Cuteness between Thanksgiving and Christmas

I'm not quite ready to tackle a Christmas blog entry yet, so while I was looking through our pictures I found some really cute ones that happened between the holidays to share.

Above: Ella, Below: Emma

Emma rocking

Ella with static hair

A Christmas Treat

Our Christmas Tree

(Yes, we put a fence around our tree, and it was a great success. The girls could just barley reach a couple of the branches, but all our ornaments and presents were safe without having to only decorate the top half of the tree.)

Belated Happy Thanksgiving

We had a very busy holiday season, and as a result, I am seriously behind in updating our blog. I will try to catch up, but it might take me a little bit. Here is a brief recap of our Thanksgiving.

We visited Bryan's grandparents over Thanksgiving this year. We first traveled to Graham, TX to visit Nana and Papa. We enjoyed spending time with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents while we were there. I even had my first experience with Black Friday sales at Walmart with Bryan's aunt. That was an experience! I did get some great deals though.

Emma managed to pull many things, including this artificial fern into her bed during her nap on our first full day there. I love the expression on her face.

Our girls had a great time roaming around outside. They love walking on all the different textures, especially in the piles of leaves. (Emma has on the brown shirt, and Ella is wearing the pink.)

Playing on the stairs with Cousin Price

Ella helping sweep up their mess.

They both climbed in the box full of plastic balls and had the best time throwing them out.

On Friday, we drove to Quitaque to visit Mamaw and Papaw. Another wonderful family gathering!

Mamaw, Cousin Berkley, Ella and Emma

Thanksgiving Dinner

Playing with cousins

We had much to be thankful for this year: our wonderful girls, family, and friends, along with many other blessings, the greatest of which is our heavenly Father who watches over us and takes such good care of us. We hope you had a happy Thanksgiving and took a few moments to think about all the blessings in your lives as well.

Miscellaneous Cute Pics.

Sweet Kisses

(Above: Emma, Below: Ella)

Wearing Mommy's Slippers

They each put one on their right foot and walk all around the house.

Happy Halloween 2009

We had a very happy Halloween! Ella and Emma were the cutest little giraffes, and Mommy and Daddy made pretty good zoo keepers/ safari leaders too. We went to the fall festival at our church on Friday night. They had some inflatable games and carnival type games for the kids to play. The girls really loved bouncing in the bounce house with Daddy. They will walk/crawl around and jump whenever they had something to hold on to (usually Daddy).

Ella

Emma

We both won a prize for getting the bean bag in Sylvester's mouth.

(Ella above, Emma below)

On Halloween, we spent a little while at a pumpkin patch with Grammie and Grandy. Unfortunately there weren't very many pumpkins left, but Emma and Ella still had a great time running around amongst the hay bales. They didn't want to leave.

Our little "punkins"

Ella

Emma

After we got home, we played with bubbles in the back yard for a little bit.

Halloween night we went Trick or Treating at the grandparents' houses.

"Trick or Treat, Grammie and Grandy"

Emma helping Grandy play the organ.

Daddy and Girls

Mommy and Girls

Emma, "Hey, Grammie, that's my candy!"

Ella

Helping ourselves to Memaw and Datt's candy basket.

Yummy raisins, Memaw

We had a fun time and the girls did a great job of keeping their costumes on. They still play with them from time to time.

God Answers Prayers...

In Mysterious Ways!!!

Well, our housing saga continues. We have been praying (a lot) about selling our house and moving in with my parents while we search for a new house. God has taken care of our homelessness. We no longer have a contract on our house. The potential buyers backed out. So, it looks like we will get to be in our home for the holidays after all. This will be a very good thing. One less thing to stress about over the holidays, not having to move in with family (although we love my parents and I'm sure we would have gotten along as well as possible), not having to get a storage unit right now, etc.

We have decided to wait until after the holidays to put our house back on the market. From what we have seen, our perfect new house is either not for sale right now, not in our price range, or just not showing up in all our searches. So, while we will continue our search for our new home, we will be able to enjoy the holidays without the worry of having to keep our house spotless for potential buyers. We plan to put our house back on the market either in January or when we find a house to move into, whichever comes first.

Your continued prayers for our family as we will eventually be selling our home and buying a new one would be appreciated.

Terrific Toddlers

Ella and Emma are very fun toddlers. They love to play together, be chased, tickled, and jabber all the time. This is such a fun age. They are learning new words all the time. We still can't understand much of what they say, but they can each say about 10-15 words now. They are doing better learning to use a spoon (we still have to scoop the food onto the spoon, then they put it in their mouths).

Here are a few "eating" pictures. Emma tends to be the messier eater, but Ella can definitely make a mess as well.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Emma above, Ella below)

Ella playing with a straw

Yummy Chicken Spaghetti!

Emma cleaning her plate (above) and Ella laughing at her (below)

Emma likes regular spaghetti also.

We LOVE to play the piano!

On October 4, my cousin got married in Kansas City. We drove up there with my sister and her family. The wedding was an outdoor ceremony. It was beautiful. Between the wedding and reception, we had time to visit with everyone there. Our girls loved walking around in the grass and climbing the steps. They probably went up and down those steps 50-100 times each.

Emma and Daddy

Ella

Emma and Daddy: All tuckered out after climbing all those steps.

On the way home from the wedding

You would think they would be tired of their car seats after all that time driving to and from Kansas City, but they started climbing in and playing with them as soon as we got them out of the car.

These are just some random fun pictures.

This is what it looks like when two 17 month olds get into your file cabinet.

Ella signing "please" to go outside.

Above: Ella, Below: Emma

House update: Our housing situation has gotten a bit complicated since I last wrote. Someone else made an offer on the house we had a contingency contract on. We had 3 days to remove our contingency or let it go. Our house did not sell in that 3 days, so we had to let it go. Four days later, we got an offer on our house. So, our house is scheduled to sell on Nov. 13. We have not yet found another house that we like enough to buy, so we are planning on living with family until we can find a house that will meet our needs at a price we can afford. Please pray for us to find a new house soon and for our sanity as we pack and move.