Cowboy Santa

The girls got to tell Santa their Christmas gift wishes last weekend. My sister-in-law's feed store was doing a Cowboy Santa event. The girls were talking about it all week before the big day. Once we got there, however, it was a different story...

Kailee jumped on Santa's lap without any hesitation. If you hear the story from her, she'll tell you that Santa told her she was NOT on the naughty list and she will run her hand across her forehead and say "Phew!!" There is still time my sweet. Keep up the good work!

Addie Ray, on the other hand, was just plain mad at the idea of sitting with the man in red.

After hugging my leg and pouting for at least 30 minutes while we wandered around, she finally decided that maybe she did want to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas. I mean, what would she get if she didn't tell him her list????
So, she sucked it up, jumped on his lap and told him she wanted a Wii. That's it, just a Wii.

After the pictures were printed, she ran back to Santa to show him. As he held the picture, Addie Ray lectured him and instructed him, "Santa, you are only allowed to hold it on the WHITE part!"

Hmmm.... not sure if that was a good move.

Proudest Momma EVER!

It all started with a note home saying that Kailee was receiving an award Thursday night at 7pm. I asked Kailee what she was getting an award for. She didn't know, she just knew her art had been entered in the "Reflections-Beauty is..." contest at school.

We got all gussied up and trudged to school in the cold rain to see what this award was. Either way I was proud as can be. Just the look of anticipation on her face... she couldn't wait to find out what award she was getting.

When we arrived, we toured the "Gallery" to check out the artwork. There were all different categories: Photography, Visual Arts, Literature, Music Composition. Her entries are below:

A pink fish with a rainbow fin.


A quilt fish she and I crafted (I actually didn't even know she had entered this until that night!)


And fall trees


She also entered a poem:

"Beauty is...
Rain falling to the ground and sunny sky
Trees when they swish back and forth
Ocean noise going up and back to the sand
Shiny rainbows
All beautiful flowers and flying butterflies
Chirping birds
Kids playing Duck, Duck, Goose
Spikey leaves
Cuddly cats, barking dogs and meowing cats
The shape of squares
Swimming fish and people walking down to the park
Horses eating hay and cows working, giving milk to people
All lights shining like stars
Looking at cloud pictures in the sky
Flying bugs and crawling animals

That's what beauty is to me."

I knew the second I read it that it was the best poem there.

The awards started and low and behold.... Kailee Hamilton: 1st PLACE in Literature!! AND Honorable Mention for 2 pieces of art!

AND, as if walking in front of a cafeteria filled with people wasn't nerve racking enough, Kailee was asked to read her poem aloud (with her teacher, Mrs. McKee).

Let's just say that I already knew she was amazingly talented but now the whole school does! She was so adorable about the whole thing. Just radiating sunshine. As I was kissing her goodnight, she said, "Mom, I'm just so proud of myself!" Kailee boo... you should be sweetie. You are a special little girl, your momma loves you and could not be prouder!!

Addie is funny

My parents are here visiting for Turkey time...

Mom has learned to lock the bathroom door if you want any privacy at all. Tonight, the kids were in bed and my mom went potty w/o locking the door. Meanwhile, Addie gets up and decides SHE needs to go potty. She walks right in, of course, and says "Hi Yia Yia. Are you going potty?" My mom says, "Yes, I thought I was safe." Addie says, "No. You were not. You didn't lock the door. I just camed in."

Moments later, Mike goes back to put Addie back to bed. He asks, "Did you go in the bathroom when Yia Yia was going potty?" Addie says, "Yep, she wasn't safe."

Lesson learned: You are NEVER safe with an unlocked door in a house with a 3 1/2 year old.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Cutest kids EVER!! Ok, I'm biased. Addie cracks me up b/c she only knows 75% of the words.

Trick-or-treat

Trick-or-treat. My least fave holiday of the year. Arbor Day is ranked above Halloween. I truthfully would like to boycott the whole event. Mike doesn't think it is so bad, our neighborhood embraces it AND we live in the the hottest spot in Atascadero to trick-or-treat, so we would basically have to leave town for a week to avoid the "festivities".

To start the fun, my wifey (Beth) had a little party for the neighborhood kids to decorate cupcakes and paint little pumpkins. Addie was thrilled b/c it meant hanging with her BFF, Anabelle.

Next up was pumpkin carving. The past 3 years we have carved with several neighbors. It is very effective... order one batch of pizzas, make one mess (thank you Miller's for volunteering your driveway!) and the kids get to share their creative ideas. Kailee wanted a sun with a smiley face. Addie wanted a Tiger, which was way too complicated for me... I talked her into a "neigh neigh".

Mike had to work the night of the event, so I carved Kailee's and my sweet neighbor dads carved Addie's (I did draw it =))

See below for finished products.

The carving group and their pumpkins.

Finally, the big night. Our great neighbor Deedee had made dinner for all of us the last 2 years. This is a huge help, as all of you parents can imagine. Not having to cook leaves plenty of time to get the children into their costumes, faces painted, hair glittered, etc.

Our friend Rich and his daughter Isabella came to play and have a sleepover. Isabella was the white cat from the play Cats, Addie was a Tiger, and Kailee was Gabriella from High School Musical 3. I cheaped out and wouldn't buy her the $44.99 costume from Target and instead bought material, sparkles, etc. for $10 and made it myself.

Last but not least, one of the churches in town puts on a Fall Festival across the street from our neighborhood. They had paint ball guns for the kids to shoot. My kids were ALL OVER that! Oakie children.

Of course, they were sugar highed by the time we got home and could barely contain themselves to shut their eyes and go to sleep. I guess in the end it was worth it and I'm sure we'll do it again for the next... oh... 10+ years. Man that's a lot of face paint to think about!

Pumpkin Patch

Well, it's only November 7th and I am posting about Halloween! How about those blogger skills?? Woohoo!

We went to our fave pumpkin patch in Templeton to scope out the biggest baddest pumpkins that would stand proudly in our doorway, lit up for all to admire.



Dad and his girls....

Cuties!

Family pose using the timer on the camera that was balanced on a trash can lid... nice huh?

Stay tuned for the next post to see the finished product!

New Toy!!

I am finally going to be able to join the video sharing world! We got a Flip Video camera this weekend and I LOVE IT! It is so easy to use, download, upload, everything! AND it was on sale! Yahoo!

This was the test video =)