The Inch Worm

I SWORE Natalie would crawl by Thanksgiving.  She had all the motions down, but instead, she brought out this crazy move...






As you can see, she uses it to get things that she wants.  She doesn't so much use it to move around the house though.  Oh these crazy kids.

White Christmas

We were busy opening presents (because Christmas is an all afternoon event at the Mitchell's - so fun), and David came in & said it was snowing!  We were so surprised.  Especially when it started to REALLY come down!  It rarely snows, and never on Christmas around here!

our car when we went to head home

 Kate was DYING to play in it - even though this picture was taken after 10pm.  We let her run outside and look around and promised some play time the next day.

I snapped these of our front flower beds - so pretty!

 Kate played forever the next morning - and apparently so did our neighbors!  They built this snowman in their front yard!

 We were headed out the next day & I realized I hadn't gotten a picture of Natalie with her first snow.  So, please excuse the lack of coat & snotty nose.  I literally unbuckled out of her seat to snap this!

 And while this girl wasn't as interested in digging in the snow, she sure does look cute in that hat!

Hannah's Cupcake Party

We had Hannah's party the weekend after her birthday (trying to space it out from Kate's a little!), so it was on the 22nd -  right before Christmas!  Quite a few of our friends from in-town ended up being out of town, BUT we lucked out big time & ended up having lots of family and out-of-town friends in town to join us.  So much fun!

While planning Hannah's party, I told David I was feeling a little second-child guilt because when it came time for Kate's 2nd Birthday party, there was no question it should be a letter party.  She loved them, talked about them non-stop.  It was what she was interested in.  I felt like I didn't know what Hannah was interested in, because she tends to want to do/talk about whatever Kate is doing.  But the more David & I talked about it, one thing we know for sure that she loves is food.  So, a cupcake party it was!

The invitation...

I kept the same colors for her party as Kate's to simplify!  Just added some cupcake garland & cupcake decor all around!

We just did snacks & cupcakes!

We moved the party out to the garage again (easy clean up!) for a cupcake bar!

Each of the kids got an apron with their initial on it as their party favor (which came in handy with the icing all around!)

Connor with his first work of art!

In the middle of each table I had muffin tins with all of the fun toppings for them to decorate with! (Thank you, Pinterest!)

Alli working hard on her cupcake!

David & I with our birthday girl!

Adrianna with her cupcake!

Cole (my brother) helping Connor ice his cupcake

the littles spent much more time doing quality control than decorating

Nana & the birthday girl

I think double fisting is the best way to go when it comes to icing too, Carson!

check out all those toppings!

I realized during the party that Hannah had ALL of her Aunts and Uncles at her party!  What a special girl!

Cole & Kristin (my brother & SIL from Austin), Mandy & Ryan (David's sis & BIL from Brownwood, Bethany (David's sis), Angela & BJ (David's sis & her fiancee) and Emily (David's sis)
We were just missing Bethany's fiancee Wade :-(

We so enjoyed everyone - the kids each ate about 4 cupcakes & took home a few too, jumped on the trampoline & had a great time while the parents all enjoyed getting to visit!  What a great Birthday!

Santa Land 2012

We repeated our favorite (well, it's definitely up there!) tradition of going to Santa Land with the Molinas.  Last year we had so much fun, we just knew we had to do it again!

First, we made our stop for dinner at Cracker Barrel.  I am not one to usually be self-conscious, and notice people looking at me, but the whole time at dinner I kept noticing all the couples around us staring (mostly older) and doing a count of kids compared to a count of adults (yes, we were outnumbered!).  It was pretty comical!  The kids were GREAT.  Especially when afterwards we realized we'd been there over an hour!  

This girl decided that the cornbread muffins were cupcakes and polished off at least 3.  ha!

Afterwards, we drove down to a gas station that is just down the feeder road from Santa Land & moved all the carseats to the Molina's car & piled everyone in ours.  

They thought they were so big!

Max & Reagan

Natalie & I

The dads up front

 Once we were actually into Santa Land, we let the girls unbuckle & roam throughout the car to see all the lights.

 This girl was in HEAVEN.  I don't know if you can see how big she's smiling because of the blurry iPhone pic, but she laughed and squealed and ran back and forth across that seat the whole time.  Girl loves freedom.

We all left agreeing this is a tradition that will last for many years to come, and that life must've been so much easier when there were no car seats.  Can't wait til next year!

Peppermint Play-Doh

Kate's class at "school" had a little party for Christmas, so as a gift to her friends, we made peppermint play-doh. (Thank you Pinterest!)  She LOVES play-doh, so I knew she'd get into this & I was glad it would give us something to do together!

making the play-doh on the stovetop

making half of it red

She really enjoyed getting to give gifts to her friends, especially something she had made!!