Parade of Lights

The parade was so much fun this year! We missed having Randy there with us - he got a last minute ticket to the very exciting A&M v. Nebraska game - but we had fun and I did great with both girls! We got there early because we wanted to make sure we had a place to park and a place to sit and watch the parade, and at the last minute I thought to bring Randy's ITouch. Kendall has several games on there that she loves to play, so I thought that might keep her entertained while we were waiting. We hung out next to the Beams, and when Lawson saw Kendall playing on the touch, he grabbed his mom's phone. I love this picture!!

They were comparing games - they both have "the monkey game" - and at one point they even switched so they could play some games that they thought looked like fun on the other one's phone!
Sweet friends! Lawson is exactly one year (minus three days) older than Kendall, but she's just so big that I think they look the same age!

I did not have high hopes for how Kendall would do with the parade. It goes right in front of us and I knew it would be loud. She did awesome, though! A few times she covered her ears, but she never got upset and she really loved it. Here she is waving at the floats - she loved waving and saying "Merry Christmas!" It was so much fun to watch her.

When we were leaving, she said, "Mom, that parade was fun!" I asked her which one was her favorite, and she said, "The truck." I said, "Which truck? There were a lot!" And she said, "The one with the Grinch!" We watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas on Friday night while we put up our Christmas tree, and since then we've watched it probably half a dozen times - she loves it! She says, "Mom, he don't like him's heart." (Talking about how the Grinch's heart is two sizes too small). So of course that float was her favorite!

The Chick-a-lay float!! That was one of our favorites, too, because we go there quite a lot!

It was such a great parade! It lasted about an hour and there were so many entries! Here's a shot of the Corvette club for Pops!!

Here we are after the parade, ready to head back to the car. And yes, Kendall IS chewing on one of those light sticks that has liquid in it. I promise I was watching her the whole time, Randy - except for when I was looking at the camera!! Cooper stayed in the wrap on me the whole time and never woke up, even when the fire truck was honking it's horn! Maybe next year she will actually SEE some of the parade!!

It feels a lot like Christmas here, but we are getting packed and ready for a week in Ft. Worth for Thanksgiving! We're excited about a long vacation!

Festival of Lights

This afternoon was the start of my most favorite Lake Jackson tradition: The Festival of Lights! Every year they put up all these Christmas trees made of lights all over downtown and have a festival during the day and then a parade at night. It's so much fun! We went to the festival part today and in just a little while we will head to the parade. Kendall was pretty excited about the festival...until we got there! Then she got a little overwhelmed and everything was just too loud and too scary. We ran into some friends and asked them to take a family picture - here's how that went:
Oh well. So then we headed over to the carnival part of the festival and bought tickets so Kendall could ride the carousel like she had been talking about wanting to do. They ride one in Mary Poppins, so she thought that would be fun. Well, she changed her mind (after Randy bought the tickets) so we moved on to the games. She thought it sounded like fun to pick a duck and get a prize, but then, not so much. Can you tell?

After that it was time to go watch Aubrey Beams dance on the main stage! Kendall was really excited about that and she could just sit in the stroller, so that worked out great!! Here we are ready to see Aubrey:

She did such a good job! She's so sweet and cute! (on the right - our friends Jason and Stephanie adopted her from Russia - but she just looks like she's their biological child!!)

Before we left, we walked over to the snow hill so Kendall could just see it. It looked like fun! I wore Cooper the whole time - and she slept the whole time! We'll see how they both do for the parade tonight; it's going to be loud!!

Turkey Cookies!

On Wednesday our friends Rachael and Charlotte had us over to make turkey cookies! Mary had seen this picture and wanted to try making them with the kids...needless to say, our cookies didn't look quite this good!

Spreading the icing on her cookie. Before it was over, I actually saw her sticking the spreader into the icing and eating it right off!!
Mary and Sarah were there, and Ethan, Ella and Holly.

Showing me her cookie!

Sweet friends!

Here's the hostess: Rachael with her daughter Charlie. Rachael is having her second in just a few weeks!

Megan and Clark were there too - and Megan let me help Kendall by holding Cooper for awhile. Cooper enjoyed watching. :)

Check out that messy face!!

We had a great time making (turkey) cookies!! Thanks girls!

Fun Weekend!

We had a great weekend! When Randy got home from Cambodia last weekend, we decided to tear out our carpet and put down new floors in the living room and hall. It has been a lot of work! We worked all day Friday, and then Gigi and Peeps came down for a quick visit Saturday and Sunday. They helped us work on Saturday, but of course we had to take a break for the Aggie game Saturday night! It was so fun to watch the Ags BTHO Baylor!! We didn't have the game on our tv, but Kevin and Jan did and they invited us over to watch it, even though they were out of town!

Holly and Ella stopped by for a little while and Kendall had a good time playing with them. It's so fun watching her and Ella play more together now that Ella is older.

Kendall wore her A&M stickers again for the game - so cute!

Love it!

Kendall loves her Gigi and Peeps! It was great to see them.

Sunday morning we all went to church and got to hear Randy preach. He is doing such a great job - we love listening to him!! Cooper wore one of Kendall's old dresses to church and looked just like her! Beautiful!

We had a great weekend, but we are worn out and all of us are starting to get a little sick! We're ready to rest up and get over this before we make a long trip to Ft. Worth next week!

