Happy Thanksgiving

We headed home to Brady for the long Thanksgiving weekend. It was nice to get back home, though traveling with a baby is like moving. All the extra bags just to accommodate Lexie's needs makes traveling tedious. But once we got there, we had a wonderful time. The kids enjoyed entertaining each other. Lexie really liked pushing brother around on the tractor. My parents had recently been to Hawaii, so wanted to keep with the Hawaiian spirit by having a Luau. They had gotten Lexie a bikini and grass skirt which was so cute.

Everyone joined in the festive mood.

Lexie had Papa wrapped around her little finger.

She had him reading her books and keeping her entertained whenever he was close. We had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner at my grandparents with many of my extended family in attendance. It was so nice being able to catch up with everyone.

Toward the end of our weekend, we headed at to Gimme's house to see more of Caleb's cousins.

Sunday we finally headed home to get started on the Christmas decorations. The kids both wanted to help with the tree ornaments. Caleb learned to strategically place the ornaments.

I realized how OCD I am when my 4y old asked me "Can I put this red one here? But is it too close to the other red ornament?" My poor children!! Then we took a break from decorating to have dinner at my Aunt and Uncles house locally and caught up with more extended family. It was a busy weekend with family. Caleb had lots of fun playing with cousin Maddison.

And Lexie took her first steps witnessed by lots of my family! It was a monumental evening.

Thanksgiving party/Zoo Trip

Caleb had his Thanksgiving party at school this week.

They served us a full turkey dinner, it was very thoughtful and fun too. Caleb was very excited that Lexie was able to come to his dinner as well.

He was going around introducing Lexie to all his classmates. "This is Baby Lexie my sister." Most already knew all about her. Apparently he talks about her often. It was nice that we all were able to attend this year since Caleb was so proud to show off his family to all his friends.

Today we went to the Zoo with our neighbors/good friends.The kids had a good time looking at all the animals. We even got to catch the lion roaring again this time. The weather was wonderful and fall foliage beautiful. It was a good day to make this trip.The kids seemed to have the most fun in the Reptile exhibit, with all the scary snakes and lizards.

Lexie and Ivy even enjoyed the big snakes, and the aquarium with an assortment of fish and other reptiles. The boys got to pet a snake, not my idea of fun.

We even stopped in to feed the birds for a while. Lexie really enjoyed having the birds so close. Though she chased a few away trying to touch them. Caleb was actually patient enough to hold the stick still so the birds stayed to eat.

After the Zoo, we headed over for a train ride.Unfortunately by the time the train arrived Lexie was ready for a bottle and nap, so she did not make that a very pleasant experience for us. Caleb seemed to enjoy it with Ace and Dax though. We were all ready to collapse by the time we made it home.

Soccer Trophy/Stockyard pics

This week was a busy week. We had the usual Taekwondo 2 nights this week and added on dinner at McDonald's with Caleb's soccer team to receive their trophies. Caleb had lots of fun playing soccer this season, we were very proud of him. His coach was awesome for volunteering to "guide" 3-4y olds through their soccer games. Saturday we had a mini-photo shoot with Jeanine to take Christmas pictures.

We met her down by the Stockyards in Fort Worth.

When we were done the kids enjoyed playing on all the "cowboy" props downtown.Then we headed to our neighbors for Ivy's birthday party, Lexie's BFF. She was turned the big 1 yr old. Unfortunately Lexie was wiped out after the day's activities and was pretty much a party pooper. Ivy tried to get Lex to participate in the festivities with her, but eventually gave up and just cuddled with Lex instead.

Too cute!!!

Today was truly a day of much needed rest. We were lazy most of the day. Lex cornered Daddy for some good old reading time. She had him read the same book over and over and over again.

Museum/Taekwondo

On my day off this week, I took the kids to the Ft Worth Children's Museum. Lexie was actually able to enjoy many of the activities. We started with an IMAX documentary of "Life Under the Sea". Caleb really enjoyed seeing all the exotic fish. Then we headed to the play area where the kids headed to the "hospital" to save lives.

Lex really enjoyed driving the ambulance. She even had an older boy trying to steal kisses from her.

Next the kids wanted to go grocery shopping.Lex and Caleb decided to do their shopping independently. We also got to see the new Egyptian exhibit with mummies and all. It was a busy day at the Museum.

The next day Caleb had his first belt testing at Taekwondo. We signed him up over a month ago for twice a week and he loves it. His neighbors, Ace and Dax, are also in the class which is fun for Caleb. I like that they enforce proper manners, patience, self discipline. Caleb did a great job at the belt testing.

He even broke his first board!!!

He had his "belt ceremony" where he earned the purple belt.

I am so proud of him.

Lexie has suddenly become very interested in books. She loves to sit and listen to her bedtime stories. When you say "the end", she takes the book and puts it back into your lap to read it again. If you do not comply, she gets very upset. Caleb enjoys reading some of his old stories to Baby Lexie too.

Happy Halloween!

Caleb wanted us all to be pirates for Halloween. So we all played our part, even Lexie. Primrose had their costume parade, so the kids got to break in their costumes first. They made very cute Pirates.

We decided to take the kids to Boo at the Zoo Halloween day.Of course we went in full costume at Caleb's request.We were able to meet up with Greg's little sis, or Hehe, and her boyfriend Chance.

We enjoyed another tour of the animals, then headed for the Boo at the Zoo festivities.They had lots of games for Caleb to play and many trick or treat stations giving out way too much candy.

Then we met up with our neighbors and the kids BFF's, Dax, Ace and Ivy. Greg wanted to be a scary pirate of course, so he wore a Davy Jones mask. Most kids were scared of the hideous mask, but not our Lexie.

She wanted to play with it the whole evening, and was sad when Greg took it off.

The kids had so much fun. The boys would run to try and be the first to ring the doorbell.

At one point Caleb came rushing from a house to try and get ahead for the next house, instead he saw a very scary costume on another kiddo coming up the sidewalk. Caleb screeched to a halt, turned, and ran back toward us. I never saw him move so fast, of course we were all laughing and he claimed he wasn't scared.

The kids were exhausted by the end of the night. So after collecting tons of candy, and gaining sore feet, we headed home to collapse.I think we had a very successful Halloween.