Thanksgiving weekend, Part 3: the Nutcracker

This year, I wanted to take Allison & Sarah to see the Nutcracker Ballet. And, since the Houston Ballet had discounted matinee performances on Thanksgiving weekend, I decided that it would be a great way to kick off the Holiday Season. I got some really good seats on the Orchestra level, and we had a great evening together. I have such fond memories of going to see the ballet when I was a child, so it was alot of fun for me to watch them watch the performance and enjoy themselves so much.

The picture above was taken at "Uncle Mark's" house, where we dropped Kimball off before the performance. (thanks Uncle Mark & Aunt Melissa!) We decided to take a quick picture of all of us in front of their Christmas tree, since the girls were all dressed up in their new Christmas dresses!

We tried to take some pictures of us in the theater, but my dumb old camera just doesn't focus when there's dim light. It's so annoying!!!!! So the pictures below aren't that good . . . but I tried. ( I know what I'm going to ask for for Christmas this year!!)

At the top of the Grand Staircase, there was a HUGE HUGE Christmas Tree.

Matt got a picture of Sarah standing in front of it.

And I got a picture of Allison showing off her dress during the intermission.

When the performance was over, we took the girls to the "Green Room" to meet some of the characters and get pictures and autographs from them. I used to do this, too, after I'd watch my Mom perform in the Symphony. Whether it was a Classical Concert, Pops Concert, or the Ballet, my brother and sister and I would go and meet the performers and get their signatures. Good times, good memories.

Here's the girls with The Sugar Plum Fairy.

She was so amazing (and pretty). Almost her whole performance was on her toes!!

Clara

The Nutcracker Prince

Thanksgiving weekend, Part 2: Ice Skating!!

The day after Thanksgiving was beautiful weather (70 degrees!), and we definitely wanted to take advantage of it and do something fun as a family. Matt suggested we try out a park in Downtown Houston called Discovery Green. I looked it up online and found that in addition to alot of fun things, they have an outdoor skating rink that's open this time of year. So we brought some gloves & hats and headed down there.

Allison and I skated, while Matt ate lunch with the Sarah & Kimball on the sidelines (and took pictures). I think that everyone had a good time. This was Allison's first time ice skating! One thing that made it so much easier for her was that she was able to rent DOUBLE bladed skates. So it didn't take long to learn how to balance and skate around on the ice. She had a blast! As she became more confident, she wanted me to skate BEHIND her, so that she could prove that she could do it herself without holding my hand. Typical.

Me and Allison, getting used to the ice. (Look at Allison concentrate :)

Sarah giving Kimball a lift, to see Allison better :)

Allison having fun on the ice.

Getting more confident!

Allison posing with her Santa hat

Sarah's handiwork with the camera: a snapshot of our 'festive Daddy!'

Thanksgiving weekend, part 1: decorating

For Thanksgiving this year, we had 2 families come over to eat dinner with us. So, to make our (new) house look a little more festive, we hurried and put up some Christmas decorations. Our huge, 12 ft tall Christmas tree is a major event to put up and decorate every year. Thanks to Matt's help and (also the kids), we got it done!

We were also able to use our extra 7 foot Christmas tree for the very odd space in our entry-way, which, in our estimation, was designed SOLEY for the purpose of a Christmas tree! I mean, it has a window, an outlet and everything you need . . .

Matt climbed up there (barely) with the help of our 10 foot ladder and I handed the tree box up to him. When the kids saw all of this, they wanted in on the action. So, Matt hoisted them up too. The girls, that is. Kimball was eager to go, started half way up the ladder, then stopped and said, "too high, too high!" (Not that we would have let him up anyway.) But that was definitely good judgement for a 2 year old . . .

Kimball turns 2

Ok. This post is WAAAAYYY overdue. Kimball's birthday was all the way back in September, BUT we never officially had a birthday party for him, and I was hoping to have some kind of event for him so that I'd have pictures to add to this post. However, poor little Kimball has fallen victim to lazy parents and so I've decided to go ahead & write this post without further delay.

I DO have a couple of pictures of Kimball opening his birthday book from Grandma & Grandpa Miner, though. So those will have to do. Here they are:

Thanks, Grandma & Grandpa!