What's On Your Shirt?

Several months ago, Randy taught Kendall a trick. He showed her how to point to something on people's shirts, say, "Oh! You have a _____ on your chest!" Then he showed her how to "get them" in the face when they looked down. Kendall loves to do this. She does it all the time to our friends and just thinks it's so funny. She will say, "Oh! You have a button on your shirt! Oh, blurp!" And then she laughs and laughs. Wednesday night she had a fever when she went to bed and then when she woke up Thursday morning, so she stayed home from school. Cooper, Kendall and I were cuddling in my bed (because we are re-doing our living room floors - post about that to come!) and she saw a flower on Cooper's pjs. She did the gag on her, and Iwas able to get it on video. :) She cracks us up.

"I do!"

Sunday night, Kendall was still not wanting to be away from her Daddy. He had to go back up to the church after her nap for Discovering Brazos Pointe, and she asked him if he would take her with him. :) When they got home, they sang a song for me that they made up in the car - and I had to get it on video.

Daddy is Home!

Randy has been in Cambodia this week, but he is home now! And he has four girls that really missed him and are glad he's back. He went a different route this time - east to Moscow, then to Singapore and on to Phnom Phen. Our friends the Stunzes live in Singapore right now, and they took such good care of Randy when he was there - he had a 10 hour layover on the way there and an 11 hour layover on the way home. While he was there, he got Kendall a cute little dress and shoes! Andrea - you did great on the sizes: the shoes and dress fit perfectly!

Showing off her shoes...

...and her doll. While Randy was stopped in Moscow, he got both of the girls Russian stacking dolls. Kendall has not put hers down since she got it yesterday!

I wish I could explain how much she loves this dress and shoes. She immediately put it on when Randy gave it to her yesterday afternoon, then wore it to the Johnson's to watch the Aggie game. Then, when she woke up this morning, the first thing she told me was that she wanted to put her dress back on, and her shoes. She wore them to church and LOVED showing them off to everyone. I'm not real sure how I'm going to get it off her to wash it!

Kendall has been attached to her daddy since he got home! She was so interested in the fact that he was on an airplane and loved getting to go to the airport to get him yesterday. He told her that he slept on the plane and that he ate on the plane and that was really interesting to her. This afternoon on the way home from church, she said, "Dad. I want to sleep wif you. I want to sleep wif you on a airplane." He said, "Ok. Kendall I want to take you on an airplane someday when you are big." She said, "And Dad, I want you to pack me a lunch." Because we still pack her a lunch everywhere we go. She said, "Dad. I want to go wif you on an airplane to Cambodia." Randy told her that he would take her one day when she is big. She said, "Dad. I am big. I'm a big girl. And baby Cooper is a girl." So sweet. I want to remember these cute things she says forever!

We are glad to have our daddy back!!

New clothes

It was finally cold enough this week for Kendall to wear a new outfit she got from our friend Tamara. She loves it and has been asking and asking to wear it so she was really excited to finally get to! We also got her some new tennis shoes this week, so she was pretty excited to model all her new clothes! You wouldn't believe how fast she can run and how high she can jump in those new shoes! :)

There are two puppies on the shirt: she says one is Molly and one is Kendall.

Cooper has the same outfit, but it's 6 mos, so it will be a little bit before they can match. Kendall's is a 4t though - and just a little too big. Crazy that my two and a half year old is in 4t clothes!

Trick-or-Treat!

Randy left for Cambodia Sunday, so the girls and I were on our own for trick or treating this year! After nap and dinner we met the Sanders at the fall festival at Willow Drive Baptist where the kids go to preschool. I wore Cooper in the Baby Bjorn so I could help Kendall play some of the games.
Posing for a picture with Ella!

Sweet friends!

They had a fenced-off area where you could pet ducks, chickens, rabbits, and a goat. Kendall wanted to hold the rabbit so bad, so I handed it to her and tried to snap a picture, but it moved and scared her and she dropped it!

They also had a pony that she actually rode! She saw them and was interested, but I just knew she would get up there and get scared - she didn't! She got on so easy and had a great time! I was so proud of her!

After we left the church we went to Kathy and Jerry Peters' house to trick or treat. Kathy is our children's minister. Kendall cracked me up because after her and Ethan rang the doorbell and got their candy...

...Kendall just walked right on in and started eating her candy! Kathy just laughed and said, "Just make yourself at home Kendall!" Ha!

After that we went to our friends Kim and Jeff Johnson's house and walked around their court a little. I didn't snap any pictures there, but Kendall was so cute walking up to the doors, saying "Trick or Treat!" and then saying thank you when she got her candy. Her and Ethan even held hands for a little while!

Our next stop was the Hiatt's house where Patrick was set up in the foyer to visit with his friends! We couldn't go in, but Kendall was so excited to finally get to meet her sweet friend that she has prayed for for so long! Patrick was a sheriff.

Kendall had to show Miss Lindsey the car present she got from Kim. She was pretty proud of it!

Our last stop of the night was at Janny and K-Pop's house! Kendall rang the bell and said trick or treat and then of course....walked right in!

It was so much fun to watch Kendall trick or treat this year - she totally got it! Well, except that you don't just walk in people's houses when you trick or treat. Ha! She was such a good girl and made it so fun and easy to take two girls out by myself. We missed Daddy but are so excited about what he's doing in Cambodia!