New Years Eve Plans

Olivia was invited to spend the night with Julianne Fletcher on New Year's Eve. Laura asked if we'd like to go to the movie, Princess and the Frog earlier in the evening and then have dinner. So we did. The Lee's (Kelly, Tony, and Tiffany) met us at Izzy's after the movie. Then we went back to the Fletcher's house for a little bit while the girls all played. Bella did NOT want to leave, but since we plan to go back tomorrow for football and a potluck, she wasn't too hard to convince to leave.

Third Annual Trolley Ride

Our annual trolley ride almost didn't happen this year because we could barely find time that all of us could go! We ended up going on Tuesday evening after mom and Livie took Mamaw back to Louisiana. All of us met up at the park and ride in the Argenta area, and took the 4:25 trolley to downtown. We got off and ate at the Flying Burrito. It was pretty cold and windy when the sun went down, so the wait for the trolley to go back across the river was a cold one!

Merry Christmas, Love, Bella!

4 Generations

Before Mamaw left, we made sure to get a 4 generation picture with her. We took several, and this was the best of them. With little ones, we had to take what we could get... Ha!

Then, the guys got in the picture with her. She loves them so much...and they are pretty fond of her too.

Christmas 09

We started off on Christmas Eve with cleaning. Ha. I had wanted to get IN Olivia's room and clean OUT stuff (by myself...you know why). So, Brian took the kids out to the stores while I stayed to clean. It worked out great...but I didn't want to stop when it was time. I cleaned out everything I could think of: behind the dresser, in the closet, under her bed, all of her drawers and shelves... I thought it looked SO good.

Then, we went to my mom's house for our Christmas Eve gathering. We started off with finger foods as we opened gifts. This Christmas was special because my Mamaw was in town for it.







After we opened gifts, we ate our ham dinner and watched the Christmas Story on TV.

When we got home, the kids put on their pajamas and we started opening our gifts. Liv was SO excited about her Justice perfume, and Bella was THRILLED to get the camera she'd been asking for.









Here's a pic of an earring holder I made for Bella. I was quite proud of it.



The girls got Santa's cookies and milk together before going outside and putting out the reindeer food on the lawn.

While little dreamers slept, Santa came! Olivia got a Nintendo DS with some games and accessories, and Bella got a scooter with a Barbie helmet/knee and elbow pad set.







Then we went to my mom's house for our traditional cheese biscuits. Later in the afternoon, we met my mom and Mamaw for Chinese. Then Brian and I took the girls to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquel. It was actually pretty cute. Bella even sat through the whole movie--surprise, surprise!


I love this picture of Bella and Cooper playing Christmas Day. It reminds me of a picture of Emily with our cousin Stephen when they were young...dressing up as the Rich Lady.

Recent pictures

I took these pictures of my girls the early part of November, but didn't want to post them because I was making an album for my mother-in-law for Christmas...and didn't want to ruin the surprise. :)









Don't they look SOOO big?? sigh...

Annual Christmas Light Excursion

The kids had been asking when we would go look at lights with snacks? I knew what they were talking about...a tradition we started last year. We decided that the best time to go would be Sunday evening the 20th after dance practice at 5:45. We didn't take snacks though because we stopped to eat at CiCi's before venturing out.

We hit North Little Rock this year (planning on seeing different parts of central Arkansas each year for variety). This one was declared the winner by a vote.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Every year, I like to take a picture of our Christmas tree... I search for the best ornaments for the kids each year, and thought it would be a good idea to show those and write why I chose them. :)




For Olivia, she got a Charlie Brown ornament from us. She is NUTS about the Charlie Brown specials on CBS each holiday. For Bella, she got a Tinkerbell ornament. Ever since Ms. Judy at the JFK Learning Center told us Belle reminds her of Tinkerbell--we now think of her each time anything Tink is around. (She certainly ACTS like Tink! Ha!)