Now, for the list about Kimball:

1. Kimball is the sweetest and cuddliest little toddler boy ever! He LOVES to give "huggies & kissies" to everyone in the family.
2. Recently, since it's become colder here, he likes to come into bed with Mommy in the morning, and warm up under the covers. Mommy, of course, loves it.
3. Kimball likes balls, cars, blocks and books.
4. His favorite show is Curious George.
5. His favorite movies are (in order) "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" (ya know, that animated horse movie), the animated "short movie," "Lambert, the Sheepish Lion" and "The Little Mermaid" (thanks to his cousin, Rachael)
6. Kimball continues to be a seriously picky eater. He has 4 main food groups: cereal, milk, Mac-N-Cheese, and Ramen Noodles. Oh, and he also eats scrambled eggs. That's about it. Some days, it's cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's quite rediculous.
7. Kimball likes to kneel down and fold his arms for family prayer. It's so cute, that I had to take a picture of it. (see below) He's so sweet and innocent!!
8. Kimball has recently started asking to go "poo poo on the potty." So, I have willingly obliged. He has now successfully pooped on the potty THREE TIMES!!! Wahoo!
9. Kimball is a true Texan. He Hates to wear coats, and today he REFUSED to go outside in the snow. I'm anxious to see what he does when we go to Utah for Christmas!
10. Kimball LOVES to jump! In typical boy fashion, he will jump off of anything that's a couple inches off the ground.

50th Day at school

At Allison's elementary school, the 50th day of school means it's 50's dress-up day. Here's what we came up with from what we already had at home. Not bad, eh? I think she looks pretty cute . . .

For Halloween, Allison was a Hula Girl

Actually, she was a Hula "twin" with her friend, Korrinne

Sarah was Snow White

And Kimball was Buzz Lightyear!

Snow White and Buzzzzzzz

BIG Close-up on Kimball

Picture of everybody at the "trunk or treat" party at our church

Happy Halloween!!!

We finally carved our pumpkins tonight!!!

And it was actually cool outside while we did it.

Perfect pumpkin carving weather . . .

Allison & Sarah both went for the "scary" look.

And the whole time we were carving,

Kimball kept saying, "Eeewwwww!!! Grosssssssss!!!

It was pretty cute.

Happy Halloween!!

Allison turns 7 !

Here are some fun pictures on Allison on her birthday weekend!!

This one above is of Allison right after she got off the bus on Friday (the day before her birthday). She got a special crown from her teacher to wear all day. (I'm sure she loved the attention it brought her) . . . So I had Allison and Sarah pose together to show it off. She looks pretty happy! Cute sisters, aren't they?

For Allison's birthday, we decided to let her invite 3 friends to go camping on an over-night adventure. We normally don't do "overnighters," but we were going to go camping as a family anyway, so why not turn it into a birthday party with 3 more?

Here are all of the girls in the back of the Tahoe, being silly. They just finished up eating pizza, and now we're on our way to the campsite!! I think they're excited, don't you?

For party favors, we gave each girl a glow-in-the-dark star wand, and later on, we handed out flashlights. They were perfect gifts once it got dark outside, and for inside our camper as 'night lights.'

As part of our campsite, we had an enclosed "shelter" that was totally screened it and covered.

It also had a picnic table that was perfect for eating cake and opening presents.

Allison got a "HyperDash" game from us.

A "Glitter it UP" craft set from Sophie

Silly putty, make-up, and other fun stuff from Emmie

And a decorate-it-yourself Jewelry Box from Millie

After presents, Matt got the campfire good and hot for roasting marshmellows. We made yummy smores. Most of the girls decided that catching their marshmellows on fire was the best way to get the job done. Sophie won the prize for making the most smores that night. We also made gourmet hot chocolate to wash down the smores.

After we got the kids all "sugared up," it was time to head inside the camper! This is always Allison's favorite part of our camping trips. It's seriously nothing to get that excited about. It's just a small pop-up tent trailer, but the kids really have fun with it. The nice thing about it, is that it has a heater and a/c. So we can use it year-round if we WANT to.

Here's a shot of the girls from the outside:

And one from the inside:

The night went surprisingly well. Everyone was MOSTLY warm, and no one woke up until 7am. So that's pretty good, for a group of young girls away from their parents.

In the morning, we ate donuts, muffins, grapes and juice. Afterwards, Matt & I broke camp, while all of the girls played around outside. After the camper was put back together, we took a picture of everyone in front of it.

The last request we had from the girls was to go on a nature hike before we left. So we obliged them by going on a SHORT one. The girls thought they were going on a big adventure!!

There was a neat little bridge on the nature trail that we stopped at for another pic.

And yet another picture I took on our little hike -- of the sun peeking through the trees in the early morning . . .

At the end of the nature trail, I asked one of Allison's friends, Sophie, to take a picture of Me and Matt, with the birthday girl -- to document that we were actually there. She did a pretty good job!

And last, but not least, we snapped a few pictures of the deer that we passed on the way out of the state park. We saw probably 15-20 deer during our stay there.