St. Luke's Day School Christmas Parties

I forgot my camera this morning (hence the sorry photo quality -- new iPhone for Christmas, anyone??!!) and I never had the chance to head home & pick it up, what with all the holiday shopping parking & traffic snarls. Grumble. ALMOST extinguished my Christmas spirit, but I am indomitable!!

This was Brynne's first party. She got green frosting EVERYWHERE -- reminiscent of her first birthday cupcake.

Brynne at her tiny little table, with her tiny little "friends"
(Can you see the gray elephant? It's her Lovie -- she has become ADDICTED to it!!!)

On to Aiden's party. I brought cute cookies from the Dessert Gallery in the shape of Christmas trees & Frosty the Snowman. They were smaller than I expected for TWO DOLLARS A COOKIE, but hey! Less of a sugar high for the tiny guys!

Aiden & Isabel on Ms. Shaw's lap at chapel this morning

Aiden, "showing" his Christmas tree cookie to Daddy (who is in NYC)
(Kate, one of my faves in his class, is in the background -- she wants "make-up and earrings" for Christmas -- LOVE HER!)

Christmas Card Pictures

We went to have our pictures taken today for Christmas cards. All together, not a very productive session, though we did manage a couple that will work.

We didn't seem to get one of the four of us, where both kids looked good. If it wasn't Aiden...


...it was Brynne.

There were a couple, though, that were super cute!!

Brynne's First Birthday Party

Brynne's first birthday party was a success! Lots of pink and butterflies everywhere. Oh yeah -- and LOTS of kids!! So much fun (and completely different than Aiden's first birthday party!!)

The party girl

Butterflies

Yummy cupcakes!



Brynne had lots of help opening her presents!

Yaaaaaaaay!!!!
Brynne worked the crowd after present opening!

Road Trip!

Ellen's husband, Stephen, is from Ocean Springs, MS. Every year, they have a big festival that Ellen has always wanted to go to. This year, they decided to take a road trip with the babies (the first!) and asked us to come along. We then decided to tack on an additional trip to Lake Lure, NC to visit my Aunt Margie (AKA Garn). Stephen declined to accompany us on the week long additional journey, so my Mom filled in for him.

It was exhausting, but oh! so much fun! The weather was spectacular in Mississippi; not so great in North Carolina -- it rained 2 of the 3 days we were there -- but the scenery was GORGEOUS! It was so much fun to be with my little family -- all four of us -- for 10 days straight. And neat to see my kids adjust to life on the road pretty easily.

Enjoy the photo "overview" (I took over 400 pictures and this is the very least I could post!!)!

East Bound and Down, Loaded Up & Truckin'
Theme song from Smokey & the Bandit; Damon's pick for the theme song for our trip!

Aiden & Brynne (Brynne's first trip facing forward!)

Damon did most of the driving

Aim

Lunch at the first rest stop (yep, we got a lot of double-takes!)

Stephen & Elle

Luke

Brynne & Sidney

We tried to stick to rest stops (not always successfully) so there was room to RUN and get rid of pent-up energy
Yaaaaaaaaay!!

Ocean Springs, Mississippi

Aiden and the massive trees

Aiden & Amy on the balcony of our condo

Damon, Sidney & Mitchell

Aiden "cooking" at Mama Jude & Papa Steve's

Playing in the yard at Mama Jude & Papa Steve's -- our daily activity!

Brynne

Ivy & the cozy coupe

Luke & the cozy coupe

Sidney -- addicted to my double stroller

Briellen -- the bike's a little big for you, honey!

Brynne & her never-ending infatuation with Ellen's funky balls

Aiden (what's in his "trunk"???)

Mitchell & Luke -- sharing!

Elle & Brie (TWINS!!)

At the beach!!

Luke

Sidney

Mitchell -- face-planted first thing!

Brynnie Boo

Aidster

Lake Lure, North Carolina

For some reason, some of Elle's kids were much happier in my stroller!

Book time!

When Aiden had enough babies, he escaped with my iPhone

Fabulous deck! We got to play outside, even though it was pouring down rain

All the girls in the tub

Uncle D & Ivy, bonding

The house where we stayed (a good friend of Aunt Margie's)

The view from our deck

Waterfall near Chimney Rock

Damon & Amy -- love the trees!

I absolutely LOVE the river that runs into the lake (I think it's the Broad River) and couldn't wait to take pictures by it

Aim & Aid

D and B

Brynne -- I wouldn't let her out of the stroller and she's "sticking" her tongue out at me!

Damon & Aiden

Aiden, playing "mountain man"

Nothing's better than a cuddle with Daddy

Happy First Birthday Brynne!!

Brynnie Boo's first birthday is today!!! It's hard to reminisce on the circumstances leading up to her birth, but it was all worth it! (and I chose not to remember the bad parts, anyway - LOL!!)

She is such a trip. She's developing her own little personality -- very easy going, but when she wants something, she's a little tiger! She's VERY attached to me, which is nice because it was around this age that Aiden became attached to Damon. She has six teeth and when she's happy (most of the time!) she smiles with ALL of them! She's not walking yet, but cruises on everything. At her check-up, her vital stats put her as a "short, chunky girl". Check out her badonkadonk:


Ellen, SLIM-B and my mom came over to "celebrate". We're having her party the weekend after we get back from our road trip, so stay tuned for more pics!

Her first present -- she's not too sure what to do with it!

A bow from Auntie Elle! We love pink!

Happy Halloween

We started off our Halloween "season" with a trip to the pumpkin patch.




Aiden decorated his own t-shirt for his preschool Halloween party.



Halloween day, Damon took Aiden to the A&M game, while Brynne & I went to a Toddler Party at Susan, RJ & Eli's. Aiden had a hideous cough (the drama with his lungs never ends!), so they didn't make it to the party as planned, but we did manage to make it to a couple of houses for trick-or-treating!

I was a flower, Brynne was a little ladybug

Happy as long as her hood isn't up!

Little Houston Texan

Lucky #19

Aiden & Isabella

Isabella has always been a very standoffish kitty -- hardly anyone besides me (and eventually Damon) could pet her. When we had a large group of people over, she would hide under the bed. When approached by small children, she would hiss & growl.

Then came Aiden. At first, all was the same. But as the enchantment of a new baby overtook us (oh! that was sleeplessness??!!), Bella "got" less and less of me. But as Aiden grew older, she got more and more of him and his infatuation with her. He followed her EVERYWHERE! It's one thing that has yet to fade -- he is still as infatuated with her as he was 2 1/2 years ago when he first noticed her.

She puts up with a LOT from my kids. All for the sake of attention -- any kind. So, I thought this picture of Aiden building blocks on her was priceless -- you've come a long way, Bella!