Gingerbread House Fun!

This year I decided to take Abby to a new facility in Austin called The Thinkery to make a gingerbread house.  The Austin Children's Museum in downtown closed and built this brand new place.  And it's awesome!

She got to build a house (er, Mommy built it) from fresh locally baked gingerbread and then decorate it with loads of candy. We went with her BFF Keira and those girls had a blast.

While waiting for the masterpiece to dry they got to explore the place and it was really neat.  I see a birthday party here in our future for sure!

The sheer weight of the icing and candy was slowly but surely causing the walls to buckle a bit and the roof to slide down.  But it's perfect!!

Santa!

Well, that went well.

Funny - Abby has been telling us for several weeks now that she wants Santa to bring her a giraffe and a candy cane (no idea where she got the giraffe idea). We went to see Santa at her school and after sitting on his lap for the photo, they handed out stuffed animals and candy canes.  And guess what was poking out of the top of Santa's bag??  A giraffe!  She had spotted him when we first got there and immediately whispered giddily to me that there is a giraffe in his bag.  I'm pretty sure she thinks it was there JUST for her.  And we will let her think that!! :)

Dentist!

Matt took Abby to her dental check up last week where she had her first set of X-rays done and she was a ROCKSTAR!!!

Slide fun!

Blake has quickly figured out all the fun non-age appropriate toys we have available to him in our house. :)

I think Abby got this slide when she was about 2.  He's already figuring it out at 10.5 months!  See the video here...

Entertainer of the Year Award Goes To: Abby!

This morning I said to Abby that I need to go potty before we left for school.  But then I stayed in the kitchen with Blake while he was eating his Cheerios because I wanted to wait until he was done.  This is what came next.

Abby: Mommy, why don't you go potty?
Me: I will as soon as I can, but I need to watch Blake while he's eating.
Abby:  It's OK, you can go, I'll watch him!

So off I went, and this is what I came back to (video)....

That girl - always thinking.

I got our Elf on the Shelf out this year and was really excited about it because Abby is old enough now that she better understands the concept.  However, I hid it before Thanksgiving and then forgot to get it out until yesterday (oops).  And when I remembered, I had to search for the thing myself because, well, I hid it.  And couldn't remember where - HA HA!

I finally spotted her on the bookshelf in our living room where Abby was sitting.  So I just decided to tell Abby to look at the bookshelf and "ta-da" the elf is back!  She totally bought into it and so I sat down and quickly read the book to her so she remembers the "rules" about how the elf watches her and reports back to Santa (weird, but still cute).

As we were getting ready to leave for school Abby had her shoes half on and I was trying to put her fleece jacket over her head when she snapped at me that she wanted her shoes done FIRST.  So I promptly reminded her about the elf we just talked about and that she's watching her for Santa, so she should be a good girl and not talk to me that way.

Abby peers down the entryway to see the elf sitting on the mantle and promptly replies "It's OK, she's looking the other way!"

We are in for some trouble with this girl.  :)

PS- she decided this year to name her Jingle Belle.

Busted

Christmas time!!

We've been so busy around here that we've decided to slowly decorate for Christmas and hopefully get it done once we are back from out of town for Thanksgiving.  We got the tree up, but hadn't yet decorated it.  So Abby took matters into her own hands and decided to get to it!  We figured out very quick that Blake is very curious about the tree (and ornaments!) so the bottom 2 feet of our tree will be bare this year! :)

She wanted to read by the tree…in her chair. :)

He really is trying to help!

Walt Disney World!

We had an awesome time in Orlando at Disney World!  We weren't there very long, but we are already looking forward to going back!

Thanks to Aunt Heather we scored a 2 bed/2 bath suite at the Dolphin Hotel!  Here are some photos from the week.

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Abby is FOUR!

I can't believe Abby turned FOUR.  Time flies!  She has been so spoiled this year and the parties seem to never end!!  She had a party in her class, then we took her to Disney World on her actual day and had lunch at Cinderella's Castle, then she got a combo party with her BFF, Keira.  This weekend we'll be in Ennis celebrating yet again with family!  I'm *just* about partied out. :)

Abby and Keira

Getting her hair done

Beautiful Princess!

Keira getting her nails/make-up done (I somehow didn't get a photo of Abby!)

All the girls!

Playing "Pass the Purse"