New Obsession

Audrey LOVES scissors and cutting paper into itty, bitty pieces. I know, it's a somewhat dangerous obsession, but she's really quite responsible about the scissors. It's a great thing to keep her entertained and all she's ever cut is paper. There's always tomorrow... But I'm usually not too far away. And sometimes you just need something to keep them happy for a few minutes (or 30 minutes) while you try to get something done. :)

5.5

Rachel's half birthday (Nov. 9th) was a big deal to her this year. I casually mentioned it to her a few days before the actual date. She wanted to know what we were going to do to celebrate. I wasn't quite prepared for that request... So, we decided to make it somewhat special by eating lunch with her that day. I discovered that Sonic is a good place to go for a kid's meal at 10:15, since most are still serving breakfast and we have to meet Rachel for lunch at 10:30. Rachel was thrilled with her grilled cheese sandwich, apples and caramel, and root beer. It doesn't get much better than that! :) Here's our 5 1/2 year-old princess:

Rachel has definitely had a lot of growth in the past six months. She mastered swimming this summer, her handwriting is looking fabulous, and she is doing awesome with her reading. We are trying to encourage more math, which she's good at but it's just something I've overlooked in the past. She loves work stations and Writer's Workshop at school. I love how her mind works and the questions she'll ask. Rachel is very excited about having a baby brother join our family. She tells me all the time that she'll come home from school and hold him while I clean house and make dinner. :) And I'm sure she will be a good helper. Rachel is loving her ballet/jazz class. And in the past couple of weeks I have started working with her on the piano. She is so eager to learn and wants to play songs. So, we've started since she is interested. Rachel is such a joy to have and we are so grateful that she is part of our family!

Cockrell Butterfly Center

The Saturday before Halloween we headed to the Cockrell Butterfly Center in downtown Houston. I had purchased a groupon since Rachel has been talking about going back ever since Andy took the girls last year. The girls enjoyed our little Saturday morning adventure.

A picture by the caterpillar:

Checking out the exhibit before going to see the butterflies:

Rachel took very seriously the task of identifying the butterflies:

Audrey checking out a butterfly with Daddy:

A picture of one when it landed and stayed on Andy's back for quite awhile:

The girls were thrilled when one of the museum workers came up to us and let the girls hold a butterfly. She explained to us that it was injured and wasn't going to live much longer. It made the girls day to be able to hold a butterfly (even though it was almost dead). It was interesting because if you touched the butterfly the colors would rub off on your fingers (kind of like it was bleeding).

After checking out the butterflies the girls had fun playing in a little play area. Rachel got a kick out of how this magnifying glass would make her head larger. Not sure why the scary face, but I guess she was scary with a larger face...

It was a perfect Saturday to go since Grandma Smith was visiting and the museum wasn't busy at all.

Halloween Fun

We had fun celebrating Halloween 2 weekends in a row. The weekend before Halloween my parents came down for a quick visit. We decided to go to the Houston Zoo that Saturday to participate in their "Zoo Boo" event. And I of course left the camera in the car, but Andy brought along the video camera, so we do have a few clips of the fun they had at the zoo that day. They enjoyed trick or treating, pumpkin decorating, some carnival games, and seeing the animals as well... On this particular day both girls decided to dress up as Cinderella and luckily we have 2 Cinderella dress-ups.

Then the next Saturday we attended the traditional "trunk or treat" in our church's parking lot. By then Natalie and Craig were moved down and Grandma Smith was visiting. So, we had fun trunk or treating with them. And for this evening Rachel stayed with Cinderella and Audrey switched to a cheerleader. I'm loving that Halloween costumes are so easy for girls! :)

This was our first Halloween spent with family, it was so much fun for the girls to have Chase there.

A picture with Grandma:

The girls each got their faces painted. Rachel had a unicorn and Audrey had a heart balloon. The kids had fun playing carnival games and got lots of candy that night.

On Monday, the real Halloween, the girls, Andy, and Grandma went trick or treating in our neighborhood for the first time. Unfortunately I got sick that afternoon, so I laid low while the others went out. I had already offered to a friend in the neighborhood for her boys to go trick or treating with our girls (my friend had a 10 day old baby, a fractured foot, and a husband working late). So, Andy and Grandma were troopers to take 4 little ones out. For some reason we didn't take any pictures of the actual trick or treating, but the girls enjoyed themselves. Once again they were both dressed up as Cinderella. It was fun to have Grandma here to spend Halloween with us. We collected way too much candy - we're still working our way through it. But it seems to be like this every year. Last year around the end of March I was using candy corn to potty train Audrey. I just hope Santa knows that we don't need more candy put in our stockings! :)

Carving Pumpkins

The Friday before Halloween the girls carved their pumpkins. We just picked them out at the grocery store and I must say we did a good job because they were pretty empty on the inside. I got a kick out of the girls insisting on wearing gloves to clean out the pumpkins... Just wait until we add a boy to the mix. It will be interesting to see if he's like his sisters or just all boy. :) I helped Rachel and Andy helped Audrey. Rachel was very adamant of how the pumpkin was to be carved (I think this was due to school and what a typical jack-o-lantern was supposed to look like).

