivities candy that was in store, so they were eager to go to school!  Here are the girls ready for school in their Halloween shirts – and, as usual, this is the best I could do of the girls together: 

The school parade and parties were great!  This year we had to divide and conquer, so I went to Anna’s party, and Daddy attended Avery’s.  Before nap time, Anna’s class “planted” glitter pumpkin seeds, and when they woke up, they found a row of little pumpkins! 

Anna and I decided to join Avery’s party where they were on a 20 minute rotation of cupcake decorating, door hanger decorating and picture frame decorating!  She loved it all…

We headed from school straight to our neighborhood party: 

This year we decided to rent a bounce house for the kids.  This was Anna’s first time in a bounce house, and it was hilarious to watch her try to stand up!

When it started to get dark, Deda came over so we could trick-or-treat:

Yet another attempt to get a shot of my girls together:

Anna headed straight to the “pump-in” at the end of our street, and Avery went straight for the candy:

The girls off to another house – this was one of the few times that Avery actually waited for Anna! 

Belle and Daddy:

Avery completely got the hang of things this year, and she was determined to go to every house in our neighborhood... and as fast as possible!  Anna started to lose interest, so she stayed back with Daddy to hand out candy. She was a huge fan of our neighbor’s spider hat though – she loved to point and say, “Mommy! E-Bii-Pider!!" 

I'm happy to report that the girls have finally come down from their sugar highs, and I'm ready to get the remaining candy out of our house... Any takers!!??