Cleaning out:

Finished products:

Our pumpkins actually lasted about a week, which is pretty impossible here. But thanks to a bit of a cool down they didn't get moldy by day 3. The girls had fun lighting their pumpkins each evening on our front porch.

Halloween Dance Performance

Rachel has been enjoying her ballet/jazz class. In October her class prepared 2 dances for parents to come watch on their normally scheduled class time. It worked out perfectly that Grandma Smith was in town, so she got to go to the performance as well. Here are the 2 dances:

You can tell that her dance instructor was in the corner right by me (that's where Rachel is watching for cues). We think Rachel did a pretty fabulous job for her first dance performance! Here's Rachel at the end of her dance performance:

We are looking forward to her Christmas performance in 2 weeks!

Celebrating 34

In October we celebrated Andy's birthday. For the first time in quite a few years we had quite the crowd. Craig, Natalie, Chase, Landon, Andy's mom, and Craig's dad all helped us celebrate. Andy's birthday fell on the week that Craig and Natalie made their move down to Texas official. We went out to one of Andy's favorite Mexican food places and then we headed back to our house to open a few presents and enjoy cheesecake.

Andy had plenty of help opening his presents:

The Birthday Guy and his girls:
Blowing out the candles:

We are certainly blessed to have Andy. He's an amazing husband and father. The girls are lucky to have him as an example of what a good man is. I'm grateful that they get to see his example on a daily basis as he shows love for me and the girls. October was also the month that Andy's promotion at work became official. I don't think either of us thought he would stick around with E&Y until senior manager, but he has. And even though I can complain about E&Y, they've been good to us. Rightfully so though, they're lucky to have Andy as well. :)

So, here's to another fabulous year for Andy!

San Antonio

The second weekend in October we were able to join some friends for a trip to San Antonio. Marriott has a really nice resort that we stayed at last October with the same friends. We may have started a little October tradition... :) It was perfect timing because Andy had been thinking about going on a little family weekend trip and it's good we did it back in October, because life has been pretty busy since. When we first checked in to the resort there was an animal association there with endangered and unique animals to show us. I think they had about a dozen different animals, amongst them were a sloth and a porcupine. They let us all touch the blue-tongued skink:

It was a pretty interesting demonstration. We also got to see a hissing cockroach and were informed that the last thing you want to do when a cockroach is in your house is smash it. As soon as you do that the cockroach sends out pheromones to the other cockroaches that let them know they are in danger and it's time to make babies. So, we were informed to just pick up the cockroach, give it some love, and put it outside. Luckily we haven't had any cockroach incidents in our house recently to make that decision.... :)

The girls and Andy then enjoyed the water park at the resort. It was a bit cool, since it had been raining on and off all day, but they still enjoyed the slides, the pools, and the lazy river. Andy enjoyed the bigger slides (he wasn't able to convince Rachel to join him this time).

Snuggling is the best thing to do when you need to get warm from a chilly swim:

We also enjoyed bowling when the weather wasn't as cooperative. Well, Rachel enjoyed bowling and...

Audrey enjoyed listening to Allie's MP3 player:Rachel has so much fun with Jace:

We were able to get adjoining rooms. And since the kids were all tired enough Saturday night we were able to get all them all asleep in one room while the adults enjoyed playing games in the other room. It was a fun weekend with family and friends!

Big Belly

I hit the 28 week mark yesterday and last week I entered the third trimester. The dreaded last one... But so far I'm feeling pretty good. Some days are better than others, but overall I'm very blessed. When I went to the doctor about 2 weeks ago I got to see our little guy once again. He's doing well. He was 2 pounds, 3 ounces. His head was measuring 2 weeks ahead and his legs were a little behind... He's in the 59th percentile. So, just above average. I had another appointment today - we're on the every 2 week schedule. Craziness! And even though my belly is massive, I've only gained 13 pounds. So, I may be able to stick close to my normal 20 pounds... We'll see! I'm still enjoying my cycling class - I usually go 3 times a week. I passed my glucose test, which I was grateful for. I didn't want to have to torture myself with the 3-hour test... We still haven't talked names seriously and we still have lots of decisions to make. I need to figure out the nursery... The girls are getting anxious for their little brother to arrive. I'm glad I have Christmas to help them understand when he'll come - some time after Christmas. I'm also glad we waited as long as we did to tell them I was pregnant. Otherwise, this would be a long road for them... Rachel and Audrey both enjoy seeing my belly and trying to feel his little kicks and punches. We know that the next 12 or so weeks are going to fly by!

Not to steal Rachel's thunder...

...but Audrey surprised us this morning when she said Rachel's part for the Primary Program. Audrey does mix up one word, but for a 2 year-old she does a pretty good job! We've been practicing a lot and Rachel had just said her part to me. Then Audrey very casually (as she was laying on the floor and coloring) said the part as well. So, we grabbed the camera and had her say it again and I love the sweetness of her voice:

Andy was able to watch Rachel practice today in church and she did a great job, so we're excited for the fabulous job she'll do next week! And Audrey will be ready to join the ranks next year... :)